Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland (1563-1587) and Countess Isabel (née Holcroft).

The alabaster tomb, by the Flemish craftsman Gerard Johanssen (Johnson) of Southwark, is the first of the four richly canopied examples in the Church.  These are complex and intricately carved constructions of alabaster, vividly painted to make the figures almost life-like. Earl Edward is shown in full plate armour, wearing the mantle of the Order of the Garter with the Garter itself on his left leg. Countess Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Holcroft, wears a ruff with the usual dress of the time under an ermine trimmed mantle. A rich cushion supports her head. Their only daughter, Elizabeth, kneels at her feet.

Born in 1549, Edward Manners, eldest son of the 2nd Earl of Rutland, inherited the title in 1563 at the age of 14. He was made a ward of the Queen Elizabeth, and placed under the charge of Sir William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. This relationship led to all of his offices of state. The first was when, aged 20, he served as a commander of Queen Elizabeth’s forces against the northern earls who had rebelled in support of Mary Queen of Scots and her possible marriage with the catholic Duke of Norfolk. Edward became a Lieutenant and Colonel of Foot in the forces led by the Earl of Sussex. In the event the rebellion petered out and Mary Queen of Scots went into the long period of arrest and confinement which was only ended by her execution in 1586. Edward Manners also played a role in that drama, in that he was one of the commissioners who tried and condemned the Scottish Queen following the Babington plot, a government trap engineered by William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. Edward married Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Holcroft. Their daughter Elizabeth was married at the age of 13 to the grandson of William Cecil. Tragically, she never fully recovered from childbirth at the age of 14 and died aged 15 in London. She is commemorated as the kneeling figure at the foot of the tomb. Her father served as England’s Lord Chancellor for just two days in 1587 before his death at the age of 38. The Earl died on Good Friday, 14th April 1587, at Puddle Wharf, London, and was brought home for burial on 11th May.