Defenders, Rebels and Troublemakers: The Percy Family 1370-1570
The Percy family is one of England’s oldest noble houses, with William de Percy first arriving with the Norman King William the Conqueror, and it is today headed by Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland. In the late-medieval period, they proved to be one of England’s most important, powerful, and troublesome noble families - flitting between being allies of the King to enemies of the same, with small periods of powerlessness. With their power base in the North, they were among those whose task it was to defend England from her Scottish neighbour, but this position was used as a springboard to strike against their personal rivals elsewhere in the kingdom, particularly in the south.
By 1370, the family’s head was Henry Percy, Fourth Baron Percy of Alnwick. He was a distinguished veteran of the Hundred Years War under King Edward III and his eminence in the North was cemented at the coronation of King Richard II in 1377, when he was created ‘Earl of Northumberland’. He began campaigning against the Scots that same year. In these campaigns, it was Northumberland’s eldest son and heir, Sir Henry Percy nicknamed ‘Hotspur’, who gained popular recognition. One famous incident was when he was besieged in Newcastle by the Scottish Earl of Douglas, and defeated in single combat. Humiliated, he pursued Douglas to Otterburn, and was defeated there too, and taken prisoner.
A decade later, Northumberland and Hotspur were to be leaders in a drastic change in the country's leadership. King Richard II had grown increasingly tyrannical, surrounded by a group of close but unpopular advisors. Seeing an opportunity for personal gain Northumberland, with his brother Thomas Percy, the Earl of Worcester, and Hotspur joined Henry of Bolingbroke as he returned from exile and supported him in claiming the throne as Henry IV. Filling the vacuum left by Richard II’s supporters, Northumberland and Hotspur were granted Wardenship of the East and West Marches, bordering Scotland, in addition to the Isle of Man, and offices in North Wales. In addition, each received pensions from the King: Northumberland at £1500, Hotspur at £3000 and Worcester at 500 marks. Their dominance in the North, and position as an indispensable power in the defence of the kingdom were secure, but it was not long before tensions began to flare up.
Their control of the North was threatened by the rise of another: Ralph Neville. In 1396, Neville had married Joan Beaufort, half-sister of Henry IV, and the following year had been created Earl of Westmorland. At the Battle of Homildon Hill, in 1402, Hotspur had been upstaged, wishing to lead a daring cavalry charge against the Scots, but was advised against it by the Scottish exile George Dunbar. Disputes arose with the King, as he failed to grant the pair sufficient funds to pay their soldiers. Their offices were also steadily stripped away, with Westmorland gaining positions in the North, and Hotspur’s commands in Wales giving to Henry, Prince of Wales. Tensions were further compounded when the King refused to allow Hotspur to pay the ransom of Edmund Mortimer, Hotspur’s brother-in-law.
In 1403 the family rebelled, forging alliances with their former foes, the Scottish Sir Archibald Douglas and Welsh rebel Owain Glyndwr. Hotspur, Worcester and Douglas marched into Cheshire, where many former supporters of Richard II rallied to their cause. Near Shrewsbury, they met the royal army, led by Henry IV himself, which included the young Prince Henry and many other nobles. Despite routing the royal right flank, and wounding the Prince as he led the royal left, the battle was lost when Hotspur was killed by an arrow, as he lifted his visor to give commands. Worcester was captured and beheaded. Northumberland went on the run for many years, supporting other risings in the North before being defeated and killed at the Battle of Bramham Moor in 1408.
Hotspur’s son, Henry, remained in exile in Scotland until, while being taken to France, he was captured by English privateers and kept a prisoner in the royal court. Finally, in 1416, Henry had the family lands and title restored to him by the prince, who was now King Henry V. His rehabilitation also involved marriage to Eleanor Neville, daughter of the Earl of Westmorland. By 1455, the Percy family owned the majority of estates in the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, with additional large numbers in Yorkshire. He resumed his family’s usual duties in defence of the North, relieved a siege at Roxburgh in 1436, but was defeated at the Battles of Piperdean (1436) and Sark (1448).
