Leir is a legendary prehistoric king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. His story is told in much-modified and romanticized form in William Shakespeare's King Lear. In this drama, some names are identical to those of this legends (e.g. Goneril, Regan, Cordelia), and the happenings are very similar. It is often erroneously claimed that there is a link between Leir and the Welsh and Irish sea-gods Llyr and Ler (derived from Commo...
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Leir is a legendary prehistoric king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. His story is told in much-modified and romanticized form in William Shakespeare's King Lear. In this drama, some names are identical to those of this legends (e.g. Goneril, Regan, Cordelia), and the happenings are very similar. It is often erroneously claimed that there is a link between Leir and the Welsh and Irish sea-gods Llyr and Ler (derived from Common Celtic *Leros "Sea"), but the names are not etymologically related. Leir is the eponymous founder of Leicester (Legra-ceaster or Ligora-ceaster in Anglo-Saxon), known as Cair Leir in Old Welsh, where Leir is a hydronym derived from Brittonic *Ligera.
In Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae, Leir followed his father, King Bladud, to the kingship of Britain and had the longest reign of all the kings at sixty years. He built the city of Kaerleir (Leicester) along the banks of the River Soar.
Unlike his predecessors, he produced no male heir to...
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