Referred to as the 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham in a long lineage of barons, Scrope was a close peer of the rakish, daring early 15th century English King Henry V — Shakespeare even described him as a “Bedfellow” of the monarch. That was until he was implicated in a plot to assassinate the king ahead of a planned (and now famous) invasion of France. Scrope lost his knighthood — “degraded” from the King’s prestigious Order of the Garter — and was executed in brutal fashion outside the city of Southampton. His severed head was sent on a pike to rot on the gates of the northern English city of York.
Disgraced British Knights: A Not-So-Chivalrous History
The British government’s decision to strip former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Fred Goodwin of his knighthood places the banker in conspicuous company