Henry Earl of Leicester and Lancaster

The 22nd of September 1345, saw the death of Henry, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster. Henry was the grandson of Henry III and the son Edmund Crouchback by his second wife Blanche of Artois. 

Henry may have suffered from a condition known as Torticollis, where the muscles of the neck cause the head to twist to  one side leading him to be nick-named Wryneck, the same name as a bird who can turn its head almost 180 degrees. ​

Seal of Henry of Lancaster from the Barons' Letter 1301,

In 1310, Henry was one of the Lords Ordainers, a body of twenty one men chosen to oppose King Edward II and force him to make changes to both his household and his kingdom. The nobles of the realm had become discontent with Edward and his reliance on favourites such as Piers Gaveston. Henry's brother Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, whose title Henry would later receive, was involved in another rebellion against King Edward in 1321, he was executed at Pontefract Castle in 1322. Henry received, along with the title, his brothers lands.

In 1330, at the age of fifty-nine, Henry became blind and spent the remainder of his life at Leicester Castle. It maybe due to his own medical afflictions and the reliance on his son and others that in 1331 he founded an infirmary for the poor of the City of Leicester. 

The infirmary, known today as Trinity Hospital, was built as an extension of the castle bailey. It was here at Leicester Castle that Henry died in 1345 and where he was buried. 

Henry's remains were later reinterred by his son, Henry of Grosmont, in his newly built Collegiate Church of the Annunciation 
of Our Lady of the Newarke. ​If you remember, it was in this very church that the body of King Richard III would lay on show before being thrown into his grave at Grey Friars.