How will people remember you?

[BladesNBarrels]

who was the biggest celebrity in 1563 and what did they do for a living? What did they look like?

One was Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland. He was Captain-general of the cavalry at the siege of St Quentin under Mary I of England. Under Elizabeth I he served successfully and she made him Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and Rutland, Knight of the Garter and President of the North. Not long before his premature death he completed the building of Belvoir Castle.

His tomb, in the centre of the chancel next to that of his father, is of alabaster and considered unique. The effigies lie beneath a decorated example of an Elizabethan dining table on heavy carved legs, suggesting an attempt to represent a communion table. Earl Henry is depicted in armour of conventional pattern except that the breast plate is made up of laminated plates. He wears a coronet and his head is supported on a tilt-heaume. He is wearing a chain nearly reaching his thighs, and the Order of the Garter is on the left leg. He holds a closed book in his right hand and a sword in his left. At his feet is a hornless unicorn. His wife, Margaret, also wears a coronet and is dressed in the style of the time, with an ermine-trimmed mantle. Her head rests on a scroll and her feet on a lion.




Just Sayin'