LEIGHTON BUZZARD, a market town in the southern parliamentary division of Bedfordshire, England, 40 m. N.W. of London by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 6331. It lies in the flat valley of the Ouzel, a tributary of the Ouse, sheltered to east and west by low hills. The river here forms the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The Grand Junction canal follows its course, and gives the town extensive water-communications. The church of All Saints is cruciform, with central tower and spire. It is mainly Early English, and a fine example of the style; but some of the windows including the nave clerestory, and the beautiful carved wooden roof, are Perpendicular. The west door has good early iron-work; and on one of the tower-arch pillars are some remarkable early carvings of jocular character, one of which represents a man assaulted by a woman with a ladle. The market cross is of the 14th century, much restored, having an open arcade supporting a pinnacle, with flying buttresses. The statues in its niches are modern, but the originals are placed on the exterior of the town hall. Leighton has a considerable agricultural trade, and some industry in straw-plaiting. Across the Ouzel in Buckinghamshire, where Leighton railway station is situated, is the urban district of Linslade (pop. 2157).
LEININGEN, the name of an old German family, whose lands lay principally in Alsace and Lorraine. The first count of Leiningen about whom anything certain is known was a certain Emicho (d. 1117), whose family became extinct in the male line when Count Frederick, a Minnesinger, died about 1220. Frederick’s sister, Liutgarde, married Simon, count of Saarbrücken, and Frederick, one of their sons, inheriting the lands of the counts of Leiningen, took their arms and their name. Having increased its possessions the Leiningen family was divided about 1317 into two branches; the elder of these, whose head was a landgrave, died out in 1467. On this event its lands fell to a female, the last landgrave’s sister Margaret, wife of Reinhard, lord of Westerburg, and their descendants were known as the family of Leiningen-Westerburg. Later this family was divided into two branches, those of Alt-Leiningen-Westerburg and Neu-Leiningen-Westerburg, both of which are represented to-day.
Meanwhile the younger branch of the Leiningens, known as the family of Leiningen-Dagsburg, was flourishing, and in 1560 this was divided into the lines of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hartenburg, founded by Count John Philip (d. 1562), and Leiningen-Dagsburg-Heidesheim or Falkenburg, founded by Count Emicho (d. 1593). In 1779 the head of the former line was raised to the rank of a prince of the Empire. In 1801 this family was deprived of its lands on the left bank of the Rhine by France, but in 1803 it received ample compensation for these losses. A few years later its possessions were mediatized, and they are now included mainly in Baden, but partly in Bavaria and in Hesse. A former head of this family, Prince Emich Charles, married Maria Louisa Victoria, princess of Saxe-Coburg; after his death in 1814 the princess married George III.’s son, the duke of Kent, by whom she became the mother of Queen Victoria. In 1910 the head of the family was Prince Emich (b. 1866).
The family of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Heidesheim was divided into three branches, the two senior of which became extinct during the 18th century. At present it is represented by the counts of Leiningen-Guntersblum and Leiningen-Heidesheim, called also Leiningen-Billigheim and Leiningen-Neidenau.
See Brinckmeier, Genealogische Geschichte des Hauses Leiningen (Brunswick, 1890-1891).
LEINSTER, a province of Ireland, occupying the middle and south-eastern portion of the island, and extending to the left bank of the Shannon. It includes counties Longford, Westmeath, Meath, Louth, King’s County, Kildare, Dublin, Queen’s County, Carlow, Wicklow, Kilkenny and Wexford (q.v. for topography, &c.). Leinster (Laighen) was one of the early Milesian provinces of Ireland. Meath, the modern county of which is included in Leinster, was the name of a separate province created in the 2nd century A.D. The kings of Leinster retained their position until 1171, and their descendants maintained independence within a circumscribed territory as late as the 16th century. In 1170 Richard Strongbow married Aoife, daughter of the last king Diarmid, and thus acquired the nominal right to the kingdom of Leinster. Henry II. confirmed him in powers of jurisdiction equivalent to those of a palatinate. His daughter Isabel married William Marshal, earl of Pembroke. Their five daughters shared the territory of Leinster, which was now divided into five liberties carrying the same extensive privileges as the undivided territory, namely, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Kildare and Leix. The history of Leinster thereafter passes to the several divisions which were gradually organized into the present counties.
LEIPZIG, a city of Germany, the second town of the kingdom of Saxony in size and the first in commercial importance, 70 m. N.W. of Dresden and 111 m. S.W. of Berlin by rail, and 6 m. from the Prussian frontier. It lies 350 ft. above the sea-level, In a broad and fertile plain, just above the junction of three small rivers, the Pleisse, the Parthe and the Elster, which flow in various branches through or round the town and afterwards under the name of the Elster, discharge themselves into the Saale. The climate, though not generally unhealthy, may be inclement in winter and hot in summer.