SIR ROBERT ROOS, BANNERET, CARVER TO HENRY THE SIXTH. ALTHOUGH the chief person of the embassy to the Count of Armagnac, precedence has been given to the memoir of Bishop Beckington, because the Journal more particularly relates to the latter; and however eminent Roos may have been in his time, he has been so completely forgotten by posterity, that it was with some difficulty the following imperfect notices of him could be collected. Sir Robert Roos was the fourth son of William Lord Roos, K. G. by Margaret, daughter of Sir John Arundell, Knight, and was born about the year 1409 or 1410.' Of his early life nothing is known; but it must be inferred that he had eminently distinguished himself before he is mentioned in records, for the first notice which has been discovered of him is his appointment as one of the ambassadors to negociate a peace with France on the 3rd November 19 Hen. VI. 1440; 'His eldest brother, John Lord Roos, succeeded his father in September 1414, at which time he was eighteen years old; his lordship and his next brother William, were slain in France on the same day, the 22nd March, 1421, when Thomas the third son, succeeded his brother in his honors, and was then fourteen years of age. 2 Fadera, tome x. p. 827. 2 and in May 1442, he was sent to treat for the King's marriage,' at which time he was a Knight, and one of his Majesty's Carvers, an office of considerable consequence in the royal household. The Journal affords much information relative to his conduct on the occasion, from which it is manifest that he evinced considerable talent, firmness, and zeal, in the difficult situation in which he was placed. It appears that he was elected "Regent," or Commander of the three States, which were in the English interests, on the 15th of August, 1442'; and that though his health was then excessively bad, he did not allow it to interfere with the performance of his duties. He returned to England in February 1443°; and in May or June in that year, performed the office of Chamberlain to John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, at his installation, as proxy for his nephew, Thomas Lord Roos, then a minor. On the 19th of July, 21 Hen. VI. 1443, the King granted to him and the heirs male of his body, the situation of Keeper of the Forest of Rockingham, between the bridges of Stanford and the gates of Oxford: he was also Keeper of the park of Brigstoke, and of the foreign woods there, called Brigstoke-bailly, and of the park and warren of Multon.' He obtained a grant of the manor of 7 Dugdale's Buronage, vol. i. p. 553, but that writer confounds this Sir Robert Roos with his uncle of the same name, who died on the 30th September, 1441, leaving his two daughters his co-heirs. Esch. 20 Hen. VI. 8 Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 193. Rot. Patent, 21 Hen. VI. 2 pt. m. 1. 9 Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 319. Bekford, in Gloucestershire, for life, in 1442;, and an annuity to him, and to Anne, his wife, of £60. for their lives, and for the life of the survivor, out of the great customs of woolfell, and wools in the port of London.2 That Roos did not lose the King's favor by his conduct in his mission to the Count of Armagnac is proved by his having received most of these grants soon after his return; and it is equally certain that he then rather added to, than lessened, his reputation, as he was selected to negociate a peace with France, and to conclude a treaty of marriage between the King and Margaret, daughter of René, titular King of Sicily, at Tours, in February, 22 Hen. VI. 1444,3 at which time he was a Banneret. It was probably for his services on that occasion that the offices of Chamberlain and Customer of the town of Berwick for life, were bestowed upon him in the 24th Hen. VI. 1445.5 At a Chapter of the Order of the Garter held on the 12th of May 1445, to fill up the vacancy occasioned by the death of Sir Hertank Von Clux, Roos was nominated by Sir John Fastolf, and Sir John Beauchamp; and at the chapter on the eve of the feast of St. George 1447, when the King of Portugal was elected, he was one of the Knights named in the ballotting list of the Marquess of Suffolk and of Sir John Beauchamp. Sir Robert Roos had proved himself too useful a servant to be allowed to remain long unemployed; and in March 1448, he was again sent to conclude a truce with 1 Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 49. 2 Ibid. p. 198. Fœdera, tome xi. pp. 53, SO. 4 Ibid. 5 Rot. Patent, 2d pt. m 11. Printed Calendar, p. 288. France; but he survived this appointment a short time, dying on the 30th of December in the same year, aged about forty, leaving Anne his widow, and Henry his son and heir fifteen years old.2 66 Henry Roos, the son of Sir Robert, by the style of Henry Roos, Esquire," was protected by the Act of Resumption, 28 Hen. VI. in the possession of the grants made to his father of the office of Keeper of Rockingham Forest; and Sir Robert's widow, Anne Lady Roos, was also secured in the receipt of her annuity of £60. before noticed. In the Act of Resumption, in the 34th Hen. VI. by which Henry Roos was again protected in the enjoyment of the office of Keeper of Rockingham Forest, a recognition occurs of the services of his father: the former being described as "our well beloved Squire Henry Roos, son and heir of Robert Roos, now dead, and sometime one of our Carvers, the which Robert daily in his life continued in our service.' 994 Henry Roos was knighted between the 34th and 39th Hen. VI. and having fought in defence of his unfortunate sovereign at the battle of St. Alban's, on Palm Sunday, 29th March, 1 Edw, IV. 1461, he shared the fate of the other adherents of the House of Lancaster, being declared guilty of high treason, by statute 1 Edw. IV. in which he is called "Henry Roos, late of Rokyngham, in the county of Northampton, Knight,' which description admits of the inference that he was there slain. After that time nothing is known either of him or his family. 1 Fœdera, tome xi. pp. 199, 206. 4 Ibid. 995 SIR EDWARD HULL, K. G. It is only by one notice in the Journal, that this individual, who was the colleague of Sir Robert Roos and Beckington in their mission, and subsequently became a person of much consideration, can be identified. The latter, is said to have dined with Hull, at Enmore, in Somersetshire, when on his journey to Plymouth,' which proves that he was the son of Sir John Hull, by Eleanor, daughter and heiress of Sir John Mallet, eldest son of Sir Baldwin Mallet, of Enmore. As Sir John Mallet died in his father's lifetime, that property, which had been for many centuries in the possession of the ancient house of Mallet, devolved, upon the death of Sir Baldwin, either on his grand-daughter and heiress, or on her son, the subject of this memoir.2 Many notices exist, of the family of Hull, in the county of Somerset ;3 but it is not possible to form a 1 Journal, p. 2. 2 Collinson's History of Somersetshire, vol. i. p. 91. Pole's Collections for Devon, p. 275. The Heralds' Visitations of Somersetshire corroborate this statement, excepting that they erroneously call the issue of Sir John Hull and Eleanor Mallet, Sir Henry Hull. 3 In the 22 Rich. II. Michael Marshal released to Robert Hull and Isabel his wife, all claim to the manor of Edyngton, in Somersetshire, Ancient Charters in the British Museum, xv. 17. Richard the Second, in the nineteenth year of his reign, granted to John Hull, and Robert his son, the custody of the lands which Thomas Fychet held in consequence of the |