Leicester Tour Map Key

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1 North Gate Entrance Saturday, August 20, 1485
              King Richard and his army encamp at Leicester, having ridden from Nottingham to intercept Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. He stays either at the Blue Boar Inn or the Castle. Richard entered the north gate traveling down the main thoroughfare known as High Cross Street to Blue Boar Lane on which was the Guildhall.

[Permissions pending for sketch of the old Blue Boar Inn]
      Photograph by Alison Fisher
1
BLUE BOAR--Facing High Cross Street,  midway through town, was an Inn once called the White Boar or Blue Boar where tradition holds King Richard stayed before heading to Bosworth Field. Whatever its name, after the battle, it was the Blue Boar and became a legend until being torn down in 1862
2
Richard III Inn, thought to be a few yards from the Old Blue Boar Inn


4 Leicester Castle
              The castle has Lancastrian connections as the home castle of the Earl of Leicester and Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt. His son, Henry Bolingbroke inherited the castle before becoming King Henry IV.
               The king could have stayed at the Castle grounds, as he was said to have done a year earlier. Only a mound marks the castle location. The castle grounds consist of the (4d) castle house, (4a) a mound that once was the fortification, (4b) garden, (4c) statue of Richard III, and the (3) castle Church, St. Mary’s


Photograph by Joan Szechtman
(inset)		  
  Photograph by Joan Szechtman
 Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Map of Castle grounds
4d
Castle House used as a residence and office upon destruction of the Castle during the English Civil War
P1
Sign on a wall of Castle House commemorating the presence at the castle of two kings in Leicester. Reference victors and vanquished at the Battle of Bosworth. (Click on thumbnail to read text of plaque.)

Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
4c
A statue commemorating Richard III, by James Butler and sponsored by the Richard III Society, stands in the castle gardens.
Statue Plaque--Birth
Statue Plaque--Death
 3 Church of St. Mary DeCastro
              St. Mary’s is located off of Southgate and Castle Street

Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
3
St. Mary’s was the castle church and remains today. Local legend has Richard’s body possibly displayed before burial at Greyfriars church.
3
The Steeple at St. Mary’s de Castro. A legend has Richard’s corpse being displayed at the church.
3
St. Mary de Castro Collegiate Church sign.
Richard is generally thought to have taken the western route to Bosworth, through the (6) West Gate and crossing the branches of the Soar River over the (8) West Bridge and the (9) Bow Bridge. One traditional prediction has him leaving by the (6) South Gate.
  

Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
8
The modern West Bridge which crossed the main arm of the Soar River (11) and connected to the Austin Friar’s island (10). The Grand Union Canal was constructed changing the course of the river and topography.
9
Following a triumphant march to Bosworth with his army and arrayed in Kingly apparel, the king’s corpse was returned ignominiously either the evening of Monday August 22, 1485, or in the Morning, Tuesday, August 23, 1485 behind the victorious army of Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII. The old Bow Bridge was demolished in 1862 to make room for the construction of the Grand Union Canal.

Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
P4
DEDICATION MONUMENT for the construction of the present Bow Bridge in 1862, “This bridge was erected by the Corporation of Leicester in the Mayoralty of Samuel Viccars, Esq. A.D. 1862 on the site of the Ancient Bow Bridge over which King Richard III passed at the head of his army to the Battle of Bosworth Field, August 22, 1485.
Joseph Whetstone, Chairman of the Highway Committee. Samuel Stone, Town Clerk. E.L. Stephens, Borough Surveyor.
P2
BROADBENT MARKER recounts the legend of the king’s body’s recovery from the river and reburial at Austin Friar’s property. Replaces a wall stone marker when Friar’s Mill was built on the spot. Benjamin Broadbent, a master builder, paid for the replacement monument on the building and is now on the bridge structure. Reads; “Near this spot lie the remains of Richard III, the last of the Plantagenets. 1485

Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
11 A tradition exists that Richard's body was exhumed and dumped into the Saor River at Bow Bridge following the Dissolution of Grey Friars by an unknown rabble. A complete skeleton with undamaged skull was found near this site. 9 Changes to the Saor, Bow Bridge, and Canal: The Soar was drained in 1982 for work on the Bow Bridge.

Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
P5
RICHARD III SOCIETY MONUMENT placed in 2005 by the Society to provide an alternate view of the final deposit of the king’s remains. Reads; “This plaque originally erected by B. Broadbent in 1856 on the nearby site of the Austin Friars, records the 17th Century tradition, now generally discredited, that at the dissolution of the monasteries, the body of King Richard III was disinterred  from his tomb at the Greyfriars  in Leicester and thrown into the River Soar. Richard III Society 2002.”
P3
PROPHECY MONUMENT on the left side of the bridge recounts a popular legend predicting the king’s defeat. Reads; “Upon this bridge (as tradition hath delivered) stood a stone of some height, against which King Richard, as he passed toward Bosworth, by chance struck his spur; and against this same stone, as he was brought back hanging by the horse side, his head was dashed and broken, as a wise woman (forsooth) had foretold, who before Richard’s going to battle, being asked of his success, said that where his spur struck, his head should be broken.”
  
