Timeline of Leicester#cite ref-39

{{History of England}}

{{see also|Prehistory|Protohistory}}

• c. 12,000 BC – Ice sheets retreated helping to form the geography of the Soar Valley.{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|pages=4 and 9|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}
• c. 10,000–9,500 BC – First hunter gatherers active in the Leicester area. Flint axe heads from the Early Stone Age have been found found on Abbey Meadows, in Scraptoft, and in Eyres Monsell.{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|page=7|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}

• 9,500–4,500 BC – Late hunter gatherers active in the area. Stone tools found at Humberstone and Mowmacre Hill.{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|page=10|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}

• 4,500–2,500 BC – Farming begins in the area and forests are cleared. More than 50 axes and other worked flint tools have been discovered scattered across every part of the city and its suburbs.{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|pages=12–15|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}

• 2,500–2,000 BC - pottery craft was discovered.{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|pages=15–17|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}

• 2,000-1,000 BC
• Metal working begins: metal remains found in High Street, Abbey Meadows, Eyres Monsell, and Glenfield. Pottery remains have been found in Glenfield in large quantities, as well as in Western Park and the modern city centre.
• Evidence of ritual areas, crop marks and burial mounds, survive in Western Park and New Parks (for pre Roman Leicester religion see Druidism).
• Burial area near High Street with a crematorium urn and another crematorium urn from Aylestone Park.
• 1,000 BC – earliest permanent settlement on Glenfield Ridge overlooking Soar Valley from the west (today Glenfield).{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|pages=16–17|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}

File:King Lear by George Frederick Bensell.jpg depicted by George Frederick Bensell.]]

File:Prehistoric Leicester from the south.jpg on the site of modern Leicester depicted from the south.]]

File:Clay coin mint discovered at Leicester.jpg

• c. 750 BC – Legendary foundation by King Leir according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's work Historia Regum Britanniae.{{cite book|author=Geoffrey of Monmouth|author-link=Geoffrey of Monmouth|title=Historia Regum Britanniæ|date=1136|volume=II|chapter=XI|url=https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Six_Old_English_Chronicles/Geoffrey%27s_British_History/Book_2}} This origin myth dates to the 12th cent and is based on Lier's name. There are no archaeological remains of a settlement on the eastern bank of the Soar to support the legend.
• c. 200 BC — Hill forts present at Ratby, Beacon Hill, Burrough Hill, and Breedon on the Hill.{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|pages=21–22|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}
• c. 100–50 BC – the Corieltauvi Tribe develop an oppidum on the eastern bank of the River Soar.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dmu.ac.uk/About-DMU/DMU-Museum/blog-article.aspx?entryId=dd263619-36ee-4ac5-a42f-91bb2ead909f|title=DMU Museum - Blog - Campus Through the Ages: Iron Age|website=www.dmu.ac.uk}}{{cite book |last=Savani |first=Giacomo |date=2018 |title=Roman Leicester|page=15|publisher=University of Leicester}}{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|pages=21–41|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}}
• The settlement had the northernmost Iron Age coin mint yet discovered in Europe.{{cite web|title=Iron Age Mint|url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MLC2442&resourceID=106}}

{{see also|Roman Britain}}

File:Map of Ratae Corieltavorum.jpg

File:Fosse Way.JPG.]]

File:Via Devana map.jpg.]]

File:Raw Dykes north end.jpg.]]

File:St Nicholas Leicester Roman columns.JPG in St Nicholas churchyard.]]

• 44–46 – Roman Conquest of the area by Legio XIV Gemina under Aulus Plautius.{{cite book |last=Blank |first=Elizabeth |date=1970 |title=A Guide to Leicestershire Archaeology |publisher=Leicester Museums}}
• c. 48–60 – The Corieltauvi become allied with Rome (approx. date):
• Tribespeople were made Civitas stipendaria of the Roman Empire.{{cite book |last=Savani |first=Giacomo |date=2018 |title=Roman Leicester |publisher=University of Leicester}}
• The gradually Romanising settlement of Ratae Corieltauvorum (meaning Ramparts of the Corieltauvi) was recognised as the Corieltauvi's Civitas Capital.{{cite book|last=Clay|first=Patrick|title=Leicester Before the Romans|page=39|year=1988|publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications|isbn=0-85022-244-3}} The plural conjugation of the name Ratae might have either referred to the different sided ramparts of a single oppidum or to the ramparts of several oppida surrounding the main one excavated east of the River Soar.
• c. 48 – The Fosse Way was constructed just to the north of the original Iron Age oppidum, perhaps initially as a defensive ditch. The northern most boundary of the first wave of Romano-British occupied territories, it came to be a major route of transportation connecting Lincoln to the north east and Cirencester, Bath, and Exeter to the south west. It was also came to act as the Decumanus Maximus (principal street running east to west) of the city of Ratae. Outside the city walls the Fosse way is the road northeast to Belgrave, Syston, and Melton (today's A46), and southwest to Coventry (today's B4455 and A429) until the mid 20th century. In the 18th and 19th the areas around the Fosse Way had been developed while the straight road was preserved as today's:
• Narborough Road,
• Belgrave Gate
• Belgrave Road (the Golden Mile),
• and Melton Road.{{cite book |last=Hoskins |first=W |year=1957 |title=Leicestershire: an illustrated essay on the history of the landscape |pages=24–26 |location=London |publisher=Houghton & Stoughton}}{{cite book |last=Savani |first=Giacomo |date=2018 |title=Roman Leicester |pages=29–30 |publisher=University of Leicester}}{{cite web|url=https://www.leicestermuseums.org/media/3lflmnqv/roman-leicester-walking-trail-v2-2023.pdf|author=Friends of Jewry Wall Museum|title=Roman Leicester Walking Tour|date=2021}}
• c. 51 — Watling Street constructed about 12 miles south of the city connecting Canterbury, London, and St Albans in the south east with Wroxeter in the north west, later extending to Chester. This road followed the route of today's A5 and marks the border between Leicestershire and Warwickshire.
• c. 70 – The Via Devana is gradually constructed connecting Ratae to the Roman capital Colchester in the south east and Chester in the north west vier Watling Street. This road eventually constituted the southern section of Ratae's divided Cardo Maximus (principal street running north to south) connecting what is still Southgates with the old Forum (roughly today's Jubilee Square) vier Vaughan Way before joining the Fosse way in the western half of the Decumanus Maximus, exiting vier the former West Gates, and continuing towards Mancetter where it met Watling Street. To the south east it passed through Medbourne to Godmanchester. The route survives today as
• Gartree Road (the B582 passing through the Strettons),
• Evington Footway,
• New Walk,
• and Glenfield Road (possibly).{{cite web|url=https://www.leicestermuseums.org/media/3lflmnqv/roman-leicester-walking-trail-v2-2023.pdf|title=Roman Leicester Walking Tour|author=Friends of Jewry Wall Museum|date=2021}}
• c. 75–99 – A drainage ditch, most likely with a defensive rampart of some kind, was dug around an area enclosing the original Iron Age oppidum. The north to south ditches measured about 805 metres and from east to west 670 metres enclosing 53 hectares (130 acres).{{cite book | last = Bateson | first = Mary | editor-link = Mary Bateson (historian) | date = 1899 | title = Records of the Borough of Leicester 1103-1327 | url = | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | page = xi | isbn = | quote="a walled rectangular space, divided by two main streets which crossed in the middle of the town and passed out of it by four gates, North, South, East, and West. From North to South the walled space measured about 880 yards, from east to west 733 yards, the walls enclosing over 130 acres." }} These boundaries will mark the site of the 3rd century stone walls and the boroughs boundaries with very few changes until the 19th century. Within the boundaries of the outer ditch a gridded network of streets (cardines, decumani, and insulae) were laid out, including the split Cardo Maximus and the continuous Decumanus Maximius.
• The route the Cardo Maximus followed is now:
• South Gates;
• The short footpath continuous with Wyggeston's House as far as Applegate (the route of the Decumanus, i.e. the Fosse Way);
• The route of the present Highcross Street over Vaughn Way as far as Sanvey Gate and Soar Lane.
• The Decumanus Maximius, following the route of the 48 AD Fosse Way, is now:
• East Gates opposite the Haymarket and Belgrave Gate;
• Silver Street;
• Guildhall lane past Wyggeston's House and Jubilee Square;
• beneath St Nicolas Circle to the lost west gate around St Augustine's Road.
• The Raw Dykes were likely constructed during this stage of development.

File:Jewry Wall - geograph.org.uk - 1020033.jpg, the only substantial free standing survival of Ratae.]]

File:Jewry Wall Museum - Thurmaston Milestone - geograph.org.uk - 2115536.jpg in Jewry Wall Museum]]

File:Blackfriars Roman Pavement.jpg

File:Mosaic of Cyparissus.jpg

• 120 – the Emperor Hadrian visited Ratae.{{cite web | url=https://murreyandblue.org/2017/08/22/ancient-ratae-city-on-the-soar/ | title=Ancient Ratae, City on the Soar | date=22 August 2017 }}
• The Thurmaston Milestone was erected, inscribed with Hadrians name.
• c. 130–200 – Ratae developed into well established Municipium:
• The Forum and Basilica complex were constructed on the north side of the Fosse Way between what is presently Highcross Street and Vaughan Way.{{cite book |last=Savani |first=Giacomo |date=2018 |title=Roman Leicester |pages=30, 34 |publisher=University of Leicester}} The site is now Jubilee Square.
• Thermae (public bath house) constructed. Ruins preserved in the courtyard of Jewry Wall Museum.{{Cite web|url=http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/jewry-wall-museum/thebathsite/|title=The Bath Site – Leicester City Council|date=22 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140922071133/http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/jewry-wall-museum/thebathsite/ |access-date=1 August 2024|archive-date=22 September 2014 }}
• Jewry Wall constructed, the wall of a communal Palaestra or Gymnasium constructed on the eastern side of the bath complex, the archways are likely the surviving entry between the exercise hall and the baths.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}[https://archive.today/20130616083307/http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/jewry-wall-museum/thejewrywall/ The Jewry Wall] Leicester City Council
• The Mithraeum, a temple to the deity Mithra, was constructed on what is now St Nicholas Circle.{{cite web | url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/faith-belief/faith-in-roman-leicester/ |title=Faith in Roman Leicester}}
• The "Cyparissus Pavement" laid (approx. date).{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Peter |date=1980 |title=The Mosaics of Roman Leicester}}{{Cite web|url=https://lahs.org.uk/|title=Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society – LAHS|website=lahs.org.uk|access-date=1 August 2024}}
• The four "Blackfriars Pavements" laid (approx. date).
• The "Peacock Pavement" laid (approx. date).

File:Leicester Roman Wall Remains Junior Street (2).jpg on Junior Street.]]

File:Norfolk Street Roman wall paintings.jpg

File:Roman Leicester painted wall.jpg

File:Roman Remains in Jewry Wall Museum - geograph.org.uk - 2115558.jpg

File:Roman Roof Tile - geograph.org.uk - 2115593.jpg

File:Paw Print Tile - St Nicholas Church, Leicester.jpg

• c. 208 – Emperor Septimius Severus likely visited Ratae during his journey to Hadrians Wall for the Caledonian Campaign.
• c. 220 – Civic buildings expand:
• Large Macellum (indoor market hall) constructed immediately to the north of the Forum, around the site of the Medieval Blue Boar Inn in between today's Highcross Street, Vaughan Way, and Jubilee Square.{{cite web|title=Shopping in Roman Leicester| url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/a-working-town/shopping-in-roman-leicester/ }}
• Semi circular Theatrum constructed adjacent to the north wall of the Macellum (today under Vaughan Way).{{Cite web|url=https://romanleicester.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2-life-in-roman-leicester-entertaining-roman-leicester-fact-sheet.pdf|title=Entertaining Roman Leicester}}
• A Septisolium shrine was probably constructed around this time according surviving written testimony and some possible archaeological evidence. Inspired by the Roman Septisolium, although on a far smaller scale, it was devoted to the seven planetary deities (Saturn, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus).
• c. 270 — City walls constructed in stone along the route of the earlier ditches (see entry for c. 80–99 AD above). Stone defensive structures remain until the 16th century and surviving stones can be seen reused in the wall between St Mary de Castro churchyard and the gardens of the Newarke Houses Museum.{{cite book |last=Savani |first=Giacomo |date=2018 |title=Roman Leicester |page=35|publisher=University of Leicester}}
• The entrance roads and tracks along the walls extern have almost all survived as thoroughfares in the modern city. Working round the boundary, to and from the focal point of the Victorian Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower, and starting from East Gates these are:
• Gallowtree Gate,
• Horsefair Street,
• Millstone Lane,
• past Southgates and Vaughan way,
• The Newarke, particularly the south wall of the 11th century Leicester Castle,
• Castle Gardens,
• St Nicholas Circle,
• Bath Lane,
• Soar Lane,
• past Northgate and Highcross Streets,
• Sanvey Gate,
• and Church Gate.
• The walls had four major gateways of which no visible remains survive. Three of them have been preserved in the names of the streets. They were:
• South Gate – today commemorated in the street name Southgates, they stood roughly where Millstone Lane meets Vaughan Way. Two roads branched from here; the Via Devana to Medbourne and Godmanchester, and an unnamed road to the local settlement of Tripontium on Watling Street (now the Caves Inn near Lutterworth). The Newarke Street Cemetery grew up in between the two forks in the road.
• East Gate – today East Gates, it stood roughly between Cheapside and Gallowtree Gate. This was the eastern entrance of the Fosse Way (Belgrave Gate and Melton Road) into the city and the road to Lincoln. In the Middle Ages the two tracks following the east wall became Church Gate to the north leading up to St Margaret's and Gallowtree Gate to the south leading up to the gallows where the track met the Via Divana at the top of St Mary's Hill (opposite the Victoria Park gates on London Road).
• North Gate – today the crossroads of Highcross Street, Northgate Street, Sanvey Gate, and Soar Lane. In the Middle Ages the road to Leicester Abbey and a procession route between St Martins Church (the cathedral) and St Margaret's Church (Sanvey Gate being an Anglo Saxon distortion of the Latin Sacra Via or Holy Way).
• West Gate – today where St Augustine's Road meets St Nicholas Circle. The onward route of both the Fosse Way (Narborough Road) to Bath and Exeter and the Via Devana (possibly Glenfield Road).

