Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester

Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester was a historical figure associated with 5th Earl of Leicester and Viscount of Béziers and Carcassonne. The record associates Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester with France. Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester belonged to the House of Montfort.

After joining the campaign in Languedoc in 1209, Montfort acquired lands taken from southern lords and directed sieges and military operations against Cathar communities and their protectors. His rule combined crusading ideology with territorial conquest. He was killed during the siege of Toulouse in 1218.

Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth places Simon de Montfort within the Albigensian Crusade that destroys the political and religious world of its thirteenth-century heroine Alaïs. As the crusading army advances into Languedoc after the fall of Béziers and the siege of Carcassonne, Montfort represents the hardening of the campaign from papally sanctioned expedition into territorial conquest. He is not the novel’s viewpoint character, but his historical leadership gives the fictional struggle over Cathar survival, dispossession and resistance its military and political force.