The treasury was utterly drained, and Henry was driven in 1244 to make a fresh appeal with his own mouth to the baronage.

But the barons had now rallied to a plan of action, and we can hardly fail to attribute their union to the man who appears at their head.

This was the Earl of Leicester, Simon of Montfort.
[Sidenote: Simon of Montfort] Simon was the son of another Simon of Montfort, whose name had become memorable for his ruthless crusade against the Albigensian heretics in Southern Gaul, and who had inherited the Earldom of Leicester through his mother, a sister and co-heiress of the last Earl of the house of Beaumont.
But as Simon's tendencies were for the most part French John had kept the revenues of the earldom in his own hands, and on his death the claim of his elder son, Amaury, was met by the refusal of Henry the Third to accept a divided allegiance.

The refusal marks the rapid growth of that sentiment of nationality which the loss of Normandy had brought home.

Amaury chose to remain French, and by a family arrangement with the king's sanction the honour of Leicester passed in 1231 to his younger brother Simon.