The Earl of Leicester ( Earl of Leicester ) is a medieval title of the nobility of England , Great Britain and the United Kingdom , which still exists. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the title of Earl of Leicester consistently belonged to the aristocratic families of de Bomonov and de Montfort , who played leading roles in the political history of England of this period. The most famous are Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester , leader of the Albigensian Crusade , and his son Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , organizer and leader of the Second Baronial War in the middle of the XIII century . Subsequently, the title belonged to the younger line of the Plantagenet dynasty - the counts of Lancaster , and in the 16th century it was worn by the favorite of Queen Elizabeth I Robert Dudley . Since 1837, the counts of Leicester ( peerage of the United Kingdom ) are representatives of the noble family of Cook. The current Earl of Leicester is Thomas Edward Cook (b. 1965), the 8th Earl of Leicester and Viscount Cook. The residence of the modern Earls of Leicester is the Holkham Hall Palace in North Norfolk .
Title History
The title of Earl of Leicester was granted for the first time in 1107 to the Anglo-Normandy aristocrat Robert de Beaumont , Earl of Meylan , one of the closest advisers to King Henry I. Robert's descendants wore the title of Earl of Leicester until 1204, when, after interrupting the male line of de Beaumont, their possessions were divided between the sisters of the 4th graph . The son of the eldest of them, Simon de Montfort , received the city of Leicester and the title of count. Simon became the main organizer and leader of the Albigensian Crusade and for some time took possession of the county of Toulouse in Languedoc . His son Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , played a leading role in the internal political struggle in England during the reign of Henry III and led the revolt of the English barons who defeated the king. In 1265, however, Simon was defeated and was killed in the battle of Evesham . After his death, the title and possessions of the Counts of Leicester were confiscated by the king and transferred to the younger son of Henry III Edmund Horbatom , Earl of Lancaster . The son of Edmund Thomas was executed in 1322 on charges of treason by King Edward II , but after the latter was overthrown in 1327, the title of Earl of Leicester was restored for his younger brother Thomas Henry . The last Earl of Lester from the descendants of Edmund Humpback was Henry Grosmont , an outstanding English commander of the first period of the Hundred Years War . After his death in 1361, the title and possession of the Counts of Leicester were transferred to the husband of Henry Grosmont’s youngest daughter, John Gaunt , the third son of the English King Edward III and the founder of the Lancaster dynasty. When the son of John Gaunt, Heinrich Bolingbroke, in 1399, assumed the throne of England under the name of Henry IV , the title of Earl of Leicester ceased to exist, and the landholdings accompanying him became part of the royal domain , becoming part of the Duchy of Lancaster .
The third creation of the title of Count Leicester took place in 1564. This title was bestowed on Robert Dudley , a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. Dudley passed away in 1588 without heirs, and the title was again restored in 1618 for his nephew Robert Sidney , a major statesman of Jacobin England and a talented poet. His descendants wore the title of Earl of Leicester until 1743, when the male line of the Sidney family was cut short. The following two creations — for Thomas Cook (1744) and George Townshend (1784) —were short-lived. Finally, in 1837 Thomas William Cook became Count Leicester, whose descendants continue to bear this title to the present.
List of Earl of Leicester
Earls of Leicester, First Creation (1107)
- Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, Earl of Meulan (1049 - 5 June 1118);
- Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1104 - April 5, 1168), son of the previous one;
- Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester (c. 1130 - August 31, 1190), son of the former;
- Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester, Earl of Meylan (died October 21, 1204), son of the previous one;
- Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester (1160 - 25 June 1218), son of a sister previous;
- Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (May 23, 1208 - August 4, 1265), the son of the previous one, confiscated the title in 1265.
Earls of Leicester, second creation (1265)
- Edmund the Brokeback, 1st Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (January 16, 1245 - June 5, 1296), son of Henry III ;
- Thomas Plantagenet, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (c. 1278 - March 22, 1322), son of the previous one, confiscated the title in 1322;
- Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (1281 - September 22, 1345), brother of the previous one, title restored in 1327;
- Henry Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster, 4th Earl of Leicester (1310 - March 23, 1361); the son of the previous one;
- John Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 5th Earl of Leicester (March 6, 1340 - February 3, 1399), husband of a former daughter , son of Edward III ;
- Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster and 6th Earl of Leicester (April 3, 1366 - March 20, 1413), son of the former, from 1399 - King Henry IV of England.
Earl of Leicester, third creation (1564)
- Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (June 24, 1532 - September 4, 1588), favorite of Queen Elizabeth I.
Earls of Leicester, fourth creation (1618)
- Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (November 19, 1563 - July 13, 1626);
- Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester (December 1, 1595 - November 2, 1677), son of the previous one;
- Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester (January 10, 1619 - March 6, 1698), son of the previous one;
- Robert Sidney, 4th Earl of Leicester (1649 - November 11, 1702), son of the previous one;
- Philip Sidney, 5th Earl of Leicester (July 8, 1676 - July 24, 1705), son of the previous one;
- John Sydney, 6th Earl of Leicester (February 14, 1680 - September 27, 1737), brother of the previous one;
- Jocelyn Sydney, 7th Earl of Leicester (1682 - July 7, 1743), brother of the previous one.
Earl of Leicester, fifth creation (1744)
- Thomas Cook, Earl of Leicester (June 17, 1697 - April 20, 1759)
Earls of Leicester, sixth creation (1784)
- George Townshend, 2nd Marquess of Townshend, 1st Earl of Leicester (April 18, 1753 - July 27, 1811);
- George Townshend, 3rd Marquess of Townshend, 2nd Earl of Leicester (December 13, 1778 - December 31, 1855), son of the previous one.
Earls of Leicester, seventh creation (1837)
- Thomas William Cook, 1st Earl of Leicester (May 6, 1754 - June 30, 1842), grand-nephew of Thomas Cook, Earl of Leicester of the fifth creation;
- Thomas William Cook, 2nd Earl of Leicester (December 26, 1822 - January 24, 1909), son of the former;
- Thomas William Cook, 3rd Earl of Leicester (July 20, 1848 - November 19, 1941), son of the former;
- Thomas William Cook, 4th Earl of Leicester (July 9, 1880 - August 21, 1949), son of the former;
- Thomas William Edward Cook, 5th Earl of Leicester (May 16, 1908 - September 3, 1976), son of the previous one;
- Anthony Lewis Lovely Cook, 6th Earl of Leicester (September 11, 1909 - June 19, 1994), cousin of the previous one;
- Edward Douglas Cook, 7th Earl of Leicester (May 6, 1936 - April 25, 2015), son of the previous one.
- Thomas Edward Cook, 8th Earl of Leicester, (born July 6, 1965), son of the previous one.
- Heir to the latter: Edward Horatio Cook (born June 11, 2003)