This week saw the London launch of The Song of Simon de Montfort: England's First Revolutionary and the Death of Chivalry, by Dr Sophie Thérèse Ambler, at Daunt Books in Marylebone.

The Song is a history of the nobleman who, between 1258 and 1265, seized power from King Henry III and established a radical regime to govern in his stead. Examining the revolution in the context of crusading culture, the book shows how Montfort cultivated his reputation as leader and came to amass a vast following, before he and a host of his men were cut down on the battlefield at Evesham in 1265.

The Song of Simon de Montfortis published by Picador, with publication in the USA following in September with Oxford University Press.