Sir John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton (1437 - 1498),

son of Sir Henry Scrope and and Elizabeth le Scrope of Masham. He was born and died at Bolton Castle and was buried at St Agatha's church, Easby Abbey in Yorkshire near Bolton Castle.

(For his father, Sir Henry, see Lords of the Manor in the Middle Ages.)

The Wars of the Roses

During Sir John's lifetime, civil war broke out: the Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1485).

It was a disagreement among the wealthy and powerful barons as to who should rule the country. The two sides were the House of Lancaster and the House of York. 

A good move . . .

Sir John was a supporter of the Yorkist King Edward IV and was injured at the Battle of Towton in 1461 during the Wars of the Roses. He was rewarded by the king being made a Knight of the Garter, one of only 24 top people to have this honour at any one time. Edward must have been very impressed by Sir John as he gave him his own father's garter.

 Edward IV's Lancastrian opponent, Henry VI, came and sought refuge at Bolton Castle after losing the Battle of Hexham in 1464. Although a Yorkist supporter, Sir John Scrope looked after his Lancastrian enemy for two days.

However, only 4 miles after leaving Bolton Castle, King Henry was caught by Yorkist soldiers. They took him to the Tower of London, where he was murdered on the orders of Edward IV. 

In 1475 Sir John Scrope gave his support to Edward IV's successful invasion of France by providing 20 soldiers and 200 archers - and so ended the Hundred Years War. 

In 1482 Sir John was again with the English army, this time invading Scotland.

A bad choice . . .

In 1485 Sir John Scrope supported the Yorkist King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. However, Richard was killed and Henry Tudor took the throne of England as King Henry VII. But Sir John was later pardoned by the king. The king's mother was his wife's sister -

That was lucky!

Oops! Another bad choice

Being a true Yorkist supporter, Sir John continued to support the cause of the White Rose. Sir John supported an imposter called Lambert Simnel who pretended to be the older son of the Yorkist King Edward IV and therefore the rightful king of England. In 1487, Sir John and others made an unsuccessful attack on York. This time Henry VII was not at all pleased: Sir John Scrope had to pay a heavy fine and was forced to stay in London where the king's men could keep an eye on him.

A lucky escape -

However, in 1497 King Henry VII released Sir John to fight against the Scots.

In 1497 Norham Castle, Northumberland was attacked by King James IV of Scotland in support of Perkin Warbeck, another imposter claiming be the second son of the Yorkist King Edward IV and therefore the rightful king of England. 

It was a good move by the King:

• If Sir John Scrope was successful, the Scots would be defeated;
• If the untrustworthy Scrope was killed in battle, so much the better!

So what happened ?
When Sir John arrived with the English army at Norham, the Scottish army retreated.

Sir John won the battle without a fight. 

Sir John Scrope died the following year at the age of 61.

Sir Henry Scrope, 6th Baron Scrope (1468 - 1506),

son of Sir John above and Elizabeth Fitzhugh, led a much quieter life than his ancestors. 

Sir Henry Scrope, 7th Baron Scrope (c1480 - 1533,

son of Sir Henry above and Elizabeth Percy, daughter of the Duke of Northumberland.

Sir Henry the 7th Baron was more like his grandad - another soldier of the Scrope family.

When the Scottish army invaded Northumberland, Sir Henry Scrope was among the English army sent by King Henry VIII to defend the border. 

Sir Henry fought at the Battle of Flodden in 1513 along with 26,000 English soldiers pitched against 60,000 Scottish troops.

However, with better weapons and better tactics, the English were victorious with 1500 men killed as against 10,000 Scottish soldiers killed along with many of their nobility and their king, James IV. After the defeat of the Scots, Sir Henry was given the job of guarding the English border with Scotland. 

Sir John Scrope, 8th Baron Scrope (c1510 - 1549), son of Sir Henry above and Mabel Dacre.

The Scrope family at this time were lords of Langar but they did not live here but at Bolton Castle in Yorkshire.

The Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536 was an uprising of people in the northern counties against the religious reforms of Henry VIII, particularly the break with the Roman Catholic Church and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. 

The trouble began with a protest march in Lincolnshire which spread to Yorkshire where 30.000 people rebelled. They reopened the monasteries that Henry VIII had closed and formed a rebel army. With trouble spreading across all the northern counties, this was a serious threat to Henry VIII. 

