A Disputed Dignity

Abstract

A prestigious and valuable dignity held in the sixteenth century by the Manners family, hereditary Earls (now Dukes) of Rutland, was the Barony of Roos. Variously spelled in contemporary documents—Ros, Roos, Roose, Roosse, Ross, Rosse, Roasse, Roese, Roise—the title descended from one of the Runnymede barons, Robert de Ros, Lord of Hamlake Castle. The barony had come into the Manners family by way of the marriage of Lady Eleanor, Baroness Roos, to Sir Robert Manners, the bride bringing with her Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire and Hamlake Castle in Yorkshire, together with extensive land holdings. In 1526 their grandson, Thomas Manners, 13th. Baron Roos, was created first Earl of Rutland. Preserved in the muniments room at Belvoir Castle, as catalogued by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, are a number of genealogies drawn up for Roger, 5th Earl of Rutland, highlighting the importance to the Manners family of the Roos lineage: Pedigree of the Manners and Roos families down to Roger Earl of Rutland, with painted coats of arms. Pedigrees of the Earls of Rutland showing their descent, through Roos, from Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Dated 18 February 1592. Pedigree of the Manners family down to Roger earl of Rutland, 1604, showing the descent from Espec through Roos.1 This document, which is 9ft. 2ins. long and 4ft. 6ins. wide, is beautifully illuminated with coats of arms for every individual and with large achievements for Francis Earl of Rutland, George Vernon of Haddon, whose daughter brought that seat to the Manners family, and John Manners of Haddon, second son of the earl of Rutland. There is also an elaborate achievement of the Manners family, with supporters at the foot. The nine lines of ancestry traced are, from left to right, (1) Manners, (2) Roos, (3) D’Aubigny, (4) Fitz Bernard, (5) McMorough, (6) Bellmont, (7) Courey, (8) Zouche, (9) Vernon.2