Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1919 — GREAT EXPONENT OF LIBERTY [ARTICLE]

GREAT EXPONENT OF LIBERTY

Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, Known as "Father of English House ®f Common*." The first great democrat in England was Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, who was slain in battle 654 years ago as the leader of the rebellious barons. Simon de Montfort was also the spokesman for the great masses of' the people, and he held that It was the duty of the nobles to stand between the people and the monarch as guardians of their liberties, to wr.fch over the exercise of the royate power and prevent its abuse. In the great battle of Lewes in 1264 the barons, under the command of de Montfort, completely defeated the king and the royalist party. In the battle of Evesham on August 4 of the following year the tables were turned and the democratic earl was killed and the barons sustained a ruinous defeat During the.brief period of Simon’s ascendency, however, lie had laid the foundation for the house of commons and had inspired in the breasts of the people a devotion to liberty and democracy never to be stamped out by royal oppression. “Every king is ruled by the laws,” declared Simon de Montfort, and he held that the "generality” should have a hand In the making of the laws by which they, as well as thejnonarch, were to be governed. Simon de Montfort’s immortal place in history is Indicated by the reverent title historians have given him — “the Father of the English House of Commons.”