By the fourteenth century, the Earls of Lancaster were one
of the two or three wealthiest and most powerful families in the country. In
1352 Henry, the fourth Earl, was elevated to Duke of Lancaster. Not long
afterward Henry set about the transformation of the castle. Part of this
transformation was to add an outer bailey to the north of the castle, but the
main element of the remodelling was the development of the area to the south of
the castle. Part of the development was the enlargement of the hospital to
almost twice its original size, but the main works were to turn the entire area
to the south of the castle into a religious precinct. A key part of the plan
was the erection of new gateway, the Turret Gateway, on the south of the
castle. At the centre of this precinct was a large church, the Collegiate
Church of the Annunciation of St. Mary. The main purpose of the church was to
act as a mausoleum for the Dukes, and it was to have its own college of clergy,
consisted of twelve canons, thirteen vicars and six choristers, supported one
hundred poor persons to administer to the church and the patients in the
hospital. The clergy were to live in dwellings located around the church whilst
the poor were to dwell in cubicles in the hospital.
Henry never lived to see his project finished. He died in
1361, with no male heir. So his son-in-law, John of Gaunt, inherited the
Dukedom. It was left to John to complete the church, but on John’s death, in
1399, his son, Henry Bolingbroke, became Henry IV, King of England. The title
Duke of Lancaster became an honorary title of the monarch, and Henry and his
successors had their principal residence in London and were buried in Westminster Abbey.
It transpired that none of the Dukes of Lancaster was buried
in the collegiate church. The thrice married John of Gaunt gave instructions in
his will that he was to be buried beside his first wife, Blanche, close to the
high altar in St Paul's Cathedral, London.
Leicester
Castle continued to be
regarded as the traditional seat of the Dukes and to be used for ceremonial
occasions, such as the knighting of the future Henry V. The scheme to develop
the area to the south of the castle as a religious precinct was completed with
the construction of a wall to enclose the precinct. The wall that was built
around the three sides of the precinct that did not face the castle had two
large and imposing gatehouses, one towards the middle of the south side and one
in the northeast corner. The latter is the monument now known as the Magazine
Gateway. It was these impressive looking defences that led to the precinct being
known as the ‘new-work’ or the Newarke.
