Alix de Montmorency (died 24 February 1220/1221) was a French noblewoman. Her parents were Bouchard V de Montmorency and Laurette, daughter of Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut and

Alice of Namur Alice of Namur (died July 1169 at Valenciennes) was the daughter of Count Godfrey I of Namur and Countess Ermesinde of Luxembourg. Her father married her off to Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut around 1130. Gislebert of Mons described her as having "a ...

Life

In 1190 Alix married

Simon de Montfort Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...

(c. 1175 – 25 June 1218), who later became

Earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837. Early creatio ...

. She accompanied her husband on his campaigns during the Albigensian Crusade and like her husband, she was very pious. Both of them had come under the influence of

Fulk of Neuilly Fulk of Neuilly (also appearing in the forms "Fulke," "Foulque," "Foulques," "Fulco," "Folco," ''etc''., and as "de Neuilly") (died 1201) was a French preacher of the twelfth century, and priest of Neuilly-sur-Marne. His preaching encouraged the F ...

and they were patrons of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

Albigensian Crusade

Alix participated in the councils of the crusaders and recruited reinforcements in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In 1217, she imprisoned the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

. She went to the French court with Folquet de Marselha to plead for support, but she was nearby when her husband was killed as he besieged Toulouse. After this she returned to her family's estates near

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Issue

Alix and Simon had: * Amaury de Montfort, *

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

, eventually gained possession of the earldom of Leicester and played a major role in the reign of

Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry a ...

, initiating the

Second Barons' War The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of barons led by Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of King Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the fu ...

of 1263-1264. *Guy, was married to Petronille, Countess of Bigorre, on 6 November 1216, but died at the siege of

Castelnaudary Castelnaudary (; oc, Castèlnòu d'Arri) is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of southern France. It is located in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world cap ...

on 20 July 1220. *Petronilla, became an abbess at the Cistercian nunnery of St. Antoine's. Another daughter, Amicia, founded the nunnery at

Montargis Montargis () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry and farming, ...

and died there in 1252.

References

Sources

* * *

Jonathan Sumption Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, Lord Sumption, (born 9 December 1948), is a British author, medieval historian and former senior judge who sat on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018. Sumption was sworn in as a Jus ...

, ''The Albigensian Crusade'', 2000

Life

Albigensian Crusade

Issue

References

Sources

See also