This is a great story featuring the Battle of Lewes fought on 14th May 1264 between the forces of King Henry III and the rebel leader Simon de Montfort. Henry was not an evil man like his father King John. But, whilst a great contributor to medieval art at Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and other great English buildings, Henry was a weak and simple man. It was these characteristics that resulted in a baronial revolt against his inept rule which particularly relied on the over-indulgence of his French relatives. Henry’s refusal to change his ways led to the revolt by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Whilst his army was vastly outnumbered Simon defeated the King’s forces at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 and assumed control of the kingdom. The talk tells the full story of the Battle of Lewes in full and its aftermath when, under Montfort’s brief rule, Parliament as we know it began to emerge where, in addition to the nobility, the knights of the shires and the representatives of the towns came to be represented for the first time. Whilst, Montfort was defeated by the royalists at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 and killed, he left a permanent legacy which has been taken up by democrats both here and around the world. Never again was an English king able to exercise power in the same way as he had done before the Montfort rebellion.