As a young man he idolised Philip Sidney, who, as a poet, soldier, and courtier, exemplified the ideal high-born gentleman of the time.

After Sidney died at the Battle of Zutphen, James Scudamore carried his pennant of arms at his funeral in 1586, aged only eighteen years at the time.

[5] Scudamore cut a dashing figure at the tilt-yard – his appearance was thus recounted by the scholar William Higford: A knightte on horseback is the goodliest sight the worlde can presente to viewe; and is not lesse than a Prince...mee thinkes I see sir James Scudamore...enter the Tilte yarde in a handsome equippage all in compleate Armor, embelished with plumes, his beaver close, mounted vppon a verie highe boundinge horse.

And when hee came to the encounter or shocke, brake as manie spearse as the beste, Her majestie Queene Elizabeth with a trayne of ladies like the starres in the firmamente, and the whole Courte lookinge vppon him with a verie gratious aspecte.

[6]George Peele, dramatist, wrote: L'escu d’amour, the arms of loyalty/Lodg'd Skydmore in his heart; and on he came, And well and worthily demeaned himself/In that day's service: short and plain to be, No Lord nor knight more foreard than was he.

[citation needed] For reasons that are uncertain, she was disliked by the Scudamore family, and Sir James's relatives pressured them to end the marriage.

[6] A cultured man and patron of literature, Scudamore was a great friend of scholar Thomas Bodley, and contributed to the founding of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

In one memorable incident, Thomas Allen was visiting the Scudamores at Holme Lacy, and was demonstrating his pocket watch to his hosts – at that time, an extremely uncommon and novel device.

[11] Though Herefordshire was regarded as somewhat of a rustic – even backwards – region, the Scudamore family's patronage of learned and illustrious cultural luminaries of the day ensured for them a high degree of social prestige and a prominent place at the court of the Queen.

The exact cause of Sir James Scudamore's death is not known; biographer Ian Atherton suggests that it may have stemmed from complications arising from an injured ("gammy") leg which he had been treated for in the past.

Sir James Scudamore left behind some of the finest surviving suits of armour from Elizabethan England, built at the royal Greenwich armoury.

His tournament armour features a distinctive armet of the Greenwich style with a high visor and a raised crest; articulated tassets and cuisses, and cris-crossing strips of blued steel inlaid with elaborate gold designs.

Scudamore's suits of armour were discovered in 1911 packed away in a chest in the attic of an abandoned tower at Holme Lacy, in an extreme state of disrepair and significantly damaged by rust.

[12] The suits of armour were subsequently purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan and given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where they underwent extensive restoration and had those pieces that were missing altogether replaced with replicas made by Daniel Tachaux.