A HISTORY
OF THE
Ibouse of
A HISTORY
OF THE
IDouse of
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES DOWN TO
THE PRESENT CENTURY
BY
GERALD BRENAN
EDITED BY
VV. A. LINDSAY, ESQ., K.C., M.A.
(WINDSOR HERALD)
IN ^WO VOLUMES
Uolume £E
LONDON
FREEMAN TLE & CO.
217 PICCADILLY W
MCMII x \r
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Dfi
CONTENTS
PAGE
List of Illustrations . . . . . ix
List of Genealogies ....... ix
CHAPTER I
Sit Henry makes his own match and another — The Northern Rising and
one of its results— Sir Henry in the Tower — The Earl's Catholic sym-
pathies breed trouble — The Earl's plots lead him into further clanger
— Suicide or assassination ? ..... 1-30
CHAPTER II
The youth of the "Wizard Earl" — A young noble of Tudor times ; his Paris-
ian doings — The Tower tragedy and its results — A family quarrel ; and
a romance — "Mounted on Fortune's Wheel" — Concerning Dorothy,
Countess of Northumberland — North Country troubles, and religious
difficulties — Domestic strife and miseries — The Essex revolt, and
Northumberland's brothers — Quarrels with Southampton and Vere—
Sir Francis Vere fights but in war — Thrust and counter-thrust — The
Earl, the Catholics, and King James — Cecil plays the Earl false —
James again promises toleration — The Queen is dead — A new King
and an old promise — The Earl seeks retirement — Old Syon House
and its story — Northumberland's life at Syon . . . 31-98
CHAPTER III
Thomas Percy of " Gunpowder Treason " — The Gunpowder Plot and
Thomas Percy — The Gunpowder Plot — The Plot revealed : death of
Percy — Salisbury remembers old scores — The Earl defends himself
stoutly — An appeal for justice, and its outcome — The Earl's two
friends : his wife and his Queen — The Queen comforts Lady Northum-
vi CONTENTS
PACK
berland— The "Little Beagle" feels the lash— The Earl's friends
suffer for his sake — Increasing debts ; and a family misunderstanding
— The Earl's enemies and their base instruments ; the case of Elkes
—Outcome of the Elkes' failure — The Earl's estates sequestered by the
Crown — -How the Earl was lodged in the Tower — The Wizard Earl
works changes in the Tower — Good living, varied reading, and a hint
of flirtation — The prisoner and his estates — Northumberland to his
heir: women and domestic cares — Advice to Lord Percy "in his
Travels" — -Northumberland and his daughters — Death of the Coun-
tess Dorothy — Freedom at last — Death of the Wizard Earl — William,
Richard, and George Percy ..... 99-209
CHAPTER IV
Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland — Admiral of the Fleet— Abuses,
and suggested reforms in the navy— Death of the Earl's first wife ; his
own illness — Northumberland at the head of both navy and army —
"The Short Parliament," and the Scottish Invasion — The Scots
Invasion, and the trial of Strafford — -Lucy Percy, Lady Carlisle;
"Strafford's dearest friend" — Sir Henry Percy, the Earl, and "The
Army Plot " — Northumberland's policy of moderation — Northumber-
land's second marriage — Northumberland leads the Parliamentary
Peace Party — The "Treaty" of Uxbridge — Heavy losses, and partial
compensation — Northumberland as guardian of the Princes — Escape
of the Duke of York — Last efforts to save the King's life — Sir Henry
Percy and his further doings— Northumberland defies the "Rump"
and disowns Cromwell — Death of the Earl's brother and sister;
Occupations of retirement — The Restoration : independent attitude of
the Earl ; hia death— The children of the tenth Earl . . 210-303
CHAPTER V
The eleventh Earl : early life and marriage — A brief, ill-fated reign — The
two Countesses of Northumberland ; second marriage of the younger
— The Claimant of Northumberland : James Percy the " Trunkmaker "
— First efforts of the Claimant end in defeat— Further struggles of
James Percy : Justice Hales pronounces in his favour : Lady Pem-
broke's long memory — New line of descent alleged : " Privilege " bars
the way — Petition to the King : cruel jest of the Duke of Mon-
mouth : "Privilege" again — A new Claimant: the "Stonecutter"
follows the "Trunkmaker"— The last of James Percy of Dublin—
The most probable heir male of Northumberland . . 304-372
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER VI
PAGE
The heiress of the PercieB, and her grandmother, the Dowager Countess-
Elizabeth Percy loses one husband by death ; and flies in disgust from
a second — KSningsmarck — Murder of Thynn, and fate of his assassins
—Tom Thynn's bitter epitaph; New matrimonial projects of the
Dowager Countess — Characteristics and early married life of the
Duke and Duchess— Friendship of Queen Anne: Swift's savage attack
—The Duchess dismissed from Court : Somerset sides with the Elector
—Death of the Duchess ; Somerset's insane pride— Seymour and Percy
united: youth of "Lady Betty "—Courtship of "Lady Betty" by
Hugh Smithson — The Smithsons of Yorkshire and London — Marriage
of Sir Hugh and Lady Betty— Lady Betty becomes heir of the Percies :
spite of old Somerset — Sir Hugh Smithson becomes Earl of Northum-
berland, and takes the name of Percy — The "Soldier Duke" — The
third and fourth Dukes : the latter a distinguished scientist — The
Earls of Beverley and their descendants — The last three Dukes, and
the present state of the House of Percy .... 373~468
INDEX TO VOL. II. 469
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland, from portrait by Van-
