Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
NameThomas Ros Lord Ros 
[76, p.313], [60, Ros art, Vol XI, p.90 seq], [123, Vol II, p. 31], [169, His own article]
[76, p.313], [60, Ros art, Vol XI, p.90 seq], [123, Vol II, p. 31], [169, His own article]Birth9 Sep 1427, Conisbrough castle
Death17 May 1464, Beheaded at Newcastle after battle of Hexham
BurialHexham
General9th baron. Ardent Lancastrian.
FatherThomas Ros Lord Ros (1406-1430)
MotherEleanor de Beauchamp (1407-1467)
Spouses
1Philippe Tiptoft [76, p.313], [54, Her father's article], [60, Ros art, Vol XI, p.90 seq], [60, Worcester article, Vol XII/2, p. 846, note (h)]
[76, p.313], [54, Her father's article], [60, Ros art, Vol XI, p.90 seq], [60, Worcester article, Vol XII/2, p. 846, note (h)]FatherJohn Tiptoft Lord Tiptoft (ca1375-1442)
MotherJoyce Cherleton (ca1403-1446)
Armorial Blazon notes for Thomas Ros Lord Ros
Gules three bougets Argent.
Blazon source notes for Thomas Ros Lord Ros
Dictionary of British Arms, Medieval Ordinary, vol 2, p. 210.
DNB Main notes for Thomas Ros Lord Ros
Ros, Thomas, ninth Baron Ros (1427–1464), soldier, was the son and heir of Thomas, eighth Baron Ros, and Eleanor, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. Born at Conisbrough Castle on 9 September 1427 Ros was just three years old at his father's death in 1430. In July 1431 his wardship and marriage were granted to John Tiptoft, Lord Tiptoft, whose daughter, Philippa, he married. Following his guardian's death in January 1443 he received a grant from the exchequer of £40 per annum for the remainder of his minority on 16 May 1443. In March 1446 young Thomas Ros, at the age of eighteen, was given licence to enter his lands: concentrated in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and the north midlands, they included not only the castle and lordship of Helmsley, Yorkshire, but also Belvoir, Leicestershire. Soon afterwards Ros journeyed to France where he became a member of the entourage of his mother's second husband, Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, until, on the fall of Rouen in October 1449, he obtained a safe conduct to return to England. Regularly summoned to parliament from 1449 (as Lord Roos, rather than as Lord Ros of Helmsley, the style of his ancestors), and a commissioner of oyer and terminer in several counties in the early 1450s, he also had a role to play at home during the last disastrous phase of the Hundred Years' War: in September 1452, for instance, he was ordered to recruit crews for ships in order to defend the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk.
When, on the eve of the Wars of the Roses, the great northern families of Neville and Percy embarked on a full-scale aristocratic feud, Ros firmly sided with the Percys: indeed, in 1454 he became an active participant in Percy rebellion after Richard, duke of York, with Neville backing, became protector of England. Almost certainly he fought on the losing side at the first battle of St Albans in May 1455, but, when the Lancastrians reasserted themselves in 1456, he soon renewed his commitment to Henry VI's troubled regime, and in November 1458 he was prominent in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest Richard Neville, earl of Warwick. When civil war broke out in earnest in the autumn of 1459, Ros rapidly found himself in the thick of it. Following Warwick's flight to Calais after the Yorkist rout at Ludford in October 1459, Henry Beaufort, duke of Somerset, determined to assert his right to the captaincy of Calais, put to sea with a force of men: his half-brother Thomas, Lord Ros, was numbered among those who accompanied him. Finding entry to the port blocked, however, Somerset made instead for Guînes where Ros, perhaps after escaping captivity in Calais, joined him. When, in January 1460, news reached Guînes of a Yorkist raid on Sandwich, Ros was dispatched to England, probably on a futile quest for reinforcements. A few weeks later, perhaps in lieu of unpaid wages, he was granted an annuity of £40 and in July 1460 he may have been present in the Lancastrian force defeated at the battle of Northampton. Certainly, in the autumn of 1460, Ros helped assemble the substantial Lancastrian force near the city of Hull which, on 30 December, proved victorious at the battle of Wakefield where Richard of York himself was killed. Not only did Ros himself fight there but soon afterwards, at York in the presence of Queen Margaret, he solemnly renewed his oath of loyalty to Henry VI. As a consequence he immediately marched south as one of the commanders of the notoriously unruly northern army which on 17 February 1461 inflicted a crushing defeat on a Yorkist force at St Albans under the command of the earl of Warwick. Far from pressing home their advantage, however, the Lancastrians now chose to retreat northwards, allowing the Yorkist lords to enter London and proclaim Richard of York's eldest son the new king of England.
