Editing Leonard Calvert (section)

==Governor of Maryland==
[[File:Leonard Calvert Monument MD1.jpg|thumb|Leonard Calvert monument in St. Mary's City]]
Following his brother's instructions, Leonard Calvert at first attempted to govern the country in an [[Absolutism (European history)|absolutist]] way, but in January 1635, he had to summon a colonial [[Deliberative assembly|assembly]], which became the foundation and first session of the modern [[Maryland General Assembly|General Assembly of Maryland]], the third legislature to be established in the English colonies after the [[House of Burgesses]] in the Dominion of [[Province of Virginia|Virginia]] and the [[General Court of Massachusetts|General Court]] in the Commonwealth of [[Province of Massachusetts|Massachusetts]]. In 1638, the Assembly forced him to govern according to the [[common law]] of [[England]], and subsequently the right to initiate legislation passed to the new [[Maryland General Assembly|General Assembly]], representing the common "freeholders" (owners of [[Freehold (law)|freehold]] property) as subjects of the Crown.

In 1638, Calvert seized a trading post at [[Kent Island, Maryland|Kent Island]] established by the Virginian [[William Claiborne]]. In 1643, Governor Calvert went to England to discuss policies with his brother Lord Baltimore, the proprietor, leaving the affairs of the colony in charge of acting Governor [[Giles Brent]], his brother-in-law (he had married Ann Brent, daughter of Richard Brent). Calvert returned to Maryland in 1644 with a new wife and children (William, born in 1643, and a daughter, Anne, born in 1644).<ref name="Maryland State Archives"/> That same year, Claiborne returned and led an uprising of Maryland [[Protestant]]s against the Catholic Proprietor. Calvert was soon forced to flee southward to [[Virginia]]. He returned at the head of an armed force in 1646 and reasserted [[Proprietary colony|proprietarial]] rule.

Leonard Calvert died of an illness in the summer of 1647.  Before he died, he wrote a will naming [[Margaret Brent]] (the sister of Giles and a future, historically famous planter, lawyer, and female advocate for women's rights) as the executor of his estate. Calvert also named his friend and fellow passenger aboard ''The Ark'' and ''The Dove'', [[Thomas Greene (governor)|Thomas Greene]], as his successor to the governorship.

In 1890, the State of Maryland erected an obelisk monument to Calvert and his wife at [[St. Mary's City, Maryland|Historic St. Mary's City]] which had a historical district created to commemorate the colonial origins of the colony.