In the wrong place at the wrong time  

Sir John Scrope did not want to be involved.

However . . .  

In 1537 King Henry VIII sent a huge army from London which camped in Nottinghamshire to get ready for the battle further north. But before attacking the rebels, Henry agreed to pardon them if they would go home. The king  promised to have peace talks with the leaders.

So the rebels went home.  But Henry VIII, being Henry VIII, then had 200 of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace executed. 

The uprising failed and its the leaders were dead or on the run. One of the rebels was Abbot Adam Sedbar of Jervaulx Abbey which was near Bolton Castle, the home of Sir John Scope. When King Henry sent his officers from London to round up the rebel ringleaders, the Abbot begged Sir John to shelter him in Bolton Castle.  Reluctantly Sir John agreed. After all the Abbott was a priest of the church.

When King Henry's officers arrived at Bolton, the Abbot slipped out of Bolton Castle and escaped to Skipton Castle. He was, however, caught and taken to London where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. Before they left, the King's officers burned Bolton Castle. Things looked bad for Sir John.

Luckily, Henry VIII was persuaded that Sir John had been forced to shelter the abbot against his will and so he was forgiven. Sir John was allowed to repair Bolton Castle and later to retake his seat in Parliament.

Mary, Queen of Scots

In 1568 the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots fled to England after defeat at the Battle of Langside by the Protestant Scottish lords. Mary was seeking safety in England where her cousin, Elizabeth was the queen.

Problem: Mary, Queen of Scots claimed that she was also Mary, Queen of England (She was the great-niece of Henry VII) and English Roman Catholics agreed with her.

Queen Elizabeth had Mary arrested and held in Carlisle Castle. Sir Henry Scrope was in London at the royal court, so the queen sent him to take charge of the Scottish queen. Henry hurried north to Carlisle Castle and removed Mary to his own home in Yorkshire, Bolton Castle where she was kept in his charge for six months. Mary was then moved under guard around various other castles in England. 

Mary, Queen of Plots

In 1569 a group of Roman Catholic lords in the north of England rebelled. Known as the Rising of the North, they intended to free Mary, Queen of Scots, kill the protestant Queen Elizabeth I and make England a Roman Catholic country again.

As Captain of Carlisle, Sir Henry Scrope was involved in defeating the rebels. In recognition of his loyal service, Queen Elizabeth made Sir Henry a Knight of the Garter in 1584.

Mary, Queen of Scots was involved in plots against Elizabeth again and again. In the end, Elizabeth ran out of patience and reluctantly had her cousin beheaded in 1587. 

Sir Henry died at the age of 58 at Carlisle Castle in 1592.

Born at Bolton Castle in Yorkshire, Thomas spent his youth with his father at Carlisle Castle. When his father died, he followed him as Warden of the English West March responsible for keeping law and order on the English border with Scotland, but with less success than his father.

He does seems not to have enjoyed his time on the borders - his wife Philadelphia was a lady-in-waiting of Queen Elizabeth away in London and his son was a student at Oxford University. And although he was seriously wealthy he was rarely able to visit his estates. He owned 20 manors in Nottinghamshire (including Langar and Barnstone), Yorkshire and Buckinghamshire earning £2,000 in rents; he owned other property worth £1,700 a year and he earned as warden £400 a year. In modern money, this is worth literally MILLIONS.  Sad that he never had the time to spend it. 

Although a brave and valiant fighter, Sir Thomas was not a good leader. He was often compared with his father and is unfortunately best remembered as the Warden who allowed the spectacular jailbreak of the most notorious of Scottish bandits.

Sir Thomas Scrope was based at Carlisle Castle just 7 miles from the border with Scotland. At that time, England and Scotland were two separate countries at peace with each other, but there was often trouble across the border. Gangs of robbers known as border reivers, both English and Scottish, would raid farms and villages on either side of the border and then escape back across the border to safety.

A great escape

Kinmont Willie Armstrong was one of the most famous and feared of the Scottish reivers, who led raids into England. There are many records of his wicked deeds. In 1584

'Will Armestronge called Kinmont and 300 other men took away forty score [40 x 20] kye [cows] and oxen [bulls], three score horses [3 x 20] and meares [mares], 500 sheep, and burned 60 houses and slayed ten men.’

