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MONTFORT MONTGOMERY 785 latter had bequeathed the duchy to Charles of Blois, husband of his niece ; but Montfort found little difficulty in getting possession, and Charles complained to the king, Philip of Va- lois, who sent an army to besiege the usurper in Nantes. In order to save the city from assault, Montfort surrendered and was carried prisoner to Paris; but in the mean time his wife, Jeanne of Flanders, put herself at the head of his partisans and withdrew to Henne- bon, where she defended herself against the forces of Charles, on one occasion repelling an assault at the head of 300 cavaliers. The ar- rival of auxiliaries sent by Edward III. of Eng- land, to whom Montfort had done homage for Brittany, obliged Charles to raise the siege. A second attempt upon the same city in 1342 was equally unsuccessful, and Charles soon lost successively Gue>ande, Vannes, Carhaix, and Quimperle'. In the same year Edward III. ar- rived in France with fresh troops and advanced to Rennes, where Philip marched out to meet him. By the mediation of the pope a truce was concluded between the monarchs. Mont- fort's party, which before was barely a match for his rival's, had grown during his imprison- ment. He escaped in disguise in 1345, and went to England, whence he returned with troops and made an unsuccessful attempt upon Quimper. He then retired to Hennebon, where he died a few weeks afterward,. leaving a son who continued the war with Charles, and be- came duke as Jean V. MONTFORT. I. Simon de, a French soldier, born about the middle of the 12th century, slain before Toulouse, June 25, 1218. He en- gaged in the fourth crusade, but when he saw the enterprise diverted from its legitimate ob- ject he declined to follow its chiefs to Con- stantinople, and to fulfil his vows went by him- self to Palestine. On his return he took up arms again at the summons of Pope Innocent III., and in 1208 was elected leader of the cru- sade waged against the Albigenses of southern France, whom he mercilessly pursued and slaughtered. On the taking of Beziers (1209) more than 20,000 of its inhabitants were put to death by his permission, if not by his orders. Carcassonne was scarcely better treated ; the viscount of Beziers, who commanded there, was made prisoner in an interview for nego- tiation ; the town was forced to surrender, and many of its citizens were sentenced to death as heretics. At Lavaur, Aimery of Montreal was hanged, 80 knights were put to the sword, hundreds of poor people burned at the stake, and the lady of the castle, Aimery's sister, was thrown alive down a well, and stones were heaped over her. Montfort ruled despotically over the territories which he had wrested from Count Raymond of Toulouse in this war ; and when Pedro II., king of Aragon, came to pro- tect the latter, as his lord paramount, the cru- sader met him, Sept. 12, 1213, and defeated and killed him under the walls of Muret. Montfort was then proclaimed count of Tou- louse. Raymond's son finally managed to re- enter Toulouse, where he had many adherents. Montfort besieged that city for eight months, and when attempting to storm it was killed by a stone thrown from the wall. His elder son, Amaury, succeeded him as count of Toulouse, afterward became grand constable of France, and died in 1241 on his return from Palestine. II. Simon de, earl of Leicester, younger son of the preceding, the leader of the English barons in the reign of Henry III., born about 1200, killed Aug. 4, 1265. He went to England in 1231 to escape the enmity of Blanche of Cas- tile, queen regent of France, and gained the favor of the king, who bestowed upon him the earldom of Leicester, the governorship of Gascony, and the hand of his own sister Elea- nor, countess dowager of Pembroke. He gov- erned Gascony with an iron hand, and made his power particularly felt by the native lords, but was popular with the English. In Eng- land he became the head of the barons who conspired to curtail the king's prerogative. Henry III. having convoked a parliament in 1258, Montfort appeared in arms with his con- federates, and constrained the king to sign the provisions of Oxford, by which the whole legis- lative and executive power was thrown into the hands of 24 barons, who were controlled by Montfort. An agreement was proposed between the nobles and the king through the arbitration of Louis IX. of France; but his award not being acceptable to the former, both parties took arms. In May, 1264, Montfort de- feated the royal army at Lewes in Sussex, and captured the king. In January, 1265, he sum- moned a parliament, in which, for the first time on record, representatives of boroughs were admitted. His power was now at its height, but his overbearing conduct excited discon- tent even among the adherents of the national cause ; and the king's son, Prince Edward, who was kept as a hostage, having made his escape, many of his former opponents joined his stand- ard. Montfort was hemmed in at Evesham by superior numbers, and was slain with one of his sons and many barons, while his army was completely routed. The family of Montfort was expelled from England. MONTGOLFIER. See AERONAUTICS. MONTGOMERY, the name of counties in 18 of the United States. I. An E, county of New York, intersected by the Mohawk river, which is here joined by the Schoharie and other smaller streams ; area, 356 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 34,457. It has a fertile soil, especially in the valley of the Mohawk. The Erie canal and the New York Central railroad pass through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 61,659 bushels of wheat, 175,654 of Indian corn, 662,- 516 of oats, 86,605 of barley, 100,769 of buck- wheat, 194,041 of potatoes, 717,277 Ibs. of hops, 58,847 of wool, 1,174,822 of butter, 1,514,482 of cheese, 21,770 bushels of peas and beans, and 104,839 tons of hay. There were 7,606 horses, 26,317 milch cows, 8,557 other