Simon de Montfort struggled and ultimately gave his life for the survival of government by representatives elected by the people. Democracy, in England, did not survive his death, but the template that he made a functioning reality for a little while has never been forgotten, and now most countries of the world have governments elected by the people.
After his death his followers believed him to have been a saint, or the angel of the apocalypse ushering in a new thousand years in which kingship and the Church would wither away, and a single world order would evolve, with all mankind sharing in the burden and responsibility of governance.
To suppress his followers, it was made a hanging crime in England to speak the name Simon de Montfort.
But all of us who live in countries where we freely elect our legislators are the possessors of his legacy.
King Henry III has suppressed the elected Parliament and returned England to the abusive governance that the Provisions of Oxford of 1258 corrected. But a new force is rising to oppose him. Young lords, the common people, even the outlaws of Sherwood and the Weald are organizing, led by Simon’s cousin Peter de Montfort and Gilbert de Clare.
Condemned as a traitor, Simon is lured back to England from his refuge in France where he has taken the Cross of a crusader and is about to leave for the Holy Land. Seeing the cause he championed reviving, he agrees to be the leader of this new army. In the end he will be recognized by the people as the Angel of the Apocalypse, as the thousand year process commences in which the Church and nations dissolve in a single world order governed by the common people inspired by the Holy Spirit — as predicted in the millennial theology of Joachim de Flor.
Read and Excerpt from the book HERE.
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 12, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 538 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1452844232
- ISBN-13 : 978-1452844237