Before the end of March Edward IV himself marched north, fought a successful preliminary skirmish at Ferrybridge, and on 29 March won a spectacular victory in the field at Towton. Ros, present at both Ferrybridge and Towton, no doubt recognized the magnitude of the Lancastrian humiliation and, like the king and queen he served, now had no option but submission or flight: before long all three had sought and found safe refuge in Scotland. By June 1461, however, he was once more militarily active: he led a bold raid across the Scottish border, marched through Northumberland, and on 26 June raised the Lancastrian standard at Brancepeth Castle in south Durham. A futile gesture this may have been, since Ros and his fellow loyalists were rapidly expelled, but it certainly showed the strength of his commitment to Henry VI as well as helping ensure his attainder for treason by parliament in November 1461. For Ros, moreover, there was to be no backsliding. In June 1462 he was a signatory of the truce of Tours between the Lancastrians and Louis XI of France; in the autumn of 1462 he participated in the defence of the Northumberland castle of Bamburgh; and when on 26 December 1462 the castle had to be surrendered to the Yorkists, he managed to obtain a safe conduct to Scotland. By the spring of 1464, however, Lancastrian resistance in the north was faltering: the end came with Yorkist victories in the field at Hedgeley Moor in April and Hexham in May. Ros fought in both battles and, although he escaped after Hexham, he was captured in a wood two days later, taken to Newcastle upon Tyne, and executed there on 17 May 1464. He was buried in Hexham.
Ros's legacy was not a happy one. His early marriage to Philippa Tiptoft had provided him with a son and heir, Edmund. However, when during the first years of Henry VII's reign the sentence of attainder on the Ros family was reversed, it was soon followed by the granting of custody of the estates to Edmund's brother-in-law Sir Thomas Lovell since Edmund was incapable of controlling his own affairs. The Ros title passed to the Manners family through the marriage in 1469 of Thomas's eldest daughter, Eleanor, to Sir Robert Manners (d. 1495).
