and more - Viva Lewes

W illiam Shakespeare missed a trick by
starting his histories with King John.
He could have constructed a much more exciting
and moving play by jumping a generation,
and concentrating on the adventures of Simon
de Montfort. What a story he’d have got: ambition,
treachery, the wholesale upheaval of
‘natural order’. A family squabble turning into
a bloody Civil War. A noble aristocrat whose
hubris leads to his untimely demise. But not before
he’s wrested control of the country, at the
bloody Battle of Lewes, becoming the de facto
King of England.
Act One, set in the late 1230s, would see the
young De Montfort, the near-penniless second
son of a French aristocratic family, coming to
England seeking his fortune at the court of
King Henry III. What a great character: he’s
a strong, ambitious and intelligent fellow, well
versed in warfare, and silver-tongued. Henry,
just a year older, is a completely different type
of man. Artistic and hot-tempered, sensitive
and fickle. Nevertheless, the King takes a liking
to the newcomer, as does the king’s teenage
sister, Eleanor, which makes for some wonderful
scenes. Before long De Montfort has wooed
the young girl into a shotgun marriage. Henry’s
not pleased at first – Eleanor has made a vow
of life-long chastity having recently been widowed
- but De Montfort’s charm is such that he
soon forgives him, and grants him the Earldom
of Leicester, to which he has a long-standing
claim, as well as making him one of his most
trusted advisers. Trumpets, fanfare, all is well.
In Act Two, everything starts unravelling. We