Earl of Leicester

Montfort, Simon de, Earl of Leicester (c.1208-65), Henry III's most redoubtable opponent in the Barons' wars. Born in Montfort, he was well received by Henry when he arrived in England in 1230, allowed to claim the earldom of Leicester, and married the king's youngest sister Eleanor. He went on crusade in 1240-1, and in 1248 was appointed the king's deputy in Gascony, where he put down a revolt with severity. After his return to England in 1253 he became a central figure in the baronial opposition, helping impose the Provisions of Oxford which greatly reduced royal authority. He emerged as sole leader of the opposition in 1263, but his position had weakened, for many magnates suspected him of having designs on the throne. The Provisions of Oxford were referred to Louis IX of France for arbitration, and when, in 1264, Louis declared in favour of Henry, war broke out.

Although the campaign began badly for Montfort, he transformed it by besieging Rochester to draw the king south, and united his own divided forces to beat the king at Lewes. Henry and his son Edward surrendered by an agreement which reimposed the Provisions of Oxford but allowed some of Montfort's most committed opponents to escape. Virtually ruler of England, Montfort provoked dissatisfaction amongst some of his most notable supporters: Edward escaped and war broke out again. Edward surprised one of Montfort's armies, under his son Simon, outside the Montfort stronghold of Kenilworth. Montfort himself was caught, outnumbered, at Evesham. As he watched his foes converge, he is reported to have said: ‘may God have mercy on our souls, for our bodies are theirs’, but he and his men ‘proceeded courageously to meet the multitude of their enemies’. Montfort fought valiantly, hoping that his son would arrive in time. He was killed and mutilated, but such was his reputation—he had a flair for attracting popular support, especially in London—that miracles were soon associated with his tomb in Evesham abbey.

Montfort was a skilled commander, and deserves admiration for overcoming the strategic disadvantage of divided forces at the start of the first Barons' war. At Lewes he showed a sharp eye for the ground, and got his army onto the downs above the town by night, no easy feat. He had a good grasp of fortification and siegecraft: the improvements he had made to Kenilworth castle enabled it to undergo a long siege after his death.

— Richard Holmes

Robert Dudley was the fifth son of Edward VI's most powerful subject, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Robert was brought to court and knighted during the reign of Edward VI. Marriage to a Norfolk heiress, Amy Robsart, followed. The Dudley family and its fortunes were suddenly eclipsed by the death of Edward and by the abortive attempt of Northumberland and his sons to depose Mary Tudor in favor of Lady Jane Grey. Robert, two brothers, and his sisters survived the Marian revenge, but not until the accession of Elizabeth I did he escape the shadow cast by his father's treason.

Elizabeth and Robert had known each other as children, and she was clearly drawn to him. She was lavish in the honors granted him, and rumor inevitably linked the two romantically. Thus when Amy Robsart died in a fall late in 1560, Dudley was widely suspected of having had a hand in the accident. Though he was exonerated by a jury, popular suspicion was not allayed, and thus chance of marriage with the Queen was effectively blocked.

By 1564 Elizabeth sought to use Dudley to neutralize Mary Stuart of Scotland; by creating him Earl of Leicester, she gave him a rank fit for a royal consort. Mary's match with her cousin Darnley put an end to this plan, and the new earl remained at court. Leicester's presumption upon Elizabeth's favor antagonized both the older nobility and the inner ring of royal ministers, and his petulant interference with every marriage proposal the Queen received did nothing to allay old suspicions. During the mid-1570s Leicester's private affairs (awesome in their complexity) claimed most of his attention. A secret, unacknowledged marriage with Lady Douglas Sheffield was followed by an open wedding to Lettice Knollys, widow of the Earl of Essex.

As a member of the House of Lords, Leicester had taken the lead in the formation of the Protestant Association in 1584, which swore to protect Elizabeth with their lives. He adopted an increasingly anti-Spanish position in the Privy Council and led the party which favored open intervention on the side of the Dutch rebels. In 1585, reluctantly, Elizabeth agreed to dispatch an army and, equally reluctantly, to send Leicester as its head. Before fighting a single battle, the earl found himself named "Absolute Governor" of the United Provinces. Elizabeth, who feared being dragged unprepared into a full-scale war with Spain, denounced his actions loudly. Leicester's arrogance coupled with his ineffectiveness as a military leader led to his return to England, and to the resignation of his Dutch title, by April 1588.

As the threat of Spanish invasion grew, the earl was made nominal commander of the English defense; an empty honor, it proved his last, for he died of a fever on Sept. 4, 1588. Clearly, at the end, Leicester recognized the extent of his debt to Elizabeth's favor, for he left her a collection of jewels and "strong expressions of fidelity."

