The Sons of De Montfort were a militia based in the East Midlands, specifically around the county of Leicestershire. After years operating in relative obscurity, in 2018 they succeeded in staging a coup in the town of Loughborough and from there setting up a small left-wing republic known as the Republic of Leicester. Disruptions to trade and attacks against small outlying hamlets drew the Sons into conflict with both the Parts of Holland and elements of the True British Army.
During the time that the militia had control of the Leicestershire Republic, they served as the first line of defence in its military.
Their namesake was Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (1208-1265), who led a rebellion against King Henry III.
History[]
The Sons of De Montfort likely surged after the defeat of the True British Army in 2011 at the end of the Great Rutland War. It is unknown exactly when they came to be, but sometime around 2012 a new armed group began operating in the wilds of the eastern Midlands, drawing away some of the defeated fighters from Rutland and East Anglia. For the most part they kept a low profile, gathering weapons and slowly gaining recruits.
From the start the Sons had an outlook very different from the old TBA. The True Army had espoused British nationalism, called for a restored monarchy, and been firmly anchored in right-wing politics. By contrast the Sons of De Montfort were localists (or "shireists", as they called themselves) and republicans. In style and outlook they are usually placed on the political left, though such a label is difficult to apply in their area of operation, where organised governments had very little presence. But these traits were nevertheless attractive to younger members of the TBA, who had no memory of Britain itself and felt less loyalty to the old kingdom than to their own hardscrabble villages. These younger fighters had been radicalised not by dreams of a restored Britain, but by encroachments by the states of the Organisation of British Nations.
During the 2010s, the TBA itself was operating as an underground movement and political current throughout the east of England. It lacked the strength to engage in major military actions, and many of its leaders and fighters sought to de-emphasise violence and rely more on political tactics to combat OBN influence. This alienated some militant fighters who wanted a return to the True Army's imagined glory days. Some made their way westward to the Sons of De Montfort. Ex-TBA soldiers became a key subset of the militia's membership as it slowly grew stronger.
Proclamation of the Republic of Leicester[]
The Loughborough cold store
The town of Loughborough had briefly been a British regional seat of government in 1983, tasked with maintaining order throughout the north Midlands. The government was to operate out of a local cold store, a brick-and-steel structure first built for emergency meat and fish supplies during World War II. It had been converted into a bunker and headquarters. However, the site lost electricity and telephone service, and its staff chose to abandon it not long after Doomsday. Local leaders then took over the bunker. By 2000 the town had shrunk to a modest village with the bunker, still useful as a fortification, at its centre.
In the 2010s, overland trade was slowly growing in England, and Loughborough was a key point on an east-west route connecting Bourne and Lincolnshire with the Celtic Alliance. The Sons of De Montfort engaged in extortion and outright robbery along the highway, which before long became the militia's chief source of income. By the late years of the decade, the Sons were the strongest power in the eastern Midlands, capable of intimidating almost any settlement or caravan in the region.
On the 10th of February 2018, the Sons of De Montfort succeeded in staging a coup to gain full control of Loughborough. Locals offered only weak resistance. The militia proceeded to declare the creation of a republican, leftist nation-state covering the territory that they already dominated in eastern Leicestershire, which they named Republic of Leicester. They selected Peter Soulsby, a former Leicesterian Labour Party councillor who had developed a strong working relationship with the Sons of De Montfort, to be the new country's Premier, and Sean Sheahan as President. Both of these men, who had more political knowledge and experience than the militia fighters, would take charge of the newly created republican government seated in Loughborough.
2019: The collapse of the Republic and ceasefire agreement[]
When a coalition of eastern city-states moved against Loughborough on the 5th of October 2019, the Republic of Leicester proved unable to maintain its hold on the countryside. Leaders of the Sons of De Montfort were besieged in the old bunker and negotiated conditions of surrender. The allies allowed fairly generous terms. Leicester could continue to extract tolls from the overland trade, but within limits and without the extortionate tactics that had been used. Raids against eastern settlements were to stop. The Sons were permitted to maintain control of the republic via their young civil wing, Together for Leicester, which maintained its hold on the local Popular Council. The deal was successful, and hostilities ended.
Nevertheless, the arrangement also shifted the balance in the republic in favour of the civilian authorities. The Sons of De Montfort became regularised and responsible to the government of the republic, rather than the other way around. This effectively killed it as a militant organisation. The Sons were effectively gone by the end of 2021, replaced by a citizens' militia of Leicester. Some fighters moved back east and became involved in the movement for a Commonwealth of Great Britain, while others scattered into the lawless countryside to pursue a life of banditry.