He served in King Henry VIII's campaigns in France and was active in local government in Kent and a Member of Parliament for New Romney.
He was the grandfather of both Reginald Scott, author of The Discoverie of Witchcraft,[1] a source for Shakespeare's Macbeth,[2] and Thomas Keyes, who married Lady Mary Grey.
[6] As a young man Scott was knighted by the future Emperor Charles V in 1511 while serving as a senior captain, under his relative Sir Edward Poynings, with the English forces sent by King Henry VIII to aid Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Low Countries, against Charles II, Duke of Guelders.
Scott may have participated in the French campaigns of 1512 and 1513; he was among the forces being marshaled at Calais in 1514 when negotiations for peace between England and France brought the war to a temporary halt.
In 1523 Scott was with the English forces which invaded northern France under the Duke of Suffolk.