William de Ros, 6th Baron Ros

William Ros was the second son of Thomas Ros, 4th Baron Ros and Beatrice Stafford. He inherited his father’s barony and estates in 1394. Ros benefited by the new Lancastrian regime, achieving far more than he had ever done under Richard II. He was described by a twentieth-century historian as a particularly wise and forbearing figure for his time.

About William de Ros, 6th Baron Ros in brief

William Ros was the second son of Thomas Ros, 4th Baron Ros and Beatrice Stafford. He inherited his father’s barony and estates in 1394. The late 14th century was a period of political crisis in England. Ros benefited by the new Lancastrian regime, achieving far more than he had ever done under Richard II. He became an important aide and counsellor to King Henry, and regularly spoke for him in parliament. He also supported Henry in his military campaigns, participating in the invasion of Scotland in 1400 and assisting in the suppression of Archbishop Richard Scrope’s rebellion five years later. He was described by a twentieth-century historian as a particularly wise and forbearing figure for his time. Ros died in Belvoir Castle on 1 November 1414. His wife survived him by twenty-four years; his son and heir, John, was still a minor. John later fought at Agincourt in 1415, and died childless in France in 1421. The Barony of Ros was then inherited by William’s second son, Thomas, who also died in military service in France seven years after his brother. The Ros family was an important one in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and the historian Chris Given-Wilson has described them as one of the greatest fourteenth-century baronial families to never receive an earldom. Ros did not long survive him, and played only a minor role in government during the last year of his life. He may have been out of favour with the new king, Henry V, who had fallen out with his father a few years before, and Ros had supported King Henry over his son.

By this time he had been appointed to the Privy Council and had been knighted and knighted. By 1382 he had married Mary, half-sister of the Earl of Northumberland. John fought for the king, Richard II, in the 1385–86 Scottish campaign and with Earl of Arundel in France. During the early 90s, John made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; he died in Paphos on August 6, 1393, on his return to England. He had two dowesses and was not produced an heir, and was in line in line to the baronage. William received livery of Nottinghamshire, Nottinghamshire and eastern Yorkshire in January 1384, which gave him an extensive sphere of influence around Lincolnshire, eastern Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. In 1411 he was involved in a land dispute with a powerful Lincolnshire neighbour, and narrowly escaped an ambush; he sought—and received—redress in Parliament. The exact date of William Ros’s birth is unknown, but he was described as about twenty-three years old, which would place his birth year around 1370. Several years before William’s birth, King Edward instructed Thomas Ros to remain with his army on his Irish estates “to prevent the loss and destruction of the country”. Thomas married Beatrice, the widow of Maurice Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond and daughter of the first Earl of Stafford.

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