Guy de Montfort (1244-1291) was an English nobleman who served as a lieutenant of King Charles of Anjou in Sicily during the late 13th century.
Biography[]
Guy de Montfort was born in England in 1244, the son of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and Eleanor of England, Countess of Leicester; he was thus the paternal grandson of King John of England. He served under his father at the 1265 Battle of Evesham, during which both his father and brother were killed, and Guy was severely wounded and captured. In 1266, he bribed his captors at Windsor Castle and escaped to France, after which he and his brother Simon de Montfort the Younger made their way to Italy.
Guy became King Charles of Anjou's Vicar-General in Tuscany, and he distinguished himself at the 1268 Battle of Tagliacozzo and was made Count of Nola in recognition of his services. In 1271, he and his brother murdered their cousin Henry of Almain at a church altar in Viterbo to avenge the deaths of their father and brother at Evesham, for which Guy and Simon were excommunicated.
Guy was stripped of his titles and once again entered into Charles of Anjou's service, serving as his Governor of Sicily; he was initially targeted for assassination by John of Procida's Sicilian rebels, but his son Arrigo di Montforte intervened and saved his father's life. It was at the wedding of Arrigo and Elena di Palermo that the Sicilian Vespers uprising of 1282 broke out, and Arrigo was killed. Guy was captured by the Aragonese at the Battle of the Counts in 1287, and he died in a Sicilian prison in 1291.