• 300 – roughly the time the provinces of Britain were reorganised. Ratae fell into the province of Flavia Caesariensis, its capital being at Lincoln.{{cite book | last = Thompson | first = James | author-link = James Thompson (journalist) | date = 1849 | title = The history of Leicester : from the time of the Romans to the end of the seventeenth century | url = https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/18454/rec/4 | location = Leicester | publisher = crossley | page = 5 }}
• 360 – major fire destroyed the public baths and many other buildings never to be rebuilt.{{cite web|title=The Jewry Wall|url=https://jewrywallstory.leicester.gov.uk/guide/the-jewry-wall/}}
• c. 375 — Antonine Itinerary records Ratae on a postal route between London and Lincoln.{{cite book|last=Ellis|first=Collin|title=History in Leicester|publisher=City of Leicester Publicity Department|year=1948|edition=2nd. (1969)|sbn=901675 008|pages=24–5}}

• 406–420 — End of Roman occupation beginning around 406 with the departure of many unpaid centurions and the rise of Constantine III.

{{see also|Early Middle Ages|History of Anglo-Saxon England|Kingdom of Mercia|Heptarchy}}

File:Surviving complete Saxon north wall of nave (1) - St. Nicholas Church, Leicester.jpg. Constructed {{c.}} 870.]]

• c. 515 — Icel, King of the Angles, led his tribe across the North Sea to settle in the Trent and Soar Valleys. In time this came to include a small settlement on the edge of the old Roman city of Ratae, near Southgates.{{cite book |last1=Buckley|first1=Richard|last2=Codd |first2=Mike |last3=Morris |first3=Matthew|date=2012|title=Visions of Ancient Leicester|url= |location=Leicester |publisher=University of Leicester Archeological Services |page=39 |isbn=978-0-9560179-7-0}}

• 653 — Saint Cedd undertook a mission to the Mercian Middle Angles with three companions, Adda, Betti, and Diuma. The mission was instigated by the baptism of Prince Peada, son of the famous warrior Penda King of Mercia, prior to his marriage to Elfleda daughter of Oswiu. This marked the beginning of the conversion of the territories around the Tame, Trent, and Soar Valleys to Christianity.{{citation|last=Bede|author-link=Bede|translator=Leo Sherley-Price|title=A History of the English Church and People|publisher=Penguin|year=1968|orig-year=1955|pages=176–77|isbn=978-0-14-044042-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofenglish00beda}}
• 655 — Diuma appointed first Bishop of the Mercians. Leicester's early church was initially ministered from Lichfield.
• 669 — Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, appointed Saint Chad Bishop of the Mercians.
• 679 — Cuthwine was installed as the first Bishop of Leicester, separating Leicester from the See of Lichfield. Part of wider reforms by Archbishop Theodore and King Ethelred of Mercia.Powicke Handbook of British Chronology p. 232
• Possible foundation date of the first church on the site of St Margaret's.{{cite book | last = Fielding Johnson | first = T | date = 1891 | title = Glimpses of Ancient Leicester in Sic Periods | url = https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/16135 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Thomas and Spencer | page = 31 }}

• 792 - Bishop Unwona of Leicester accompanies King Offa of Mercia (of Offa's Dyke fame) on pilgrimage to Rome.{{cite book|last=Harrison|first=William|title=The Description of England|page=63|year=1587|publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=0-486-28275-9}}{{cite web|title=Offa of Mercia| website=The Royal Family |url=https://www.royal.uk/offa-r-757-796#:~:text=Offa%20had%20dealings%20with%20the,was%20introduced%20during%20Offa's%20reign.}}

• 803 — Earliest Saxon written record of the town, referred to as Legorensis Caester.{{cite book|last=Ellis|first=Colin|title=History in Leicester|page=17|year=1948|publisher=City of Leicester Publicity Department}}
• 810 – King Kenulf, father of the famous Saint Kenelm, purportedly issued the foundation charter of Crowland Abbey at Leicester. Ceolwulf, brother of Kenulph, Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Unwona, Bishop of Leicester, were apparently signatory witnesses. The source of this claim is the unreliable Chronicle of Crowland Abbey and cannot be accurate since Unwona died in the first years of the 9th century and had been succeeded in the See of Leicester by Wernbeorht by 803. However, it has been taken as evidence for the presence of the Mercian royal household at Leicester during the period.{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=William |title=Royal Progresses and Visits to Leicester, from the reputed foundation of the city by King Leir, B.C. 844 to the present time |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/16528 |pages=19 |year=1884 |publisher=Henry Wigston |location=Leicester}}
• 840 – According to local tradition Saint Wigstan, a young prince of Mercia, was martyred at Wistow just south of the city on the Kalends (1st) of June.{{cite book |title=Anglo-Saxons landscapes in the East Midlands |location=Leicester |publisher=Leicestershire Museums Arts and Records Service |page= |date=1996 |first=Jill |last=Bourne |isbn=0-85022-394-6}}
• {{c.}} 870 – The nave of St Nicholas' Church dates to about this time (next to Jewry Wall, approx. date).{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}{{cite web |url=https://stnicholasleicester.com/history |title=History of St Nicholas |website=stnicholasleicester.com |access-date=25 Jan 2025 }}

{{see also|Early Middle Ages|Viking Age|Viking expansion|Viking activity in the British Isles|Danelaw|Five Boroughs of the Danelaw}}

File:St Nicholas Leicester tower from south.JPG

File:Leicester Guildhall Ethelfleda statue.JPG in Leicester Guildhall courtyard.]]

• 874 – Leicester ceased to be a diocesan seat when Ceobred, the last of the ancient Bishops of Leicester, fled the invading Great Heathen Army (the Vikings). He settled at Dorchester where his office was united with the bishoprics of Dorchester and Lindsey. His eventual Norman successor Remigius de Fécamp moved the ancient amalgamated see to Lincoln in 1072 where the office became known as the Bishopric of Lincoln.{{cite book|author=Kirby, D. P|date=2000|title=The Earliest English Kings|location=New York|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-24211-8}}
• 878 – The Viking Danish dominance in Leicester and the rest of the Danelaw was formally recognised by the Anglo Saxons in the Treaty of Wedmore, an agreement between Alfred the Great and Guthrum. Leicester and it's nearest neighbouring towns in Viking Mercia came to be known as the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw.{{Citation |publisher = Frederick Warne & Co. |location = London |author = George Henry Townsend |title = A Manual of Dates |date = 1867 |edition=2nd |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/manualofdatesdic00townrich#page/570/mode/1up |author-link = George Henry Townsend }}

• 918 – The city's Viking defenders surrender without a fight to Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians, and Edward the Elder, the children of Alfred the Great.
• Towns defensive walls repaired.{{cite book|last=Ellis|first=Colin|title=History in Leicester|pages=21, 24|year=1948|publisher=City of Leicester Publicity Department}}
• St Mary's Church founded by Ethelfleda and Edward, the site of today's St Mary de Castro.{{Cite web|url=https://stmarydecastro.org/church-history/|title=Church History – St Mary de Castro Church, Leicester}}
• {{c.}} 940-943 — Edmund I, son of Edward the Elder, and his Anglo Saxon forces besieged one King Olaf (either Olaf Guthfrithson or Olaf Sihtricson) and his Viking forces at Leicester. The year of the siege and treaty is unclear leading to a confusion about the characters involved.The events are associated with Olaf Guthfrithson by Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 193; Miller, "Edmund"; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 174. Others, such as Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 111, note 11; Downham, Viking Kings, p. 110; Hudson, "Óláf Sihtricson", associate them with Olaf Sihtricson. Olaf's court resident in Leicester at the time included Wulfstan (Archbishop of York 931-956). According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the Viking forces were overwhelmed, with King Olaf and Archbishop Wulfstan escaping under cover of night.Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 111, Ms. D, s.a. 943. Other sources suggest the battle ended in stalemate.{{cite book| last = Thompson | first = James | author-link = James Thompson (journalist)| date = 1849| title = The history of Leicester: from the time of the Romans to the end of the seventeenth century| url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/18466/rec/4| location = Leicester | publisher = Crossley| chapter = 2 | page = 17}}
• In the aftermath a peace treaty was brokered between the two warring parties by Archbishop Wulfstan and, according to some sources, the Archbishop of Canterbury, either Wulfhelm (archbishop 926-941)Stenton Anglo Saxon England p. 357 or Saint Odo (archbishop from 941-958) with terms largely favourable to Edmund.
• The treaty involved the Baptism of King Olaf with King Edmund as godfather, perhaps only a symbolic affirmation of the treaty as was common at the time, since the presence of Wulfstan in Olaf’s court suggests he was already a Christian.
• The treaty formally recognised Olaf's rule over the Danelaw north of Watling Street (still the border of Leicestershire and Warwickshire) but in a dependency upon the Anglo Saxon Kings of England.
• Some sources suggest the treaty stipulated that whichever of the two monarchs should outlive the other would inherit full authority over the Danelaw. When Edmund outlived King Olaf the Danelaw theoretically reverted to him.
• 971 — Bishops of Leicester in exile at Dorchester and Lindsey merged to form one bishopric.

• 1013 – Sweyn Forkbeard invades East Mercia and receives the submission of the Five Boroughs. According to some sources this included a visit to Leicester. He was accompanied by one Olaf Haraldsson, now known as Saint Olaf, later King of Norway and a major figure in the story of Scandinavia's conversion to Christianity. The account is not based on any contemporary reference to a specific visit to Leicester but represent later conjecture based on references in the Peterborough Chronicle and the Legendary Saga of St. Olaf.{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=William |title=Royal Progresses and Visits to Leicester, from the reputed foundation of the city by King Leir, B.C. 844 to the present time |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/16546 |pages=37 |year=1884 |publisher=Henry Wigston |location=Leicester}}
• 1015 – Edmund Ironside and his army seized Leicester following the murder of the brothers Sigeferth and Morcar, the thegns ruling the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw and received the Borough's submission.{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=William |title=Royal Progresses and Visits to Leicester, from the reputed foundation of the city by King Leir, B.C. 844 to the present time |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/16553 |page=44 |year=1884 |publisher=Henry Wigston |location=Leicester}}
• 1016 – Cnut retook Leicester part of the 1016 invasion of England.{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=William |title=Royal Progresses and Visits to Leicester, from the reputed foundation of the city by King Leir, B.C. 844 to the present time |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p15407coll6/id/16554/download |page=45 |year=1884 |publisher=Henry Wigston |location=Leicester}}
• Ironside again sacked Leicester during his counter campaign with Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria.
• {{c.}} 1042 – Under Edward the Confessor the borough paid £30 15s. annually plus honey, and its burgesses were obliged to send twelve men in the royal army and four horses in naval expeditions.{{cite book |last=Nichols |first=John |author-link=John Nichols (printer) |title=The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester |volume=1|issue=1|page=110 |publisher=John Nichols |location=London|year=1795 |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p15407coll6/id/9096/download }}{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=James |title=The History of Leicester: From the Time of the Romans to the End of the Seventeenth Century |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/6984 |pages=18 |year=1849 |publisher=J.S. Crossley |location=Leicester}}

File:Leicester Castle - geograph.org.uk - 2722503.jpg of Leicester Castle constructed by the Normans.]]

File:St. Mary de Castro - geograph.org.uk - 2682041.jpg.]]

File:St.Mary de Castro sedilia - geograph.org.uk - 2032789.jpg

File:Entrance to Leicester Market - geograph.org.uk - 5332359.jpg active since the Doomsday Survey of 1087, not necessarily on its present site which is first clearly recorded in 1298.]]

