Alix de Montmorency, died February 24, 1220-1221. Her parents were Bouchard IV/V de Montmorency and Laurette, daughter of Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut and Alice of Namur.
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In 1190 she married Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester (1160 – June 25, 1218), son of Simon III de Montfort, who descended from the lords of Montfort l'Amaury near Paris, France. She accompanied her husband on his campaigns during the Albigensian Crusade. Like her husband, she was very pious. Both of them had come under the influence of Fulk of Neuilly and they were patrons of the Dominican Order.[1]
Alix also participated in the councils of the crusaders and recruited reinforcements in France. In 1217, she imprisoned the Jews in Toulouse.[2] She went to the French court with Folquet de Marselha to plead for support, but she was nearby when her husband got killed as he besieged Toulouse. After this she returned to her family's estates near Paris.[3]
They left three sons: Their French estates passed to their eldest son, Amaury de Montfort, while their younger son, Simon, eventually gained possession of the earldom of Leicester and played a major role in the reign of Henry III of England. Another son, Guy, was married to Petronille, Countess of Bigorre, on 6 November 1216, but died at the siege of Castelnaudary on 20 July 1220. Their daughter, Petronilla, became an abbess at the Cistercian nunnery of St. Antoine's. Another daughter, Amicia, founded the nunnery at Montargis and died there in 1252.
^ Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise laisse 205. ^ Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise laisse 206; Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, Historia Albigensis 615.