Editing Leicester (section)

===Modern===
====Tudor====
[[File:Leicester Abbey nave and cloister.jpg|thumb|[[Leicester Abbey]] ruins, now part of [[Abbey Park, Leicester|Abbey Park]]]]
On 4 November 1530, [[Cardinal Thomas Wolsey]] was arrested on charges of treason and taken from Yorkshire. On his way south to face dubious justice at the [[Tower of London]], he fell ill. The group escorting him was concerned enough to stop at Leicester to rest at Leicester Abbey. There, Wolsey's condition quickly worsened. He died on 29 November 1530 and was buried at [[Leicester Abbey]], now [[Abbey Park, Leicestershire|Abbey Park]].

[[Lady Jane Grey]], who claimed the English throne for nine days in June 1553, was born at [[Bradgate Park]] near Leicester around 1536.<ref name="royweb">{{cite web |url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page44.asp |title=Official Website of the British Monarchy – Jane |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501194655/http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page44.asp |archive-date=1 May 2015}}</ref>

Queen [[Elizabeth I]]'s intimate and former suitor, [[Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester|Robert Dudley]], was given the [[Earldom of Leicester]].

====Stuart====
After the [[Union of the Crowns]], [[Anne of Denmark]], [[Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales|Prince Henry]], and [[Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia|Princess Elizabeth]] travelled to Leicester on 24 June 1603, after the courtier and usher Thomas Conway was assured that the town was free from infection or plague.<ref>William Kelly, ''Royal Progresses to Leicester'' (Leicester, 1855), pp. 8–9.</ref> [[Charles I of England|Prince Charles, later King Charles I]], travelled to London with his guardian [[Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline|Alexander Seton]]. The royal party stayed at Leicester for three days in August 1604 at the townhouse of [[William Skipwith (died 1610)|William Skipwith]].<ref>Walter Seton, 'Early Years of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Charles, Duke of Albany', ''Scottish Historical Review'', 13:52 (July 1916), pp. 373-4.</ref>

The Corporation of Leicester opposed the efforts of Charles I to disafforest the nearby [[Leicester Forest]], believing them to be likely to throw many of its residents into poverty and need of relief. [[Miles Fleetwood|Sir Miles Fleetwood]] was sent to commission the disafforestation and division of lands being used in common.<ref>{{Citation |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-03681-6 |location=Berkeley |title=In contempt of all authority |author=Buchanan Sharp |date=1980 |id=0520036816 |ol=4742314M}}p70-71</ref> Riots destroyed enclosures in spring 1627 and 1628, following a pattern of [[Western Rising and disafforestation riots|anti-enclosure disturbances]] found elsewhere including the Western Rising.<ref>Sharp, p58-59</ref>

Petitions challenging the enclosures were presented by the Corporation of Leicester and borough residents to the King and [[Privy Council]]. They were unsuccessful so petitioned the [[House of Lords]] in June 1628 who however supported Fleetwood but asked for proceedings made by the Crown against the rioters to be dropped. Compensation made to the legal residents of the forest was reasonably generous by comparison with other forests. The Corporation of Leicester received {{cvt|40|acres|0|abbr=on}} for relief of the poor.<ref>Sharp, p88</ref>

====Civil War====
Leicester was a Parliamentarian (colloquially called [[Roundhead]]) stronghold during the [[English Civil War]]. In 1645, King [[Charles I of England]] and [[Prince Rupert]] decided to attack the (then) town to draw the [[New Model Army]] away from the Royalist (colloquially called [[Cavaliers]]) headquarters of [[Oxford]]. [[Royalist]] guns were set up on [[Raw Dykes]] and, after an unsatisfactory response to a demand for surrender, the assault began at 3pm on 30 May 1645 by a Royalist battery opposite the Newarke. The town – which only had approximately 2,000 defenders opposed to the Royalist Army of approximately 10,000 combatants – was sacked on 31 May 1645, and hundreds of people were killed by Rupert's cavalry. One witness said, "they fired upon our men out of their windows, from the tops of houses, and threw tiles upon their heads. Finding one house better manned than ordinary, and many shots fired at us out of the windows, I caused my men to attack it, and resolved to make them an example for the rest; which they did. Breaking open the doors, they killed all they found there without distinction". It was reported that 120 houses had been destroyed and that 140 wagons of plunder were sent to the Royalist stronghold of [[Newark-on-Trent|Newark]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1645-leicester-naseby.htm |title=1645:The Storming of Leicester and the Battle of Naseby |access-date=25 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509100109/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1645-leicester-naseby.htm |archive-date=9 May 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following the Parliamentarian victory over the Royalist Army at the [[Battle of Naseby]] on 14 June 1645, Leicester was recovered by Parliament on 18 June 1645.

