Who wrote the Song of Lewes and why? How does it portray de Montfort, and how does it justify his actions against the king?’

Instructions:

Not exceeding 800 words (incl. bibliography and footnotes)

Seminar Paper/Mini-Essay: ‘Simon de Montfort – Saint or Sinner?’

Q) ‘Who wrote the Song of Lewes and why? How does it portray de Montfort, and how does it justify his actions against the king?’

Core reading:

The text of the Song of Lewes is translated in full in T. Beamish, Battle Royal (London, 1965).
D. A. Carpenter, ‘Simon de Montfort: The First Leader of a Political Movement in English History’, History, 246 (1991), 3-23.
C. Valente, ‘Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and the Utility of Sanctity in Thirteenth Century England’, Journal of Medieval History, 21 (1995), 27-49.
J. Maddicott, ‘Follower, Leader, Pilgrim, Saint: Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford at the Shrine of Simon de Montfort’, English Historical Review, 109 (1994), 641-53
J. Maddicott, Simon de Montfort (Cambridge, 1994).
C. H. Knowles, Simon de Montfort (Historical Association Pamphlet, 1965).
T. J. Heffernan, ‘Dangerous Sympathies: Political Commentary in the South English Legendary’, in The South English Legendary. A Critical Assessment, ed. K. P. Janofsky (Tubingen,1992)
J. C. Russell, ‘The Canonization of Opposition to the King in Angevin England’, in Haskins Anniversary Essays, ed. C. H. Taylor and J. L. La Monte (Boston, 1929), also reprinted in J. C. Russell, Twelfth Century Studies (New York, 1978).