Pick this up quick!
http://www.amazon.com/Montfort-Early-Years-1229-ebook/dp/B003CYKTLG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356754343&sr=8-2&keywords=montfort
A winner of the Indie B.R.A.G Award and listed in Awesome Indies, the four volume Montfort series tells the story of the man who conquered England and established Parliament as we know it — in the year 1258. In 1265 Simon de Montfort, the founder of modern democracy, died fighting for his cause and mention of his name was made a hanging crime.
The product of 35 years of research, Ashe’s Montfort follows the chronicles and documents of the period, tracing Simon’s life from his arrival at the Westminster Court of King Henry III to his being hailed as the Angel of the Apocalypse, and his death at Evesham. He was the most brilliant military strategist of his time, yet his king betrayed him, exiled him, twice tried him for treason and tried to have him killed — but forgave him when he needed him.
For what was he exiled, tried for treason, and forgiven? The records of the period trace the events, but give no cause. Ashe’s Montfort is written as a novel, adhering to history but using speculation to reconstruct a causal thread.
Reviews for Montfort:
Reading the ample “historical context” notes that follow each volume of Katherine Ashe’s utterly remarkable tetralogy of novels based on the life of 13th-century warrior-statesman Simon de Montfort, one thing becomes obvious: [Ashe] could easily have produced the most authoritative English-language biography of her subject ever written...
Ashe presents a jousting first installment of a four-volume fiction on the deeply contentious founder of parliament, Simon de Montfort.
