Amaury de Montfort, Canon of York

Amaury de Montfort (1242/1243-1301) was the fourth son to parliamentary pioneer Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and Eleanor of England, daughter of King John.

Amaury entered the priesthood as a young man, and held the positions of Treasurer of York Cathedral, canon of Rouen, Evreux, London and Lincoln. He served as a papal chaplain as well.

After the deaths of his father and older brother Henry de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 (by men under the command of then Prince Edward, later Edward I, aka Edward Longshanks), Amaury fled to France with his mother, younger sister, and surviving brothers.

Amaury de Montfort soon began studying medicine and theology at the University of Padua. His older brothers, Guy de Montfort, Count of Nola and Simon de Montfort (the younger) were seeking their fortunes in Italy. A tragic turn of events lead to the bloody 1271 confrontation between Guy and Simon and their cousin Henry of Almain (also Edward's cousin, by virtue of his father, Henry III being elder brother to both Eleanor of England and Henry of Almain's father, Richard, Earl of Cornwall).

Henry, whom the de Montfort sons considered a traitor to their father's ideals, was attacked during mass at Viterbo, and murdered on the altar steps, resulting in the excommunication of both de Montfort sons. While Amaury was not in Viterbo, and was not involved in the murder, Edward swore vengeance upon all of Simon de Montfort's sons, Amaury included. Simon the younger died that year, reportedly of a tertian fever, while Guy managed to appeal to the pope (with the aid of his father-in-law), resulting in his return to the church.

In 1275, after the death of his mother at Montargis Abbey, Amaury, by then a Papal Chaplain, accompanied his younger sister Eleanor de Montfort on a winter sea voyage to Wales and her new husband, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (the grandson of Llywelyn Fawr). Intercepted at sea by mercenaries in the employ of now King Edward I, both Amaury and Eleanor were taken captive.

While Eleanor's captivity was gentle and relatively short-lived (she was returned to her husband after three years), Amaury was held in the infamous prison of Corfe Castle for over three years (and then spent another four years in other, less stark prisons), despite the strenuous objections of the French Monarchy, the Welsh Principality, and the Pope.

Upon his release in 1282, Amaury returned to France in exile, never again to see his sister, who died in childbirth that very year, mere months before the death of her husband Llewylyn and the subjugation of Wales to the English crown. Amaury advanced in the church, and died in Italy after 1301, a prominent clergyman.