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Family History Societies
Peterborough
Societies
Leicestershire Archaeological & Historical Society
Rutland
Local History and Record Society
Websites
Leicestershire Online Parish Clerk




 
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Themes Explorers and Adventurers Nobel Prize Winners
Actors/Actresses and Directors Famous People Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes Historic Events Prime Ministers
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Inventors and Scientists Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects Monarchs World Heritage Sites
Composers National Parks Writers and Poets

Leicestershire

Leicestershire lies in central England. In 1974 England's smallest county Rutland was incorporated into the county. Rutland has since regained its county status.



 Towns include the county seat of Leicester.

Anglo-Saxons and Danes
Once part of the small kingdom of the Middle Angles.

Famous People

The politician and cardinal Thomas Wolsey died at Leicester Abbey in 1530 and is also buried there. The son of a butcher became the most powerful man in England under Henry VIII before falling out of favour with the king. Wolsey had been arrested in York and was en route to London when he died.

Thomas Wolsey Henry VIII
 Leicester Abbey in 1834



 Born in Fenny Drayton in 1624, George Fox founded the Society of Friends religious movement in the 1650s. The movement - which became better known as the Quakers - was a reaction to the state's control of the Protestant church in England. Fox and his followers often suffered persecution and imprisonment forcing many to emigrate to America where the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania was founded by Fox's friend William Penn.

George Fox
 The Quakers

Historic Events

Major Battles
In 1485 Richard III became the last monarch to fall in battle when he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth. The battle finally ended the thirty-year long Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. The victorious Henry Tudor was crowned Henry VII on the battlefield and united the two dynasties under the House of Tudor.

Richard III Henry VII


Monarchs

House of York
The House of York
Richard III was the last monarch to die in battle when he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Having become King in 1483, his death brought to an end the short rule of the House of York. He was buried in Greyfriars Abbey in Leicester but during the Reformation his bones were dug up and scattered in the nearby River Soar.

Richard III

House of Tudor
The House of Tudor
Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen for nine days in July 1553, was born at Bradgate Manor in 1537. Although never crowned she was England's first female monarch and she was followed by the rule of two more, the half-sisters Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Lady Jane Grey


Places of Interest

Cathedrals and Abbeys
Leicester Abbey

 Leicester Abbey in 1834


Royal Consorts and Heirs

House of Plantagenet
Mary de Bohun, the first wife of the future Henry IV and mother of Henry V was buried in 1394 at the Church of St Mary de Castro in Leicester. Her husband ascended the throne in 1399.

Henry IV


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