There are half a dozen Simon de Montforts, the family name of the Dukes of Leicester, but the race formerly run at the Midlands course commemorated the 6th Earl, who was born in France in 1208. He married King John’s daughter Eleanor.
The English barons forced the much-disliked John to sign the Magna Carta, which limited the monarch’s powers. In due course his successor Henry III became unpopular too and De Montfort led the opposition against him in the Second Barons’ War, a conflict that ought to be better known, as it led to him becoming in effect the ruler of England. He summoned two parliaments, reducing the monarch’s powers further and giving more to boroughs, enabling them to send a representative to Parliament. It was another step on the road to democracy begun by the Magna Carta. The tide turned against de Montfort, though, when Henry bribed the barons to turn against him and he was killed at the Battle of Evesham.
Napoleon called him “one of the greatest Englishmen”. Like many historic and artistic greats, aspects of his personality were decidedly unsavoury. Though his anti-Semitism caused the death of hundreds of Jews in Leicester and the Midlands. In 2001 Leicester City Council thought fit to formally rebuke him for this.
A maiden race named after Simon de Montfort was a regular feature of Leicester’s early April flat card between 1967 and 2005, but since then sightings of the name have been sporadic. It was a handicap in 2013, 14, 17 and 19.
Sources include this Worcester News article:
https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/7774455.Into_battle_to_defend_Simon_de_Montfort/