Who was Richard Scrope, hero of Yorkshire

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A.� An unfortunate cleric. Richard Scrope (1350-1405), Archbishop of York, was the first prelate to be executed.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� Tough call.

A.� Yes. He became a martyr: not only a symbol of courageous resistance to a tyrannous usurper, but also a saint in the eyes of his countrymen.

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Q.� Quick biography

A.� Certainly. Richard Scrope was born into a prominent Yorkshire family about 1350, son of Henry, first Baron Scrope of Masham. He studied at Oxford, and Cambridge later conferred doctorates on him. By 1376 he was in deacon's orders and warden of John of Gaunt's chapel at Tickhill Castle. He was ordained in March, 1377, and next year became chancellor of the University of Cambridge. By 1386 Pope Urban VI named Scrope bishop of Conventry and Lichfield. Scrope's service to Richard II on diplomatic missions earned him promotion to Archbishop of York on 2 June, 1398.

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Q.� So far, so good. What went wrong

A.� Scrope was Richard II's man.

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Q.� And...

A.� Richard was deposed by the Lancastrian Henry Bolingbroke in 1399, and murdered while in prison - first casualty of the Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. His rival Bolingbroke became Henry IV.

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Q.� So Scrope instantly opposed him

A.� It was by no means as simple as that. At first, Scrope seems to have remained neutral, but then presided with Archbishop Thomas Arundel at Henry's hasty coronation. He also helped Henry secure loans for an expedition against the Scots. In 1404, though, the relationship soured.

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Q.� How

A.� The Scrope family made several marriage alliances with the belligerent Percies. The Earl of Northumberland - who had become a generous patron of Scrope's cathedral - also started to use the politically naive archbishop to support his private campaign of revenge against Henry. In the spring of 1405, Scrope wrote a document criticising Henry of wilful misrule.

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Q.� Well received

A.� Not by Henry, obviously. But it was by many - and an armed mob of 8,000 accompanied Scrope on 27 May to join forces with Henry Percy and Thomas Bardolf against the king. It was a motley bunch and after three days of battling a large loyalist army led by Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, and Prince John of Lancaster on Shipton Moor, Scrope agreed to a truce.

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Q.� So then what happened

A.� As soon as the Archbishop disbanded his followers, he was arrested and imprisoned at Pontefract, then taken to Bishopthorpe and condemned to death in his own hall.

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Q.� Under Henry's command

A.� Henry, who was present, had ordered Chief Justice Gascoign to pronounce sentence on them; but Gascoign - a Yorkshireman - firmly refused, saying that the laws gave him no jurisdiction over the life of an archbishop.

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Q.� And did that help

A.� Not one iota. The archbishop was beheaded, on 8 June, 1405, in a field just outside York's Skeldergate Postern, protesting that he 'never intended evil against the person of King Henry'. He was buried in York Minister, where pilgrims for centuries made offerings at his elaborate tomb.

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By Steve Cunningham