Battle of Lewes

Date: May 14, 1264 • Location: Lewes, United Kingdom

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1264.

Second Barons' War: King Henry III was defeated at the Battle of Lewes and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England.

The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in England between the forces of barons led by Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of King Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the future King Edward I. The barons sought to force the king to rule with a council of barons, rather than through his favourites. To bolster the initial success of his baronial regime, de Montfort sought to broaden the social foundations of parliament by extending the franchise to the commons for the first time. However, after a rule of just over a year, de Montfort was killed by forces loyal to the king at the Battle of Evesham. The war also involved a series of massacres of Jews by some of de Montfort's supporters in attacks aimed at seizing and destroying evidence of baronial debts.