GASCOIGNE, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1350-'1419), chief jus tice of England in the reign of Henry IV. Gascoigne practised as an advocate in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. On the banishment of Henry of Lancaster 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 14o5, Henry eagerly pressed the chief justice to pronounce sentence upon Scrope, the archbishop of York, and the earl marshal Thomas Mowbray, who had been implicated in the revolt. This he absolutely re fused to do, asserting the right of the prisoners to be tried by their peers. Although both were afterwards executed, the chief justice had no part in the transaction. The oft-told tale of his committing the prince of Wales to prison is unauthentic, though it is characteristic of Gascoigne's independence. Gascoigne ap pears to have been removed from his post or resigned soon after the accession of Henry V. He died in 1419, and was buried in the parish church of Harewood in Yorkshire.