The Second Earl’s children are some of the most intriguing members of the family. His eldest son, Henry was styled Lord Poynings after his marriage, and was captured at Sark. During his imprisonment, his brothers, Thomas (created Baron Egremont in 1449), Sir Ralph, and Sir Richard became renowned for their lawlessness and troublemaking. The rivalry between the Percys and Nevilles once again flared up. In 1453, Sir Thomas Neville, Westmorland’s grandson, married Maud Stanhope, co-heir to Lord Cromwell. Part of the marriage included the manor of Wressle, a former Percy property. Egremont attempted to block the wedding party at Heworth Moor, as it returned from Tattershall Castle, but ultimately backed-off, with no fatalities recorded. This incident was only the beginning. Several months of sabre-rattling followed, until the two sides met at Stamford Bridge, and while exact events are unclear, Egremont and Richard Percy were captured. Unable to pay their fines, the brothers were imprisoned in Newgate Prison.
In 1455, the Percy-Neville feud reached a new height. On 22nd May, Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and his son, Richard, Earl of Warwick, joined the Duke of York in an attack on King Henry VI’s army at St Albans. Northumberland was killed, likely by Warwick’s troops. This event instilled an understandable desire for revenge, and further entrenched the hatred the Percy brothers felt towards their age-old rivals. Lord Poynings inherited as the Third Earl. With his brothers, they became close adherents to the cause of Henry VI’s queen, Margaret of Anjou. In 1460, Egremont formed part of the royal army encamped outside the town of Northampton, along with his brother-in-law, Edmund, Lord Grey of Ruthin. When attacked by an army led by Warwick and York’s son, Edward Earl of March, Grey turned coat - allowing the Yorkists into the camp. Slaughter ensued, with Egremont together with the Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Shrewsbury and Viscount Beaumont all killed for defending the King. In December that year, Northumberland, Ralph and Richard had revenge for their father and brother’s deaths, as they formed part of the Lancastrian army at Wakefield, a battle which saw the deaths of both York and Salisbury.
This moment of retribution would be short. On 29th March 1461, the two sides met at Towton, a battle with reportedly 60,000 men, half of which would be dead by the day’s end. With the arrival of Yorkist reinforcements late in the day, the Lancastrian route saw Northumberland and Sir Richard among that number. Sir Ralph continued to defend the Percy strongholds of Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh until capitulating to the new Yorkist king, Edward IV. He would turncoat again, in favour of another Lancastrian die-hard, Henry Beaufort Duke of Somerset. With a column of Yorkists marching to Scotland to negotiate a truce, headed by John Neville, Lord Montagu, Somerset and Sir Ralph would attempt to block it at Hedgeley Moor. However, their left flank disintegrated before battle began, Somerset following. Sir Ralph faced the Yorkists alone, being cut down at a spot known as ‘Percy’s Leap’.
With the Third Earl’s son still a child, and a prisoner, the family’s previous dominance and importance was almost entirely replaced by the Nevilles, with Montagu being granted the Northumberland earldom in 1467. However, as Warwick began to fall out with King Edward, he restored young Henry to his earldom in 1470. This drove Montagu to support Warwick’s 1470 rebellion, which deposed King Edward. When Edward landed in the North the following year, Northumberland made no moves to oppose him.
Northumberland would play a key role in the governance of the North under Edward’s brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, who participated in the invasion of Scotland in 1482. In 1485, Northumberland formed the left flank of Gloucester’s, now King Richard III, army, against the invading Henry Tudor. For reasons that are still debated, with arguments ranging from unsuitable terrain to Northumberland still harbouring resentment against the Yorkists, he failed to properly commit his troops, allowing Tudor to win the battle and be crowned King Henry VII. Northumberland would continue to govern the North for the king, until he was murdered in 1489 by a mob of Yorkshire rebels, led by Lord Egremont’s bastard son, protesting the levying of taxes to aid the Duchy of Brittany.
Henry, Fifth Earl of Northumberland, would continue to serve King Henry, aiding the defeat of Cornish rebels in 1497. In 1503, he entertained Princess Margaret, as she made her way to Scotland for her wedding to King James IV. The Earl joined King Henry VIII on campaign in France in 1513, which saw the French defeated at the Battle of the Spurs, and captured the towns of Thérouanne and Tournai. While he was absent, James IV invaded the North, but was defeated by the Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Flodden. Northumberland’s brother, Sir William Percy, was part of Surrey’s army. The Earl again joined the King in France in 1520, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in which he waited on the French king, Francis I. The Earl died peacefully, the first to do so, in 1527.
