Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland

[4] Thomas was the son of Sir George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros (c. 1470 – 1513) by his wife Anne St Leger (1476–1526).

In January 1522 he was made steward of Pickering, Yorkshire, and from April to October of the same year he held the appointment of Lord Warden of the East Marches, in which he was succeeded by Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland.

He was appointed a Knight of the Garter on 24 April 1525 and on 18 June 1525 he was made Earl of Rutland, a title previously held by members of the house of York.

[6] He was a great favourite of King Henry VIII and received many grants, including the keepership of Enfield Chase on 12 July 1526, and Belvoir Castle, which remains the chief seat of his family.

He held a joint command with the Earls of Huntingdon and Shrewsbury and marched to Nottingham and thence to Newark, Southwell, and Doncaster against the northern rebels.

His Garter stall plate of brass inlaid with coloured enamel, survives in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

His head wears a basic form of coronet and rests on his tilt-heaume on top of which is the Manners crest of a peacock in pride on a Cap of Maintenance.

The effigy of the countess is dressed in a gown and a short cape and wears an ermine-trimmed mantle fastened by a cordon whose ends reach almost to her feet, under which is a griffon.

The base of the tomb is decorated with corner pilasters, tasselled swags and "weeper" figures representing knights, ladies and others.

Quartered arms of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, as displayed on his Garter stall plate (see below)
Arms of Manners, Earls and Dukes of Rutland: Or, two bars azure a chief quarterly azure and gules; in the 1st and 4th quarters two fleurs-de-lis and in the 2nd and 3rd a lion passant guardant all or [ 1 ] The original coat of arms of the Manners family showed a chief gules . [ 2 ] The quartering in chief, with the fleurs-de-lis of the Royal arms of France and lion passant guardant of the Royal arms of England , was granted as an augmentation by King Henry VIII to Thomas Manners at the time of his creation as Earl of Rutland, in recognition of his descent in the maternal line from Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York , a descendant of King Edward III (1327–1377) [ 3 ]
Garter stall plate of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Arms of Paston: Argent, six fleurs-de-lys azure a chief indented or . These arms are visible impaled by the arms of the 1st Earl of Rutland in the 19th century stained glass windows of the Rutland Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Heraldic glass in the Rutland Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle , erected in 1849 by Charles Manners, 6th Duke of Rutland . It shows far left the arms of Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter (1439–1476) impaled by the arms of her 1st husband Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter . To the right of the last are her arms impaled by the arms of her 2nd husband Sir Thomas St Leger (c. 1440–1483), KG . The rightmost window shows top: the arms of Anne's daughter Anne St Leger impaled by the arms of her husband George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros (c. 1470–1513). Below are the arms of his son Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland (c. 1492–1543) impaling the arms of his 2nd wife Eleanor Paston
View of chancel of St Mary's Church, Bottesford, with its many monuments to the Earls and Dukes of Rutland