Simon de Montfort’s death at the battle of Evesham brought his story to an end but opened a new chapter for his family, across the Channel. In less than five years Simon’s sons, Simon the younger, Guy and Amaury were able to rehabilitate themselves, each attaining high office in the tumultuous politics of Italy.

However, in March 1271, in a small church in Viterbo, Simon and Guy acquired European notoriety when they brutally wreaked revenge on their cousin, Henry of Almain, for the death of their father.  Indeed, Guy’s actions were deemed to be so nefarious that Dante would place him in the seventh circle of hell a quarter of a century later.

The murder in Viterbo reopened a feud within the Plantagenet family which would have far-reaching and baleful consequences for the history of Britain.