thumb|200px|Garter-encircled arms of Sir Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, as displayed on his [[Garter stall plate (see below) - Quarterly 1st and 4th Or two bars Azure a chief quarterly 1 and 4 Azure two fleurs-de-lis Or 2 and 3 Gules a lion passant guardant Or for Manners; 2nd quarterly 1 Gules three water bougets Argent for Ros; 2 Azure a Catherine wheel Or for Belvoir; 3 Gules three Catherine wheels Argent for Espec; 4 Argent a fess between two bars gemel Gules for Badlesmere; 3rd quarterly 1 England within a border Argent for Holland; 2 and 3 Argent a saltire engrailed Gules for Tiptoft; 4 Or a lion rampant Gules for Charleton.]]

thumb|200px|Arms of Manners, Earls and Dukes of Rutland: Or, two bars azure a chief quarterly azure and gules; in the 1st and 4th quarters two fleurs-de-lis and in the 2nd and 3rd a [[Lions in heraldry|lion passant guardant all or The original coat of arms of the Manners family showed a chief gules. The quartering in chief, with the fleurs-de-lis of the Royal arms of France and lion passant guardant of the Royal arms of England, was granted as an augmentation by King Henry VIII to Thomas Manners at the time of his creation as Earl of Rutland, in recognition of his descent in the maternal line from Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, a descendant of King Edward III (1327–1377)]]

Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, 12th Baron Ros, KG (c. 149720 September 1543), of Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire (adjacent to the small county of Rutland), was created Earl of Rutland by King Henry VIII in 1525.

Early life

Thomas was the son of Sir George Manners, 11th Baron Ros (c. 14701513) by his wife Anne St Leger (1476–1526). His maternal grandparents were Sir Thomas St Leger (c. 1440–1483) and Anne of York (1439–1476), a daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville. She was thus an elder sister of Kings Edward IV (1461–1483) and of his brother and eventual successor, Richard III (1483–1485). Her other brothers were Edmund, Earl of Rutland and George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence. Her sisters included Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk and Margaret of York. Anne St Leger's first cousin, Elizabeth of York, married Henry Tudor and was the mother of Henry VIII and grandmother of Elizabeth I. Thomas Manners was thus a second cousin to Henry VIII.

Career

On 22 June 1513, Thomas landed at Calais on the French expedition. In 1513 he became Baron Ros, probably aged 16 or 17, on his father's death and was summoned in 1515 to Parliament. He was at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 and at King Henry VIII's meeting with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor afterwards.

In December 1521, Baron Ros became cupbearer to the king. In January 1522 he was made steward of Pickering, Yorkshire, and from April to October of the same year he held the appointment of Lord Warden of the East Marches, in which he was succeeded by Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland. He received the wardenship of Sherwood Forest on 12 July 1524, an office which afterwards became practically hereditary in his family. He was appointed a Knight of the Garter on 24 April 1525 and on 18 June 1525 he was made Earl of Rutland, a title previously held by members of the house of York.

He was a great favourite of King Henry VIII and received many grants, including the keepership of Enfield Chase on 12 July 1526, and Belvoir Castle, which remains the chief seat of his family. died unmarried

  • Oliver Manners, Esq.

Daughters

  • Gertrude Manners, who married George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury and was the mother of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and Edward Talbot, 8th Earl of Shrewsbury.
  • Anne Manners, who married Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland and was the mother of Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland.
  • Frances Manners, who married Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny and was grandmother of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland.
  • Katherine Manners, who married Sir Henry Capell, Sheriff of Essex.
  • Elizabeth Manners (c. 15308 August 1570), who married Sir John Savage of Rocksavage, whose mother was Elizabeth Somerset, daughter of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester by his wife Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert. She was the grandmother of Thomas Savage, 1st Viscount Savage and the great-grandmother of John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers and was the great-great-grandmother of Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton.
  • Isabel Manners, died young.

Death and burial

He died on 20 September 1543 and was buried in St Mary's Church in Bottesford, Leicestershire. His body was embalmed with spices purchased in Nottingham and a surgeon encased it in wax. A plumber then encased it in a close-fitting leaden shell.

Monument

thumb|200px|View of chancel of [[St Mary the Virgin's Church, Bottesford|St Mary's Church, Bottesford, with its many monuments to the Earls and Dukes of Rutland]]

His surviving alabaster chest tomb in the chancel of St Mary's Church, Bottesford, Leicestershire, was created by Richard Parker of Burton-on-Trent with John Lupton (rough mason) and his father, over a period of six days, the floor having been strengthened to the weight of the tomb. Thomas Richard Parker "the alabaster man" was paid £20 for the sculpture and the supervision of its positioning. Surviving accounts at Belvoir Castle record in considerable detail the arrangements for this work and the funeral. As well as commemorating the 1st Earl of Rutland and his wife this monument also marks the first of the future burials in the church of eight earls and four dukes over a period of almost 250 years.

Description

The Earl's effigy is dressed in chain mail and full plate armour with a loose military tabard over which he wears the mantle of the Order of the Garter while on his left leg is the Garter itself. His head wears a basic form of coronet and rests on his tilt-heaume on top of which is the Manners crest of a peacock in pride on a Cap of Maintenance. The feet rest on a unicorn, from which the horn is now missing. The effigy of the countess is dressed in a gown and a short cape and wears an ermine-trimmed mantle fastened by a cordon whose ends reach almost to her feet, under which is a griffon. Tasselled cushions support her head. The base of the tomb is decorated with corner pilasters, tasselled swags and "weeper" figures representing knights, ladies and others.

Ancestry

References

Attribution

  • Thomas Manners, tudorplace.com. Retrieved 17 May 2009
  • Burke, John, and Bernard Burke. A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co, 1977. googlebooks. Retrieved 30 October 2007
  • The Encyclopædia Britannica; A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Vol. XXIII, New York: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1910. (p. 943) googlebooks. Retrieved 17 May 2009.