Scrope graduated from
Hart Hall, Oxford on 7 November 1617, and as was then common studied law at the
Middle Temple until 1619. There are few details of his career prior to the outbreak of the
First English Civil War in August 1642; he was related to the
Parliamentarian leader
John Hampden and like many of the
Buckinghamshire gentry joined the army of Parliament, raising a troop of horse for the
Earl of Essex and fighting at
Edgehill. In 1644, he joined
Sir Robert Pye's cavalry regiment, fighting at
Lostwithiel and the
Second Battle of Newbury, before transferring to the
New Model Army in 1645 as a major in Colonel Richard Graves' regiment. Although the regiment was part of the force sent to relieve
Taunton and missed the
Battle of Naseby, he took part in the South-Western campaign, where it fought at
Langport and
Bristol. Just before the
Royalist capital of
Oxford surrendered in June 1646,
Charles I escaped to join the Scottish
Covenanter army outside
Newark. In March 1647, the Scots handed him over to
Parliament in return for £400,000 and Graves' regiment escorted him to
Holdenby House in
Northamptonshire. In the struggle for control between Parliamentary moderates and the
Army Council, Graves supported Parliament; when Cornet
George Joyce arrived at Holmby and took charge of the king on behalf of the Council, Scrope replaced Graves as colonel. By early 1648, Scrope was based in
Blandford keeping order in
Dorset, home base of
Denzil Holles, the Army's leading Parliamentary opponent, before an alliance of English and Scots Royalists and Presbyterians led to the
Second English Civil War in June. Scrope was sent to help
Thomas Fairfax suppress the revolt in
Kent and
Essex, before being detached from the
Siege of Colchester to put down another rising in
Cambridgeshire, led by
Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland. On 10 July, he took Holland prisoner at the
Battle of St Neots; although Parliament voted for banishment, the Army insisted on his execution in March 1649. Just before the Second Civil War ended, Scrope was sent to
Yarmouth after reports the
Prince of Wales was attempting to land there. Although this did not take place, it is suggested Yarmouth was the location of a meeting held around this time where
Oliver Cromwell proposed the trial and execution of Charles I. It is not clear whether Scrope attended but shortly afterwards he became a member of the Army Council; he supported
Pride's Purge in December 1648, was appointed one of the judges at
trial of Charles I, and voted for his execution on 30 January 1649. In April 1649, continuing unrest within the army led to a series of mutinies. Then based at
Salisbury, in May Scrope's regiment was selected to take part in the
reconquest of Ireland; joined by
Henry Ireton's unit, they refused to go. Only eighty men remained loyal to Scrope, the rest elected new officers, fortified their positions within the town, and published a pamphlet with their demands. The units from Salisbury attempted to link up with colleagues elsewhere, posing a serious threat to the regime; Cromwell and Fairfax put down the mutiny at
Burford on 17 May, three ringleaders were shot and the regiments concerned dissolved, including Scrope's. His inability to pacify the mutineers and general unpopularity with the troops ended Scrope's active military career. In October, he was appointed governor of
Bristol Castle, a position he retained until June 1655 when it was demolished as part of a scheme for reducing the number of garrisons in England. In August, he was appointed to the newly formed Council of Scotland, a body established by Cromwell to administer the country following its incorporation into the
Commonwealth.
Edmund Ludlow, another regicide who became an opponent of Cromwell, claimed this was to offset
George Monck, the ambitious military commander. ==Execution==