Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland

Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland (c. 1492 – September 20 1543) was created an earl by King Henry VIII of England in 1525.

Family

Thomas was the son of Sir George Manners, 12th Baron de Ros and his wife Anne St. Leger (1476-1526). His maternal grandparents were Sir Thomas St. Leger and Anne of York.

His maternal grandmother was the second child and eldest surviving daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville. She was an older sister of Edward IV of England, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk, Margaret of York, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Richard III of England.

Marriages and issue

His first wife was Elizabeth Lovell, whom he married in 1512. His second wife was Eleanor Paston, daughter of Sir William Paston of Norfolk. His children were:.

*Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland and 14th Baron de Ros
*Roger Manners, Esq., unmarried.
*Oliver Manners, Esq.
*Sir Thomas Manners, grandfather of Thomas Vavasour, 1st Baronet.
*Sir John Manners, grandfather of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland and great-grandfather of Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury.
*Gertrude Manners, married George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury; mother of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and Edward Talbot, 8th Earl of Shrewsbury.
*Frances Anne Manners, grandmother of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland.
*Katherine Manners, married Sir Henry Capell, Sheriff of Essex.
*Elizabeth Manners (born about 1530 – 8 August, 1570) married Sir John Savage of Rocksavage, grandson of the 1st Earl of Worcester and Elizabeth Herbert by their daughter, Elizabeth Somerset; she was the grandmother of Thomas Savage, 1st Viscount Savage, the great-grandmother of John Savage, 1st Earl Rivers, and the great-great-grandmother of Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton.
*Isabel Manners, died young.
*Anne Manners, mother of Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland.

Life

He was created the first Earl of Rutland on June 28 1526. In 1531 Earl Thomas had a hand in the divorce of Katherine of Aragon and showed the brutality of the day in putting down the risings of the Catholics in the north such as the Pilgrimage of Grace. He died in 1543 after helping the Duke of Norfolk to ravage Scotland and allegedly burn twenty villages in a week, in the beginnings of The Rough Wooing.

Funeral, burial and tomb

He is buried in Bottesford Church, Leicestershire. His tomb is of alabaster and was created by Richard Parker of Burton on Trent with John Lupton (rough mason) and his father, over a period of six days, strengthening the floor supports to take the weight of the tomb. The Belvoir Castle accounts record in considerable detail the necessary arrangements for this funeral work. In commemorating the 1st Earl of Rutland and his wife this tomb also marks the first of the actual burials in the church of the eight earls and four dukes over a period of almost 250 years.

The Earl's effigy is in 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. The head, on which appears an elementary form of coronet, is supported by the a tilt-heaume complete with the "Cap of Maintenance" and the peacock crest. The feet rest on a unicorn (the horn has disappeared).

The effigy of the countess, dressed in a gown and a short cape, wears an ermine trimmed mantle fastened by a cordon whose ends almost reach 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.

When the Earl died the body was embalmed with spices from Nottingham and a surgeon encased it in wax. A plumber then encased it in a close fitting leaden shell. While this was going on the masons were strengthening the chancel floor. Thos. Richard Parker "the alabaster man" was paid £20 for the sculpture and the supervision of its erection.

References

* 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. [http://books.google.com/books?id=LKIKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA470&dq=Elizabeth+Manners&as_brr=1&ei=Os0nR_fOFIOk7QKblIzWBg googlebooks.com] Accessed October 30, 2007
* [http://www.familysearch.org/ familysearch.org] Accessed October 30, 2007