The order was founded in Italy and first arrived in England during the reign of King Henry III; opening their first friary in London in 1257.

Those in England, however, continued to operate without Papal legitimacy; some until the final dissolution of the monasteries under King Henry VIII.

They wore rough sackcloth and walked either barefoot or with simple wooden sandals.

[2] The friary is thought to have been located just beyond the Western Gate of Leicester's old town walls.

[3] The friary was closed before 1295, when Oliver Sutton, Bishop of Lincoln, forbade the former site from being converted for secular use.