• {{c.}} 1070 – The Norman Conquerors reached the city.
• Hugh de Grandmesnil was granted the lands encompassing the town of Leicester and made first Sheriff of Leicestershire.
• Motte and Bailey structure of Leicester Castle was begun.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• St Mary's, now part of the castle Bailey, was reconstructed (including nave and west wall still standing).
• 1072 — The ancient bishopric of Dorchester, Leicester and Lindsey in exile, was moved to Lincoln under the new Norman bishop Remigius de Fécamp. Leicester and Leicestershires churches became part of the Diocese of Lincoln until 1541. During this period the Cathedral church of the town was Lincoln Cathedral.
• 1086 – The Domesday Survey report on the town of Ledecestre (Leicester):
• The north to south walls of the town measured about 805 metres, from east to west 670 metres, the walls enclosing 53 hectares (130 acres).{{cite book | last = Bateson | first = Mary | editor-link = Mary Bateson (historian) | date = 1899 | title = Records of the Borough of Leicester 1103-1327 | url = | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | page = xi | isbn = | quote="a walled rectangular space, divided by two main streets which crossed in the middle of the town and passed out of it by four gates, North, South, East, and West. From North to South the walled space measured about 880 yards, from east to west 733 yards, the walls enclosing over 130 acres." }}
• 322 households.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=6 "Political and administrative history, 1066–1509" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66560 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 190 owned by Hugh de Grandmesnil
• 39 in the possession of William the Conqueror and the Crown.
• 93 in other hands.{{Cite book |last=Elliott |first=Malcolm |title=Leicester, a pictorial history |publisher=Phillimore |year=1983 |isbn=1-86077-099-1 |edition=2nd. 1999 |location=Chichester |pages=xx}}
• The Bishops Fee estate outside the north and east walls of the town (including the suburbs of Gallowtree Gate, Humberstone Gate, and Belgrave Gate) held by the Bishop of Lincoln.{{citation |work=Victoria County History|title=A History of the County of Leicester: The City of Leicester|editor=R A McKinley|location=London|year=1958 | url = https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol4/pp350-361#h3-s2 }}{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester : Vol. 1, Part 2. | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3756/rec/7 | location = Leicester, England | volume= 1.2 | publisher = John Nichols | page = 567 }}
• An estimated population of 1,278.Russell, J. C. (1948). British medieval population. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. 50-51This figure was the result of later estimates based on households.
• The town was a Free Borough outside the jurisdiction of any of the Leicestershire Hundreds and operated along principles of pre-conquest Danish law.{{cite book | last = Bateson | first = Mary | editor-link = Mary Bateson (historian) | date = 1899 | title = Records of the Borough of Leicester 1103-1327 | url = | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | page = xii | isbn = | quote="The Leicester of the Doomsday Book stood as a free borough stood on no man’s land and in no Hundred." }}
• There were 65 Burgesses or Freemen, the ancestor of the current Guild of Leicester Freemen and the established core of the towns Burgher class.{{Cite web|url=https://www.leicesterfreemen.co.uk/history|title=History | Leicester Freemen's | Leicester|website=Leicester Freemen}}
• The town was governed by a Portmanmoot of 24 Jurats elected from among the Burgesses (the ancestor of the 1589 Corporation & the modern City Council).
• Leicester Market (known as the Saturday Shambles) was active.{{citation |publisher=Institute of Historical Research, Centre for Metropolitan History |work=Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 |author=Samantha Letters |year=2005 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40423 |title=Leicestershire }}
• The walled town had several churches of which 5 survive:
• St Nicholas Church, the old Anglo Saxon Minster dating back to the 6th or 7th century constructed in the shell of the old Roman Gymnasium;
• St Mary de Castro in the precincts of Leicester Castle;
• All Saints on Highcross Street, the northern section of the old Roman city's split Cardo Maximus, the first church reached on entering the North Gate;
• St Margaret's Church, just outside the north eastern corner of the walls at the crossroads of Sanvey Gate and Church Gate;
• & St Martin's Church, constructed on Fosse Way, the city's old Decumanus Maximus, roughly midway between the East and West Gates;
• And three churches which do not:
• St Clement's Church, later the Blackfriars Church in the northwest corner of the town;
• St Michael's Church, in the northeast corner of the town around what is today Vaughan Way, Burgess Street, and East Bond Street;
• & St Peter's Church, near what is now Free School Lane, its stones surviving in the structure of the Free School.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R.A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=26 "The Ancient Borough – St Martin's" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66578 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• Leicester Castle was completed.
• 1092 – First recorded existence of the Archdeaconry of Leicester. Title held by Ranulph appointed by Bishop Remigius.{{Cite web|url=https://lahs.org.uk/|title=Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society - LAHS|website=lahs.org.uk}}{{cite wikisource

|last1=Le Neve

|first1=John

|last2=Hardy

|first2=Sir Thomas Duffus

|author1-link=John Le Neve

|author2-link=Thomas Duffus Hardy

|title=Archdeacons of Leicester

|wslink=Page:Fasti_ecclesiae_Anglicanae_Vol.2_body_of_work_part_1.djvu/73

|series=Fasti ecclesiae Anglicanae

|volume=2

|year=1854

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|location=Oxford

|pages=59–63

|wspages=65–69

}}

• 1098 — Hugh de Grandmesnil died and Ivo de Grandmesnil inherits his Leicester territory and titles:
• Hugh died at Leicester Castle on February 22. His remains were preserved in salt and conveyed to his ancestral tomb at the Abbey of St. Evroult.http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k94619v/f408.image Orderic Vitalis, Tome III, p. 400.
• His sons Robert and Ivo inherited his lands and titles, Robert the lands in Normandy and Ivo the titles in Leicester and Leicestershire.

File:De Beaumont arms (Earl of Leicester).svg, the emblem of the first Earls and the modern city.]]

File:Leicester Abbey nave and cloister.jpg established by Robert le Bossu, the second of the Beaumont Earls.]]

• 1100-1102 — Ivo de Grandmesnil, who according to Orderic Vitalis was the "first to introduce the horrors of private war into (post-conquest) England", and a number of other barons rebel against Henry I in favour of Robert Curthose.
• c. 1101 - Ivo leads an attack on the properties of the king and other nobles in the town of Leicester and receives a heavy fine.{{cite book | last = Bateson | first = Mary | editor-link = Mary Bateson (historian) | date = 1899 | title = Records of the Borough of Leicester 1103-1327 | url = | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | page = xi | quote="The historian Ordericus Vitalis, who knew the Grantmesnil family well, describes Leicester in 1101 as under 4 masters, the King, the Bishop of Lincoln, Earl Simon Senilis (Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton), and Ivo, who farmed the Kings fourth… In that year Ivo, who was the "first to introduce the horrors of private war into England," plundered and destroyed Leicester and fell under a heavy fine." }}
• 1102 - Ivo de Grandmesnil leases his Leicester territory and titles to Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and counsellor of King Henry, for a period of 15 years in return for money to pay his fine and go on crusade to the Holy Lands. Ivo dies en route leaving the freehold of his estates to his children and their use in the hands of Robert de Beaumont.
• 1107 — Robert de Beaumont formally made Earl of Leicester, the first of that title. His possession of the castle and the old Roman town was confirmed by King Henry I against the Grantmesnil interest.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• College of Priests established to serve St Mary de Castro and the castle's residents by the 1st Earl. All town parishes were placed under its control apart from St Margaret's.{{cite web |url=http://www.stmarydecastro.org.uk/history.htm |title=History |location=Leicester |publisher=St. Mary de Castro |access-date=8 September 2013}}{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• Beaumont confirmed the rights and privileges of the Portmanmoot and its Burgesses.
• 1118 — Robert le Bossu, younger son of Robert de Beaumont, inherits the Earldom of Leicester. The County of Meulan and the other titles of Beaumont detach from the Earldom of Leicester at this point.
• 1143 – Leicester Abbey was founded by Robert le Bossu for the canons previously resident at St Mary de Castro. All town parishes pass to its control including the college at St Mary de Castro while the Bishop of Lincoln continued to retain St Margaret's alone.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/aroundleicester/history/leicester_rutland/part_one.shtml |title=Leicester's History Headlines |work=Around Leicester |publisher=BBC |access-date=8 September 2013}}{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• 1168 — Robert le Bossu is buried at Leicester Abbey following his death in Northamptonshire.
• 1173 – Robert Blanchemains, 3rd Earl of Leicester became a principal rebel in the Revolt of 1173–1174 against Henry II.
• Leicester was besieged beginning in April by the royal army, at least 410 archers and more than 300 knights. Records survive of over a 100 carpenters paid to construct siege machines. On the 28 July the town was stormed from two directions, a break in the walls on Church Gate and another one near St Clement's Church and the River Soar. The houses were burned, the old Romano-Saxon and Norman walls demolished, and the burghers exiled to wander as outlaws. The castle alone held out. The town took many centuries to recover and large sections of the districts worst effected were still orchards and vegetable gardens until the 18th century.{{Cite web|url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/Error/500.html?aspxerrorpath=/civic-affairs/the-castle-motte/|title=The Story of Leicester|website=www.storyofleicester.info|access-date=1 August 2024}}
• 1174 - second round of attacks on Leicester, this time to take the castle. Keep destroyed.C.J. Billson, Medieval Leicester, (1920), Chapter 6, Section 1, On the Church of St. Clement. https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Mediaeval_Leicester/Chapter_6 | ""

File:Leicester Clock Tower Simon de Montfort 2.jpg, 6th Earl of Leicester on the Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower]]

File:Greyfriars funeral procession, John Nichols.jpg the Leicester Greyfriars, as well as the Leicester Blackfriars, the Leicester Austin Friars, the Whitefriars (not actually present in Leicester), and a group of lay mourners. The church depicted is the now demolished St Sepulchre outside the southern wall of old Leicester (now Leicester Royal Infirmary).Nichols, John, History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, 1795–1815, Vol I part II, plate XVII, fig. 11 (facing p.272), also page 299 where Nichols quotes Rev Francis Peck’s description of the image MSS Vol V ( Harl. MSS 4938)p.11.|https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3465]]

File:All Saints Font in Leicester.jpg.]]

• 1204 — Simon de Montfort, a French nobleman engaged in the Albigensian crusade, was granted the Earldom of Leicester vacant since 1190. The 5th Earl never visited the borough and collected its rents through a Reeve.
• 1209 — First term of the mayoralty of William fitz Leveric, the first recorded Mayor of Leicester.{{cite book | last = Bateson | first = Mary | editor-link = Mary Bateson (historian) | date = 1899 | title = Records of the Borough of Leicester 1103-1327 | url = | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | pages = 401–403 | quote= }}
• 1228 – Leicester fair active.
• 1229 — Robert Grosseteste appointed Archdeacon of Leicester (famous scholastic philosopher and theologian, later Bishop of Lincoln).{{cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1066-1300/vol3/pp32-35 |title=List of Archdeacons of Leicester |access-date=3 August 2024}}
• c. 1230 – The Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans or Greyfriars) established St Mary Magdalene's Friary (Leicester Greyfriars) just inside the towns southern wall east of Southgates, between what became Southgates, Friar Lane, Grey Friars, and St Martins. They were the first of mendicant orders to establish themselves in the town.{{cite book|last=Nichols|first=John|author-link=John Nichols (printer)|title=Grey Friars in 'History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester'|url=https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3463}}
• 1231 — Expulsion of the Jews of Leicester. The 6th Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort expelled the Jewish community to beyond the town walls, the first of such official pogroms preceding the national Edict of Expulsion in 1290.{{cite web | url=https://www.dmu.ac.uk/campus/history/simon-de-montfort.aspx | title=Simon de Montfort – the origin of our name }}
• c. 1247 – The Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans or Blackfriars) established St Clement's Priory (Leicester Blackfriars) in the north west corner of the old town walls taking St Clement's parish church as their priory church. The site was between Soar Lane and Great Central Street and was commemorated after the reformation in names such as St Sundays Bridge (St Sunday being an English nickname for St Dominic), Friars Preachers Lane which was the name of Great Central Street, Friars Causeway, Friars Mill, and the district of the city known as Blackfriars.{{cite book|last=Nichols|first=John|author-link=John Nichols (printer)|title=Friars Preachers in 'History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester'|url= https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3461}}
• c. 1254 — The Order of Friars Hermits of St Augustine (Austinfriars) established St Katherine's Priory (Leicester Austinfriars) north west of West Bridge on Bede Island. The site is now on the right hand side of St Augustine's Road.{{cite book|last=Nichols|first=John|author-link=John Nichols (printer)|title=History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester|url= https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3466}}
• 1265 — Edmund Crouchback granted the earldom, castle, and city of Leicester on 26 October after the death of Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham earlier that year.{{cite book |url= https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/9302 |page=221|author=John Nichols |title= Friars Eremite in 'History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester'|year=1795 |location= London |publisher= Nichols & Son |author-link=John Nichols (printer) }}
• 1267 – Earldoms of Leicester and Lancaster united into one when Crouchback was made Earl of Lancaster.
• 1269 – Leicester assessed as 13th richest borough in the Kingdom of England.{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/leicester|title=Leicester | History of Parliament Online|website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}}
• 1294 — Ralph Norman and Robert de Scarnford are elected by the burghers of Leicester as their representatives to the Parliament of England. This is the first record of the Leicester Constituency which survived as a seat with two members in the English and subsequent Great British and UK Parliaments until 1918.
• 1298 — Leicester Market first recorded as taking place regularly at its present site.

