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Geoffrey le Scrope

Sir Geoffrey le Scrope
18th Lord Chief Justice of England
In office
21 March 1324 – 1 May 1329
Monarch Edward II
Edward III
Prime Minister Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (as Lord High Steward)
Chancellor Robert Baldock (1324-1327)
John Hotham (1327-1328)
Preceded by Hervey de Stanton
Succeeded by Robert de Malberthorp
21st Lord Chief Justice of England
In office
29 December 1330 – 28 March 1332
Monarch Edward III
Prime Minister Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (as Lord High Steward)
Chancellor John de Stratford
Preceded by Henry le Scrope
Succeeded by Richard de Willoughby
23rd Lord Chief Justice of England
In office
20 September 1332 – 10 September 1333
Monarch Edward III
Prime Minister Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (as Lord High Steward)
Chancellor John de Stratford
Preceded by Richard de Willoughby
Succeeded by Richard de Willoughby
25th Lord Chief Justice of England
In office
1337 – October 1338
Monarch Edward III
Prime Minister Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (as Lord High Steward)
Chancellor Robert de Stratford
Preceded by Richard de Willoughby
Succeeded by Richard de Willoughby
Personal details
Born c. 1285
Died December 2, 1340(1340-12-02) (aged 54–55)
Ghent, Belgium
Resting place Coverham Abbey, North Yorkshire
Nationality English
Spouse(s) Ivette de Ros
Relations Henry le Scrope (brother)
Children Henry Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Masham
Thomas Scrope
William Scrope
Stephen Scrope
Geoffrey Scrope
Lady Beatrice Luttrell
Lady Constance Luttrell
Ivetta de Hothom
Parents William le Scrope (father)

Sir Geoffrey le Scrope (1285 – 2 December 1340) was an English lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench for four periods between 1324 and 1338.

He was the son of Sir William le Scrope, who was bailiff to the earl of Richmond in Richmondshire. Geoffrey's older brother Henry was also a lawyer, and served as Chief Justice twice, 1317–23 and 1329–30. His mother was Constance, daughter and heiress of Thomas, son of Gillo de Newsham, variously described as of Newsham-on-Tees and of Newsham-on-Tyne. Geoffrey Scrope certainly had an estate at Whalton, near Morpeth, a few miles south-east of which there is a Newsham, but it is not upon the Tyne.

Like his brother, Scrope adopted the profession of the law, and by 1316 he was king's serjeant. He is also called 'valettus regis.' He was summoned to councils and parliaments, and occasionally sat on judicial commissions. In the baronial conflicts of the reign of Edward II he was a loyal adherent of the crown. He was involved in the proceedings both against Thomas of Lancaster and Andrew Harclay. He was knighted in 1323, and became Chief Justice for the first time on 21 March 1324. He managed, however, to survive politically the overthrow both of Edward II in 1326 and of Roger Mortimer in 1330.

After retiring as a justice, he campaigned with Edward III in Flanders, and distinguished himself as a soldier. He was also one of the instigators behind the king's actions against Archbishop Stratford in 1340. The small estate he held as early as 1312 in Coverdale, south of Wensleydale, he augmented before 1318, by the acquisition of the manor of Clifton on Ure at the entrance of the latter dale, where he obtained a license to build a castle in that year. Early in the next reign he purchased the neighbouring manor of Masham from the representatives of its old lords, the Wautons, who held it from the Mowbrays by the service of an annual barbed arrow. Eltham Mandeville and other Vesci lands in Kent had passed into his hands by 1318. One of Edward II's last acts was to invest him with the great castle and honour of Skipton in Craven forfeited by Roger, lord Clifford. So closely was he identified with the court party that Mortimer was alleged to have projected the same fate for him as for the Despensers. But though Edward's deposition was followed by Scrope's removal from office, he received a pardon in February 1328, and was reinstated as chief justice.


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