The little historical documentation for Greyfriars Leicester that survives and is published has been assembled by Nick Holder (Regent’s University, London) for the Greyfriars Project. Its history begins sometime between 1224, when the Franciscans first came to England, and the first mention of a Franciscan friary in Leicester dates from when it was visited by John of Malvern in 1230-1231, as documented by Thomas of Eccleston in his chronicle De adventu Fratrum Minorum (The arrival of the Brothers Minor). There is some confusion in the later historical sources over the identity of the founder. The sixteenth-century traveller John Leland thought it was Simon de Montfort, and historians of the eighteenth century suggest several other names, but there is no independent primary evidence to support any of these suggestions. It may be significant that the archdeacon of Leicester at the time of the foundation, Robert Grosseteste, was a supporter of the new friaries, especially the Franciscans. This may at least have provided a sympathetic climate for the establishment of their friary in Leicester.
We do not know the date when the building of the church commenced, but in 1255 King Henry III gave the timber of 18 oak trees from the King’s Hay in Alrewas, Staffordshire ‘for making their stalls and lining their chapel’, in response to a request from his sister Eleanor, who was the wife of Simon de Montfort and countess of Leicester. This must have been done as one of the final tasks in the construction of the eastern end of the building. However, the church seems to have been formally opened and consecrated later, judging from the incentive (10 days fewer in Purgatory) to visit ‘the newly consecrated church of the Franciscans in Leicester’ offered by the Bishop of Lincoln in July 1290. This same document also suggests that the saints specially venerated in the church were St Mary, St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist, though whether it was to any of these that the church was primarily dedicated remains uncertain.
Historical documents reveal that from the late thirteenth century onward the friary had become a local landmark. It is regularly mentioned in property transactions to locate plots of land and houses. One of these documents cites the friary’s enclosure wall as a property boundary. The wall seems to have had two or more gates, at least one with a gatehouse. Within the walls there seem to have been spacious
Gardens. One part of the garden, perhaps in the north-west sector of the friary precinct and measuring 115 x 85 ft (35.1 x 25.9 m) was leased in 1520 to Wygston Hospital. But, there were certainly other areas of garden as well, and one document mentions their orchards and vegetable plots.
By the mid thirteenth century historical sources document a lector (teacher) at Greyfriars, suggesting that a library and a school for preparing clerical candidates for further study elsewhere also existed. In 1401 the chapter house (identified in the 2012 excavations) was the setting for the chapter meeting of all the English Franciscan friaries. By 1414, the infirmary and refectory, along with the chapter house, are also recorded as used for political activity. All of these buildings, however, were probably built much earlier than their first mention in historical documents.
Friary buildings were also used for other gatherings and purposes. Tithe assessors are recorded as meeting at the friary in 1332 or 1333. In 1334, Sir William of Harley is documented as holding the banquet following his wife’s funeral at the friary; presumably she was also buried there and the funeral took place in the church. In contrast, a confessed murderer, John of Bussby, took sanctuary in the friary church in 1327, but managed to escape after five weeks.
As mentioned in Chapter 2, eighteenth-century modifications to houses then facing St Martin’s church unearthed numerous bones in the area between the Greyfriars church and what is now Peacock Lane. This was perhaps the location of the friary’s cemetery.
In 1349 Gilbert and Ellen Lavener sought permission from the Crown to donate a plot of land to the friary ‘for the enlargement of their house’. Otherwise, few large-scale donors are known by name, although numerous surviving wills indicate that many people left money to all three of Leicester’s friaries.
In the fifteenth century, Greyfriars Leicester was in the spotlight several times, including, as mentioned earlier, in the plot of1402 when the head of the friary (the guardian) and some of the friars allegedly conspired to return the deposed King Richard II to the throne. All were arrested and executed. In 1414, Parliament met several times in the friary’s chapter house, rectory and infirmary to deal with members of the Lollard religious reform movement, who initiated an insurrection led by Sir John Oldcastle.
When Greyfriars was closed under King Henry VIII on 10 November 1538, only the guardian and six friars remained. The guardian received a pension, but the friars were left to fend for themselves as best they could. In August 1539 the empty friary precinct was let out in a complex chain of transactions. The Crown gained a tidy income from a combination of the rent paid by the tenants and the sale of architectural salvage, including structural timbers, bronze from the church bell and lead from the roof. The friary was sold in 1545, at which point more building materials, including stone, were sold. During the 2012 excavation, the rubble from the process of dismantling the friary buildings and the foundation trenches robbed of stone confirmed the evidence of the historical documents which testify to the dismemberment and sale of its very fabric.
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