File:Portrait of Henry, Duke of Lancaster - William Bruges's Garter Book (c.1440-1450), f.8 - BL Stowe MS 594 (cropped).jpg who died at Leicester Castle on March 23rd, 1361.]]

File:Newarke church arches DMU heritage centre, Leicester.JPG, the spiritual hub of the Newarke, a chantry and hospital complex established by Henry Grosmont in 1353.]]

File:Leicester Magazine Gateway west.jpg, part of the Newarke complex established by Henry Grosmont, constructed {{c.}} 1400.]]

File:Leicester Guildhall.jpg constructed by the Corpus Christi Guild of St Martin's parish {{c.}} 1390.]]

File:Johnofgaunt.jpg, Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Leicester, the preeminent supporter of John Wycliffe and the early Lollards who died at Leicester Castle on February 3rd, 1399.]]

File:Henry Reynolds Steer (1858-1928) - The Old Woodgate, Leicester - Y.F9.2008.0.0 - Leicester Museum ^ Art Gallery.jpg

• 1300 – King Edward I stayed at Leicester Castle.
• 1307 – King Edward II granted a fair for 17 days after Trinity Sunday.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• 1310 – King Edward II stayed at the castle and again in 1311.
• 1318 – The Parliament of England met at Leicester for the first time on 12 April. The 18th Parliament of the reign of Edward II, it was a "parliament" in a technical sense because the king was not present. The Archbishop of Canterbury, five Bishops, three Earls, and 28 barons attended. No representatives of the Commons were present.
• 1330 – Trinity Hospital was founded south of the castle walls.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R.A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=22 "The Ancient Borough – The Newarke" |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66570 |pages=328–335 |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1350 - Guild of Corpus Christi constituted.{{Cite web |date=10 March 2014 |title=The Guild - Leicester City Council |url=http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/the-guildhall/theguild/ |access-date=2024-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310144508/http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/the-guildhall/theguild/ |archive-date=10 March 2014 }}
• 1353 – The Newarke enclosure is constructed around Trinity Hospital and a college of priests is established to serve the new Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady. The foundation is established and endowed by Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster.{{Cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol2/pp48-51|title = Colleges: College of the Annunciation of St Mary in the Newarke, Leicester | British History Online}}
• 1360 – Philippa of Lancaster born at Leicester Castle, daughter of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, later Queen of Portugal, the spouse of King João I founder of the House of Aviz."[https://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/philippa.html European Voyages of Exploration: Philippa of Lancaster."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819010127/http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/philippa.html |date=19 August 2010 }} Home | Welcome to the University of Calgary. University of Calgary. 30 March 2009
• 1361 — Henry of Grosmont died at Leicester Castle. Buried in the Newarke Chantry.
• 1366 — Geoffrey Chaucer and Philippa Roet married, according to popular local tradition, at St Mary de Castro.{{cite web | url=https://stmarydecastro.org/church-history/ | title=Church History – St Mary de Castro Church, Leicester }}
• 1377 – Leicester assessed as 17th richest borough in the Kingdom of England.
• 1382 — First notable Lollard activity in the city.
• An informal devotional society had developed at St John's Chapel on Belgrave Gate in St Margaret's Parish around William Smith and Richard Waytestathe.
• A local hermit called William Swinderby living in Leicester Forest had begun preaching against the mendicant orders and church property possibly with the encouragement of Philip Repyngdon, then a young canon of Leicester Abbey, who had come into contact with the ideas of John Wycliffe while studying in Oxford.
• On Palm Sunday 1382 (falling on March 23) William Swinderby preached a notable sermon in the presence of John Stafford, the Mayor of Leicester, and many burghers. It spread Lollardy so effectively among the people of the borough that Leicester chronicler Henry Knighton remarked every second man had become a Lollard.
• 1389
• On July 11 William Swinderby was tried under John Bokyngham, Bishop of Lincoln after an accusation from three mendicants; Friar Frisby, a Franciscan from Greyfriars, Friar Hincely, an Augustinian from St Katherine's Priory, and Thomas Blaxton, a Dominican from St Clement's Priory. He recanted and was sentenced to an extensive public penance requiring he preach sermons proclaiming his recantation in St Margaret's, St Martin's and St Mary de Castro as well as at St Dionysius, Market Harborough and St Mary's Melton Mowbray.{{cite book|author-link =John Fox|title=Foxes Book of Martyrs|volume=3|year=1837|url=https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Acts_and_Monuments_of_John_Foxe/Volume_3/The_Story_of_William_Swinderby}}
• The Archbishop of Canterbury William Courtenay undertook an inquisition in the Borough of Leicester conducted at Leicester Abbey in October and November 1389.
• The burghers Roger Dexter, Nicholas Taylor, Richard Wagstaff, Michael Scrivener, William Smith, John Henry, William Parchmeanar, and Roger Goldsmith also summonsed for inquisition but failed to appear. This led to a solemn ceremony of excommunication taking place on All Souls Day (Nov 2nd 1389) headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Abbey and repeated by the clergy in all the towns parish churches. All parishioners of the town were placed under interdict, i.e. prevented from participating in the sacraments such that masses were prohibited in Leicester's churches, until the culprits were produced.
• Following the interdict, Matilda, anchoress immured at St Peter's church, had her enclosure violated to answer the charge of heresy. She was required to undertake forty days of penance before returning to her cell.
• By the 17th November the accused heretics had all been discovered and recanted. Roger Dexter's wife Alice protested and maintained her earlier conviction. As a result, she and her husband were required to undertake a humiliating but mild series of public penances, carrying crosses, kissing the earth and reciting prayers.{{cite book|author-link =John Fox|title=Foxes Book of Martyrs|volume=3|year=1837|url=https://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe86.htm}}
• 1390 – Corpus Christi Guildhall constructed (approx. date).{{Cite web |title=Leicester City Council |url=https://www.leicester.gov.uk/ |access-date=2024-08-01 |website=www.leicester.gov.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=17 February 2014 |title=Architecture of The Guildhall – Leicester City Council |url=http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/the-guildhall/architecture/ |access-date=2024-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140217220702/http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/the-guildhall/architecture/ |archive-date=17 February 2014 }}
• 1394 — Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster, daughter of Peter King of Castile and second wife of John of Gaunt, died at the castle on 24 March.Charles James Billson, Mediaeval Leicester (Leicester, 1920)
• 1399
• John of Gaunt died at Leicester Castle on 3 February in the presence of his long term mistress and 3rd wife Katherine Swynford.
• Henry Bolingbroke, Gaunt's son, overthrew Richard II and became King Henry IV on 30 September. The properties of the Duchy of Lancaster, including Leicester Castle and its estates, were assumed into the properties of the English Crown.
• St Mary de Castro became one of the Chapels Royal. The parish retains some of these legal privileges and royal dignities today, such as the use of red cassocks.

File:Engravings of St Margaret’s Leicester from Nichols History and Antiquities - (west end).jpg constructed {{c.}} 1444 and paid for by the “smoke farthing” tax, a tax on chimneys within the parish.]]

File:Statue of King Richard III - geograph.org.uk - 4203057.jpg in Leicester. He spent the 19th and the 20th of August 1485 in Leicester, before riding to the Battle of Bosworth Field and his death on the 22nd.]]

• 1405 – Philip Repyngdon, repentant Lollard and Abbot of Leicester, made Bishop of Lincoln.{{cite book|year=1954|chapter=Houses of Augustinian canons: Leicester Abbey|title=Victoria County History: A History of the County of Leicestershire|volume=2|location=London|pages=13–19|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol2/pp13-19}}
• 1414
• In early January a militia of Leicester Lollards went to join the Oldcastle Revolt. On defeat of the rebellion all of them were executed by being hanged by the neck and suspended in fire on the 10th of January 1414.{{cite web|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2538/1/DX197636.pdf|title=The early Lollards|work=University of York|author=Charles Kightly|date=September 1975|access-date=18 May 2015}}
• Parliament of England met at Leicester for the Second Parliament of the reign of Henry V. Known as the Fire and Faggot Parliament it met in Greyfriars Friary between 30 April and 29 May and is most notable for passing the Suppression of Heresy Act 1414.{{Citation | url = http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/parliament/1414-0 | title = History of Parliament online | contribution = 1414 | access-date = 7 February 2013 | volume = 1386–1421}}.
• 1416 - commissions to investigate Lollardy were active in Leicester and the county for a second time.
• 1419 – Margery Kempe (pilgrim, travel writer, and first English autobiographer) made a pilgrimage to the Newarke and Leicester Abbey, was accused of Lollardy by the Mayor of Leicester (most likely William Pacy, possibly Thomas Walgrave), tried in All Saints Church, and acquitted by the Abbot of Leicester Richard Rothley.
• 1425–1427 – The English royal court was in residence at Leicester Castle:
• The child King Henry VI stayed at the castle during which time he was knighted and underwent his coming of age ceremonies. He took his bath and vigil the night before in St Mary de Castro.{{cite web | url=https://storyofleicester.info/city-stories/the-king-in-leicester-a-history-of-royal-visits/ | title=The Story of Leicester }}{{cite web|url=http://semper-eadem.tripod.com/Articles/06.htm |title=The Parliament of Bats – 1426 |publisher=Semper-eadem.tripod.com |date= |access-date=2012-06-24}}
• 1426 – The Parliament of Bats was held in the Great Hall of the castle.
• c. 1444 – Most of St Margaret's Church was rebuilt, including the West Tower.
• 1450 – Parliament of England met at Leicester, 18th Parliament of the reign of Henry VI. Was adjourned because of Jack Cade's Rebellion.{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol4/pp1-30#|title=The City of Leicester: Political and administrative history, 1066-1509 | British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}
• 1485 – Richard III spent the night before he died in Leicester and was buried in the Greyfriars Church following his death:
• stayed in Leicester for his last two nights, the 19th to the 20th of August, before riding to the Battle of Bosworth Field on the 21st. He stayed at the Blue Boar Inn on what is today Highcross Street.
• Richard's body was afterwards brought back to Leicester through the West Gates and buried by the Franciscans in their Church on the 25th of August.{{cite book |last=Woodward |first=G.W.O. |date=1977 |title=King Richard III |publisher=Pitkin|isbn=0-85372-162-9}}{{cite book |last=Williams |first=D.T. |date=1975 |title=The Battle of Bosworth |publisher=Leicester University Press|isbn=0-7185-1113-1}}
• {{c.}} 1485 - Hugh Aston, musician, composer, Mayor, and MP, is born in the city around the year 1485.

File:Stukeley Leicester Map 1722.jpg

File:Henry Reynolds Steer (1858-1928) - Christmas Eve, Highcross Market, Leicester, Sixteenth Century - Y.F6.1997.0.0 - Leicester Museum ^ Art Gallery.jpg

File:Abbot Penny's Wall, Abbey Park - geograph.org.uk - 5199961.jpg constructed {{c.}} 1500]]

File:Wyggeston's Chantry House, Leicester.jpg

File:Tomb of Bishop John Penny - St Margaret's Church, Leicester.jpg in the chancel of St Margaret's. Carved from alabaster {{c.}} 1520]]

File:Charles West Cope (1811-90) - Cardinal Wolsey at the Gate of Leicester Abbey - RCIN 403879 - Royal Collection.jpg by Charles West Cope. A depiction of Wolsey's arrival at Leicester Abbey in late 1529 suffering from dysentery and forsaken by his former supporter, Henry VIII.]]

