Alix de Montmorency

In 1190 Alix married Simon de Montfort (c. 1175 – 25 June 1218), a grandson of Simon III de Montfort, who was descended from the lords of Montfort l'Amaury, near Paris, and later became Earl of Leicester. She accompanied her husband on his campaigns during the Albigensian Crusade. Like her husband, she was very pious. Both of them had come under the influence of Fulk of Neuilly and they were patrons of the Dominican Order.[1]

Alix also participated in the councils of the crusaders and recruited reinforcements in France. In 1217, she imprisoned the Jews in Toulouse.[2] 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.[3]

They left three sons: Their French estates passed to their eldest son, Amaury de Montfort, while their younger son, Simon, eventually gained possession of the earldom of Leicester and played a major role in the reign of Henry III of England, initiating the Second Barons' War of 1263-1264. Another son, Guy, was married to Petronille, Countess of Bigorre, on 6 November 1216, but died at the siege of Castelnaudary on 20 July 1220. Their daughter, Petronilla, became an abbess at the Cistercian nunnery of St. Antoine's. Another daughter, Amicia, founded the nunnery at Montargis and died there in 1252.

^ Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise laisse 205. ^ Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise laisse 206; Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis 615.

• J. R. Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, 1994
• Jonathan Sumption, The Albigensian Crusade, 2000

• Simon IV de Montfort