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Birth:          ABT 1350 Gawthorpe, Yorkshire, England
Death:          17 Dec 1419 Harewood, Yorkshire, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gascoigne
Sir William Gascoigne (c. 1350 – 17 December 1419) was Chief Justice of England 
during the reign of King Henry IV.

Life and work[edit]

Gascoigne's (alternately spelled Gascoyne[1]) was a descendant of an ancient 
Yorkshire family. He was born in Gawthorp to Sir William Gascoigne and Agnes 
Franke.

Though he is said to have studied at the University of Cambridge his name is not 
found in any university or college records.[2] According to Arthur Collins, Gascoigne 
was a law student at the Inner Temple.[3] It appears from the year-books that he 
practised as an advocate in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II. When Henry of 
Lancaster was banished by Richard II, Gascoigne was appointed one of his attorneys, 
and soon after Henry's accession to the throne was made chief justice of the court of 
King's Bench. After the suppression of the rising in the north in 1405, Henry eagerly 
pressed the chief justice to pronounce sentence upon Lord Scrope, the Archbishop of 
York, and the Earl Marshal Thomas Mowbray, who had been implicated in the revolt. 
This he absolutely refused to do, asserting the right of the prisoners to be tried by 
their peers. Although both were later executed, the chief justice had no part in this. It 
has been doubted whether Gascoigne could have displayed such independence of 
action without prompt punishment or removal from office.

His reputation is that of a great lawyer who in times of doubt and danger asserted the 
principle that the head of state is subject to law, and that the traditional practice of 
public officers, or the expressed voice of the nation in parliament, and not the will of 
the monarch or any part of the legislature, must guide the tribunals of the country.

The popular tale of his committing the Prince of Wales (the future Henry V) to prison 
must also be regarded as unauthentic, though it is both picturesque and 
characteristic. It is said that the judge had directed the punishment of one of the 
prince's riotous companions, and the prince, who was present and enraged at the 
sentence, struck or grossly insulted the judge. Gascoigne immediately committed him 
to prison, and gave the prince a dressing-down that caused him to acknowledge the 
justice of the sentence. The king is said to have approved of the act, but it appears 
that Gascoigne was removed from his post or resigned soon after the accession of 
Henry V. He died in 1419, and was buried in All Saints' Church, the parish church of 
Harewood in Yorkshire. (This even attracted gazetteers in the 19th century, 
suggesting his tomb amongst places worthy of visit.[4] [5] ) Some biographies of the 
judge have stated that he died in 1412, but this is disproved by Edward Foss in his 
'Lives of the Judges. Although it is clear that Gascoigne did not hold office long under 
Henry V, it is not impossible that the scene in the fifth act of Shakespeare's Henry IV, 
Part 2, (in which Henry V is crowned king, and assures Gascoigne that he shall 
continue to hold his post), could have some historical basis, and that the judge's 
resignation shortly thereafter was voluntary.

Family[edit]

He was born in Gawthorp,[6] in the valley below Harewood House, and later the area 
was flooded to facilitate the landscape at Harewood, not Gawthorpe W-Riding, Yorks, 
to Sir William Gascoigne and Agnes Franke. In 1369, Gascoigne married firstly 
Elizabeth de Mowbray (1350–1396), granddaughter of Alexander Mowbray, son of 
Roger de Mowbray, 1st Baron Mowbray. He married secondly Joan de Pickering, 
widow of Henry de Greystock.

Issue by first marriage:
Sir William Gascoigne II (1370–1422) m. Joan Wyman.
Elizabeth Gascoigne, m. John Aske
Margaret Gascoigne, m. Robert Hansard

Issue by second marriage:
Sir Christopher Gascoigne (born 1407)
James Gascoigne (born 1404), ancestor of poet George Gascoigne
Agnes Gascoigne (c. 1401 – after 1466), m. Robert Constable.
Robert Gascoigne (born c. 1410)
Richard Gascoigne (born c. 1413)

His brother, Nicholas Gascoigne, was ancestor of the Gascoigne baronets. Another 
brother, Richard (c. 1365 – 1423), married Beatrice Ellis, and was possibly the father 
of Thomas Gascoigne,[7] Chancellor of Oxford University.

Parents
GASCOIGNE William (ABT 1293 - BEF 1383)
FRANKE (Agnes) Margaret (ABT 1312 - )

Siblings
GASCOIGNE William (ABT 1350 - 17 Dec 1419)
GASCOIGNE Elizabeth (ABT 1352 - ABT 1378)

Marriage To MOWBRAY Elizabeth (ABT 1340 - ABT 1391)
    m. 1369 

Notes

Parents
MOWBRAY Alexander (ABT 1314 - ABT 1391)
MUSTERS Elizabeth (ABT 1316 - )

Children by MOWBRAY Elizabeth ABT 1340 - ABT 1391
GASCOIGNE William (ABT 1370 - 28 Mar 1422)

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