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| Katherine Ashe |
- Montfort The Founder of Parliament The Early Years 1229 to 1243
- Montfort The Founder of Parliament: The Viceroy 1243-1253 (Volume 2)
- Montfort The Revoutionary 1253 to 1260 (Montfort The Founder of Parliament)
- Montfort The Angel with the Sword
A.… the life of the man who founded parliament and created modern democracy. … unknown because it was made a hanging crime to speak his name.
Q. Why was that? – do you want to get into this?
A. He was believed to be the Angel of the Apocalypse.
- Joachim de Fiore’s 12th century theology of the three Millennia – supported by Franciscan and Dominican teachings
- Third millennium: kingdoms and the Church dissolve in a single World Order with a government elected by the common man.
- Establishment of Parliament (by Montfort) believed to mark beginning of Third Millennium.
French Revolution, Napoleon, Karl Marx and Hitler all drew on this 3rd Millennium belief that has remained in Western culture.
Q. Who was Simon de Montfort?
A: Finest military tactician of the mid-13th century. King Henry III’s best friend; married Henry’s sister who was a nun. May have been the Queen’s lover and father of Edward I. (I can give references to support this.)
Henry turned against Montfort, trying him on false charges for treason twice.
Montfort joined English lords in conspiracy to curb Henry’s abuses. In committees at Oxford they created The Provisions of Oxford, which establish the concept of an elected Parliament with power over the Crown.
Simon put the Provisions into effect, making democracy a reality.
Q. You self-published this work. Why?
A. Publishers loved the manuscript – they only required that I change the main character to a woman. I refused to falsify my text. No woman was in a position even to plausibly report at second-hand the story I am telling.
Q. Apart from demands to have the text mangled to be better targeted for the market, do you have other concerns about trade publishing?
A. The 3 year life cycle of a trade published book – from hectic “pub date” to remaindering (as little as a year later.) After remaindering, the balance of the edition is shredded and sent to a land fill. Are authors aware of this? Print on demand is changing this.
The books I, and my husband, have published with trade publishers have had little promotional support, and have not paid royalties or received proper fiscal accountings. My husband, Peter Wynne’s, triple-layer cake cookbook, Sky High, is a gorgeous example of publishing, from Chronicle. Now 3 years out, with no royalty report. The title, text and even the recipes were changed (introducing errors) and Chronicle withheld the contract from May to December, still demanding the manuscript be delivered the following May. All charges: book designer, photographer, food stylist, layout, copyedit, etc., etc., for this elaborate coffee-table book were charged against the authors’ ( my husband wrote it with his niece) advance.
I used to write art books. From Walker, Abrams and Horizon, I never saw a payment beyond the advance, even when editions sold out entirely.
Visit:
www.simon-de-montfort.com
www.katherineashe.com
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