Leicester

Leicester stands on the River Soar in the English Midlands, a town whose history reaches back to Roman Britain. Its medieval castle, churches and religious houses served a prosperous market centre. In 1414 Henry V held a parliament at the Greyfriars, a Franciscan house within the town. After Richard III fell at Bosworth in 1485, his body was brought to Leicester and buried in the Greyfriars church. The town later suffered during the Civil War: in 1645 Royalist forces besieged and stormed Leicester, then held for Parliament. Fighting reached the churchyard of St Martin's, where the wounded Parliamentary governor was captured.