Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/119

* LEICESTER. 105 LEICHHARDT. a lunatic asj'lum, ceraoterics, a fire-brigade, and an ell'ective police force, ilanufactures of boots and shoes, and woolen and hosiery goods, laee- niaking, wool-combing, and dyeing are extensively carried on. Leicester lies near a coal-field, and is the centre of a famous agricultural and wool- raising district. An early British city, the capi- tal of the Coritani, it was known to the Romans as Rata'. It was one of the five Danish burghs, and from G80 to 874 the seat of a bishopric. The Mount or Castle View, an artificial earthwork on which stood the donjon or keep, and the great banqueting-hall, modernized and used as an assize court, are all that remains of the Norman castle, dismantled by Charles I., in 1645. The ruins of the Abbey of Saint Mary Pre — 'of the ileadow' — where Cardinal Wolsey died in 1530, still exist. Numerous municipal charters and privileges, the first granted by King John and the last by Queen Elizabeth, governed the town prior to the Municipal Corporations Act. Population, in 1891, 174.000: in 1901, 211,600. Consult: .Johnstone, History of Leicester (1892) ; "Leicester as a Municipality," in Municipal Journal, viii. 878 (London. 1899) ; Bateson, Stevenson and Stocks, Records of the Borough of Leicester (Cambridge, 1901). LEICESTER. A tragedy by William Dun- lap ( 17114). said to have been the first American tragedy juit on the stage. It is also called The Fatal Dccvplion. LEICESTER, Robert Dudley. Earl of (c.l5,32-S8). A favorite of Queen Elizabeth. lie was the fifth son of .John Dudley, Duke of Northumlicrland, and received a very goo<l edu- cation. At an early age he was taken to Court, where he met the Princess (later Queen) Eliza- beth. In 1550 he was married publicly to Amy Robsart, and. as far as we know, lived happily with her. After the death of Edward VI. in 155.3, Dudley aided in the attempt to place his sister- in-law. Lady Jane Grey, on the throne, for which he was imprisoned in the Tower. On the accession of Elizabeth in 1558, Dudley rapidly advanced and became the Queen's fa vorite, and for a long time it was thought they would marry. Xevertheless, Elizabeth al- lowed Dudley little or no influence in polit- ical affairs. The intimacy between Elizabeth and Dudley gave rise to several rumors of a scandalous nature, and when in 1560 Lady Amy was found dead from a fall down a flight of stairs, the belief spread that she had been mur- dered, though as a matter of fact it was prob- ably an accident. Scotfs KeniJnorth is based on the popular rumors of the time. In 1563 it was suggested that Dudley should marr^' Mary, Queen of Scots, and he was made Earl of I^ices- ter; but in 1565 the Scottish Queen married Darnley. Meanwhile T^eicester's future was darkened by the fact that Elizabeth realized the impracticability of marrying him. for he was very unpopular and opposed by all the old no- bility. In 1571 he married the widow of John, second Baron of Shellield. but afterwards refused to acknowledge her as his wife, and in 1578 mar- ried Lettice Knollys. Comitess of Essex, at the news of which the Queen was very angiy. When in 1585 Elizabeth decided to aid the Netherlands in their struggle for independence from Spanish rule, Leicester received command of the expedi- tion, and in the following year the States-General elected him Ciovernor. His incapacity, however, soon showed forth glaringly, and he lost town after town, so that the Dutch were glad when in 1587 he was recalled. In 1588 Elizabeth ap- pointed him commander of the forces assembled to oppose the Spanish invasion, but he died soon after, on September 4, 1.5S8. Leicester was a shallow and vain man, the interest in whom is due almost entirely to his intimacy with the great English Queen. Consult Froude. History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada (12 vols., 2d ed., London, 1893). LEICESTERSHIRE. An inland county of England, south of the counties of Derby and Nottingham. Area, 813 square miles; population, in 1891, 373,584; in 1901, 434.000 (Map: Eng- land, E 4 ). The surface is midulating. with no hills exceeding 850 feet. The Soar and Avon, tributaries respectively of the Trent and Severn, are the chief rivers. Coal is mined in the west, and granite, slate, and freestone are quarried. The soil is a loam of varying degrees of fertility, and while barley, wheat, and oats are cultivated, the chief agricultural branches are grazing, stock- raising, and dairy-farming. Stilton clieese is chiefly made in this county; the local breed of sheep is noted for its fine wool. The principal manufactures are hosiery, agricultural imple- ments, and pottery. Capital, Leicester. The early inhabitants were the Celtic Coritani, who were conquered by the Romans. Later the region was part of the ilercian Kingdom, until subdued by the Danes, and afterwards bj' the Normans. LEICESTER SQUARE. A London square, formerly Leicester Fields, laid out in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Many French Huguenots made their residence there after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and it is still a popular foreign quarter, Savile House and Leicester House once stood on it, and in the latter Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia died in 1662. Reynolds, Hogarth, Hunter, and Newton lived in the neighborhood, and their bu.sts adorn the square. During the seventeenth century it frequently served as a dueling-ground. LEICHHARDT, llK'hiirt, Ludwig (1813- 48?).. A German explorer, born at Trebatsch, Province of Brandenburg. Prussia, After study- ing at Gottingen and Berlin, he traveled in Italy, France, and England, and in 1841 went to Aus- tralia. Here he at once began the geological in- vestigations which he later described in his Con- tributions to the Geology of Australia. In 1844 he set out on his second expedition to Australia, and with about seven companions traveled from Moreton Bay, on the eastern coast, through Queensland, to Port Essington. in the extreme north of the continent. After accomplishing this journey, in which he covered about 2000 miles, in sixteen months, Leichhardt returned to Sydney and pulilislied the results nf his expediition in his Journal of an Overland Expedition in Aus- tralia from. Moreton Bay to Port Essington (1846), At the close nf ' that year he .started on his last trip, in which he jiroposed to go from Moreton Bay across the central part of the eon- tincnt from" east to west. The last information received from him was sent from Macpherson's Station on the Cogoon River, on April 3, 1848. No less than five relief expeditions were organ- ized in 1851-65, but these failed to discover a trace of the lost explorer, whose disappearance