William de Ros, 6th Baron Ros ( – 1 November 1414), was a medieval English nobleman, politician and soldier. The second son of Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron Ros, and Beatrice Stafford, William inherited his father's feudal barony and estates (with extensive lands centred on Lincolnshire) in 1394. Shortly afterwards, he married Margaret, daughter of John FitzAlan, 1st Baron Arundel. The Fitzalan family, like that of de Ros, was well-connected at the local and national level. They were implacably opposed to King Richard II, and this may have soured Richard's opinion of the young de Ros.
The late 14th century was a period of political crisis in England. In 1399, Richard II confiscated the estates of his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, and exiled him. Bolingbroke invaded England several months later, and de Ros took his side almost immediately. Richard's support had deserted him; de Ros was alongside Henry when Richard surrendered his throne to the invader, who became King Henry IV. De Ros later voted in the House of Lords for the former king's imprisonment. De Ros benefited from the new Lancastrian regime, achieving far more than he had ever done under Richard. 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 the rebellion of Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, five years later.
In return for his loyalty to the new regime, de Ros received extensive royal patronage. This included lands, grants, wardships, and the right to arrange the wards' marriages. De Ros performed valuable service as an advisor and ambassador (perhaps most importantly to Henry, who was often in a state of near-penury; de Ros was a wealthy man, and regularly loaned the crown large amounts of money). Important as he was in government and the regions, de Ros was unable to avoid the tumultuous regional conflicts and feuds which were rife at this time. 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. Partly because of de Ros's restraint in not seeking the severe penalties available to him, he was described by a 20th-century historian as a particularly wise and forbearing figure for his time.
King Henry IV died in 1413. De 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. As Prince of Wales, Henry had fallen out with his father a few years before, and de Ros had supported Henry IV over his son. De 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 de Ros was then inherited by William's second son, Thomas, who also died in military service in France, seven years after his brother.
Background and career under Richard II
The exact date of William de Ros's birth is unknown. He was described in 1394 as about twenty-three years old, which would place his birth year around 1370. His 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. De Ros's father was Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron Ros, who fought in the Hundred Years' War under Edward III (particularly in the Poitiers campaign of 1356). Several years before William's birth, King Edward instructed Thomas 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. He died in Uffington, Lincolnshire, in June 1384, and his eldest son John—William's elder brother—inherited the title as fifth Baron Ros.
De Ros also had two younger brothers, Robert and Thomas, "of whom nothing is known". John's career was brief. By 1382 he had married Mary, half-sister of the Earl of Northumberland. John fought for the new king, Richard II (heir of Edward III, who died in 1377), in the 1385–86 Scottish campaign and with the Earl of Arundel in France the following year. During the early 1390s, John made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; he died in Paphos on 6 August 1393, on his return journey to England. John and Mary had not produced an heir, and (although he was never expected to succeed to the barony) de Ros was next in line. He inherited as sixth Baron Ros, by which time he had been knighted and appointed to the Privy Council.
Inheritance and marriage
The de Ros estates were primarily in the east and north of England. William received livery of them in January 1384, which gave him an extensive sphere of influence around Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and eastern Yorkshire. By this time, the estate had two dowager baronesses to support: his deceased brother's wife Mary and their mother, Beatrice. Mary died within a year of her husband, and her extensive inheritance was divided among her Percy relations. De Ros received her dower lands, which included the ancient Barony of Helmsley. Beatrice, on the other hand, had outlived three husbands and would outlive William; she was assigned her dower lands in December 1384. This meant that de Ros would never hold a large swath of land, predominantly in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
De Ros received seisin of his estates on 11 February 1394, which included custody of several Clifford family estates; his sister had married Thomas de Clifford, 6th Baron de Clifford around 1379. He held the latter lands until their son came of age around 1411. De Ros married Margaret, daughter of John Fitzalan, 1st Baron Arundel and Eleanor Maltravers, soon after he inherited. She was already in receipt of a 40-mark annuity from King Richard II because she had been in the household of Richard's recently deceased queen, Anne of Bohemia. His wife gave de Ros what may have appeared to be a useful connection to the crown. Also useful to William was the fact that his wife's father had recently died, so de Ros now had the Earl of Arundel as a brother-in-law. His new connections and the higher political profile they brought may account for the royal grants he soon received of Clifford manors in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Worcestershire. These had been the dower lands of Euphemia (widow of Robert, Lord Clifford), who had died in November 1393. De Ros attended the king's wedding to his second wife—Isabella of Valois, daughter of King Charles VI of France—in Calais on 31 October 1396. His wife's grandfather died the following year, and she became Lady Maltravers suo jure.
