95. Henry d’Almain is Murdered, Viterbo, Italy 1271

In this helpful illustration of the murder of Henry d’Almain by his de Montfort cousins, you may see an accurate depiction of the crime. Mass is happening; the church has no walls; the Montforts stand outside the church but only one of them can stab his cousin at a time; there are all sorts of soldiers accompanying the de Monforts on their vile mission. Actually, none of the things listed here are true. But there was a murder, and the cousins did it, and a church was involved. (By Giovanni Villani, Nuova Cronica – ms. Chigiano L VIII 296, Vatican Library, 14th century.)

Henry d’Almain didn’t really want to fight in the Second Barons’ War, because the leaders of the two sides were both his uncles, and when his uncle Simon de Montfort was killed and mutilated in the last battle, he wasn’t part of that, so it was really unseemly for his cousins, the sons of Simon de Montfort, to find him in a church in Italy and slaughter him while he was clinging to the altar. As vengeance goes, it was a really stupid vengeance that didn’t settle anything, and only got the de Montfort boys into more trouble. (Their father wouldn’t have done such a thing; the de Montforts were going downhill, that generation.) Anne wrassles with her grudging respect for Simon de Montfort, and Michelle finds a really badly behaved Victorian scholar. Because bad behavior transcends the Middle Ages.

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