He was succeeded by his son, Henry, Sixth Earl of Northumberland. As a boy, his father had arranged his marriage to the Earl of Shrewsbury’s daughter, Mary Talbot. However, as he grew into a young man, the Earl became infatuated with a lady at court: Anne Boleyn. The Earl’s master, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, refused to grant permission for the marriage, after the couple supposedly secretly became betrothed and Henry’s father saw Boleyn as unsuitable for his heir. Northumberland had a degree of revenge in 1530, when he was ordered to arrest Wolsey on charges of treason. The subsequent marriage to Lady Mary Talbot was unhappy, and the couple had no children. In 1532, Mary accused her husband of having a legally-binding pre-contract of marriage with Boleyn. The matter came to the attention of the Duke of Norfolk, and, as it interfered with King Henry VIII’s desire to wed Anne, forced Northumberland to publically swear that it was not true. From then, the pair were separated, Mary living with her father.
Like his forebears, the Sixth Earl served as principle defender of the North, but the internal matters of the kingdom would complicate things once more. In order to marry Boleyn, Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church, and organised his own Church of England. The measures that accompanied this, such as the Dissolution of the Monasteries, angered the North. In 1536, a rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, broke out. Northumberland’s two brothers, Thomas and Ingelram Percy, were members of it. Stricken by illness, the Earl did not participate in the rising, but was unable to aid royal efforts either. The rising failed, with the Earl’s brothers both being captured. Ingelram was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where his graffiti can still be seen in the Beauchamp Tower, and died there. Thomas was executed at Tyburn. The day after, Northumberland himself died.
The closest relative to the Sixth Earl, who had no legitimate children, was his brother Thomas’ namesake son. Tainted by his father’s treason, young Thomas was prevented from inheriting the earldom, and the family lands went to the King. Being a devout Catholic, there was certainly no hope of restoration during the reign of Edward VI, but under Mary I he was granted the title and all its lands, with some additions from dissolved monasteries. He was reappointed to the positions of Warden of the East and West Marches, but his absence of power had allowed others to fill the vacuum. Like his ancestor Hotspur, over 150 years previously, a series of insults pushed the Earl to rebellion. First, Lord Grey of Wilton was appointed as Warden of the East March, and then Sir John Forseter as Warden of the Middle March, and Queen Elizabeth I’s principal advisor, Sir William Cecil, confiscated a copper mine from the Earl, suspecting him of harbouring treasonous sympathies.
In 1569, Northumberland joined a number of other Catholic nobles in defying the Protestant Queen. Their ringleader was the Duke of Norfolk, but the main rising was in the North, led by Northumberland and the descendant of his ancestors hated neighbour: Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland. After celebrating an illegal mass in Durham, the Earls marched south, but soon lost momentum, and were forced to disperse. Northumberland fled to Scotland, but was handed back to the English in 1572. Soon after, he was beheaded in York.
The family’s troubles continued long after the Seventh Earl’s death. Both the Eighth and Ninth Earls would end up accused of involvement in the Throckmorton and Gunpowder Plots, respectively. The earldom went extinct in 1670, on the death of the 11th Earl, but his great-granddaughter’s husband, High Smithson, adopted the surname Percy, and was created Duke of Northumberland in 1766, whose descendants continue to hold the title.
The Percys are one of medieval England’s most fascinating families. In 200 years, the family’s fortunes saw a great many peaks and troughs in their power and status. By the time of the seventh Earl’s execution, they remained in a middling state - existing, but far from the chivalric eminence of their ancestors. Their story has all the great hallmarks of classic medieval tales: a warrior hero, rebels, romantics, religious fanatics, great battles, intrigue and disaffection. It’s hard to properly put into words why there is such interest in this historical family, but the impact they left, and their great significance in the story of late-medieval England is forcibly tangible.
By Jason Gill
Bibliography:
Bicheno, Hugh, The Wars of the Roses: The Bloody Struggle For England’s Throne 1455-1487 (London: Head of Zeus Ltd, 2019).
Northumberland, Ralph Percy Duke of, Lions of the North: The Percys and Alnwick Castle, A Thousand Years of History (London: Scala Arts and Heritage Publishers Ltd, 2019).
Turner, Graham, The Wars of the Roses: Medieval Art of Graham Turner (Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2024).
Whitewood, Dickon, Shrewsbury 1403 (Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2017).