Keith Dockray
Sources GEC, Peerage · R. A. Griffiths, The reign of King Henry VI: the exercise of royal authority, 1422–1461 (1981) · C. L. Scofield, The life and reign of Edward the Fourth, 1 (1923) · CPR · J. Gairdner, ed., The historical collections of a citizen of London in the fifteenth century, CS, new ser., 17 (1876) · The Paston letters, AD 1422–1509, ed. J. Gairdner, new edn, 6 vols. (1904), vols. 1–3
When, on the eve of the Wars of the Roses, the great northern families of Neville and Percy embarked on a full-scale aristocratic feud, Ros firmly sided with the Percys: indeed, in 1454 he became an active participant in Percy rebellion after Richard, duke of York, with Neville backing, became protector of England. Almost certainly he fought on the losing side at the first battle of St Albans in May 1455, but, when the Lancastrians reasserted themselves in 1456, he soon renewed his commitment to Henry VI's troubled regime, and in November 1458 he was prominent in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest Richard Neville, earl of Warwick. When civil war broke out in earnest in the autumn of 1459, Ros rapidly found himself in the thick of it. Following Warwick's flight to Calais after the Yorkist rout at Ludford in October 1459, Henry Beaufort, duke of Somerset, determined to assert his right to the captaincy of Calais, put to sea with a force of men: his half-brother Thomas, Lord Ros, was numbered among those who accompanied him. Finding entry to the port blocked, however, Somerset made instead for Guînes where Ros, perhaps after escaping captivity in Calais, joined him. When, in January 1460, news reached Guînes of a Yorkist raid on Sandwich, Ros was dispatched to England, probably on a futile quest for reinforcements. A few weeks later, perhaps in lieu of unpaid wages, he was granted an annuity of £40 and in July 1460 he may have been present in the Lancastrian force defeated at the battle of Northampton. Certainly, in the autumn of 1460, Ros helped assemble the substantial Lancastrian force near the city of Hull which, on 30 December, proved victorious at the battle of Wakefield where Richard of York himself was killed. Not only did Ros himself fight there but soon afterwards, at York in the presence of Queen Margaret, he solemnly renewed his oath of loyalty to Henry VI. As a consequence he immediately marched south as one of the commanders of the notoriously unruly northern army which on 17 February 1461 inflicted a crushing defeat on a Yorkist force at St Albans under the command of the earl of Warwick. Far from pressing home their advantage, however, the Lancastrians now chose to retreat northwards, allowing the Yorkist lords to enter London and proclaim Richard of York's eldest son the new king of England.
Before the end of March Edward IV himself marched north, fought a successful preliminary skirmish at Ferrybridge, and on 29 March won a spectacular victory in the field at Towton. Ros, present at both Ferrybridge and Towton, no doubt recognized the magnitude of the Lancastrian humiliation and, like the king and queen he served, now had no option but submission or flight: before long all three had sought and found safe refuge in Scotland. By June 1461, however, he was once more militarily active: he led a bold raid across the Scottish border, marched through Northumberland, and on 26 June raised the Lancastrian standard at Brancepeth Castle in south Durham. A futile gesture this may have been, since Ros and his fellow loyalists were rapidly expelled, but it certainly showed the strength of his commitment to Henry VI as well as helping ensure his attainder for treason by parliament in November 1461. For Ros, moreover, there was to be no backsliding. In June 1462 he was a signatory of the truce of Tours between the Lancastrians and Louis XI of France; in the autumn of 1462 he participated in the defence of the Northumberland castle of Bamburgh; and when on 26 December 1462 the castle had to be surrendered to the Yorkists, he managed to obtain a safe conduct to Scotland. By the spring of 1464, however, Lancastrian resistance in the north was faltering: the end came with Yorkist victories in the field at Hedgeley Moor in April and Hexham in May. Ros fought in both battles and, although he escaped after Hexham, he was captured in a wood two days later, taken to Newcastle upon Tyne, and executed there on 17 May 1464. He was buried in Hexham.
Ros's legacy was not a happy one. His early marriage to Philippa Tiptoft had provided him with a son and heir, Edmund. However, when during the first years of Henry VII's reign the sentence of attainder on the Ros family was reversed, it was soon followed by the granting of custody of the estates to Edmund's brother-in-law Sir Thomas Lovell since Edmund was incapable of controlling his own affairs. The Ros title passed to the Manners family through the marriage in 1469 of Thomas's eldest daughter, Eleanor, to Sir Robert Manners (d. 1495).
Keith Dockray
Sources GEC, Peerage · R. A. Griffiths, The reign of King Henry VI: the exercise of royal authority, 1422–1461 (1981) · C. L. Scofield, The life and reign of Edward the Fourth, 1 (1923) · CPR · J. Gairdner, ed., The historical collections of a citizen of London in the fifteenth century, CS, new ser., 17 (1876) · The Paston letters, AD 1422–1509, ed. J. Gairdner, new edn, 6 vols. (1904), vols. 1–3