• c. 1500 - Leicester Abbey Eastern Wall constructed.{{NHLE|num=1361406|desc=Abbot Penny's Wall|grade=I|access-date=5 March 2022}}
• 1504 - John Penny, Abbot of Leicester made Bishop of Bangor.T. Y. Cocks, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21880 ‘Penny, John (d. 1520)’], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
• c. 1511
• Henry VIII visits the town as part of a royal progress.Neil Samman, 'The Progresses of Henry VIII, 1509–1529. In: MacCulloch, D. (eds) The Reign of Henry VIII. Problems in Focus Series'(Palgrave London, 1995), p.60
• Wigston's Chantry House was built in the Newarke.
• 1513 – Wyggeston Hospital founded.
• 1520 - Bishop John Penny buried in St Margaret's Church, Leicester.
• 1530 – Cardinal Thomas Wolsey died at Leicester Abbey on November 29.
• 1534 – The Henrician Reformation begins and the parish churches of the city, county, and wider Diocese of Lincoln formally ceased to be Roman Catholic due the First Act of Supremacy and the secession of the Church of England from Papal authority.{{cite book|last1=Kinney|first1=Arthur F|last2=Swain|first2=David W|last3=Hill|first3=Eugene D.|last4=Long|first4=William A.|title=Tudor England: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHasAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA132|year=2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136745300|page=132}}
• 1536 – John Leland visited Leicester and recorded its ancient monuments and churches in his Itinerary.
• 1538 – All monastic houses in the city are suddenly closed in October and November as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The three mendicant houses all surrendered on the same day, November 10:
• Leicester Abbey,
• the Greyfriars,Nichols, John. History & Antiquities of Leicestershire, Volume 1.2, (1815), Pages 300–302, On the Order of Grey Friars in Leicester. https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3461 | ""
• the Austin Friars,>
• & the Blackfriars.Nichols, John. History & Antiquities of Leicestershire, Volume 1.2, (1815), Pages 295–296, On the Order of Black Friars in Leicester. https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3461 | ""
• 1547-1549 — The various effects of the Edwardian Reformation are felt in the borough following the death of Henry VIII and the succession of his young son Edward VI:
• 1548 - Churchwarden accounts at St Martins record the destruction or sale of most vestments, tabernacles, iconography, the rood loft statues and other traditional adornments on the 20th of March due to the Sacrament Act passed December the previous year.{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester : Vol. 1, Part 2. | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3759/rec/7 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Nichols | pages = 570–572 | quote= }}
• 1548 - The Guild of Corpus Christi and all other parish Guilds were dissolved.
• 1549 - The Book of Common Prayer was imposed on the parishes of the borough by the Act of Uniformity in place of the old Latin Use of Sarum. Accounts record its purchase.
• Records for nails and chains to secure the new English Bible to lecterns are to be found in church accounts of 1549.
• 1550 – The Free Grammar School was established by this year using money left by William Wyggeston (ancestor of Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and the current Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College).{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R.A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=17 "Primary and Secondary Education" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66570 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1553-5 - The borough's churches are subject to the various effects of the Marian Restoration of Roman Catholicism:
• 1553 - First Statute of Repeal ended all of Edward's religious reforms and the borough's parishes reverted to the Sarum Rite and ancient custom.
• 1554-1557 - St Martin's and St Margaret's parish rolls both record the gradual repurchase and restoration of ritual vestments and items at this time and payments for the repainting of roof screens and walls.{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester : Vol. 1, Part 2. | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3759/rec/7 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Nichols | pages = 572–573 | quote= }}{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester : Vol. 1, Part 2. | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3759/rec/7 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Nichols | page = 560 | quote= }}
• 1554 - See of Rome Act overturned Henry VIII's returning the parishes of Leicester to full communion with the Pope.{{cite book|last1=Kinney|first1=Arthur F|last2=Swain|first2=David W|last3=Hill|first3=Eugene D.|last4=Long|first4=William A.|title=Tudor England: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHasAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA132|year=2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136745300}}
• 1556 - Thomas Moor (also spelled More) was burned for heresy at Leicester on 26 June.{{cite book|last=Foxe|first=John|author-link=John Foxe|title=Foxes Book of Martyrs (Acts and Monuments)|year=1563|url=https://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe346.htm}}
• 1558 – The Second Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity, the first parts of the Elizabethan Settlement, brought Leicester's parishes into schism with the Pope and returned them to state Protestantism.
• The English Prayer Book and Bible were restored.
• The restored ritual imagery and objects were again removed and sold.
• 1589 – Elizabeth I issues a Royal Charter establishing the Corporation of Leicester as a replacement for the Moot of Burgesses. It was granted the privilege of sharing the motto "Semper Eadem" with the monarch.
• 1595 – Skeffington House was built in the Newarke (approximate date).

File:Plan of the Siege of Leicester 1645.jpg

File:Henry Reynolds Steer (1858-1928) - Charles I Leaving the Cavendish Mansion, Leicester, on His Way to Relieve Oxford, May 1645 - Y.F10.2008.0.0 - Leicester Museum ^ Art Gallery.jpg by Henry Reynolds Steer. A depiction of Charles I's journey to relieve Oxford following his defeat of Leicester in May 1645]]

• 1603 – Anne of Denmark and her son Prince Henry stay in William Skipworth's house in Leicester on 23 June.HMC 8th Report, p. 441: William Kelly, Royal Progresses to Leicester (Leicester, 1855), pp. 8–9. Princess Elizabeth also stayed in the town, at the house of a Mr Pilkington.Helen Stocks, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015004979038&view=1up&seq=75&skin=2021 Records of the Borough of Leicester, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1923), pp. 1-4, 11-12, 57]
• 1604 – Prince Charles and Alexander Seton lodged in Skipwith's house at Leicester on their way to London on 15 and 16 August.Helen Stocks, Records of the Borough of Leicester, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1923), pp. 20-1.
• 1606 — Shakespeare's Company performed in Leicester Guildhall with William Shakespeare possibly among them.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4TzvnDHl4btXXxxnZwG5bSM/shakespeare-s-company-visit-leicester |title=Shakespeare's Company visit Leicester |last= Keenan |first= Siobhan | date= 21 March 2016 |website=BBC |access-date= 25 January 2025 }}
• 1607 — Curfew imposed on the borough in May to prevent spread of the Midland Revolt, an anti enclosure rebellion beginning in Northamptonshire.
• 1616 — Leicester Boy Trials. Leicester Assizes conducted famous witch trial instigated by a 13-year-old boy who accused 15 women in Husbands Bosworth. Nine of the accused were hanged, one died in prison, and five were released on the order of King James I during his visit to the city that summer. The incident was the inspiration for Ben Jonson's play The Devil Is an Ass.{{cite web|title=Chris Jones 2020 account of the 1616 Leicester witch trial|date=31 October 2020 |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/leicestershires-notorious-witchcraft-trial-saw-4642092}}{{Cite web|url=https://lahs.org.uk/blog/something-wicked-this-way-comes-witchcraft-in-leicestershire|title='Something Wicked This Way Comes' Witchcraft in Leicestershire - LAHS|website=lahs.org.uk}}
• 1627–1628 – The Leicester anti enclosure and disafforestation riots, a series of spring riots in both years in protest of Sir Miles Fleetwood's enclosure, division, and deforestation of Leicester Forest on the orders of King Charles I.{{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
• 1642 – Charles I passed through Leicester before raising his standard at Nottingham.{{cite book |last1=Wilshere |first1=Jonathan |last2=Green |first2=Susan |date=1972 |title=The Siege of Leicester – 1645 |publisher=Leicester Research Services}}
• 1645 – The Siege of Leicester during the English Civil War.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R.A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=8 "Political and Administrative History, 1509–1660" |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66561#n12}}
• 1646 — the Newarke, in Royalist hands since the Siege, was stormed by Parliamentarian forces on May 7. Festivities broke out among the burghers.{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire Volume I Part II | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3768/rec/7 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Nichols | page = 579 | quote="7th of May… the Newarke was surrendered up unto parliament” }}
• 1647
• Charles I spent the night of February 13 at the Angel Inn in Leicester on the journey to Holdenby following his capture by Parliament.C.J. Billson, Medieval Leicester, (1920), Chapter 3, https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Mediaeval_Leicester/Chapter_3| "" In spite his status as a prisoner the Churchwarden of St Martins records the city paid for church bells to be rung to welcome him.{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire Volume I Part II | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3768/rec/7 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Nichols | page = 579 | quote= From the accounts of the parish of St Martins, entry for 1647 "Paid to the ringers when the King came to Leicester 3s.” }}
• Directory for Public Worship adopted for use in the Church of England by the Puritan Rump Parliament. Most of Leicester's parishes adopted it with the exception of St Nicholas which continued to use the Royalist Common Prayer Book. The Diocese of Lincoln was also replaced with a Presbyterian structure.{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire Volume I Part II | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3768/rec/7 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Nichols | page = 579 | quote= From the accounts of the parish of St Martins, entry for 1647 "Paid for a Directory and a Psalter.” }}
• 1662 — Act of Uniformity returned the boroughs parishes to the revised rites of the pre Civil War Prayer Book. This led to the Great Ejection of Puritan clergy from parishes in Leicester and across the country which affected both St Martin's and St Margaret's.{{cite book | last = Nichols | first = John | author-link = John Nichols (printer) | date = 1815 | title = The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester : Vol. 1, Part 2. | url = https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3759/rec/7 | location = Leicester | publisher = John Nichols | page = 581 | quote= }}
• 1680
• Knitting frames for hosiery were introduced about this time.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• Leicester's Quakers constructed their first meeting house. It was built on the extra parochial land of the dissolved St Clement's Priory near Soar Lane and the Northgates end of Highcross Street, the modern area of Blackfriars.{{citation|title=Protestant Nonconformists in Leicester|work=Victoria County History|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol4/pp390-394#h3-s5 }}

File:Leicester Unitarian Great Meeting House.jpg preached here in 1753.]]

File:Portrait of Daniel Lambert (Benjamin Marshall, 1806).jpg, Leicester's largest son, born in the borough in 1770.]]

File:Leicester Infirmary & Fever House of 1820 from the north-east by John Hackett 1825.jpg opened in 1771.]]

• 1708 — Great Meeting House constructed for the towns Protestant Dissenters on the corner of East Bond Street and Butt Close Lane. Today Leicester Unitarian Chapel.{{cite web | url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/faith-belief/great-meeting-unitarian-chapel/ | title=The Story of Leicester }}
• 1717 – Last English witch trial conducted by Leicester Assizes. The two accused women, both of Wigston, were acquitted by the jury who disregarded the testimony of 25 witnesses.{{Cite web|url=https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-last-witches-of-england-a-tragedy-of-sorcery-and-superstition-book-review/#:~:text=At+the+last+trial+for,25+witnesses+asserting+their+guilt.|title=The Last Witches of England. A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition – book review|website=Counterfire}}
• 1751 – Leicester Journal newspaper began publication.{{cite book |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/newspaperpressdi00lond#page/200/mode/2up |publisher = Charles Mitchell |date = 1847 |location = London |title = Newspaper Press Directory }}
• 1753 — John Wesley, father of the Methodist movement, made the first of about a dozen visits to Leicester. He stayed and preached at the Great Meeting House on Butt Close Lane.{{cite book | last = Fielding Johnson | first = T | author-link = | date = 1891 | title = Glimpses of Ancient Leicester | url = https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/api/collection/p15407coll6/id/16318/download | location = Leicester | publisher = John and Thomas Spenser | page = 228 | quote= }}
• 1760 – Leicester's last recorded accusation of witchcraft. Two elderly ladies of Glenn Magna accused one another of witchcraft and were subjected to the ducking stool, which one passed and the other failed. Other accusations followed. The only court proceedings to arise were fines for rioting as the crime of witchcraft was removed from the statute books.
• 1770 – Daniel Lambert was born in Leicester{{cite ODNB |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15932 |title=Daniel Lambert |last=Seccombe |first=Thomas |author-link= Thomas Seccombe |date=2004 |location=Oxford|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/15932 }} (subscription or [http://www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/freeodnb/libraries/ UK public library membership] required)
• 1771 – Leicester Royal Infirmary opened.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=34 "Hospitals and Almshouses" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66570 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1773 – The High Cross in High Street was removed.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=24 "The Ancient Borough – St Margaret's" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66577 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1785 – The Greencoat School was established with money left by Alderman Gabriel Newton .
• 1789 — William Carey became minister of Leicesters Particular Baptist congregation. He is regarded as a key founding figure in the global Protestant missionary movement, widely known as Father of modern missions.{{cite book|first=Vishal |last=Mangalwadi |year=1999|title=The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture |publisher=Crossway Books |isbn=978-1-58134-112-6}}
• 1792 – Leicester Chronicle newspaper began publication.{{cite web |url= http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&vl(10130439UI0)=sub&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1378736322845&srt=lso01&mode=Advanced&vl(1UIStartWith1)=contains&indx=1&tb=t&vl(41497491UI2)=any&vl(freeText0)=Leicester++%28England%29++++Newspapers&fn=search&vid=BLVU1&vl(freeText2)=&frbg=&ct=search&vl(10130438UI1)=any&vl(1UIStartWith2)=contains&dum=true&vl(1UIStartWith0)=exact&vl(46690061UI3)=all_items&Submit=Search&vl(freeText1)= |title=Leicester (England) Newspapers |work=Main Catalogue |publisher=British Library |access-date=7 September 2013}}
• 1794 – The corporation sanctioned several fairs.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}

File:Leicester 1804 Map.jpg

• 1800
• The City Rooms were opened.{{NHLE|num=1184114|desc=Assembly Rooms (County Rooms) basement area railings to Assembly Rooms (County Rooms) |access-date=31 January 2015}}
• Leicester Medical Book Society founded.
• 1801 – Population: 17,005.{{Citation |publisher = W. & R. Chambers |date = 1901 |location = London |title = Chambers's Encyclopaedia |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/chamberssency06lond#page/566/mode/1up |title-link = Chambers's Encyclopaedia }}
• 1804 – The common lands around the ancient city, including South Fields, North Fields, and High Fields, were controversially enclosed.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R.A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=6 "Social and administrative history 1660–1835 – The Town Fields" |chapter-url= https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol4/pp153-200#h3-s8}}
• 1806 – Racecourse established.
• 1816 – James Towle, notable Luddite, was executed in the city on 20 November. Two more Luddites were executed the following year.{{cite web|title = James Towle (d. 1816)|url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/learning/biographies/jamestowle(d1816).aspx}}
• 1817 – Leicester Savings Bank established.

