Editing Leicester (section)

===Medieval===
[[File:Stukeley Leicester Map 1722.jpg|thumb|Map of Leicester Old Town]]
Knowledge of the town following the [[Roman withdrawal from Britain]] is limited. It seems to have been continually occupied after Roman protection ceased through the 5th and 6th centuries, although with a significantly reduced population. Its memory was preserved as the ''{{nowrap|Cair Lerion}}''<ref name=mommy>[[Nennius]] ({{abbr|attrib.|Traditional attribution}}).

[[Theodor Mommsen]] ({{abbr|ed.|Editor}}). [[s:la:Historia Brittonum#VI. CIVITATES BRITANNIAE|''Historia Brittonum'', VI.]] Composed after AD&nbsp;830. {{in lang|la}} Hosted at [[s:la:Main Page|Latin Wikisource]].</ref> of the ''[[Historia Brittonum|History of the Britons]]''.<ref name=nashford>Ford, David Nash. "[http://www.britannia.com/history/ebk/articles/nenniuscities.html The 28 Cities of Britain] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415120312/http://www.britannia.com/history/ebk/articles/nenniuscities.html |date=15 April 2016 }}" at Britannia. 2000.</ref> Following the [[Saxon invasion of Britain]], Leicester was occupied by the [[Middle Angles]] and subsequently administered by the kingdom of [[Mercia]]. It was elevated to a [[Bishop of Leicester|bishopric]] in either 679 or 680; this see survived until the 9th century, when Leicester was captured by [[Danes (Germanic people)|Danish]] [[Viking invasions of Britain|Vikings]]. Their settlement became one of the [[Five Burghs]] of the [[Danelaw]], although this position was short-lived. The Saxon bishop, meanwhile, fled to [[Dorchester-on-Thames]] and Leicester did not become a bishopric again until the Church of {{nowrap|St Martin}} became [[Leicester Cathedral]] in 1927. The settlement was recorded under the name ''Ligeraceaster'' in the early 10th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Dictionary of English Place-Names |last=Mills |first=A.D. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-19-869156-4 |location=Oxford |pages=208}}</ref>

[[File:Leicester Cathedral south facade.jpg|thumb|left|[[Leicester Cathedral]]]]
Following the [[Norman Conquest|Norman conquest]], Leicester was recorded by [[William I of England|William]]'s [[Domesday Book]] as ''Ledecestre''. It was noted as a city (''civitas'') but lost this status in the 11th century owing to power struggles between the [[Catholic Church in England|Church]] and the [[aristocracy]]{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} and did not become a legal city again until 1919.

[[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] composed his ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae|History of the Kings of Britain]]'' around the year 1136, naming a [[Leir of Britain|King Leir]] as an [[eponymous founder]] figure.<ref name=laleir>Galfridus Monemutensis <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>. ''[[:s:la:Historia Regum Britanniae|Historia Regum Britanniæ]]''. {{circa|lk=no|1136}}. {{in lang|la}} J.A. Giles &&nbsp;al. (trans.) as [[:s:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 2#11|''History of the Kings of Britain'', Vol.&nbsp;II, Ch.&nbsp;11]] in ''Six Old English Chronicles''. 1842. Hosted at [[:s:Main page|Wikisource]].</ref> According to Geoffrey's narrative, [[Queen Cordelia|Cordelia]] had buried her father beneath the river in a chamber dedicated to [[Janus]] and his feast day was an annual celebration.<ref>Geoffrey of Monmouth. Lewis Thorpe (trans.) as ''The History of the Kings of Britain'', pp.&nbsp;81 & 86. Harmondsworth, 1966. [[William Shakespeare]] took the name of his ''[[King Lear]]'' from Geoffrey; there is now{{year needed|date=September 2015}} a statue of the final scene of Shakespeare's Lear in [[Watermead Country Park]].<!--the statue predates 2002, otherwise we have no information on it, so I doubt this really belongs under the "Medieval" section in "history of Leicester".-->Paul A. Biggs, Sandra Biggs, ''Leicestershire & Rutland Walks with Children'', Sigma Leisure, 2002, p. 44.<!--mentions "King Lear's Lake" and the statue.--></ref>

