London launch of The Song of Simon de Montfort
© Photograph courtesy of Sally Spong.
This week saw the London launch of The Song of Simon de Montfort: England's First Revolutionary and the Death of Chivalry, by Dr Sophie Thérèse Ambler, at Daunt Books in Marylebone.
The Song is a history of the nobleman who, between 1258 and 1265, seized power from King Henry III and established a radical regime to govern in his stead. Examining the revolution in the context of crusading culture, the book shows how Montfort cultivated his reputation as leader and came to amass a vast following, before he and a host of his men were cut down on the battlefield at Evesham in 1265.
is published by Picador, with publication in the USA following in September with Oxford University Press.