Richard le Scrope

Richard le Scrope
Archbishop of York
York Minster, burial place of Archbishop Richard Scrope
Appointed	between 27 February 1398 and 15 March 1398
Installed	unknown
Term ended	8 June 1405
Predecessor	Robert Waldby
Successor	Thomas Langley
Other posts	Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield
Orders
Consecration	19 August 1386
Personal details
Born	c. 1350
Died	8 June 1405 York
Buried	York Minster
Denomination	Roman Catholic

Richard le Scrope (c. 1350 – 8 June 1405), Bishop of Lichfield and Archbishop of York, was executed in 1405 for his participation in the Northern Rising against King Henry IV.

Richard Scrope, born about 1350, was the third son of Henry Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Masham, and his wife, Joan, whose surname is unknown. He had four brothers and two sisters:

His father had had a distinguished career as a soldier and administrator, and according to McNiven, Richard's Scrope's first preferments in the church probably owed a great deal to family influence. Scrope was rector of Ainderby Steeple near Northallerton in 1368, warden of the free chapel of Tickhill Castle, and in 1375 official to Thomas Arundel, Bishop of Ely. He was ordained deacon on 20 September 1376, and priest on 14 March 1377. During this time he studied arts at Oxford, and by 1375 became licentiate in civil law. By 1383 he had earned doctorates of canon and civil law at Cambridge, and in 1378 was Chancellor of the University.

From 1382 to 1386 Scrope was at Rome, serving as a papal chaplain and an auditor of the Curia. In 1382 he was instituted Dean of Chichester. Although his election as Bishop of Chichester in September 1385 was blocked by King Richard II, Scrope was made Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield on 18 August 1386, and consecrated by Pope Urban VI at Genoa on the following day. Scrope made a profession of obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury on 27 March 1387, and was enthroned in his cathedral on 29 June 1387.