John Rous (historian)

He entered holy orders, remaining in the vicinity of Warwick for most of his clerical career but making some travels to study archives for his historical research.

He was chaplain of the chapel of Guy's Cliffe during the reign of King Richard III (1483-1485) and was a canon of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick.

He was responsible for creating the "Rous Roll", written during the reign of Richard III (1483–1485), which presents a pro-Yorkist version of contemporary English history.

In his Historia Regum Angliae ("History of the Kings of England") Rous was mainly interested in antiquarian details of social life and the development of scholarly institutions.

He died on 24 January 1492, aged 81 according to some sources, and was buried in the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick, to which he bequeathed his library, directing that a special room to house it be built.

John Rous, as depicted in the Rous Roll (1845 engraving after the original)
Depiction of King Richard III and his family in the Rous Roll, showing his various heraldic crests and his white boar badge, with the Warwick bear of his wife