given security for keeping the peace. The process was cancelled by the king in 1319. The cause of the dispute was, the arrest of one of the knights of Despenser, at the instigation of John de Ros. John de Ros was of the party of Queen Elizabeth, and others, whom Edward II, by the persuasion of the Spensers, had banished. On the deposition and barbarous murder of the second Edward, John de Ros was in great favour with the young king, his son, to whom he had recommended himself by his convivial qualities; and to the queen mother, by his daring gallantry, as a partisan against the powerful and unworthy favourites of her husband. He was made steward of the young king's household, and appointed one of the twelve guardians, by whom, it was resolved, the king, in his minority, should be governed. In 1336, he was constituted admiral of the sea, from the Thames northward, under his brother William, as Lord High Admiral. He is supposed to have built the tower, if not the whole of Stoke Albany Church, on the south side of which are the arms of De Ros. He died in 1337, in embarrassed circumstances; and his brother obtained two hundred marks from the king, towards his burial. WILLIAM DE Ros III, was at the raising of the siege of Arguillon, in 1346, and was knighted near La Hogue, being then only nineteen years old. In the same year, he was one of the lords, who led the second division in the celebrated battle of Cressy. He afterwards commanded (see Notes) the fourth division of the English army against the Scots, near Neville's Cross, when David Bruce, with many of the Scottish nobles, were taken prisoners, on the seventeenth of October, in the same year. In 1348, he was with Edward, the Black Prince, at the siege of Calais, when it was taken by the English. He was summoned to parliament in 24 & 25 Edward III. In 1352, he accompanied Henry, Duke of Lancaster, to fight against the Saracens; but died the same year, before the feast of St. Michael, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, on his journey to the Holy Land, and was buried abroad. He married Margaret, daughter of Ralph, Lord Neville,* but died without issue. His widow afterwards married Sir Henry de Percy, and died in 1372. This limited statement, amounting to scarcely more than a few facts and dates, is, yet, sufficient to prove William de Ros, one of the most distinguished characters of his age. THOMAS DE Ros, of Hamlake, brother and next heir to William, married, in 1359, Beatrice, the widow of Maurice Fitz-Maurice, Earl of Desmond, and daughter to Ralph, Earl of Stafford ;† by whom he had issue, John, William, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Margaret. In 1364, he accompanied the king of Cyprus to the Holy Land; and was in the French wars, from 1369 to 1371. He was summoned to parliament, from 35 Edward III, to 7 Richard II, inclusive. He died at Uffington, June 8, 1383; and was buried at Rievaulx Abbey. His widow became the wife of Sir Richard Burley, knight of the garter, and one of the privy councillors to the Duke of Lancaster; of whose army he was field marshall, in Galicia; where he died in 1386, of a sickness, which carried off many others. His body was buried with much pomp, in old St. Paul's Cathedral, where a splendid monument, of the perpendicular style of English architecture, was erected to his memory; a drawing of which has been preserved by Dugdale, of which, Gough and Nichols have given a copy. There is no evidence, that the Lady Beatrice, now again a widow, married a third time; though she seems to have survived her husband many years. ed the royal permission to found within St. Paul's Church, to pray for the souls of Sir Richard Burley, knight; his father, and mother; and, also, Sir Richard For in 1409, she obtaina chantry, for one priest, * Neville. Arms-Gules, a saltier, argent. de Pembruges, Sir Thomas de Ros, his parents, and all the faithful departed; and, finally, for the good estate of herself during life, and her soul afterwards. Twelve marks were allotted for the maintenance of the priest, charged on certain messuages and shops, in London.—An inscription in the church of Owersby, in Lincolnshire, proves, that Thomas de Ros, the third son, was knighted, and was lord of the manor of Owersby, as well as patron of the church; and that he died in 1452. There was also a Ros, of Gedney, as appears from the fragment of an inscription, on a marble tomb, in the chancel of Gedney Church. This person was interested as a proprietor or patron, or both, in the parish of Tidd St. Mary, on the Norfolk edge of the county of Lincoln. Nichols records an inscription, painted with the arms, in the windows of the church, of this latter place, to the effect, that Richard de Ros had presented one of the windows. There are similar traces of the De Ros family, according to the same