File:St George's church, Leicester.jpg constructed in Leicester since the reformation.]]

• 1821 – Leicester Gas Company was established.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R.A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=10 "Parliamentary history, 1660–1835" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66563 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1825 – Wharf Street Cricket Ground opened, home to the Leicestershire County Cricket Club.{{Cite web |date=28 May 2014 |title=History of Leicestershire CCC / History / About / L.C.C.C - Leicestershire County Cricket Club |url=http://www.leicestershireccc.co.uk/lc/About/History/History-of-Leicestershire-CCC |access-date=2024-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528011319/http://www.leicestershireccc.co.uk/lc/About/History/History-of-Leicestershire-CCC |archive-date=28 May 2014 }}
• 1827 – St George parish church, constructed to serve the new suburb built in South Fields, completed.Historic England Account of the building|https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1299776
• 1828 – The new Leicester Prison opened on Welford Road.

• 1832 — Leicester and Swannington Railway began operating.{{Citation |publisher = Bentley |location = London |author = Frederick Smeeton Williams |title = The Midland Railway: its rise and progress |edition=5th |date = 1888 |ol = 7043506M }}
• 1833 — Leicester Corporation refused to hand over records to Royal commissioners tasked by Earl Grey, the Prime Minister, with investigating municipal corruption.
• 1835 – Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society founded.{{cite web |url=http://www.le.ac.uk/litandphil/history/index.html |title=History |work=Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society |publisher=University of Leicester |access-date=8 September 2013}}
• 1836
• Leicester Borough Police Force was established.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R.A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=12 "Parliamentary History since 1835" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=527 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• The Theatre Royal opened in Horsefair Street.
• 1837 – Leicester's Church of England parishes transferred from the control of Lincoln Diocese to the Diocese of Peterborough during a redrawing of diocesan boundaries. Peterborough Cathedral became Leicester's Cathedral Church and remained so until the establishment of the Diocese of Leicester in 1926 and the elevation of St Martin's Church, Leicester to cathedral status in 1927.
• 1838
• Union Workhouse built.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=13 "Social and Administrative History since 1835" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66566 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• Holy Trinity Parish Church first constructed.{{English Heritage List entry |num=1074807 |desc= Church of Holy Trinity |grade= |access-date=1 February 2020}}
• 1839 – Christ Church Bow Street, a chapel of ease to St Margaret's, was consecrated by Bishop John Kaye on 28 June.{{cite web|title=Recalling the 'beautiful and commodious' Leicester church which was knocked down in 1958|date=8 April 2019 |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/recalling-beautiful-commodious-leicester-church-2733086}}

File:New Walk Museum main entrance.jpg, opened in 1849.]]

• 1840 – The Midland Counties Railway from Derby to Rugby opened the Campbell Street Station in Leicester.{{Cite book|title=History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire|last=White|first=William|publisher=William White|year=1846|location=Sheffield}}
• 1845 – Particular Baptist Chapel opened.{{Citation |publisher = Adam and Charles Black |location = Edinburgh |title =Black's Guide to the Counties of Leicester & Rutland |date = 1884 |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhUHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA23 |title-link = Black's Guides }}
• 1849
• Chamber of Commerce established.{{cite book |title=History of Leicester |author=James Thompson |publisher=F. Hewitt |year=1876 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HUQjAAAAMAAJ |edition=Pocket }}
• Leicester Museum & Art Gallery opened.

File:Leicester Corn Exchange c1906.jpg opened in 1855 pictured in 1906.]]

File:John Biggs Statue, Leicester.jpg, elected Leicester MP in 1857, in Welford Place.]]

• 1851
• A pumping station was built near the River Soar under the Leicester Sewerage Act.
• Leicester Secular Society first established, the first Freethought Secular Society in the world.{{Cite book |last=Newitt |first=Ned |title=The Secular Hall: A History |publisher=Leicester Pioneer Press |year=2022 |isbn=9780955282577 |location=Leicester |pages=8}}
• 1853
• Rowe's Circulating Library in business.{{cite book |title=Leicester Postal Handbook |date=April 1869 |publisher=Ward & Son |location=Leicester |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPINAAAAQAAJ }}
• Leicester gained its first piped water supply
• 1855 — Leicester Corn Exchange constructed in Leicester Market.
• 1857
• John Biggs, local hosiery manufacturer and radical liberal, was elected MP for the borough. He is commemorated with a statue in Welford Place.
• Hitchin-Leicester railway began operating.
• Leicester Guardian newspaper began publication.
• 1858 — Henry Norman, later journalist, Liberal MP, and Baronet, was born in the borough on 19 September.

File:Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower (March 2010).JPG erected in 1868.]]

• 1861 – Population: 68,056.
• 1862 – Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man", was born in Leicester on 5 August.{{Cite ODNB | last = Osborne | first = Peter | title = Merrick, Joseph Carey [Elephant Man] (1862–1890) | date = September 2004 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37759 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/37759 | access-date =24 May 2010 | last2 = Harrison | first2 = B.

}}

• 1863 – The Old Bow Bridge was demolished and replaced with an iron bridge.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=29 "The Ancient Borough – White Friars" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66582 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1864
• South Leicestershire Railway (Hinckley-Leicester) began operating.
• Leicester balloon riot.
• 1866
• Leicester's first working men's club opened.
• The Collegiate School for Girls opened.
• 1867
• Major restoration work to St Martin's Church begun in 1860 was completed; the tower and spire having been dismantled and rebuilt.
• Leicester Secular Society refounded.
• 1868
• Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower erected depicting four historic heroes of the city: Simon de Montfort, Thomas White, William Wyggeston and Gabriel Newton.
• St Luke's Church on the corner of Humberstone Road and Bell Lane consecrated by William Connor Magee, the Lord Bishop of Peterborough between 1868 and 1891.{{cite web|title=City Place of Worship becomes Wartime Foodstore and then Pile of Rubble| date=29 July 2019 |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/city-place-worship-wartime-ministry-3147175}}

File:Leicester Town Hall 13795509814 80de745302 o.jpg constructed 1876.]]

File:St Mark's Church, Leicester, south side.JPG consecrated in 1872.]]

File:Church of St Peter, Highfields, Leicester - geograph.org.uk - 6036683.jpg constructed and consecrated in the early 1870s.]]

• 1870 – Leicester School of Art founded (ancestor of the Leicester Polytechnic College and today's De Montfort University).
• 1871
• Population: 95,084.
• The statue of Robert Hall, notable Leicestrian Baptist Minister, was unveiled in De Montfort Square, New Walk.{{cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/statue-of-robert-hall-de-montfort-square-8814|title=Statue of Robert Hall, De Montfort Square, Leicester|access-date=12 November 2024}}
• The Free Library opened in Wellington Street.{{cite book |title=Modern Leicester |author=Robert Read |location= London |publisher= Simpkin, Marshall |year= 1881 |url= http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011258217 }}
• 1872
• Leicester Borough Fire Brigade was established.
• St Mark's Parish Church, Belgrave consecrated by Bishop Magee.{{cite news |author= |title=Consecration of St Mark's Church, Leicester |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000173/18720427/041/0008 |newspaper=Leicester Chronicle |location=Leicester |date=27 April 1872 |access-date=27 July 2015 }}
• 1874
• Leicester's first horse-drawn tram service began operating, from the Clock Tower to Belgrave.
• Leicester Mercury newspaper began publication.
• 16 April – St. Peter's Parish Church, Highfields consecrated by Bishop Magee.{{cite news |author= |title=Consecration of St Peter's Church |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000173/18740418/054/0007 |newspaper=Leicester Chronicle |location=Leicester |date=18 April 1874 |access-date=27 July 2015 }}
• 1875 – Trams begin operating from the town centre to Victoria Park and Humberstone.
• 1876
• Leicester Town Hall was built.
• Leicester Co-operative Hosiery Manufacturing Society organised.{{citation |title=History of the Leicester Co-operative Hosiery Manufacturing Society |year=1898 |publisher=Co-operative Printing Society |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006831089 }}
• 1877
• The Wyggeston Hospital School opened.
• Skating rink opened in Rutland Street.
• Leicester Bicycling Club active (approximate date).{{citation |title=Bicycling Times |volume=1 |number=1 |date=24 May 1877 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mLMOAAAAQAAJ }}
• The Opera House opened in Silver Street.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66578 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• St Saviour's Parish Church consecrated by Bishop Magee.{{cite news |author= |title=Consecration of St Saviour's Church |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000173/18770623/070/0011 |newspaper=Leicester Chronicle |location=Leicester |date=23 June 1877 |access-date=27 July 2015 }}
• Prebend Street Friends Meeting House opened, and the Leicester Quakers leave the old Blackfriars Northgates Meeting House.
• 1878 –
• Leicestershire County Cricket Club's new ground at Grace Road opened.
• Leicestershire Lawn Tennis Club Established.{{Cite web |title=Tennis in Leicester |url=https://leicestershire-tennis.co.uk/ |access-date=2024-08-01 |website=Leicestershire Tennis & Squash Club |language=en-GB}}
• 1879 – The first municipal swimming baths open in Bath Lane.

File:Budynek Leicester Secular Hall.jpg constructed in 1801.]]

File:Blackfriars Hall-Holy Cross Centre, Wellington Street - geograph.org.uk - 6062238.jpg

• 1880 – Leicester Tigers Rugby Union Football Club was founded{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.leicestertigers.com/club/history |access-date=2024-08-01 |website=Leicester Tigers |language=en}}
• 1881
• Population: 122,351.
• Leicester Secular Hall built by the Secular Society on Humberstone Gate.{{Cite book |last=Newitt |first=Ned |title=The Secular Hall: a History |publisher=Leicester Pioneer Press |year=2022 |isbn=9780955282577 |location=Leicester |pages=8}}
• 1882
• Victoria Park and Abbey Park open.{{cite book |title=Royal Progresses and Visits to Leicester |author=William Kelly |publisher=S. Clarke |year= 1884 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ADKgAAAAMAAJ }}
• Holy Cross Priory was established on land between New Walk & Wellington Street. First Roman Catholic church to be consecrated in the city since the reformation & a refoundation for the Blackfriars after the dissolution of St Clement's Priory in 1538.{{cite web |url=http://english.op.org/Leicester.html |title=Priory of the Holy Cross |website=The Dominican Friars – England & Scotland |access-date=27 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110013305/http://english.op.org/Leicester.html |archive-date=10 November 2013 }}
• 1884 – Leicester Fosse football club formed.
• 1885 – Leicester and Leicestershire Photographic Society founded.{{citation |title=International Annual of Anthony's Photographic Bulletin |year=1891 |publisher=E. & H. T. Anthony & Company |location=New York |chapter=Photographic Societies of the British Isles and Colonies |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QD0XAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA438 }}
• 1886 – Spinney Hill Park opened.
• 1889
• Leicester became a County borough per Local Government Act 1888.
• Leicester Branch of the Socialist League organised.{{cite web |url=http://www2.le.ac.uk/library/find/rarebooksandarchives/az |title= A-Z of All Collections |author=University Library, Special Collections |publisher=University of Leicester |access-date=8 September 2013}}

File:Leicester Rail Station - geograph.org.uk - 1266728.jpg rebuilt 1892–4.]]

File:Grand Hotel, Granby Street, Leicester - geograph.org.uk - 3115948.jpg constructed in 1898]]

File:Leicester Central.jpg opened 1899.]]

• 1890
• St Margaret's and All Saints united into a single parish by Letters Patent dated July 8.{{Cite news|work=The London Gazette |title= Letters Patent |author= Queen Victoria |department= The Royal Court at Windsor |date= July 8, 1890 |page= 1 |url= https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26068/page/3773/data.pdf }}
• Church of the Martyrs on Westcotes Drive was consecrated by Bishop Magee.{{Cite web | url=https://martyrs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/A-BRIEF-HISTORY.pdf | title=A BRIEF HISTORY | website=martyrs.org.uk}}
• 1891
• Population: 174,624.
• Filbert Street stadium opened.
• Abbey Pumping Station in operation.
• The Borough of Leicester was greatly enlarged by the Leicester Extension Act, with the addition of Aylestone, Belgrave, Knighton, Newfoundpool and parts of Braunstone, Evington and Humberstone.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• 1892
• Leicester Tigers moved to their new home at Welford Road Stadium
• London Road Station, previously Campbell Street Station, was reconstructed.{{Cite book|title=Buildings of Leicestershire and Rutland|last=Pevsner|first=Nikolaus|publisher=Penguin|orig-date=1984 |year= 1992|isbn=014-071018-3|location=London|page=228}}
• Belgrave became part of Leicester
• 1894 – Leicester Fosse joined the Football League.{{Cite book|last=Stretton|first=John|title=Leicestershire and Rutland Past and Present|publisher=Past and present Ltd|year=1997|isbn=9-781858951096|series=The Counties of England|location=Wadenhoe, Peterborough|page=72}}
• 1896
• Leicester Corporation purchased Gilroes and began laying out a cemetery there.
• All of the civil parishes within the Borough of Leicester were merged into a single parish.
• 1898 – The Grand Hotel was built in Granby Street.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}
• 1899
• British United Shoe Machinery was established in Belgrave Road.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester Volume 4: The City of Leicester, Chapter 15 "Footwear Manufacture" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66568 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• Leicester Central railway station opened. (closed 1969)

File:St James the Greater, Leicester (geograph 2301982).jpg, consecrated in 1901.]]

