He was deeply religious and the greatest warrior of his time, but... He married a nun who was the King of England's sister. Was he the Queen's lover and father of the heir to the throne? The King wanted him dead at any cost. He conquered England and founded Parliament.

Warfare, clandestine romance, intrigue and Bordeaux wine mix in a feast of adventure in Volume II of Montfort The Founder of Parliament. As Viceroy Simon de Montfort learned the hard lessons of military strategy and politics that later enabled him to seize England and found Parliament, the first modern democracy. Acclaim for Katherine Ashe's Montfort: In a tale crammed with romance, deceit, rampant ambition, failures and triumphs galore, readers will get all they hoped for in this deeply researched and well-told historical narrative. Jane Geniesse, autho

When reading through the ample "historical context" notes that follow each volume of Katherine Ashe's utterly remarkable tetralogy of novels based on the life of Simon de Montfort, one thing becomes obvious: she could easily have produced the most authoritative English-language biography of her subject ever written. Historical Novel Society review Restored to his titles Earl of Leicester, Steward of England, Simon as permanent ambassador to France is living contentedly in Paris when Prince Edward commits an atrocity and the Earl must return to save him and his friends from Llewellyn. In...

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...