Earldom by a collateral descendant, over 500 years later. Although he was proven to be the senior heir male general, the claim failed on other grounds. In 1869, the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords, after a series of hearings beginning in 1862 under the title of Wiltes Claim of Peerage 4 HL 126, rejected the claim of Simon Thomas Scrope, of Danby, to the Earldom of Wiltes (Wiltshire) granted to William le Scrope, above. It was proved that Simon Thomas Scrope was the senior heir male of the Earl of Wiltes, but the Committee for Privileges decided that as a matter of law an English peerage could not descend to heirs male general who were not directly descended from the original grantee; they also rejected arguments based on the irregularity of the original sentence by Henry IV before he had become King. The Committee declined to follow its own earlier decision in the Devon Peerage Claim (1831) 5 English Reports 293, in which a grant to "heirs male" had been allowed to pass to heirs male collateral. References External links Biography Wiltshire, William Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire, William Scrope, Earl of Earls of Wiltshire Wiltshire, William Scrope, Earl of Lord High Treasurers of England Monarchs of the Isle of Man Executed English people 14th-century executions by England Executed royalty People executed under the Plantagenets by decapitation William Peers created by Richard II