File:Leicester General Hospital, Evington, Leicester - geograph.org.uk - 4292391.jpg opened in 1905]]

• 1901
• Population: 211,579.{{sfn|Britannica|1910}}
• St James the Greater Parish Church was consecrated by Edward Carr Glyn, 25 July.{{cite news |author= |title=Church of St James the Greater. Consecration by the Bishop of Peterborough |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000173/19010727/087/0004 |newspaper=Leicester Chronicle |location=Leicester |date=27 July 1901 |access-date=28 June 2024 }}
• 1904 – The conversion of Leicester's horse-drawn trams to electric trams was completed.
• 1905 – Leicester General Hospital opened.
• 1906 – Future Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald was elected as one of the two MPs for Leicester.{{Cite book|last=Newitt|first=Ned|title=A People's history of Leicester|publisher=Breedon Books|year=2008|isbn=978-1-85983-646-0|location=Derby|page=49}}

• 1911 — ‘Great Fire of Leicester’ - Church of St. George the Martyr & surrounding factories (today's Cultural Quarter) gutted by fire on 5 October, and subsequently rebuilt.Photograph of the blaze held by Leicester Uni | https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll8/id/107/Another image of the blaze and a brief account |https://www.prints-online.com/leicester-great-fire-church-destroyed-7248309.html#:~:text=The%20most%20disastrous%20fire%20ever,Georges%20Church%20was%20completely%20gutted.
• 1913 – De Montfort Hall opened.
• 1918–1919 – the Spanish Influenza epidemic killed approximately 1600 people in Leicester.{{cite AV media| title=The Spanish Flu Epidemic in Leicester | author=Ned Newitt |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=zv2C63WUY2_Nx9YP&v=IsixXeSwTp4 }}
• 1919
• King George V and Queen Mary made a state visit the city on 10 June.{{cite web | url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/city-stories/the-king-in-leicester-a-history-of-royal-visits/ | title=The Story of Leicester }}
• Leicester granted city status in the aftermath of the Royal visit in June. It was seen as a restoration of the historic city status held during Roman times.

File:Arch of Remembrance from the Peace Walk (03).jpg unveiled 4th July 1925]]

• 1920 – The City Boys School opened.
• 1921
• Population: 234,000.
• The University College of Leicester was established.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66579 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1923 – In the General Election, Winston Churchill was the Liberal candidate in Leicester West and lost.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66565 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• 1925
• Arch of Remembrance on Victoria Park completed. Designed by Edward Lutyens in memory of the sons of Leicester who died in the Great War. Unveiled by two local war widows, Mrs Elizabeth Butler and Mrs Annie Glover, in front of 30,000 people on 4 July.{{cite book|last=Beazley|first=Ben|title=Four Years Remembered: Leicester During the Great War |year=1999|publisher=The Breedon Books Publishing Company|location=Derby|isbn=9781859831823}}
• Braunstone Frith was absorbed into the city of Leicester.name=McKinley42
• 1926 – The Diocese of Leicester was established and the city's churches were allocated to it instead of the Diocese of Peterborough.
• Dr. Cyril Bardsley was appointed the first Bishop of Leicester since the year 870.
• 1927 — St Martin's Church became Leicester Cathedral, the first church in the city with Cathedral status since the 8th or 9th century.

• 1932 – The Little Theatre opened in Dover Street.
• 1933
• Joe Orton, noted satirical playwright, was born in the city on 1 January.
• Leicester City Police Headquarters, designed by G. Noel Hill and A.T. Gooseman, opened in Charles Street.
• 1935
• Humberstone, Knighton, New Parks and Beaumont Leys were absorbed into the city of Leicester.{{cite book |last=McKinley |first=R. A. |date=1958 |title=A History of the County of Leicester|volume=4: The City of Leicester|chapter=42 "Parishes added since 1892 – North-west Leicester" |publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66579 |isbn=978-0-7129-1044-6}}
• Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts (British Union of Fascists) held several demonstrations in the Market Place and Victoria Park and were heckled by members of the city's labour movement.{{cite web|title=What Happened When Oswald Mosley Staged 3 Rallies in Leicester| date=16 February 2019 |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/fascist-leader-oswald-mosley-staged-2548850}}
• 1936
• The city boundaries were further extended to include most of Evington {{Cite book|last=Jordan|first=Christine|title=The illustrated history of Leicester's suburbs|publisher=Breedon Books|year=2003|isbn=1-85983-348-9|location=Derby|pages=21,32,77,96,102}}
• Odeon Cinema opened.
• The Jarrow Marchers arrived in Leicester on Thursday 23 October from Loughborough and continued on the next day to Market Harborough.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/mepo2-3097ii1.jpg|title=Jarrow March Itinerary}}

• 1940 – Leicester suffered its worst air raid of World War II on the night of 19 November.{{Cite web |title=Leicester hit by the Blitz |url=http://ww2today.com/19th-november-1940-leicester-hit-by-the-blitz |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123193628/https://ww2today.com/19th-november-1940-leicester-hit-by-the-blitz |archive-date=23 January 2021 |access-date=1 August 2024 |website=World War II Today}}
• 1946 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made a state visit to Leicester on 30 October. The visit was part of a tour marking the end of World War II.
• 1947 — University of Leicester Botanic Garden opened.

• 1950 – St Luke's Church Humberstone Road demolished.
• 1955 – New Friends Meeting House opened on Queens Road. Prebend Street Meeting House closes permanently the following year.{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol4/pp443-446#h3-s4|title=Parishes added since 1892: Knighton | British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}
• 1958
• Buddy Holly and the Crickets performed live at De Montfort Hall on 6 March, perhaps the city's first Rock n Roll performance.{{cite web | url=http://www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/mindex58f.htm | title=Concerts & Package Tours : 1958 (March – April) }}
• Queen Elizabeth II visited the city on 9 May, the first of her visited to the city as monarch.{{cite web | url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/civic-affairs/1958-first-official-visit/ | title=The Story of Leicester }}
• Christ Church on Bow Street demolished along with its parish school.
• 1959 — Andrew Bailey, Chief Cashier (2004–2011) and later Governor (2020–present) of the Bank of England, was born in the city on March 30.

• 1960 — Gary Lineker, noted football player and commentator, was born in the city on 30 November.
• 1962 – Jewry Wall Museum built.
• 1963 – The Beatles performed live at De Montfort Hall for the first time.{{cite web | url=http://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/03/31/live-de-montfort-hall-leicester/ | title=The Beatles Bible – the Beatles live: De Montfort Hall, Leicester | date=31 March 1963 }}
• 1966
• St Luke's Church Stocking Farm was consecrated 29 April, a replacement to the lost Humberstone Street St Luke's.
• The City of Leicester Polytechnic was established.
• 1969 – The Museum of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment opened in the Magazine Gateway.{{cite web | url=http://www.royalleicestershireregiment.org.uk/the-regimental-museum/ | title=The Museum – Royal Leicestershire Regiment }}

• 1970 – University of Leicester's Attenborough Building constructed.
• 1972 – Abbey Pumping Station museum opened.
• 1973
• Haymarket Shopping Centre in business.
• Leicester Theatre Trust formed.
• 1974 – Leicester City Council established per Local Government Act 1972.
• 1979 — Leicester Chronicle ceased publication after 187 years.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/leicester-chronicle|title=Leicester Chronicle in British Newspaper Archive|via=British Newspaper Archive|access-date=1 August 2024}}

• 1980 — Leicester Royal Infirmary extension opened by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on 14 March.{{cite web | url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/civic-affairs/1980s-the-royal-infirmary-and-greeting-crowds/ | title=The Story of Leicester }}
• 1985 – St Margaret's Bus Station re-opened with new buildings.

• 1992 – The Leicester Polytechnic became De Montfort University.
• 1993 – Queen Elizabeth II visited the city on 9 December.{{cite web | url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/civic-affairs/1993-the-queens-building-community/ | title=The Story of Leicester }}
• 1997
• Leicester City Council became unitary authority per 1990s UK local government reform.
• Leicester Bike Park opened.

File:National Space Centre, Leicester.jpg, opened 1st August 2002.]]

• 2002
• National Space Centre opened by the Queen on 1 August.{{cite web | url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/civic-affairs/2000s-curve-and-national-space-centre/ | title=The Story of Leicester }}
• Filbert Street Stadium closes after 110 years of serving Leicester City.
• New Leicester City Stadium opened.
• 2005 — Peepul Arts Centre opened.
• 2007 – Statue of St Margaret of Antioch relocated from Corah Works to the front of St Margaret's Church.{{citation|title=Statue of St Margaret of Antioch Leicester|url=https://www.hobyanddistricthistory.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/St-Margaret-of-Antioch.pdf}}
• 2008
• Leicester Statue of Liberty re-erected at the foot of Upperton Road.{{cite news| work = BBC | date = 18 December 2008 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/7789119.stm | title = Liberty landmark returns to city | quote = A nine-tonne statue removed from Leicester five years ago has been restored at a roundabout close to its original location}}
• Curve theatre opened by the Queen on 4 December.

• 2010
• 25 September - Leicester City Council unanimously votes to ban a proposed far right demonstration in the city planned for 9 October.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-11411187 |title=Vote to ban EDL march in Leicester 'unanimous' | date= 25 September 2010 |website=bbc.co.uk |access-date= 13 June 2025}}
• 4 October - Theresa May, then Home Secretary, issues a ban on all protests in Leicester city centre for l Friday 9 October discouraging would be protesters with promises of hefty fines and prison sentences.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-11465502 |title=EDL 'to defy' government ban on Leicester march | date=4 October 2010 |website=bbc.co.uk |access-date= 13 June 2025}}
• 10 October - around 2000 protesters from the far right English Defence League and associated groups gathered from across England and rioted in the lower part of Humberstone Gate outside the Secular Hall.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-11508515 |title=Views on EDL protest in Leicester |last= Watson |first= Grieg | date=9 October 2010 |website=bbc.co.uk |access-date= 13 June 2025}} A counter demonstration of around 1000 locals, involving key citizens such as the council leader Peter Soulsby and the Bishop of Leicester Tim Stevens, was held in the upper part of Humberstone Gate outside the Haymarket Shopping Centre. The counter protest was also joined by around 600 protesters from Unite Against Fascism. The protest had been delayed from 9 October to avoid the Home Secretaries ban. It resulted Leicestershire Constabulary's largest policing operation in 25 years and 13 arrests.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-11505724 |title= Thirteen arrests in Leicester protests by EDL and UAF | date=9 October 2010 |website=bbc.co.uk |access-date= 13 June 2025}}
• 2011 – Institution of a new elected City Mayor (as distinct from the ancient office of Lord Mayor). The first mayoral election was held on May 5 (see 2011 Leicester Mayoral Election.{{cite web |url= http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/british-mayors.html |title=British Mayors |location=London |work=City Mayors.com |publisher=City Mayors Foundation |access-date=8 September 2013}}
• 2012:
• Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Duchess of Cambridge visit Leicester during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee tour of Britain.
• The remains of King Richard III were discovered beneath a car park on the site of the former Greyfriars chapel.
• 2015 — Reinterment of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral (26 March).
• 2016 — Leicester City won the 2015–16 Premier League on 2 May as their first league title, having been 5000-to-1 outsiders at the start of the season.{{cite web|title=Leicester City win Premier League title after Tottenham draw at Chelsea|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35988673|publisher=BBC Sport|date=2 May 2016|access-date=2 May 2016}} Large civic festivities followed and the team subsequently won the BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year Award.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/38322977 |title=Sports Personality 2016: Leicester win Team of the Year, Claudio Ranieri top coach |publisher=BBC News |date= 18 December 2016|access-date=18 December 2016}}

