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William Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire

Supporter of Richard II of England

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 13, 2025
Entity authorityQ2042185 ↗
Source-derived summary

William le Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire, King of Mann (c. 1350 – 29 July 1399) was a close supporter of King Richard II of England. He was a second son of Richard le Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton.

He was the third and final king of an independent Manx Kingdom.

Life

He was a soldier-adventurer in Lithuania, Italy and France, where he served with John of Gaunt. Gaunt made him seneschal of Aquitaine in 1383.

He was made vice-chamberlain of the household of King Richard II in 1393 and granted the castle and manor of Marlborough in Wiltshire. In the same year his father purchased for him the Isle of Man from the earl of Salisbury, giving him the nominal title Dominus de Man or King of Mann. In 1394 he became a Knight of the Garter.

He was created Earl of Wiltshire in 1397 and became Lord High Treasurer in 1398.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire” is supporter of Richard II of England. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Scrope and Earl, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1350, 1399, 1383, 1393—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1350. For this dossier, William, Scrope and Earl is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “supporter of Richard II of England” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2042185. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1350, 1399, 1383 and 1393.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire”, its source revision and the description used here.
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  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.