Leicester, county town of Leicestershire, is a modern commercial and industrial center with a long history. It is situated on the River Soar in a region of great scenic attraction. Its traditional industries - hosiery, knitwear and shoe manufacture - have been supplemented in recent
years by engineering. It has a variety of churches and other old buildings of many different periods, mostly built in red brick. Cultural interests are well catered to by its museums and art galleries, theaters and a large concert hall.
Leicester can claim to be the birthplace of modern mass tourism - if the medieval pilgrimages are excluded - since it was here that Thomas Cook organized his first package tour in 1841, a round trip of 30mi/48km to Loughborough. Thomas Cook travel company is today one of the best known international tour operators.
Leicester occupies the site of the Roman city of Ratae Coritanorum, of which a number of interesting remains have survived. From 780 to 869 it was the see of a bishop and during the period of Danish rule one of the five boroughs of the Danelaw. The town was fortified by the Normans, and in 1239 passed into the hands of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Regarded in Great Britain today as the "father of the English Parliament" his main contribution was insisting important state business be discussed in collective meetings and representatives of the lower orders be included. In the Middle Ages the royal court was regularly held in Leicester, in the 15th century three Parliaments were held here. Richard III (1452-1485), the last of the Plantagenets, spent the night in Leicester the night before the battle of Bosworth, in which he was defeated by Henry Tudor. After the battle his body was brought back and buried in Leicester Abbey; however, after the Dissolution of the monasteries his remains were thrown into the River Soar. Thomas Wolsey (1472-1530; Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, later dismissed) was also buried here.
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