Further Reading

In 1584 Leicester was slandered in an anonymous pamphlet usually known as Leicester's Commonwealth, which accused him of subverting the state to his ambition. These charges were refuted by his nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, and by Elizabeth herself. Two modern studies present a highly romanticized picture of Leicester: Milton Waldman, Elizabeth and Leicester (1944), and Elizabeth Jenkins, Elizabeth and Leicester (1961). Eleanor Rosenberg, Leicester: Patron of Letters (1955), contains a list of works dedicated to the earl and makes a case for him as a sponsor of learning.

Additional Sources

Haynes, Alan, The white bear: Robert Dudley, the Elizabethan Earl of Leicester, London: P. Owen; Chester Springs, PA: Dufour Editions distributor, 1987.

Kendall, Alan, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, London: Cassell, 1980.

Wilson, Derek A., Sweet Robin: a biography of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1533-1588, London: H. Hamilton, 1981.

Montfort IV, Simon de, earl of Leicester (1208-65). Earl Simon has been the subject of controversy ever since his death at the battle of Evesham (1265). Then, the victorious royalists dismembered his body in revengeful exultation; a detested traitor had met his end. But his followers found solace in the rapid emergence of a cult. A ‘political’ saint was born.

It is as a supposed martyr for justice that Simon has largely attracted both denigration and adulation ever since. Nineteenth-cent. scholars saw the baronial movement for reform, which Simon came to lead, as a formative phase in the making of the English constitution, a crucial step on the road to democracy. Powicke reacted sharply, considering Simon to be a fanatic, a moral and political crusader, whose arrogance and stubbornness wrecked the early promise of the reform movement enshrined in the provisions of Oxford (1258). What does seem clear is that Simon was no great radical or social reformer. Rather, he accepted the social order of his day and took support from whatever quarter he could.

Lord Leicester redirects here. You may be looking for Lord Leycester, the name of several things in and around Warwick, United Kingdom.

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Holkham Hall

The title Earl of Leicester (pronounced "Lester") was created in the 12th century in the Peerage of England (now extinct), and is currently a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1837.

Contents 1 Early creations 2 1784 creation 3 1744 and 1837 creations 4 Earls of Leicester, First Creation (1107) 5 Earls of Leicester, Second Creation (1265) 6 Earls of Leicester, Third Creation (1564) 7 Earls of Leicester, Fourth Creation (1618) 8 Earls of Leicester, Fifth Creation (1744) 9 Earls of Leicester, Sixth Creation (1784) 10 Earls of Leicester, Seventh Creation (1837) 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

Early creations

The title was first created for Robert de Beaumont, but he invariably used his French title of Count of Meulan. Three generations of his descendants, all also named Robert, called themselves Earls of Leicester. The Beaumont male line ended with the death of the Fourth Earl. His property was split between his two sisters, with Simon IV de Montfort, the son of the eldest sister, acquiring Leicester and the rights to the earldom. (The husband of the younger daughter, Saer de Quincy, was created Earl of Winchester.) De Montfort however was never formally recognized as earl, due to the antipathy between France and England at that time. His second son, Simon V de Montfort, did succeed in taking possession of the earldom and its associated properties. He is the Simon de Montfort who became so prominent during the reign of Henry III, and was killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. His lands and titles were forfeited, and were soon re-granted to the king's youngest son Edmund Crouchback.

Crouchback's son Thomas lost the earldom when he was executed for treason in 1322, but a few years later it was restored to his younger brother Henry. Henry's son Henry of Grosmont left only two daughters, and his estate was divided between them, the eldest daughter Matilda receiving the earldom, which was held by her husband William V of Holland. (The two passages of the earldom via females illustrate the medieval practice by which such inheritance was allowed in the absence of male heirs.)

Matilda, however, soon died, and the title passed to John of Gaunt, husband of her younger sister, Blanche, who was later created Duke of Lancaster. Both the dukedom and the earldom were inherited by John of Gaunt's son, Henry Bolingbroke, and both titles ceased to exist when Henry usurped the throne, as the titles "merged into the crown". (The peers are vassals to the Sovereign, and no one can be a vassal to himself.) The properties associated with the earldom became part of what was later called the Duchy of Lancaster. Thereafter, the earldom was again created for Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley. Since Dudley died without heirs, the title became extinct at his death. The title was again created for Robert Sidney, his nephew. Along with the earldom Robert Sidney was granted the subsidiary title of Viscount Lisle on 4 May 1605. The Sidneys retained the titles until the death of the seventh Earl in 1743, when the titles again became extinct. The title of earl was then recreated for Thomas Coke, but it became extinct when he, too, died without heirs.

1784 creation

The title was again bestowed upon George Townshend, 16th Baron Ferrers of Chartley and 8th Baron Compton, eldest son and heir apparent of George Townshend, 4th Viscount Townshend, later the first Marquess Townshend. Townshend was a female-line great-great-great-grandson of Lady Lucy Sydney, daughter of the second Earl of the 1618 creation. The earldom became extinct yet again upon the death of his son, the third Marquess and second Earl, in 1855 (the marquessate was passed on to a cousin and is still extant).

