Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham

Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham KG (c. 1376 – 5 August 1415) was a favourite of King Henry V of England but he was executed for his involvedment in the Southampton Plot.

The arms of Scrope

Biography

He was created a Knight of the Garter and Lord High Treasurer in 1410 by Henry IV and employed on diplomatic missions abroad by Henry V, amongst which was one to seek an alliance with John the Fearless.

Although high in royal favour, Scrope was a ring leader of the Southampton Plot of 1415, which aimed to assassinate Henry V as the king was setting out for his invasion of France. Upon the discovery of the plot, Scrope and his conspirators were swiftly arrested and tried. He was dragged through the streets of Southampton before being beheaded, along with his co-conspirator the Earl of Cambridge on 5 August 1415 at Southampton Green, Hampshire. His body was dismembered and his head sent to York to be put on a spike on Micklegate Bar.

Ian Mortimer claims that Scrope wasn't actually involved in the conspiracy but had tried inveigling himself with the conspirators, just as the Duke of York had done with the Epiphany Rising, in order to learn when and where they were planning to strike in order to betray them to the King, but that he was waylaid when the Earl of March beat him in informing the King.^{[citation needed]}

He had married in 1411 Lady Joan Holland, widow of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York.

Scrope in Fiction

In William Shakespeare's Henry V, Scrope is portrayed as the character Lord Scroop.

In Martha Rofheart's Fortune Made His Sword (G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1972), Scrope appears as the friend of Sir William Poultney, who dresses as a woman.

See also

• Scrope

Notes and sources

Notes

Sources

• Barker, Juliet (2006). Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle. United Kingdom: Abacus. ISBN 978-0349119182. 
• Curry, Anne (2005). Agincourt: A New History. United Kingdom: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0752428284. 
• Mortimer, Ian (2009). 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0224079921. 
• Pugh, T B (1988). Henry V and the Southampton plot of 1415. United Kingdom: Southampton University Press. ISBN 978-0854322800. 

Preceded by Sir John Tiptoft

Lord Treasurer 1410–1411

Succeeded by Sir John Pelham

Preceded by Stephen Scrope

Baron Scrope of Masham 1406–1415

Succeeded by John Scrope attainder reversed 1426