Thomas de Scales

Infobox Military Person
name =Thomas de Scales


born=c. 1400
placeofbirth =
died =25 July 1460
placeofdeath=
allegiance =
rank=
branch=Army
conflict =Hundred Years' War (Patay)
War of the Roses
commands =
awards=Order of the Garter

Thomas de Scales or Thomas Scales de Newselles (c. 1400 – 25 July 1460), 7th baron of Scales, knight of the Garter from 1426 [His number is 139.] was one of the main English commanders at the end of the Hundred Years' War.

The son of Robert Scales (c. 1372 – 7 December 1402), he succeeded his brother Robert (died July 1419) as baron, and married Ismayne Whalesburgh. They had two children, Thomas Scales (died in infancy) and Elizabeth (died 2 September 1473). Elizabeth married Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers (a very influential figure at the English court and brother in law, through Elizabeth Woodville, to king Edward IV), and succeeded her fther as 8th baron Scales. She had no surviving issue, and the title became extinct.

He fought against Joan of Arc in the Loire campaign, from the siege of Orléans to the battle of Patay, as lieutenant of John of Lancaster, duke of Bedford. From a recruitment roll now at the National Army Museum, we know he commanded a corps of 728 archers (some with fire-tipped arrows) and about 50 infantry at the siege of Saint-Denis. In 1439, to cut off Mont-Saint-Michel, at the end of the French bridge in English-held territory, he founded the citadel of Granville, but in 1442 this was taken by surprise by the French defenders of the Mont. In the Wars of the Roses he fought for Lancaster, and as such appears in Shakespeare's "Henry VI, Part 2".

Notes

External links

* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p10744.htm#i107440 Thomas de Scales] on thePeerage.com