====Industrial era====
[[File:Butler Leicester Seamstress front.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Leicester Seamstress'' by [[James Butler (artist)|James Walter Butler]] (1990)<br />Leicester, Hotel Street]]
The construction of the [[Grand Union Canal]] in the 1790s linked Leicester to London and [[Birmingham]]. The first railway station in Leicester opened in 1832, in the form of the [[Leicester and Swannington Railway]] which provided a supply of coal to the town from nearby collieries.{{sfn|Butt|1995|p=141}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=Victorian Leicester |last=Elliott |first=Malcolm |publisher=Phillimore |year=1979 |isbn=0-85033-327-X |location=London and Chichester |pages=26}}</ref> The [[Midland Counties Railway]] (running from [[Derby railway station|Derby]] to [[Rugby railway station|Rugby]]) linked the town to the national network by 1840. A direct link to [[St Pancras railway station|London St Pancras]] was established by the [[Midland Railway]] in the 1860s. These developments encouraged and accompanied a [[Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom|process of industrialisation]] which intensified throughout the reign of [[Queen Victoria]]. Factories began to appear, particularly along the canal and river, and districts such as [[Frog Island, Leicester|Frog Island]] and [[Woodgate, Leicestershire|Woodgate]] were the locations of numerous large mills. Between 1861 and 1901, Leicester's population increased from {{nowrap|68,100}} to {{nowrap|211,600}} {{citation needed|date=October 2015}}and the proportion employed in trade, commerce, building, and the city's new factories and workshops rose steadily. [[Hosiery]], textiles, and footwear became the major industrial employers: manufacturers such as [[N. Corah & Sons]] and the Cooperative Boot and Shoe Company were opening some of the largest manufacturing premises in Europe. They were joined, in the latter part of the century, by engineering firms such as Kent Street's Taylor and Hubbard (crane makers and founders{{clarify|date=December 2014}}), Vulcan Road's [[Gimson and Company|William Gimson & Company]] (steam boilers and founders), Martin Street's Richards & Company (steel works and founders), and [[British United Shoe Machinery]] Co (manufacturer of [[footwear]] machinery and materials).

The politics of Victorian Leicester were lively and very often bitter. Years of consistent economic growth meant living standards generally increased, but Leicester was a stronghold of [[Radicals (UK)|Radicalism]]. [[Thomas Cooper (poet)|Thomas Cooper]], the [[Chartism|Chartist]], kept a shop in Church Gate. There were serious Chartist riots in the town in 1842 and again six years later.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/chartism/leicchar.htm |website=A Web of English History |publisher=Dr Marjie Bloy |title=Chartism in Leicestershire |access-date=23 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826115108/http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/chartism/leicchar.htm |archive-date=26 August 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Leicester Secular Society]] was founded in 1851 but [[secularism|secularist]] speakers such as [[George Holyoake]] were often denied the use of speaking halls. It was not until 1881 that [[Leicester Secular Hall]] was opened. The second half of the 19th century also witnessed the creation of many other institutions, including the town council, [[Leicester Royal Infirmary|the Royal Infirmary]], and the Leicester Constabulary. It also benefited from general acceptance (and the Public Health Acts ){{citation needed|date=February 2016}} that municipal organisations had a responsibility to provide for the town's water supply, drainage, and sanitation. In 1853, backed with a guarantee of dividends by the Corporation of Leicester the Leicester Waterworks Company built a reservoir at Thornton for the supply of water to the town. This guarantee was made possible by the Public Health Act 1847 and an amending local Act of Parliament of 1851. In 1866 another amending Act enabled the Corporation of Leicester to take shares in the company to enable the construction of another reservoir at Cropston, completed in 1870. The Corporation of Leicester was later able to buy the waterworks and build another reservoir at Swithland, completed in the 1890s.<ref>Elliott, Malcolm.op cit pages 62 -64 and 124–135</ref>

Leicester became a [[county borough]] in 1889, although it was abolished in 1974 as part of the [[Local Government Act 1972|Local Government Act]], and was reformed as a non-metropolitan district and city. The city regained its unitary status, being administered separately from Leicestershire, in 1997. The borough had been expanding throughout the 19th century, but grew most notably when it annexed [[Belgrave, Leicestershire|Belgrave]], [[Aylestone]], [[North Evington]], [[Knighton, Leicestershire|Knighton]], and [[Stoneygate]] in 1892.

