Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland

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Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland (October 6, 1576 – June 26, 1612) was the son of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland.

He married Elizabeth Sidney (daughter of Sir Philip Sidney and step-daughter of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex), on 5 March 1599.

He died in 1612, aged 35 and his titles passed to his brother, Francis Manners.

He was a student at Oxford and Cambridge, Gray's Inn, and University of Padua, Italy. He travelled across Europe, took part in military campaigns led by Essex, and was a participant of Essex's rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. He was favoured by James I, and honoured by his contemporaries as a man of great intelligence and talent. He enjoyed the friendship of some of the most prominent writers and artists of the Elizabethan-Jacobian age.

Evidence indicates that the Earl was a patron of Inigo Jones and probably introduced Jones to the Court of James I and Anne of Denmark, where Jones had his impact as both an architect and a designer of Court masques.^[1]

Roger Manners (and his wife Elizabeth Sidney) are believed by some to be the author of Shakespeare's literary work. Evidence to support this hypothesis is presented in "The Shakespeare Game: The Mystery of the Great Phoenix" by Ilya Gililov.

[edit] References

1. ^ Michael Leapman, Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance, London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003; pp. 16, 23, 55, 111.

Peerage of England
Preceded by John Manners	Earl of Rutland 1588–1612	Succeeded by Francis Manners