sole extant letter of Simon of Montfort. He has heard, he says, that certain Gascon knights whose lands he has seized for the king, and who know that they have no chance of recovering them by process of Gascon law, are resolved to regain them by force, and intend to begin the enterprise directly after Whitsuntide. "And forasmuch as the great folk of the land look upon me with evil eyes, because I uphold against them your rights and those of the poor people, it would be peril and shame to me, and great damage to you, if I went back to the country without having seen you and received your instructions. For when I am there, and they stir up war against me, I shall have to return to you, because I cannot get a penny of your revenue the king of France holds it all and I cannot trust the people of the land; nor can they be checked by an army as in a regular war, for they will only rob and burn, and take prisoners and ransom them, and ride about at night like thieves in companies. Therefore, so please you, I must by all means speak with you first, for those who have hinted to you many sinister things about me would all tell you that it is I who have given occasion for the war." He went over to England accordingly, early in May. By the end of the month he was back again, making good use of some money which had been furnished him, buying here the custody of a castle, there a plot of land on which to build a new one, here the friendship of one baron, there the homage of another, and at last, on 27 Nov., dictating to the citizens of Bordeaux terms which left them wholly at his mercy.
Suddenly, on 6 Jan. 1251, he reappeared in England, weary and downcast, with a train of only three squires, mounted on horses almost worn out with the haste of their journey. He went straight to the king with a passionate appeal for money and men to "repress the insolence of rebellious Gascony." His funds, public and private, were exhausted; he could not, he declared, carry on single-handed such a costly struggle. Henry, while despatching two commissioners to inquire into, report upon, and appease the discord" between governor and subjects, gave him three thousand marks; Simon collected what he could from his own estates, hired two hundred soldiers and a few cross-bowmen from the Duke of Brabant, and once more returned to his post. This time all Gascony was up in arms. The chiefs of the malcontents were assembled at Castillon; there Simon besieged them in April; they proposed to submit the quarrel to arbitration; he refused, and took the place. On 25 May they accepted his terms: submission of all matters in dispute to the judgment of a tribunal to consist of the king's two commissioners and four other judges chosen by them. This tribunal seems never to have sat, but one by one the rebel leaders made their peace with the crown; and in November Simon could leave Gascony to the care of his lieutenants, go to England, report that his work was done, and ask the king to accept his resignation and indemnify him for the expenses incurred in his service. Henry, however, refused to pay for the maintenance of the castles, and required Simon to maintain them at his own cost for the rest of his term of office. The queen arranged a compromise; on 4 Jan. 1252 Henry appointed arbiters to determine the amount due to the Earl of Leicester according to the terms of his commission, and on the understanding" that this amount should be paid him, Simon agreed to resume the government.
At that very moment Simon–now at York with the king–received news of a fresh rising in Gascony. He would have set out at once to suppress it, but Henry refused to let him go, saying he had been given to understand that it was caused by the misdoings of the earl himself. Simon instantly demanded to be confronted with his accusers in the king's presence in London. On 6 Jan. Henry despatched two envoys into Gascony, with instructions to the civic communities, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the Bishop of Bayonne, and the malcontent barons, to present their grievances in person or by deputy at Westminster within a week after Easter. Citizens, prelates, and barons at first declared that they dared not leave the country to the mercy of Simon's constables; in the end, however, they obeyed the royal summons. On 23 March Henry notified to Simon their impending arrival and forbade his return to Gascony mean- while. Simon went nevertheless, gathered troops in France, and set to work "to exterminate his enemies." On reaching Bordeaux, however, he learned that the Gascon deputies were actually on their way to England, and hurried back thither to meet them. The Gascons arrived first; according to one account, Henry felt so doubtful of their truthfulness that he sent another pair of commissioners the same whom he had sent in 1251 to make further inquiries, and they returned with a report that Simon "had treated some people rather inhumanly, but they seemed to have deserved it." By that time, however, the Gascons had got the king's ear; he gave Simon the cold shoulder on his return, and lost no opportunity of slighting
