# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manners, Henry

​MANNERS, HENRY, second Earl of Rutland (d. 1563), was eldest son of Thomas Manners, first earl of Rutland and Lord Ros [q. v.], by Eleanor, daughter of Sir William Paston. He is stated by Doyle to have been born before 1526, but most probably he was born before 1515. A son of Lord Ros is mentioned as being a page of honour at the marriage of Louis XII of France and the Princess Mary. His mother complained that in bringing him up she had incurred debts which she could not pay. He succeeded as second Earl of Rutland on his father's death, 20 Sept. 1543, was knighted by Henry VIII in 1544, and was one of the mourners at the king's funeral. At Edward's coronation he was bearer of the spurs. In 1547 he was nominated constable of Nottingham Castle and warden and chief justice of Sherwood Forest as a reward for conducting an expedition into Scotland. On 1 May 1549 he was appointed warden of the east and middle marches, and had personal command of a hundred horse at Berwick. He seems to have belonged to Warwick's party, and he made depositions in 1549 as to conversations he had had with Seymour, the lord admiral. He took part in the Scottish operations, notably the demolition of the fortifications of Haddington. He was one of those who received the French hostages in 1550, when the treaty which followed the loss of Boulogne was concluded. On 14 April 1551 he became joint lord-lieutenant of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and at that time lived when in London at Whittington's College. From May to August 1551 he was absent as lord in attendance on the embassy to France. He belonged, like Northumberland, to the extreme reformed party in church matters, and was one of those who took part on 3 Dec. 1551 in the second debate on the real presence between Cheke and Watson in Sir Richard Morison's house. On 16 May 1552 he became lord-lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, probably in Northumberland's interest, and on Mary's accession he was at once imprisoned in the Fleet as an adherent of Lady Jane Grey.
Rutland, however, soon came to terms with Mary's government. He was made an admiral in 1556, and took part as a general of horse in the French war of 1557. After the loss of Calais he was on duty at Dover (cf. Froude, History, vi. 439), and on 19 Jan. 1557–8 five hundred picked men raised in the city of London were ordered to serve under him. Rutland was a favourite of Queen Elisabeth,and had also, according to Lloyd, a certain reputation for learning. On 13 April 1559 he was nominated K.G., and on 10 May in the same year became lord-lieutenant of Rutland. On 24 Feb, 1560–1 he was made lord president of the north, and on 6 May 1561 an ecclesiastical commissioner for the ​province of York. He died, seemingly of the plague, on 17 Sept. 1563, and was buried at Bottesford in Leicestershire. Rutland carried on his father's work of altering Belvoir, completing the restoration in 1556. A late portrait, attributed to Van der Eyden, is at Belvoir. He married first, on 3 July 1536, Lady Margaret Neville, fourth daughter of Ran, earl of Westmorland — she died at Holywell, London, 13 Oct. 1559, and had a splendid funeral at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch; secondly, Bridget, daughter of John, lord Hussey, and widow of Sir Charles Morison of Cashiobury, Hertfordshire, who after his death remarried Francis, second earl of Bedford, and died 12 Jan. 1600-1. He was succeeded by his eldest son by his first wife Edward, third earl of Rutland, who is separately noticed. Much of his correspondence is preserved at Belvoir.
[Doyle's Official Baronage; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, vol. i.; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 45 sq.; Froude's Hist. iii. 143, v. 147; Lloyd's State Worthies (life of Lord Grey of Wilton); The Chron. of Calais (Camd. Soc.) p. 76; Machyn's Diary (Camd. Soc.), passim; Cal. of State Papers, Domestic, 1547-80; Cal. of MSS. at Belvoir (Hist. MSS. Comm.), vol. i.; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. pp. 202, 204, 208; Eller's Belvoir Castle, pp. 44 sq.; Godfrey's Hist. of Lenton, pp. 218-19; Nottingham Records, iv. 121 sq.; Strype's Annals, i. i. 10, 198; Memorials, 11. i. 359, 464, 511, 585, ii. 308, in. i. 25, ii. 109; Life of Cheke, pp. 70, 77.]
W. A. J. A.