authority, in Scotton and Ropsley Churches. JOHN DE ROS, of Hamlake, eldest son and heir of Thomas, who died in 1383, took a prominent part in the splendid pageantry at the coronation of the ill-advised, and ill-fated Richard II, then only in the tenth year of his age. We can hardly suppose a youth of so immature an age, competent to direct the magnificent and improvident display on this occasion. Amidst other devices for the royal amusement, was a passage of arms during dinner; for which, John de Ros, scarcely less youthful than the sovereign, was created a knight, before dinner. This selection proves, that though young, he had already distinguished himself, in the graceful accomplishments of chivalry; a warlike science, if it may be so called, of essential benefit to society, as being, in the absence of all other means, of a civilising tendency. The crusades, though of a more decidedly religious character, were really, an exemplification of chivalry on a splendid scale. But these, as well as knightly adventures, in the time of John de Ros, had, with all their contemplated benefits, been long abandoned. A less striking, but to the individual, more interesting, developement of love for the scene of so many divine wonders, had succeeded; that of a painful, self-denying, perilous pilgrimage. To satisfy these longings of fervent piety; which, if they savoured too much of ill-regulated enthusiasm, were, surely, something better in their spirit, than the cold, calculating, utilitarian selfishness of modern times, Thomas de Ros embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; but died (whether on his way there, or on his return, is not so clear,) at Paphos, in the Isle of Cyprus, in 1394; and was buried at Rievaulx Abbey, in the course of the same year. He married Mary Percy,* sister of the Earl of Northumberland, and widow, says Nichols, of - Orby, of Lincolnshire. Bishop Percy makes her the daughter of Henry, Lord Percy, by his second wife, Joan, daughter of John Orby, who was a baron in the time of Edward III. She died the year after her husband, being rather more than forty years of age. He was John de Ros was succeeded by his next brother, SIR WILLIAM DE Ros, knight, then aged twenty-four. employed by the king, in the same year, with Walter, Bishop of Durham, Henry, Earl of Northumberland, and others, in negociating a treaty of peace with Scotland. He seems to have been an especial favourite with Henry IV, who made him of his council, and employed him in various civil affairs of great importance; giving him in 1411, for his residence, for the lodging of his servants and horse, (on account of the convenience of having him near the court,) the town of Chingford, in Essex, which had descended to him by the marriage of his grandfather with Margaret Badlesmere and honouring him, in the same year, with the * Percy. Arms-Azure, 5 fusils in fess, or. 66 order of the garter. Sir William de Ros was engaged in a controversy with Sir Robert Tyrwhit, knight, one of the justices of the king's bench, respecting the restraint imposed by the latter, upon the tenants of his manor of Melton Roos, in Lincolnshire, from their customary privilege of pasture and turf-cutting, at Wragby. This dispute was adjudicated by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, a relative by marriage of the Lord Ros, and Richard, Lord Grey, his son in law, lord chamberlain of the king's household; Sir Robert being enjoined to submit and confess his offence. His confession is so far apposite to our subject, as it proves the moderation of Sir William de Ros; who, when, on account of his birth, state, and power, he might have come with an overwhelming force, to protect the rights of his tenants, from the intruders, preferred coming easy wise", with no other attendance, than was suitable to his degree. He married Margaret, the daughter of Sir John Arundel ;* or, according to some authorities, of John Fitz-alan,† Earl of Arundel; and had issue, John, Thomas, Robert, William, and Richard; Beatrice, Alice, Margaret, and Elizabeth. By his will, dated Feb. 22, 1412, he desired that if he should die in, or near, London, his body should be buried in the Cathedral of Canterbury; if within the diocese of Lincoln, in the Priory of Belvoir; if in the diocese of York, in the Priory of Rievaulx. He bequeathed £400 for the finding ten honest chaplains to pray for his soul, and the souls of his family, his friends, and benefactors; but, especially, for the soul of his brother Thomas, for eight years, within his chapel of Belvoir Castle. He died there, Sept. 1, 1414, and was buried in the middle of the Priory choir; whence, his monument was afterwards removed to Bottesford Church, where it still remains, against the south *Arundel. Arms-Gules, 6 garbs, or. + Fitz-alan. Arms-Gules, a lion, rampant, or. |