When [[Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester|Simon de Montfort]] became [[Earl of Leicester]] in 1231, he gave the borough a grant to expel the Jewish population<ref>Mundill (2002), p265</ref> "in my time or in the time of any of my heirs to the end of the world". He justified his action as being "for the good of my soul, and for the souls of my ancestors and successors".<ref>Maddicott 1996, p.15</ref> Leicester's Jews were allowed to move to the eastern suburbs, which were controlled by de Montfort's great-aunt and rival, Margaret, Countess of Winchester, after she took advice from the scholar and cleric [[Robert Grosseteste]], at that time [[Archdeacon of Leicester]].<ref>Levy, S (1902), p38-39</ref> There is evidence that Jews remained there until 1253, and perhaps enforcement of the banishment within the city was not rigorously enforced. De Montfort however issued a second edict for the expulsion of Leicester's Jews in 1253, after Grosseteste's death.<ref>See Levy, S (1902), p39</ref> De Montfort's many acts of anti-Jewish persecution in Leicester and elsewhere were part of a [[History of the Jews in England (1066–1290)#Increasing persecution, 13th century|wider pattern]] that led to the [[Edict of Expulsion|expulsion of the Jewish population]] from England in 1290.<ref>See Mundill (2002)</ref>
[[File:Leicester Guildhall.jpg|thumb|right|[[Leicester Guildhall]], dating from the 14th century]]
During the 14th century, the earls of Leicester and Lancaster enhanced the prestige of the town. [[Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster]] and of Leicester founded a hospital for the poor and infirm in the area to the south of the castle now known as The Newarke (the "new work"). Henry's son, the great [[Henry of Grosmont]], 4th Earl of Lancaster and of Leicester, who was made first Duke of Lancaster, enlarged and enhanced his father's foundation, and built the collegiate Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of The Newarke.<ref>Charles James Billson, ''Mediaeval Leicester'' (Leicester, 1920)</ref> This church (a little of which survives in the basement of the Hawthorn Building of De Montfort University) was destroyed during the reign of King Edward VI. It became an important pilgrimage site because it housed a thorn said to be from the Crown of Thorns, given to the Duke by the King of France. The church (described by Leland in the C16th as "not large but exceeding fair") also became, effectively, a Lancastrian mausoleum. Duke Henry's daughter [[Blanche of Lancaster]] married [[John of Gaunt]] and their son Henry Bolingbroke became [[Henry IV of England|King Henry IV]] when he deposed King Richard II. The Church of the Annunciation was the burial place of Duke Henry, who had earlier had his father re-interred here. Later it became the burial place of [[Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster]] (second wife of John of Gaunt) and of [[Mary de Bohun]], first wife of Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) and mother of King Henry V (she did not become queen because she died before Bolingbroke became king). John of Gaunt died at Leicester Castle in 1399. When his son became king, the Earldom of Leicester and the Duchy of Lancaster became royal titles (and the latter remains so).

[[File:The Magazine Gateway, Leicester.jpg|thumb|left|The Newarke Gateway or Magazine Gateway]]
At the end of the [[War of the Roses]], [[list of English kings|King]] [[Richard III of England|Richard III]] was buried in Leicester's [[Greyfriars, Leicester|Greyfriars Church]] a Franciscan Friary and Church which was demolished after its dissolution in 1538. The site of that church is now covered by [[King Richard III Visitor Centre]] (until 2012 by more modern buildings and a car park). There was a legend his corpse had been cast into the [[River Soar|river]], while some historians<ref>{{cite book |last1=e.g., Williamson |first1=David |title=The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England |url=https://archive.org/details/nationalportrait0000will_i4a1 |url-access=registration |date=1998 |publisher=National Portrait Gallery Publications |page=[https://archive.org/details/nationalportrait0000will_i4a1/page/81 81] |isbn=9781855142282}}</ref> argued his tomb and remains were destroyed during the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolution of the monasteries]] under [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]]. However, in September 2012, an archaeological investigation of the car park revealed a skeleton<ref>{{cite news |title=Richard III dig: Have they found their man in Leicester? |work=BBC News |date=12 September 2012 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-19575558 |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731083750/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-19575558 |archive-date=31 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> which [[DNA testing]] helped verify to be related to two descendants of Richard III's sister.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lawless |first=Jill |title=Richard III team confirms skeleton found under parking lot is remains of England's king |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/02/04/richard_iii_team_confirms_skeleton_found_under_parking_lot_is_remains_of_englands_king.html |newspaper=The Star |date=4 February 2013 |access-date=2 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628165109/https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/02/04/richard_iii_team_confirms_skeleton_found_under_parking_lot_is_remains_of_englands_king.html |archive-date=28 June 2017 |url-status=live}}j</ref> It was concluded that the skeleton was that of Richard III because of the DNA evidence and the shape of the spine. In 2015 Richard III was reburied in pride of place near the high altar in [[Leicester Cathedral]].

{{main|Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England}}