Simon de Montfort / Edition 1

by J. R. Maddicott

Overview

This book provides a new account of one of the most famous men of the English Middle Ages: Simon de Montfort. It is partly a study of the politics of Henry III's reign (1216-72), with which Montfort's career is closely interwoven; but it also looks at his lands, finances, following and religious ideals. Drawing on unusual sources, the author is able to make his biography as much a study of temperament and character as of a political career, and to write with a degree of psychological penetration rare in works on the medieval nobility.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521376365
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/20/1996
Series:	British Lives
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.18(d)

Table of Contents

1. Going places, c. 1208–48; 2. Familia and fortune; 3. Religion and virtue; 4. Simon de Montfort's road to reform, 1248–58; 5. The reformer: ideals and interests, 1258–59; 6. The decline of the reform movement, 1260–63; 7. The return of the general, 1263–64; 8. Simon de Montfort and his kingdom, 1264–65; 9. Conclusion: Simon de Montfort; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a compelling biography of an astonishing man. Simon de Montfort is one of those historical figures whose life defies belief, and J. R. Maddicott has done an excellent job of rendering it in all its diversity." The Historian

"It is a tribute to the quality of J.R. Maddicott's biography that neither its length and seriousness nor the unattractive personality of Simon de Montfort that looms over it detracts from it ability to hold the reader. Maddicott's interpretation can take its rightful place as our point of reference for its famous subject." Joel Rosenthal, Speculum—A Journal of Medieval Studies

[Maddicott's] splendid new biography of Simon is deeply rooted in the sources, both chronicle and record, and makes use of a whole new generation of scholarship in assessing an extremely problematic figure." Times Literary Supplement

"...the general reader [will] be impressed by what the author and his predecessors have teased out of the 700-year-old records. Skilled warrior and politician, Montfort was simultaneously violent and introspective, greedy and idealistic. This biography presents him to us in all his vitality and paradox." Stephanie Martin, Wilson Library Bulletin

"That Montfort was a major figure is hardly in dispute, and he has now been accorded a major modern study worthy of his importance." Michael Altschul, American Historical Review

From the Publisher

…a biographer of rare perception and deep scholarship.
—Michael Prestwich, The Times Literary Supplement

Michael Prestwich

John Maddicott has produced an admirable account of this remarkable career…highly readable…
—Paul Johnson, The Times

Paul Johnson