But De Montfort's great effort soon met with a fatal reaction. The
barons, jeolous of his power, fell away from him. Prince Edward, the
King's eldest son, gathered them round the royal standard to attack
and crush the man who had humiliated his father. De Montfort was at
Evesham, Worcestershire (see map facing p. 436); from the top of the
Bell Tower of the Abbey he saw the Prince approaching. "Commend you
souls to God," he said to the faithful few who stood by him; "for our
bodies are the foes'!" There he fell. He was buried in Evesham
Abbey, but no trace of his grave exists.
In the north aisle of Westminster Abbey, not far from Henry III's
tomb, may be seen the emblazoned arms of the brave Earl Simon. But
England, so rich in effigies of her great men, so faithful, too, in
her remembrance of them, has not yet set up in the vestibule of the
House of Commons, among the statues of her statesmen, the image of him
who took the first actual step toward founding that House in its
present form.