Battle of Evesham 1265

Today is the 750th anniversary of the battle of Evesham in 1265, when the Royaloist troops led by the Lord Edward, later King Edward I, defeated the baronial army led by Simon de Montfort, who had ruled the realm since the battle of Lewes the previous year - there is an account of that battle at Battle of Lewes - and had kept King Henry III, who was his brother-in-law, as a virtual prisoner. 

There is an online account of the background and to the fighting at Battle of Evesham.
There is also a picec from the Battlefields Trust about the battle at their site Battle of Evesham 
and the current commemorations and celebrations are covered at  Battle of Evesham: Home

 Image: eveshamtown.co.uk 

At the website of the National Archives the post Battle of Evesham, 1265 - The National Archives has an account of the battle, and the death of Simon de Montfort in an extract taken from the chronicle attributed to Arnald FitzThedmar

 King Henry III

Image:fameimages.com

 Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester

A drawing of a window at Chartres Cathedral

Image: Wikipedia

There is an online biography of Earl Simon at  Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and there is the excellent and comprehensive biography by Dr John Maddicott.

My sympathies are with King Henry III and his cause - as I have opined before I think that for the King Earl Simon turned out to be the Brother-in-Law-from-Hell.

For some time after his death there appears to have been at the Earl's burial place (or such of him as was buried at Evesham) in the abbey church a cult of sorts - which clearly did not attract the favour of the King.

 The modern memorial to Earl Simon on the site of Evesham Abbey.
This was unveiled and dedicated in 1965

Image: Wikimedia

Despite the major defeat of the baronial party at Evesham agroup held out at Kenilworth against a Royalist siege until the settlement known as the Dictum of Kenilworth in 1267. It was with theassignment of the Leicester estates to King Henry's younger son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster , that there began that agglomeration of lands which was to create the fourteenth century Earldom and Duchy of Lancaster, which since 1399 has been held by the Sovereign.