and heir of Sir Thomas Sellenger, (St. Leger*) knight, by Anne his wife, daughter to Richard, Duke of York, eldest sister to king Edward IV, and widow of Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter. By her, he had issue, six sons; Thomas, Oliver, Anthony, Richard, John, and ......; and six daughters; Elizabeth, Catharine, Eleanor, Cecilia, Margaret, and Anne.

In 1495, Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne, as being the young Duke of York, brother to Edward V, had taken refuge in Scotland; the young king of which, was so satisfied with the justice of his pretensions, that he received him with honour, and gave him a near kinswoman for his wife. The Scotch king assisted him, also, with an army, to invade England; which was the occasion of a war between the two countries. Towards the conclusion of that war, George, Lord Ros, was in the expedition sent into Scotland, when Ayton, between Berwick and Dunbar, was taken; and for his conduct and bravery, was knighted by the Earl of Surrey, general of the army. In 1498, the king (Henry VII.) having called together the three estates of the kingdom, for their assent to the peace made with France, Nov. 3, 1492; Sir George Manners, Lord Ros, with Thomas Lumley, were the two, specially deputed by the lords and commons of the diocese of Durham, to meet the king on that arduous affair; and they gave their assent thereto. He was equally in favour with Henry VIII, on account of his loyalty, care, and industry; who commissioned him in May, 1513, with Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, and others, to review the forces that were going with the king, on an expedition to France, under the command of the Marquis of Dorset. Lord Ros, before the end of the same year, was with the king, first at the siege of Theronenne, and, afterwards, at that of Tournay; where he fell sick, and died * St. Leger. Arms-Azure, fretty, argent, on a chief or, a crescent, gules,

on the 27th of October. He left by his will, dated the day before his death, benefactions to the Abbeys of Rievaulx and Kirkham; and to the Priory of Wartre; and various gifts to his executors and servants. He was buried with his lady, in a chantry chapel, founded by his father-in-law, Sir Thomas St. Leger, in the north aisle of the royal chapel of St. George, in Windsor Castle; where a handsome monument perpetuates his memory. This monument was once gilt, but as Nichols says, from the late repairs of the chapel, it appears, as if whited over; the gilding being all clean rubbed off, and all the beautiful blazonry of the lady's robes is done away.

George, Lord Ros, was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas, who, in 1523, being the Lord Roos, was warden of the East Marches, towards Scotland; and two years afterwards, was, by the king, put into full possession of all the manors, castles, and lands, which had descended to him from the Lady Eleanor, his grandmother, sister and co-heir to Edmund, Lord Ros; as, also, from Isabel, the other sister and co-heir, wife of Sir Thomas Lovel. On April 23, 1526, at a chapter of the garter, held at Greenwich, he was elected knight of that most noble order. After his election, it was discovered, that he had not been a knight bachelor, which the statutes of the order require, previous to being elected a knight companion. Henry, on the same day, re-assembled the chapter; the necessary previous formality was gone through, and a new election took place. During the same year, he was created by letters patent, bearing date June 18, Earl of Rutland; a title which had before belonged to Edmund, younger brother to Edward IV, and had never been conferred upon any, but of the blood royal; at the same time, an augmentation to his ancient arms was granted, in allusion to his descent from the sister of king Edward IV, whose daughter his father married :— a chief quarterly 1 and 4 azure, two fleur de lis; or;

2 and 3 gules, a lion of England.

Seven days after his

creation, he was installed one of the knights companions of the most noble order of the garter.

