By G. Poulett Scrojye, Esq., M.P. 11 



favorites, Sir William Scrope, who ranked high, among the latter, 

 took a leading part in the impeachment of the Duke, for which he 

 is severely censured by "Walsingham. It has always been difficult 

 to unravel the true moral character of these transactions. What- 

 ever it may have been, the fidelity and attachment of Lord Scrope 

 to the person and interests of his Sovereign are unquestionable, and 

 were rewarded by his elevation, at this period, to the dignity of 

 Earl of Wiltshire, and the grant of many of the estates forfeited 

 by Gloucester's leading partisans. The chief of these, the Earl of 

 Warwick, was committed to the custody of the Earl of Wiltshire 

 and his brother, Sir Stephen Scrope, in his Island of Man. 



In the following year, 1398, he was commissioned as one of the 

 ambassadors to negotiate a treaty of peace with France. Being 

 appointed Lord Treasurer, he remained in England to assist in the 

 Council of the Duke of York, during the absence of the King in 

 Ireland, and had likewise in conjunction with Sir John Bussy, 

 Sir Henry Grene, and Sir William Bagot, the charge of protecting 

 the young Queen Isabel, then placed for safety in Wallingford Castle. 



The fall of his unhappy master necessarily involved that of the 

 Earl of Wilts from his powerful eminence. Bolingbroke, whose 

 star now rose in the ascendant, could not forgive the part he had 

 taken in repealing the Patent reserving the estates of the Duchy 

 of Lancaster to their owner during his exile. On the landing of 

 Henry at Ravenspur, the Council of Regency, finding that they 

 could not hold London owing to the King's unpopularity there, 

 erected the Royal Standard at St. Albans, and collected there a 

 large force. This army however, through the vacillations of the 

 Duke of York, deserted the King's cause ; whereupon Lord Scrope, 

 with Bussy and Grene, fled westward, and took shelter in the 

 Castle of Bristol. Henry, having secured the Metropolis, marched 

 towards Wales, where King Richard had just landed from Ireland, 

 and on his way laid siege to Bristol Castle. It surrendered after 

 four days resistance, and the Earl of Wiltshire with his two com- 

 panions, although their lives had been promised them in the con- 

 ditions of capitulation, were beheaded immediately, without trial, 

 ou the 30th July, 1399. (Chronicle of London, p. 84.) 