1744 and 1837 creations

Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (of the 1837 creation)

The Coke family is descended from the noted judge and politician Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice from 1613 to 1616. His great-great-great-grandson Thomas Coke was a landowner, politician and patron of arts. In 1728 he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain as Baron Lovel, of Minster Lovel in the County of Oxford, and in 1744 he was created Viscount Coke, of Holkham in the County of Norfolk, and Earl of Leicester, also in the Peerage of Great Britain. Lord Leicester began the construction of Holkham Hall in Norfolk. He married Margaret Tufton, 19th Baroness de Clifford (1700-1775) (see the Baron de Clifford for earlier history of this title). Their only child Edward Coke, Viscount Coke, predeceased both his parents, without issue. Consequently, Lord Leicester's titles became extinct on his death in 1759 while the barony of de Clifford fell into abeyance on Lady de Clifford's death in 1775.

The Coke estates were passed on to the late Earl's nephew Wenman Coke. Born Wenman Roberts, he was the son of Philip Roberts and Anne, sister of Lord Leicester, and assumed the surname of Coke in lieu of Roberts. His son Thomas Coke was a politician and noted agriculturalist. Known as "Coke of Norfolk", he sat as a Member of Parliament for many years but is best remembered for his interest in agricultural improvements and is seen as one of the instigators of the British Agricultural Revolution. In 1837 the titles held by his great-uncle were revived when was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Viscount Coke and Earl of Leicester, of Holkham in the County of Norfolk. This was despite the fact that the 1784 creation of the earldom held by the Townshend family was then still extant (hence the territorial designation "of Holkham"). Lord Leicester was succeeded by his eldest son from his second marriage, the second Earl. He served as Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk for sixty years and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1873.

On his death in 1909 the titles passed to his eldest son, the third Earl. He was a Colonel in the 2nd Battalion of the Scots Guards and also served as Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the fourth Earl. He was also Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk. When he died the titles passed to his son, the fifth Earl. He was an Extra Equerry to both George VI and Elizabeth II. He died without male issue and was succeeded by his first cousin, the sixth Earl. He was the son of the Hon. Arthur George Coke, second son of the third Earl. As of 2007 the titles are held by his son, the seventh Earl, who succeeded in 1994.

The family seat is Holkham Hall, near Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk.

Earls of Leicester, First Creation (1107)

• Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester (d. 1118)
• Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1104–1168)
• Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester (d. 1190)
• Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester (d. 1204)
• Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester (c. 1170–1218, confirmed 1207)
• Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (1208–1265, forfeit 1265)

Earls of Leicester, Second Creation (1265)

• Edmund, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (1245–1296)
• Thomas, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (c. 1280–1322, forfeit 1322)
• Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Leicester (c 1281–1345) (also Earl of Lancaster, restored 1327)
• Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester (d. 1361)
• John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester (1340–1399)
• Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester (1367–1413, became King in 1399)

Earls of Leicester, Third Creation (1564)

• Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532–1588)

Earls of Leicester, Fourth Creation (1618)

• Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (d. 1626)
• Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1595–1677)
• Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester (1619–1698)
• Robert Sidney, 4th Earl of Leicester (1649–1702)
• Philip Sidney, 5th Earl of Leicester (1676–1705)
• John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester (1680–1737)
• Jocelyn Sidney, 7th Earl of Leicester (1682–1743)

Earls of Leicester, Fifth Creation (1744)

• Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697–1759)
  • Edward Coke, Viscount Coke (died 1753) before his father

Earls of Leicester, Sixth Creation (1784)

• George Townshend, 2nd Marquess Townshend, 1st Earl of Leicester (1755–1811)
• George Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1778–1855)

Earls of Leicester, Seventh Creation (1837)

• Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1754–1842)
• Thomas William Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1822–1909)
• Thomas William Coke, 3rd Earl of Leicester (1848–1941)
• Thomas William Coke, 4th Earl of Leicester (1880–1949)
• Thomas William Edward Coke, 5th Earl of Leicester (1908–1976)
• Anthony Louis Lovel Coke, 6th Earl of Leicester (1909–1994)
• Edward Douglas Coke, 7th Earl of Leicester (b. 1936)

The Heir Apparent is the present holder's son Thomas Edward Coke, Viscount Coke (b. 1965)

The Heir Apparent's Heir Apparent is his only son the Hon. Edward Horatio Coke (b. 2003)

See also

• Mountsorrel, a village close to Leicester and home to the Earl of Leicester in 1151.
• Earl of Romney
• Marquess Townshend
• Baron de Clifford
• Coke Baronets a junior branch of the Coke family

References

• Lords and Earls of Leicester
• Levi Fox, "The Honor and Earldom of Leicester: Origin and Descent, 1066-1399", English Historical Review, 54 (1939), 385-402
• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
• www.thepeerage.com

External links

• Coke family tree

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