The dilatory and insincere policy of the Pope of this period, who, after signing a decretal declaring the first marriage of Henry VIII. void, and granting to him a dispensation to marry again; continued, for three years, to protract the discussion on the subject of the divorce, with the view of eventually preventing its taking place; induced the peers of England, in 1531, then sitting in parliament, to subscribe a declaration to Clement VII, expressing their belief, that unless the Pope complied with the wishes of Henry, and his nobles, the papal supremacy in England would be much endangered. Though a great deal of pompous machinery was employed, in obtaining the opinions of all the learned bodies in Europe, on the question of the divorce; it is a matter of history, that the king's personal feelings embraced no wider extent, than an all but avowed aversion to Catharine, combined with a lustful affection for another woman, But the real question with a large majority of his subjects, was, as to the extent and limitation of the papal power; which long impatiently submitted to, most men were now desirous of shaking off altogether: and a favourable opportunity offered through the imbecile, and selfish policy of the reigning Pope. A further motive may be allowed its weight; which was, a desire on the part of both king and people, to have a male instead of a female heir to the throne: a wish, which Providence seems to have granted in anger, as a punishment for the unjustifiable measures, which led to the divorce. Edward VI, whose designs for a purer religion than popery, promised so much success, was cut off in the blossom of our hopes; and the wholesome fruit expected, was effectually retarded from coming to maturity, by the accession of Mary, whose legal rights this divorce was in

tended to prejudice. This digression from our biographical notices of the noble family of Belvoir, if digression it may be called, was necessary to account for the motives which actuated the Earl of Rutland and other peers, in subscribing the declaration above-mentioned, to the Pope. It is little to be doubted, that he and they viewed the matter in a national point of view. It was not their fault, if the only accessible means to their object, was debased by the sovereign's impatient and unlawful desires.

The Earl of Rutland, as he had been a principal instrument in the measure, which led to the abolition of the papal supremacy, was, also, actively employed in resisting the mischievous effects of ulterior measures. He, with the Earls of Shrewsbury and Huntingdon, were commissioned in 1536, to suppress the insurrection in Lincolnshire, under Dr. Mackerell, Abbot of Berlinges, occasioned by the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, and certain injunctions in matters of religion. On the event of a similar rebellion in Yorkshire, called "the pilgrimage of grace," he offered his services, and was successful in its suppression. In 1538, he obtained the site of the Abbey of Rievaulx in exchange for other lands. In 1539, he was appointed by the king, lord chamberlain to queen Anne of Cleves; and sent from Greenwich, to attend her before her marriage. In 1540, he was constituted chief justice in eyre, of all the king's forests beyond Trent. In 1541, he obtained a grant of the manors of Muston, Waltham, and Croxton, with part of the possessions of the dissolved Priory of Ossulveston; all in the county of Leicester: as, also, of the manors of Upwell, Outwell, Elm, and Emneth, in the counties of Norfolk and Cambridge; part of the possessions of the monastery of Nuneaton, county of Warwick; and, also, the manor of Branston, county of Northampton; part of the possessions of the Abbey of Lilleshall, county of Salop. To these were

soon after added, the manors of Bilsdale and Helmesley, part of the possessions of the monastery of Kirkham, county of York; with divers lands in Brandesdale, in the same county, belonging to the Abbey of Rievaulx. In 1542, being appointed warden of the Marches, he accompanied the Duke of Norfolk, then general of an army, consisting of twenty thousand men, in his invasion of Scotland; where, in eight days, they burnt twenty towns and villages; and being much in the king's favour, he, on his return, obtained in that year (jointly with Robert Tyrwhit) a grant of the Priory of Belvoir; and, also, of Egle, in Lincolnshire, which had been a commandery of the knights Templars; to whom it was granted by king Stephen; and from whom it had passed to the hospitallers. He obtained, at the same

time, a large share of the lands and lordships of divers other dissolved monasteries, in the counties of Leicester, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northumberland, and York. The reader will observe, that a great part of this property, had been given for ecclesiastical purposes by the ancestors of the Earl of Rutland. If, therefore, its alienation from the intention of the donors, was justifiable on any grounds; its reversion to their descendant, possesses a grace and a propriety, not often observable in other grants of this period.

Two interesting occurrances of a domestic, rather than a public nature, are recorded in the life of this distinguished nobleman. Through his exertions, principally, Belvoir Castle was rebuilt; which had been so wantonly laid in ruins by Lord Hastings. After the dissolution of religious houses, many ancient monuments of the Albini and Ros family, were, by the command of this Earl of Rutland, removed from the Priory of Belvoir, to Bottesford, where some of them yet remain. Others, also, were carried thither, by the same order, from Croxton Abbey. He died, Sept. 20, 1543, and was buried in the middle of the chancel, going up