dyke ....... Frontispiece
Percy Shrine, Beverley ...... Facing page 30
Autograph of Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland . ,, „ 60
Syon House, by Herbert Railton . . . „ ,,92
Gunpowder Plot Conspirators, from National Portrait Gallery . ,, ,,102
Northumberland's Walk, Martin Tower, by Herbert Railton . ,, ,, 162
Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland, from portrait by Van-
dyke . . . . . . . ,, ,, 214
Seal and Autograph of Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland „ ,, 232
Northumberland House, from an engraving by Canaletti . ,, ,, 256
Henry Lord Percy, of Alnwick, fourth son of ninth Earl, after
painting at Petworth, engraved by Harding in Adolphus'
" British Cabinet " . . . . . ,, ,, 282
Josceline, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, from mezzotint by
Brown, after Lely . . . . . . ,, ,, 305
Lady Elizabeth Seymour, wife of sixth Duke of Somerset, from
portrait by Lely . . . . . „ ,, 402
Autograph of Elizabeth, wife of first Duke of Northumberland ,, „ 426
Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland . . . . ,, ,, 428
Elizabeth Baroness Percy, from an engraving by Houston, after
Sir J. Reynolds . . . . . . „ ,, 436
Autograph of Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland . ,, ,, 444
Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland, from portrait by
Phillips, engraved by Ransome . . . ,, ,, 454
Autograph of Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland . ,, „ 458
Hugh, third Duke of Northumberland, from portrait by Ward,
engraved by Holl . . . . . , , , , 460
The Complete Achievements of the late Duke of Northumber-
land (Lithographed in Colour) . . . • „ „ 466
LIST OF GENEALOGIES
Table 3. From Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland, to
Algernon, first Earl of Northumberland . . Facing page 180
Genealogy of Irish Percies . . . . ,, ,, 326
„ of the Duke of Somerset .... Page 399
,, of Smithson ...... Facing page 430
„ showing kinship between Hugh Smithson and his wife Page 435
Table 4. From first Duke of Northumberland to seventh Duke
of Northumberland .... Facing page 456
THE HOUSE OF PERCY
VOLUME II
I
THE character of Henry, eighth Earl of Northumberland,
offers a strange contrast to that of the ill-fated brother
whom he succeeded. Earl Thomas had been loyal and
warm-hearted to a fault — a brave and honourable gentle-
man, but scantily endowed with either resolution or fore-
sight. Earl Henry, on the other hand, was a man of
strong will, keen intellect and far-reaching ambition —
untroubled by conscientious scruples when striving to gain
an end — harsh, selfish, and unsympathetic. Thomas Percy
made friends wherever he went, even in the enemy's camp :
it is doubtful whether Henry ever experienced an honest
friendship in his life. Burghley, indeed, regarded the
eighth Earl with favour ; but this may be set down partly
to the alliance between their families, and partly to the fact
that the minister recognised in Henry a nature somewhat
akin to his own.
Henry Percy was a mere stripling when he began to
make his mark as a skilful and courageous leader upon
the Border-side. Born about the year 1532 at Newburn
Manor, he was made Governor of Tynemouth Castle by
Queen Mary while still in his minority. We have seen
him fighting by his brother's side in most of the Scottish
raids and conflicts of the period. In 1554 he was returned
as member of parliament for Morpeth ; and 1557 saw
him knighted and placed next in remainder to the new
earldom conferred by Mary upon Sir Thomas. Up to
this time he had professed the Catholic religion ; but no
II. A
2 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
sooner did Elizabeth ascend the throne, than he cast aside
his youthful faith like a cloak that had served his turn, and
conformed (outwardly at least) to the new tenets. The
Queen, by way of rewarding his change of creed, gave
him command of a recently mustered body of light horse
equipped "like Black Harness of Almaine, otherwise called
the Swart Rutters" (Schwartze Ritter) "and armed with
corseletts and two dagges apiece."1 These Percy led into
Scotland against the French auxiliary forces under
D'Oyzelle, which were strongly posted at Dunbar, Leith,
and other places. The campaign was a most successful
one for the Black Horse and their commander. Dunbar
fell before their attack, and Leith soon followed its example.
"/ thinke you have here ore now" wrote Maitland to Cecil
from the camp before the latter town, on April 28, 1560,
" of the, exploits done at Dunbarre by Sir Henry Percy, the
Lord Ruthven, and the Lord of Grange, whereat at leash fifty
were taken and Kylled ; and two capteynes, one of Horsemen
and one of Footmen, taken. Yesternight was a nornbre of
Frenchmen deffact in the very dytches of this toun and all cut
to pieces" - For his conduct upon this occasion Percy won
the highest praise. The Queen thanked him warmly in a
letter to the Warden, Lord Grey, on April 14 ; and subse-
quently invited him to a personal interview, in the course
of which he was induced to give his own account of the
recent Scottish wars.3 Moreover the French commander,
U'Oyzelle, asked permission to surrender his sword to Sir
Henry Percy rather than to Grey, since the latter had
acquired a sinister reputation for his treatment of prisoners.
