Robert de ROS of Furfan

  General Notes:

Notes: Magna Charta Surety, 1215, Knight Templar, was born in 1177. When only 15 years of age he had paid a thousand marks' fine for livery of his lands. In 1197, when aged twenty years and while with the King of Normandy, he was arrested. He was committed to the custody of Hugh de Spiney who allowed him to escape out of the Castle of Bonville. King Richard thereupon hanged de Spiney and collected a fine of twelve hundred marks, about eight hundred pounds, from Ros's guardian as the price of his continued freedom. When John become King, he gave young Ros the whole Barony of his great grandmother's father, Walter d'Espec, as conciliation. ABT the 14th year of King John's reign, Robert assumed the habit of a monk, whereupon the custody of all his lands and Castle Werke, were committed to Phillip d'Ulcote. However, Robert did not continue long as a recluse, as in about a year he was executing the office of high sheriff of county Cumberland. At the beginning of the struggle of the Barons for constitutional government, he at first sided with King John and, in consequence, obtained some valuable grants from the Crown. He was made governor of Carlisle, but was later won over by the Barons. He returned to his allegience in the reign of Henry III and in 1217/8 his manors were restored to him. Although he was a witness to the second Great Charter and the forest Charter of 1224, he seems to have been in favor with the King. Ros erected the Castles of Hemsley, or Hamlake, in Yorkshire, and of Werke, in Northumberland. He was a member of the Order of Knights Templar. He did in 1226/7 and was buried "in his proper habit" in the Knights' Church, or the New Temple in London, where his tomb may be seen.

Robert married Isabel of Scotland, daughter of William the Lion of Scotland and Unknown, in 1191. (Isabel of Scotland was born about 1163.)