====Early 20th century====
[[File:Clock Tower and Eastgates c1910.jpg|thumb|Edwardian city centre]]
In 1900, the [[Great Central Railway]] provided another link to London, but the rapid population growth of the previous decades had already begun to slow by the time of Queen Victoria's death in 1901.
[[World War I]] and the subsequent epidemics had further impacts. Nonetheless, Leicester was finally recognised as a legal city once more in 1919 in recognition of its contribution to the British war effort. Recruitment to the armed forces was lower in Leicester than in other English cities, partly because of the low level of unemployment and the need for many of its industries, such as clothing and footwear manufacturing, to supply the army. As the war progressed, many of Leicester's factories were given over to arms production; Leicester produced the first batch of Howitzer shells by a British company which was not making ammunition before the war. After the war, the city received a royal visit; the king and queen received a march-past in [[Victoria Park, Leicester|Victoria Park]] of thousands of serving and demobilised soldiers. Following the end of the war, a memorial arch—the [[Arch of Remembrance]]—was built in Victoria Park and unveiled in 1925. The arch, one of the largest First World War memorials in the UK, was designed by [[Sir Edwin Lutyens]], who also designed [[The Cenotaph, Whitehall|the Cenotaph]] in London and is a grade I [[listed building]]. A set of gates and lodges, again by Lutyens, were added in the 1930s, leading to the memorial from the University Road and London Road entrances to Victoria Park.<ref>Richardson, p. 63.</ref><ref>Beazley, pp. 174–175.</ref><ref>{{NHLE|num=1074786|desc=The Arch of Remembrance|access-date=28 May 2018}}</ref>
[[File:Leicester Arch of Remembrance (front, 07) cropped.jpg|thumb|The [[Arch of Remembrance]] in [[Victoria Park, Leicester|Victoria Park]]]]
In 1927, Leicester again became a cathedral city on the consecration of {{nowrap|St Martin's}} Church as the cathedral. A second major extension to the boundaries following the changes in 1892 took place in 1935, with the annexation of the remainder of [[Evington]], [[Humberstone, Leicestershire|Humberstone]], [[Beaumont Leys]], and part of [[Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields|Braunstone]]. A third major revision of the boundaries took place in 1966, with the net addition to the city of just over {{cvt|450|acres|0|abbr=on}}. The boundary has remained unchanged since that time.

Leicester's diversified economic base and lack of dependence on primary industries meant it was much better placed than many other cities to weather the tariff wars of the 1920s and [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s. The Bureau of Statistics of the newly formed [[League of Nations]] identified Leicester in 1936 as the second-richest city in Europe<ref>{{cite book |last1=William |first1=David |title=UK Cities: A Look at Life and Major Cities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland |date=13 October 2010 |publisher=New Africa Press |isbn=978-9987160211 |page=127}}</ref> and it became an attractive destination for refugees fleeing persecution and political turmoil in [[continental Europe]]. Firms such as Corah and Liberty Shoes used their reputation for producing high-quality products to expand their businesses. These years witnessed the growth in the city of [[trade unionism]] and particularly the [[co-operative movement]]. The Co-op became an important employer and landowner; when Leicester played host to the [[Jarrow March]] on its way to London in 1936, the Co-op provided the marchers with a change of boots. In 1938, Leicester was selected as the base for Squadron 1F, the first A.D.C.C (Air Defence Cadet Corp), the predecessor of the [[Air Training Corps]].

====World War II====
Leicester was bombed on 19 November 1940. Although only three bombs hit the city, 108 people were killed in Highfields.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/a-place-to-live/the-blitz-in-highfields/ |title=The Blitz in Highfields |work=Story of Leicester |access-date=16 October 2022 |archive-date=16 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221016141004/https://www.storyofleicester.info/a-place-to-live/the-blitz-in-highfields/ |url-status=live }}</ref>