• 2020–2022 – The COVID-19 pandemic. Between 13 March 2020 and 19 December 2022 the city reported 128,123 cases of the virus and the lives of 1,171 of its citizens were lost to it. The city was one of Britain's worst affected and was subject to an additional hundred days of lockdown.{{cite web | url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/uk-failed-governments-covid-response-9420649 | title=UK 'failed' by Covid response that saw city locked down longest | date=18 July 2024 }}
• 2020 – New St Margaret's Bus Station building completed in November and opened 31 December.{{cite web|last=Mack|first=Tom|date=13 November 2020|title=New road out of bus station to slash 5 minutes off journeys|url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/new-slip-road-out-leicester-4695303|access-date=6 June 2021|website=LeicestershireLive}}
• 2022 – The 2022 Leicester unrest. A notable summer outbreak of ethno-religious tension between members of the city's Hindu and Muslim communities.
• 2024 – Tension between a Far Right protest and an Anti Racist protest around East Gates and the Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower and other instances of unrest, 6 August (part of the 2024 United Kingdom riots).{{cite web|title=Fifth arrest after Leicester city centre protests|date=6 August 2024 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7855g26epdo.amp}}

• History of Leicester
• History of Leicestershire
• Timelines of other cities in East Midlands: Derby, Lincoln, Nottingham

{{reflist}}

{{reflist|group=note}}

• {{cite book |url= https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/9062 |page=407+ |author=John Nichols |title= History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester: Volume I, Part I|year=1795 |location= London |publisher= Nichols & Son |author-link=John Nichols (printer) }}
• {{cite book |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/3406/rec/7|author=John Nichols |title=History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester: Volume I, Part II |year=1815 |location= London |publisher= Nichols & Son |author-link=John Nichols (printer) }}

• {{Citation |publisher = Vernor, Hood & Sharpe |location = London |title = Beauties of England and Wales |author =John Britton |date = 1807 |volume=9 |chapter=Leicester |hdl = 2027/mdp.39015063565736 |title-link = Beauties of England and Wales |author-link = John Britton (antiquary) }}
• {{cite book |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4llGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA222 |title= Commercial Directory for 1818-19-20 |location=Manchester |publisher=James Pigot |year=1818 }}
• {{cite book |title=A Walk Through Leicester; Being a Guide to Strangers |author=Susanna Watts |location=Leicester |publisher= T. Combe |year= 1820 |edition=2nd |url= https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433075882070&seq=11 }}
• {{cite book |chapter=Leicester |volume=4 |title=Bibliotheca Britannica |author= Robert Watt |location=Edinburgh |publisher= A. Constable |year= 1824 |oclc=961753 |hdl=2027/mdp.39076005081505 |author-link=Robert Watt (bibliographer) }}
• {{cite book |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hdMHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA480 |title= Pigot & Co.'s National Commercial Directory for 1828-9 | date=26 August 2023 |location=London |publisher=James Pigot }}
• {{cite book |title=Topographical History of the County of Leicester |author= John Curtis |publisher=W. Hextall |year= 1831 |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/atopographicalh00curtgoog#page/n146/mode/1up }}
• {{cite book |title=Edinburgh Encyclopædia |editor= David Brewster |location=Philadelphia |publisher= Joseph and Edward Parker |year= 1832 |chapter=Leicester |volume=12 |hdl= 2027/mdp.39015068380875 |title-link= Edinburgh Encyclopædia }}
• {{Citation |title = Leigh's New Pocket Road-Book of England and Wales |date = 1839 |edition=7th |location=London |publisher=Leigh and Son |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/leighsnew00pocketr#page/132/mode/2up }}
• {{Citation |publisher = H.G. Bohn |location = London |author = John Thomson |title = New Universal Gazetteer and Geographical Dictionary |date = 1845 |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/newuniversalgaze00thomuoft#page/577/mode/1up |chapter= Leicester }}
• {{cite book | last = Thompson | first = James | author-link = James Thompson (journalist) | date = 1849 | title = The history of Leicester | url = https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p15407coll6/id/18427/rec/4 | location = Leicester | publisher = crossley }}

• {{citation |work=Leicester New Monthly Magazine |volume=1 |title=Our Town; and How it Strikes a Stranger |year=1854 |location=London |publisher=Houlston and Stoneman |author=William Napier Reeve |quote=Eliot Roscoe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfkHAAAAQAAJ }}
• {{citation |work=Leicester New Monthly Magazine |volume=1 |title=Our Town, No. 3: Roman Leicester }}
• {{citation |work=Leicester New Monthly Magazine |volume=1 |title=Our Town, No. 4: Saxon Leicester }}
• {{citation |work=Leicester New Monthly Magazine |volume=1 |title=Our Town, No. 6: Lancastrian Leicester }}
• {{citation |work=Leicester New Monthly Magazine |volume=1 |title=Our Town, No. 7: Yorkist Leicester }}
• {{citation |work=Leicester New Monthly Magazine |volume=1 |title=Our Town, No. 8: Tudor Leicester }}
• {{citation |work=Leicester New Monthly Magazine |volume=1 |title=Our Town, No. 9: Stuart Leicester }}
• {{cite book |title=History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the Counties of Leicester and Rutland |publisher= William White |location=Sheffield |year=1863 |chapter=History of the Borough of Leicester |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/historygazetteer1863whit#page/n125/mode/2up }}
• {{cite book |title=Leicester Postal Handbook |date=1868–1869 |publisher=Ward & Son |location=Leicester |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPINAAAAQAAJ }}
• {{Citation |publisher = Crossley and Clarke |location = Leicester |title = The history of Leicester in the eighteenth century |url = https://archive.org/stream/historyofleicest00thomrich#page/n5/mode/2up |author =James Thompson |date = 1871 |oclc = 6120339 }}
• {{citation |work=Transactions of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society |volume=4 |location=Leicester |publisher=Samuel Clarke |year=1878 |title=Roman Leicester |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sf8UAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA55 }}
• {{Citation |publisher = W. Satchell |location = London |title = Book of British Topography: a Classified Catalogue of the Topographical Works in the Library of the British Museum Relating to Great Britain and Ireland |author = John Parker Anderson |date = 1881 |chapter=Leicestershire: Leicester |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/bookofbritishtop00andeuoft#page/167/mode/1up }}
• {{cite book |title=Hammond's Guide to Leicester and the Abbey park |year=1882 |publisher=W.A. Hammond |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RxUHAAAAQAAJ}}
• {{Citation |publisher = J. Murray |location = London |title = Handbook for Travellers in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire |edition=3rd |date = 1892 |oclc = 2097091 |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/handbookfortra00john#page/108/mode/2up |title-link = Murray's Handbooks for Travellers }}
• {{cite book |title=Official Guide to the Midland Railway |location=London |publisher=Cassell & Company |year=1894 |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5HxUweOJ03EC&pg=PA93 }}
• {{cite book |title=Bibliography of British Municipal History |year=1897 |location=New York |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. |author=Charles Gross|chapter=Leicester |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/bibliographyofbr00grosiala#page/272/mode/2up }}
• {{cite book |title=Spencer's Illustrated Leicester Almanack ... for 1898 |location=Leicester |publisher=J. & T. Spencer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FvVSAAAAYAAJ |year=1898 }}
• {{cite book |editor=Mary Bateson|editor-link= Mary Bateson (historian) |title=Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1103–1327|volume=1|url= https://archive.org/details/recordsofborough01leic |year=1899 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}

• {{cite book |editor=Mary Bateson|editor-link= Mary Bateson (historian) |title=Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1327–1509|volume=2|url= https://archive.org/details/recordsofborough02leic |year=1901|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
• {{cite book |title=Subject Index of the Modern Works Added to the Library of the British Museum in the Years 1881–1900 |year=1902 |editor=G.K. Fortescue |location=London |publisher=The Trustees |chapter=Leicester |hdl=2027/uc1.b5107012 }}
• {{Citation|publisher=G. Newnes |location=London |author=J.G. Bartholomew |title=Survey Gazetteer of the British Isles |date = 1904 |chapter=Leicester|url=https://archive.org/stream/surveygazetteero00bartuoft#page/485/mode/1up |author-link = John George Bartholomew }}
• {{cite book |editor=Mary Bateson|editor-link= Mary Bateson (historian) |title=Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1509–1603|volume=3|url= https://archive.org/details/recordsofborough03leic/page/n8/mode/1up |year=1905 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
• {{Citation |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/ia:glimpsesofancien00john/Glimpses_of_ancient_Leicester_in_six_periods |title = Glimpses of ancient Leicester, in six periods |date = 1906 |publisher =Clarke and Satchell |location= Leicester |edition=2nd |author=Mrs. T. Fielding Johnson |ol = 25498292M }}
• {{Citation | publisher = Karl Baedeker | location = Leipzig | title = Great Britain | date = 1910 | edition = 7th |chapter=Leicester | hdl = 2027/mdp.39015010546516 }}
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Leicester |volume= 16 | page = 393 |date=1910 |ref= {{harvid|Britannica|1910}} |short= 1}}
• {{cite book |author=Charles James Billson|author-link=Charles J. Billson |title=Mediaeval Leicester|url= https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Mediaeval_Leicester |year=1920 |publisher=Edgar Backus |location=46 Cank Street, Leicester}}
• {{cite book |title=England |series =Blue Guides |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |year=1920 |chapter=Leicester |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zurgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA355 }}
• {{cite book |editor=Helen Stocks |title=Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1603–1688|volume=4|url= https://archive.org/details/recordsofborough0000hele/page/n7/mode/1up |year=1923 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
• {{cite book |author=Colin Ellis |title=History in Leicester |publisher=City of Leicester Publicity Department |year=1948 |edition=2nd. (1969) |sbn=901675 008}}

• {{cite book |author=A. Temple Patterson|title=Radical Leicester: A History of Leicester, 1780–1850|year=1954|url=https://archive.org/details/radicalleicester0000atem/page/n7/mode/1up|publisher=University College London|sbn=7185 1003 8}}
• {{citation |work=Victoria County History|title=A History of the County of Leicester: The City of Leicester|editor=R A McKinley|location=London|year=1958 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol4 }}
• {{cite book |editor=A.E. (Tony) Brown|title=The Growth of Leicester: A History of the City in 10 Essays|publisher=University of Leicester Press |year=1970 |isbn=0-7185-1100-X |edition=2nd. 1972}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=A.E. (Tony) Brown |title=Roman Leicester |pages=11–18}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=Levi Fox |author-link=Levi Fox|title=Leicester Castle |pages=19–26}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=G.H. Martin |author-link= Geoffrey Martin (historian) |title=Church Life in Medieval Leicester |pages=27–38}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=A.M. Everitt |author-link= Alan Everitt |title=Leicester and its Markets: The Seventeenth Centuries |pages=39–46}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=G.A. Chinnery|title=Eighteenth Century Leicester |pages=47–54}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=G.R. Potts |title=The Development of the New Walk and King Street Area |pages=55–62}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=R.H. Evans |title=The Expansion of Leicester in the Nineteenth Century |pages=63–70}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=R.H. Evans|title=The Local Government of Leicester in the Nineteenth Century |pages=71–78}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=G.C Martin|title=Twentieth Century Leicester: Garden Suburbs and Council Estates |pages=79–86}}
• {{citation |work=The Growth of Leicester |author=Jack Simmons|author-link=Jack Simmons (historian) |title=Leicester Past and Present |pages=87–92}}
• {{Cite book |author = Malcolm Elliott |title=Leicester, a pictorial history |publisher=Phillimore |year=1983 |isbn=1-86077-099-1 |edition=2nd. 1999 |location=Chichester}}
• {{cite book|author=Patrick Clay| title=Leicester Before the Romans |year=1988 |publisher=Leicestershire Museum Publications |isbn=0-85022-244-3}}

• {{cite book |last1=Buckley|first1=Richard|last2=Codd |first2=Mike |last3=Morris |first3=Matthew|year=2011|title=Visions of Ancient Leicester|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Oxt9tgAACAAJ |publisher=University of Leicester Archeological Services|isbn=978-0-9560179-7-0}}
• {{citation|title=Updated Period Resource Assessment: The East Midlands in the Later Bronze Age and Iron Age|author=Steven Willis|url=https://researchframeworks.org/emherf/updated-period-resource-assessment-the-later-bronze-age-and-iron-age/ |year=2022 }}

{{Commons category|Leicester}}

• {{cite web |title=Story of Leicester|url=https://www.storyofleicester.info/}} Leicester City Councils official history website.
• {{citation |work=Historical Directories |publisher=University of Leicester |location=UK |title=Leicestershire |date=19 November 2024 |url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/findbylocation.asp }}. Includes digitised directories of Leicester, various dates
• {{cite web |work=Discovering Britain: Walks: East Midlands |publisher=Royal Geographical Society |title= (Leicester) |url= http://www.discoveringbritain.org/walks/region/east-midlands/ |year=c. 2013 }}
• {{cite web |title= (Leicester population of 2019) |url= https://ukpopulation2019.com/population-of-leicester-2019.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190528065627/https://ukpopulation2019.com/population-of-leicester-2019.html |url-status= usurped |archive-date= 28 May 2019 }}

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{{Areas of Leicester}}

{{Leicestershire}}

{{England year nav |state=collapsed}}

{{Timelines of cities in the United Kingdom}}

Category:Years in England

Leicester

Leicester

Category:Leicester-related lists