10 Earls of Wiltshire. 



1397. I. Sm William Le Scrope, first Earl of "Wiltshire, was 

 tlio eldest son of Richard, the first Lord Scrope of Bolton, Chan- 

 cellor to Richard II., by Blanch De la Pole sister of Sir Michael 

 De la Polo, Earl of Suffolk. From the depositions taken in the 

 celebrated suit of his distinguished father with Sir Robert Gros- 

 venor for the right to bear a particular coat of arms, we gather that 

 he served with distinction in 1369 in a Crusade against the infidels 

 in Lithuania, and again beyond Venice in the Army under Charles 

 Dulcc of Duras, afterwards King of Naples ; and subsequently in 

 France in the years 1359 and 1363. 



The military experience acquired in these foreign services, and 

 the influence of his father and maternal uncle Sir Michael De la 

 Pole, both holding the highest posts in the Government of Richard 

 IL conduced doubtless to his appointment, in 1383, to the office of 

 Seneschal, or Governor, of the Province of Acquitaine. In 1385 

 he was made Governor of the town and Castle of Cherbourg, and 

 continued during five years to hold both these confidential and 

 important posts. In 1392, while in Acquitaine, he was directed 

 to conclude a treaty of Peace with the King and Queen of Castile, 

 and was also commissioned to receive the homage of the Count 

 of Armignac. 



In 1393, Sir William Scrope, who had risen high in the confi- 

 dence of his Sovereign, was employed about his person, first as 

 Vice-Chamberlain, and in 1395, Lord Chamberlain of the house- 

 hold. In 1394, he was admitted into the Order of the Garter, on 

 the decease of Sir Bryan Stapleton. In 1395, he was sent as one 

 of the ambassadors to France to negotiate the King's marriage 

 with the Princess Isabel ; and on the 9th May was empowered to 

 sign the treaty. In 1397 he was made Governor of the Castles of 

 Beaumaris and Queenborough. Three years before, in 1394, he 

 had obtained from the King the grant of the Castle, Town, and 

 Barton of Marlborough, in Wiltshire. And in the preceding 

 year, he had purchased from the Earl of Salisbury, the Sovereignty 

 of the Isle of Man. 



In 1397, on the occasion of the Cabal formed by the Duke of 

 Gloucester, the King's uncle, against the Monarch and his 