Although de Ros received some royal favour, Charles Ross has suggested that he may not have been doing as well as expected for a man in his position. Ross suggests that William's Fitzalan connections might have worked against him with the king. Arundel was a staunch political opponent of Richard's, and de Ros's marrying into this politically unpopular family may account for the few offices the king granted him. "It seems strange", says Ross, "that a wealthy young lord, who later proved himself both active and able in the royal service, had no public, and very little local employment during the later years of Richard II". De Ros's situation would not change until the accession of Arundel's political ally, Henry Bolingbroke, as King Henry IV in 1399. He was rarely appointed to peace commissions and did not sit on many oyer and Terminer assizes, even in his own counties.
Regime change and career under Henry IV
John of Gaunt—the most powerful noble in the country and second only to the crown in wealth—died in February 1399. Bolingbroke and King Richard had fallen out the previous year, and Richard had exiled Bolingbroke for six years the previous September. Instead of allowing Bolingbroke to succeed to his father's estates and titles, says Given-Wilson, Richard "succumb[ed] to the temptation" to confiscate the Duchy of Lancaster. Richard proclaimed that Bolingbroke's exile was now a life sentence, and cancelled his writs of seisin. He further decreed that Bolingbroke could only request his inheritance at the king's pleasure. Bolingbroke, in Paris, joined forces with the also-exiled Thomas Arundel. Arundel had been Archbishop of Canterbury, and was de Ros's wife's uncle; he lost his office because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant, and been exiled since 1397. With Arundel and a small group of followers, Bolingbroke landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire in late June 1399. De Ros, bringing a large retinue, joined Bolingbroke's army almost immediately (as did much of the northern nobility). Richard was campaigning in Ireland at the time, and unable to defend his throne. Henry initially announced that he intended only to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, although he quickly gained enough power and support (including that of de Ros) to claim the throne in Richard's stead and have himself proclaimed King Henry IV. In June, de Ros was present at Berkeley Castle when Henry and Richard met for the first time since Henry was exiled; de Ros witnessed their final meeting on 6 September at the Tower of London, when Richard resigned the throne. Bolingbroke's accession as Henry IV saw an uplift in de Ros's fortunes and those of the Fitzalans. De Ros now had strong connections with important figures at court and a relatively close friendship with the new king. In contrast to his treatment by Richard, de Ros's previous loyal service to Henry—and the king's father—earned him significant royal patronage. In the first parliament of the new reign—held at Westminster in October 1399—he was appointed a Trier of Petitions, and was one of the lords who voted to imprison Richard (who later died in Pontefract Castle of unknown causes). De Ros's new position at the centre of government was highlighted in December 1399, when he was appointed to Henry's first royal council.
De Ros's motives for joining Bolingbroke's invasion so swiftly are unknown but, says Given-Wilson, this should be no surprise; for most of Henry's new-found allies, "it is only possible to speculate as to their political allegiance". De Ros may have felt generally aggrieved by Richard's poor treatment of Gaunt and Bolingbroke, and his own lack of promotion under Richard was doubtless important. Whatever his reasons were for rebelling in 1399, de Ros and his father had been Lancastrian (rather than Ricardian) in their loyalties. His father had been one of John of Gaunt's earliest retainers when the young Gaunt was Earl of Richmond, and de Ros had also been retained by Gaunt in the late fourteenth century. Service to the duke had involved de Ros accompanying the duke abroad and travelling on his business on at least five occasions in the last years of Gaunt's life. For his services de Ros received annuities of £40 to £50, and was one of only two knights banneret whom Gaunt retained.
Local administration and political crisis