Montfort's downfall
Montfort's Parliament of 1265 appeared to succeed by engendering peace between the King and Montfort. However, later in March Montfort lost the support of the earl of Gloucester, his only major supporter and an influential early. This would mark a crucial point in the downfall of Montfort. Montfort and his forces would attempt to negotiate with the earl in May, but these negotiations proved inconclusive.
Montfort's Defeat at the Battle of Evesham
Edward became the military of a marcher alliance. The royalists began a new and brutal offensive against Montfort and his forces. Montfort's regime eventually fell on 4 August 1265 when he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Evesham by a royalist army led by the king's son Edward. Although the controls over the king were removed, the reforms of local government were retained by the royalists and by Edward I when he became king. The power of the lesser landowners and towns in the localities had been proven to be too great to ignore, and Edward I continued to summon representatives of the shires and boroughs to parliaments. During the first decades of the fourteenth century, these representatives of the community came to be distinct from the Lords, and the Commons became a recognisable feature of the English parliament as it remains today.