heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

86 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
Another great achievement was the rebuilding
of his manor of
Bolton, which he obtained the King's license to castellate, and 18,000
marks and eighteen years of labour were consumed thereon. The building,
with its four square towers at the angles, enclosing a spacious court,
measured on the north and south sides 185 feet, and 125 on the east and
west, with three entrances. Leland, temp. Henry VIII., describes it, and
says "One thing I much notyd in the haulle of Bolton, how chimeneys
" were conveyed by tunneles made on the sides of the walls, betwixt the
"lights in the hawll, and by this means and by no covers is the smoke
" of the harthe in the hawle wonder strangly convayed."
So Lord Scrope was a great and prosperous man ;
but his prosperity
was eventually clouded by a trouble which saddened and embittered his
closing years. His eldest son, Sir William, seems to have been a man
of brilliant ability and success. Having distinguished himself by his
gallantry under the Duke of Lancaster in France, he was knighted, and
appointed seneschal of Aquitaine. His success in that office commended
him to the notice of Richard II., who made him Vice-Chamberlain, then
Chamberlain ;
employed him to negotiate his marriage with Isabel of
France ;
sent him on diplomatic missions ;
made him governor of Beaumaris
and Queensburgh castles and Chamberlain of Ireland ; created him,
1397, Earl of Wilts, without ever having been a baron; and, soon after,
Knight of the Garter, justice of Chester and North Wales, captain of
Calais, and constable of Guisnes, and eventually Treasurer of England.
purchased the sovereignty of the Isle of Man from the Earl of Salisbury,
and when the truce was confirmed with France, assented to the proceedings
"pour le seigneurie de Man," as one of the allies of the King of England.
Well might Lord Roos exclaim (Richard II., act ii. scene i.)
"The Earl of Wilts hath
"
the realm in farm !
But dark days were at hand. The people were becoming weary of
Richard's strange combination of vigour and lassitude, despotic tyranny
and lavish prodigality, love of idle show and magnificence, devotion to
favourites and pursuit of pleasure, which had alienated all classes from
him, and their hearts turned to the exiled Henry, now, by John of Gaunt's
death, Duke of Lancaster ; and he, taking advantage of Richard's absence
in Ireland, came over to England, and the nation was at his feet. Of
course the late King's favourites were the first to fall ;
and the Earl of
Wilts, compelled to abandon Wallingford Castle, where the young Queen
had been placed under his care for security, sought shelter in the castle
of Bristol, where he was compelled to surrender, and was immediately
beheaded by popular clamour, without even the form of a trial.
His aged father, then past seventy, never recovered the blow.
He
Under
the plea of State necessity he had assented to the deposition and im-