Elizabeth Manners, Duchess of Rutland

Elizabeth Manners, Duchess of Rutland (; 13 November 1780 – 29 November 1825) was an English aristocrat.

Early life Lady Elizabeth Howard was born on 13 November 1780. She was the daughter of Lady Margaret Caroline Leveson-Gower and Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, who served as Treasurer of the Household and First Lord of Trade. Among her siblings were Lady Isabella Caroline Howard (wife of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor), George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle, William Howard, MP, Lady Gertrude Howard (wife of William Sloane-Stanley), Maj. Frederick Howard, and the Rev. Henry Howard.

Personal life On 22 April 1799, Lady Elizabeth married John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland, who had succeeded to his father's dukedom in 1787 when he was still a child. He was the eldest son of Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, by Lady Mary Isabella Somerset (a daughter of Charles Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort). Together, they were the parents of ten children:

Lady Caroline Isabella Manners (1800–1804), who died young. Lady Katherine Isabella Manners (1809–1848), who married Frederick Hervey, 2nd Marquess of Bristol, and had seven children. A pencil portrait of her, by Henry Bone, after John Hoppner, is held by the National Portrait Gallery.

Estate management The Duchess's interests included gardening and estate management. She took forward improvements begun by her father-in-law, Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, but interrupted when he went bankrupt. She supervised landscaping works at Belvoir Castle and included a model farm. A fire in 1816 almost destroyed the castle. The rebuilding was largely entrusted to the Duchess and cost around £82,000. The Gentleman's Magazine commented that "What many individuals would have required a century to execute, her perseverance in a few years achieved." and influenced the building of York House on the Mall on behalf of Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, the brother of King George IV, with whom she had an intimate relationship.

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