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JOHN LE SCROPE, fifth Baron Scrope of Bolton (1435-1498), KG, was son of Henry, fourth baron, by Elizabeth, daughter of his kinsman, John, fourth Lord Scrope of Masham, and was born on 22 July 1435.John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton was an English Yorkist nobleman.

Born at Bolton Castle, Yorkshire, the eldest son of Henry Scrope, 4th Baron Scrope of Bolton and Elizabeth Scrope, he inherited his title on the death of his father in 1459

Inheriting the Yorkist politics of his father, who died on 14 Jan. 1459, he fought with Warwick at Northampton and was 'sore hurt' at Towton. He was invested as a knight before 1460 while serving as a Commissioner of the Peace for York. As a Yorkist sympathiser, he fought for the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Northampton and was injured at the Battle of Towton. He was invested as a Knight of the Garter by Edward IV in 1463. Edward IV gave him the Garter which had belonged to his father, the Duke of York. He took part in the gradual reduction of the Lancastrian strongholds in the north, and may have been at the Battle of Hexham in 1464.

In 1475 he joined the king with 20 men-at-arms and 200 archers to invade France. In 1482 he led the van of the English army under the Earl of Northumberland when invading Scotland. He served the crown on a variety of important missions and commissions.

In 1485 he supported the Yorkist Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth but was pardoned by the victor Henry VII, possibly at the intercession of the King's mother, who was the half-sister of his second wife Elizabeth. After the accession of Henry VII he then supported the Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel and in 1487, with Thomas, 6th Baron Scrope of Masham, made an unsuccessful attack on Bootham Bar in York, This time he had to pay a heavy fine and remain within the London area. In 1497 he fought against the Scots and assisted in raising the siege of Norham Castle.

Scrope was aggrieved, however, that Edward did not restore to him the lordship of the Isle of Man, of which his family had been divested by Henry IV, and in 1470 he began to raise Richmondshire for the recalcitrant Nevilles. But on Warwick being driven out of the country he made his peace, and, though he adhered to Warwick during the short Lancastrian restoration, Edward overlooked his inconstancy and employed him in negotiations with Scotland in 1473. In 1475 he accompanied the king to France. As he still persisted in quartering the arms of Man, he was ordered to relinquish them during the expedition, without prejudice to his right, if any.

In the next year he went on a mission to Rome with Earl Rivers.4 He held a command in the Duke of Gloucester's invasion of Scotland (1482), and took part in the subsequent negotiations with the Duke of Albany. Gloucester, when king [Richard III], sought to confirm Scrope's support by a grant of lands in the south-west, with the constableship of Exeter Castle. He was also governor of the Fleet. Nevertheless he kept his position under a fifth king. In 1492 he was retained to go abroad with Henry VII, and as late as August 1497 assisted in raising the siege of Norham Castle. Scrope died on 17 Aug. 1498. On his death in 1498, his title passed to his son and heir, Henry Scrope, 6th Baron Scrope of Bolton. His daughter, Mary Scrope, married William Conyers, 1st Baron Conyers

His first wife, whom he married before 1463, was Joan, daughter of William, fourth Lord Fitzhugh (d. 1452) of Ravensworth Castle, Richmondshire. She bore him a son, Henry, sixth baron of the Bolton line, and father of the seventh baron, 'stern and stout,' who fought at Flodden.

Scrope married, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Oliver St. John (by Margaret, widow of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset) and widow of William, Lord Zouche of Haryngworth (d. 1463). He married secondly, before 10 December 1471, Elizabeth St John (d. before 3 July 1494), daughter of Sir Oliver St John (d.1437) and Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso, maternal grandmother of King Henry VII of England. She was the widow of William Zouche, 5th Baron Zouche (d. 25 December 1462) of Harringworth. In 1470, Elizabeth was godmother to the future King Edward V of England. Her loyalty to the House of York was inevitably suspect since she was the half-sister of Lady Margaret Beaufort, who was the mother of the future King Henry VII. John and Elizabeth were proclaimed loyalists to the House of Lancaster, yet John seemed to stick by the Yorkist side. Their daughter Mary Scrope became Baroness Conyers, as wife of William Conyers, 1st Baron Conyers.

His third wife was Anne Harling, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Harling of East Harling in Norfolk, and widow of Sir William Chamberlayne, K.G., and Sir Robert Wingfield. She survived Scrope only a few weeks.

A daughter Agnes married, first, Christopher Boynton; and, secondly, Sir Richard Radcliffe, the adviser of Richard III.