Leicester Castle

Leicester Castle stands in the west of Leicester city centre, between Saint Nicholas Circle and De Montfort University. The remains include a large motte, the Great Hall, the Church of St Mary de Castro and the ruined Turret Gateway. It was once the seat of the Earls of Leicester under the Houses of Beaumont, Montfort and Lancaster. The Great Hall served for centuries as the home of Leicester County Assizes and is encased in a Queen Anne style frontage. The castle is a scheduled monument and part of the medieval town defences built over Roman walls. The castle was probably built around 1070 soon after the Norman Conquest under Hugh de Grandmesnil. Robert de Beaumont became the first Earl of Leicester in 1107 and carried out significant building works in the bailey. During the rebellion against Henry II in 1173, the castle was slighted and parts of the ditches filled. Kings such as Edward I and Edward II stayed at the castle, and John of Gaunt and his second wife Constance of Castile both died here. Henry of Grosmont, a leading captain in the early phases of the Hundred Years' War, died at the castle in 1361. The Great Hall was used for sessions of the Parliament of England, notably the Parliament of Bats in 1426. During the English Civil War, a section of the castle wall has gun loops used by the garrison when Leicester was besieged in 1645. The third storey of the Turret Gateway, known as Prince Rupert’s gateway, was destroyed in an election riot in 1832. J. M. Barrie visited the assize courts regularly in the 1880s as a reporter for the Nottingham Journal. The castle continued to be used for hearings of Leicester Crown Court until the Leicester Law Courts were completed in 1981.