The 17th March 1596 was a truce day, a time when Scots and English came together to legally sort out their differences with a guarantee that no-one would be harmed.

However, at the end of the day of truce, Kinmont Willie was chased and caught by a gang of English reivers and taken prison to Carlisle Castle.

Although Willie was safely locked up in Carlisle Castle, Sir Thomas Scrope did not know what to do with his prisoner. Kinmont Willie had been captured illegally on a truce day, but Sir Thomas did not want let a notorious bandit go free. So he dithered . . .

Then, early on the morning of Sunday 13th April, a gang of eighty Scottish reivers suddenly galloped across the border into England and broke into the Carlisle Castle. They set Willie free and took him back to Scotland. No-one was hurt in the raid, which happened so quickly that it is suspected that the gang had inside help.

For Sir Thomas, it was a disaster. He was a laughing stock on both sides of the border and Queen Elizabeth was furious. His reputation as a Warden of the March was in ruins. He swore to have revenge on Kinmont Willie or die.

In that winter of 1596, Thomas sent one of his captains with 2000 horsemen across the border into Scotland.

On a trip of 100 miles, they stole 700 farm animals, burnt the towns of Annan and Dumfries and then ravaged the valley of Liddesdale where they stole 3000 sheep and cattle, destroyed 24 buildings, and captured 200 prisoners, who were stripped naked, tied together in pairs and led into England. More than sixty women and children died in the snow on the journey. 

Sir Thomas's revenge was a bigger disaster than losing Kinmont Willie. Queen Elizabeth was livid with anger - England and Scotland were supposed to be at peace and now that was at risk. 

James VI of Scotland was nervously chewing his fingernails. He was worried that he might not now be offered the crown of England when his cousin Elizabeth died. 

But things settled down. The Queen made Sir Thomas Scrope a Knight of the Garter in 1599 as his father had been before him. It couldn't be because Sir Thomas's wife was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, could it ? . . .

Philadelphia Carey, Lady Scrope (1552 - 1627)

and the story of Queen Elizabeth's ring

Not only was Sir Thomas's wife, Philadelphia a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, her father was a cousin of Anne Boleyn, the queen's mother.

Philadelphia was with the Elizabeth as the queen lay dying at Richmond Palace in March 1603. Elizabeth had no child to pass on the crown of England and she had refused to name anyone to succeed her. There were a number of people who could claim the throne, but top of the list was her cousin, King James VI of Scotland. 

Philadelphia Lady Scrope had been given a ring by King James who asked her to send it back to him as proof of the Queen’s death. He could then be the first to claim the throne of England.

So, when Elizabeth died, Lady Scrope threw the ring out of the window to her brother Robert, who was waiting in the garden below. He took a horse from the royal stables and set off immediately for the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.

He completed the 400-mile journey in less than three days. Arriving after midnight, dishevelled, muddy and bleeding at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, he showed James the ring and hailed him as the King James I of England.

Lady Philadelphia Scrope went on to serve Queen Anne, the wife of James I. She died in 1627 at the age of 75 and is buried alongside her husband in Langar church.

When Elizabeth I died and her cousin James VI of Scotland became James I of England, the lawlessness on the border was taken under control and Thomas was able leave Carlisle to come home, not to Bolton Castle, but to a tiny village in Nottinghamshire where he had a manor house - Langar. 

Langar Hall was 200 miles from the scene of his disaster. Here he lived peacefully for several years until his death in 1609 at the age of just 42. His son, Emanuel Scrope had a magnificent tomb built for him in St Andrew's church Langar.  The inscription on the tomb reads:

The Right Honoll and Noble Lord Thomas Lord Scroope Baron of Bovlton, Masham and Vpsall, of the Most Noble Order of ye Garter Knight, Lord Warden Of The West Marchses, Steward Of Richmond and Richmondsh and Bow Bearer of all His Maties Parkes, Forrests And chases within the same, lyeth here bvried and died ye 2 Day Of Septembr Anno Dni 1609.

And Kinmont Willie Armstrong?

 Willie was never caught and died peacefully in his own bed of old age.

Sir Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland, 11th Baron Scrope of Bolton (1584 - 1630), son of Sir Thomas above.

A statue of Sir Emanuel is shown on the tomb of his parents in Langar church kneeling at their feet.     →

His details are to be found in the 'Lords of the Manor in the time of the Stuarts'. Click here to see what he got up to.

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