6 South Gate
    The reference to Richard’s departure through South Gate comes from the prophecy of the Old Man at the South Gate who predicted that the Moon would twice change its course during the battle signalling the king’s defeat and that Richard, on return, would strike his head against a stump.
    South Gate is also the gateway from the old town into the Newwarke and Castle Grounds. The Gateway still remains.
       

Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
6 SOUTHGATE. An alternative route takes Richard and his army south through the gate around the Newark and Castle grounds. One version of the prophecy legend has the king encountering an old man at the South gate who predicts that as the king strikes his foot against a stump so shall his head and with the changing of the moon’s direction, so goes the battle. 6 SOUTHGATE MONUMENT. Reads; “Southern Gateway, Castle Yard. This archway is part of the fortified gate, which had a turreted house above it that formed the southern entrance to the castle enclosure. The complete gate and gate-house were probably erected in the latter part of the fourteenth century. The portcullis-grove may still be noted.” 6 SOUTHGATE MAGAZINE. Reads; “This building which dates from the fourteenth century served as the main gateway to the Newarke. During the Civil War, it was used as a magazine (or secure armaments store), hence its present name. As a regimental museum, it continues to have military associations and houses a collection of uniforms, equipment and mementoes. The Magazine.
 5  The Newarke, St. Mary’s Church of the Annunciation.
Of  Our Lady of the Newarke (5a)
(No images available)
The Newarke, was an extension of the Castle grounds and lie south of it, it consisted of several buildings, including a hospital and church.
Today the Church Ruins lie beneath the Hawthorne Building of the DeMontfort University, formerly the Polytechnic Institute. Only fragments remain.
      

Photograph by
Alison Fisher		 GUILDHALL once used as a town hall in years after King Richard III’s time after the original town hall or Mayor’s Hall (15) next to the old Blue Boar Inn on Blue Boar Lane, was abandoned. The old Town Hall may have served to display the remains of the king following the Battle of Bosworth.
Behind the Guildhall is the steeple of St. Martin’s Cathedral.

12 Greyfriars
Medieval:  Highcross Street, St. Francis Land, Saturday/Wednesday’s Market. Boundary, Friar Lane.
    Modern: Southgate Street, Peacock /St. Martins, Hotel Street, Friar Lane.
Two streets bisecting the property were added, New Street and Grey Friars.

The outline of the Greyfriar’s property has remained relatively unchanged over the half of millennia since Richard’s death. But the land usage has undergone major alteration.  Henry VIII broke with Rome, taking church and church property, closing the friary, which the Franciscan Friars Minor was handed over in 1528 after leasing it since the 13th Century.  Grey Friars was sold off in the general dispersions of land that followed. Multiplying, too, were the traditions of the location of Richard’s remains.
   

Photograph by Alison Fisher
Photograph by Alison Fisher
12
 GREYFRIARS perimeter as it exists today. Photo is Peacock Lane, St. Martin’s Cathedral right, the with a Richard III Society  monument marking the king’s burial on the Greyfriar’s property on the bank building to the left. 12

GREYFRIARS Perimeter. Two views of Friary Lane, Grey Friar’s former property is on the left side.

Photograph by Alison Fisher
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
12 GREYFRIARS perimeter.  The corner contains a former bank building on which is a placed a plaque P6 donated by the Richard III Society. Could he be under one of the buildings on either side of Greyfriars Street on the northern, St. Martin’s end?
 P6 GREYFRIARS periphery. Close up of the monument on the building. Reads; “Near this site stood the Church of the Greyfriars where the body of King Richard III, the last   Plantagenet king of England was interred after his death, aged 32, at the Battle of Bosworth Field, 22 August 1485. Requiescat in pace. This memorial was erected by the Richard III Society in 1990.

Photograph by Alison Fisher
12e Grey Friars wall fragment is in this public parking lot  off New Street. Could Richard III be buried somewhere under this lot?



Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
Photograph by Joan Szechtman
14 St. Martin's Cathedral 14 Plaque reads: Dedicated to Saint Martin, this building was one of the six Leicester Churches mentioned in the Doomsday Book. It was extended in the Middle Ages, restored in the 19th century and impressively furnished following its hallowing as a Cathedral in 1927. It contains beautifully carved woodwork and stained glass. P7 Memorial Plaque in St. Martin's. 
Richard III
Kink of England
Killed at Bosworth Field
in this county
22nd August 1485
Buried in the
Church of the Grey Friars
in the parish

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