d military services to the country; it originally consisted of
four classes, but now comprehends five: grand crosses, grand officers,
commanders, officers, and chevaliers, each, of military or naval men,
with pensions on a descending scale and all for life; their badge, a
white star of five rays, bearing on the obverse an image of the republic
and on the reverse two tricolor flags.

LEGITIMISTS, a name given to supporters of the Bourbon dynasty in
France as opposed to the Orleanists, who supported the claims of Louis
Philippe.

LEIBNITZ, German philosopher, mathematician, and man of affairs,
born in Leipzig; studied law and took the degree of Doctor of Laws at
Altorf; spent a good part of his life at courts, visited Paris and London
and formed a friendship with the savans in both cities, and finally
settled in Hanover, where he moved much in the circle of the Electress
Sophia and her daughter Sophia Charlotte, the Prussian Queen, whom he
entertained with his philosophy of the "infinitely little," as it has
been called; he discovered with Newton the basis of the differential
calculus, and concocted the system of monods (his "Monodology"), between
which and the soul, he taught, there existed a "pre-established harmony,"
issuing in the cosmos; he was an optimist, and had for his motto the
oft-quoted phrase, "Everything is for the best in the best of possible
worlds"; his principal works in philosophy are his "Theodicee," written
at the instance of Sophia Charlotte and in refutation of Bayle, and his
"Monodologie," written on the suggestion of Prince Eugene (1646-1716).

LEICESTER (209), county town of Leicestershire, on the Soar, 40 m.
E. of Birmingham; is an ancient town, with several historic buildings;
has grown rapidly of late owing to its hosiery, boot and shoe, and
iron-founding industries; it sends two members to Parliament.

LEICESTER, ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF, Queen Elizabeth's favourite,
fifth son of the Duke of Northumberland; won the queen's favour by his
handsome appearance and courtly address; received many offices and
honours, and on the death, under suspicious circumstances, of his
Countess, Amy Robsart, aspired to her hand; still favoured, in spite of
his unpopularity in the country, he was proposed as husband to Mary,
Queen of Scots, in 1563; he married the dowager Lady Sheffield in 1573,
and afterwards bigamously the Countess of Essex; after a short term of
disfavour he was appointed commander i