The Second Barons’ War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the years of bloody conflict that saw Simon de Montfort (1205-65) become the most powerful man in England, with Henry III as his prisoner. With others, he had toppled Henry in 1258 in a secret, bloodless coup and established provisions for more parliaments with broader representation, for which he was later known as the Father of the House of Commons. When Henry III regained power in 1261, Simon de Montfort rallied forces for war, with victory at Lewes in 1264 and defeat and dismemberment in Evesham the year after. Although praised for supporting parliaments, he also earned a reputation for unleashing dark, violent forces in English politics and, infamously, his supporters murdered hundreds of Jewish people in London and elsewhere.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• David Carpenter 3 episodes
  Professor of Medieval History at King's College London
• Louise Wilkinson 3 episodes
  Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln
• Sophie Therese Ambler No other episodes
  Lecturer in Later Medieval British and European History at Lancaster University

Reading list

• The Song of Simon de Montfort: England's First Revolutionary and the Death of Chivalry
  Sophie Therese Ambler (Picador, 2019)
• Henry III: The Rise to Power and Personal Rule, 1207-1258
  David Carpenter (Yale University Press, 2020) Google Books →
• The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066-1284
  David Carpenter (Penguin, 2004) Google Books →
• The Reign of Henry III
  D.A. Carpenter (Hambledon Continuum, 1996) Google Books →
• Henry III: A Simple and God-Fearing King
  Stephen Church (Allen Lane, 2017)
• Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England
  Margaret Howell (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001) Google Books →
• The First English Revolution: Simon de Montfort, Henry III and the Barons' War
  Adrian Jobson (Continuum, 2012) Google Books →
• Baronial Reform and Revolution in England, 1258-1267
  Adrian Jobson (ed.) (Boydell Press, 2016) Google Books →
• Simon de Montfort
  J. R. Maddicott (Cambridge University Press, 1996) Google Books →
• Edward I: A Great and Terrible King
  Marc Morris (Hutchinson, 2008)
• Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England
  Louise J. Wilkinson (Continuum, 2012) Google Books →
• The Household Roll of Eleanor de Montfort, Countess of Leicester and Pembroke, 1265
  Louise J. Wilkinson (ed. and trans.) (Boydell and Brewer, 2020)

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Programme ID: m000vqq3

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vqq3

Auto-category: 942.03 (Medieval England)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In 1258, English barons toppled Henry III in a secret, bloodless coup.