But these Border frays exercised an evil influence upon
those who took part in them ; and it is not long before we
find Percy reputed fully as harsh to the captured French
and Scots as Grey had been. During March 1565 Moray
wrote to Cecil and Leicester, asking them to interfere in
the case of " the Master of Mareschall," 4 then held in
1 Orig. State Papers ; Queen Elizabeth to Duke of Norfolk, December 25, 1559.
1 State Papers ; Maitland to Cecil.
8 Orig. State Papers (Scotland), Record Office.
* Lord Keith, son of the Earl Marischal.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 3
durance by Sir Henry Percy, " by quhome, as we ar informit,
he is in sic rigorous maneir handily t as we esteyme notfytt nor
convenient for ye present tym of peace." J Even the English
Commissioners at Edinburgh, complained of Percy's
cruelty towards the Scots. But severity to her enemies
was by no means displeasing to Elizabeth; and, so far
from reprimanding Sir Henry, she appointed him her
agent to treat with the heads of the Scottish Congre-
gationers, with a view to a Protestant alliance between
England and Scotland.2 Already, shortly after the Queen's
succession, he had served as one of the commission for
administering the oath of allegiance and conformity exacted
from all clergymen 8 ; so that, for a young man bred to the
profession of arms, he must have acquired an unusual
amount of theological learning. In the various letters4
which he wrote to John Knox and William Kirkcaldy of
Grange he shows great skill in fencing with delicate
questions, and a diplomacy far beyond his years. It
would be unfair to believe that the ardour which he
displayed in the cause of Protestantism between 1558 and
1571 was wholly a pretence, and assumed merely for
interested motives ; yet the alacrity with which he returned
to his former faith when he found further prospects of
advancement barred, leads one to suspect the sincerity of
his Puritan professions. If he wore a mask, however, he
wore it discreetly and greatly to his own advantage.
Sir Henry Percy soon found the revenues of a younger
brother far too slender for one who (on account of the
Earl of Northumberland's Romanist views, and
oir rlenry
makes ws consequent retirement from public life) had be-
ardna"othek Come the Practical representative of the family.
He felt that the Queen should substantially re-
ward one who had abandoned his paternal religion "for
i Orig. State Pafm (Scotland), vol. iv. No. 3.
5 Camden ; Annales, vol. i. State Papers (Scotland).
' Fcedera, xv. 611-12.
4 The original MSS. of the correspondence are preserved in the Record Office
(Scot. Series, State Papers, 1509-1603, vol. v.).
4 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
her sake," and this, too, in a part of England where such
examples were rare. Nor had he any hesitation in putting
forward his claims. Cecil had met him during his visit to
the Queen, and had at once taken a fancy to this shrewd,
resourceful young soldier. The fancy had grown into a
positive liking after Percy had displayed his finesse in
dealing with Knox and the Scottish Calvinists ; and the
ambitious Governor of Tynemouth was encouraged to
correspond frequently with her Majesty's chief minister.
To Cecil, therefore, Sir Henry wrote on June 28, 1560,
complaining of the inadequacy of his means, and boldly
hinting that something might be done to enable him to
cut a better figure upon the Border. It was hard that
Popish recusants like Northumberland and Leonard Dacre
could ruffle it with the best, and go abroad with splendid
trains ; while an enthusiastic Protestant, the Queen's own
cousin to boot, was obliged to put up with slights and
sneers at his change of religion, simply because he had
not power enough to keep North Country folk in awe.
The precise terms of Cecil's reply are unknown ; but he
appears to have advised his protege to seek betterment in a
wealthy marriage. This counsel was not lost upon Sir
Henry. During the following year he secured the hand
and fortune of Katherine Nevill, eldest daughter and co-heir
of John, last Lord Latimer l of the male line. The bride's
mother was sister of Lady Northumberland, both being
children of Henry Somerset, second Earl of Worcester.
The match was in every respect an admirable one from
the husband's point of view. It brought him the rever-
sionary rights to the still large estates of this branch of
the Nevill family, and eventually carried the Barony of
Latimer into the Percy line.
Up to the time of his wedding Sir Henry Percy had
carefully cultivated the friendship of his future father-in-
law, cajoling the latter into the belief that he would find
nothing but satisfaction in the alliance. This hallucination
1 The widow of this Latimer's father and predecessor was Katherine Farr
who had married (and survived) Henry VIII.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 5
was speedily to be dispelled. Hardly was Percy married,
than he boldly attempted to oust Lord Latimer from the
control of his own affairs. The project had evidently been
planned in advance, very possibly with Cecil's connivance.
Old Latimer's character strongly resembled that ascribed
by Shakespeare to the imaginary Sir John Falstaff. He
had lived a life of riot and debauchery, his chosen com-
panions being gamesters, tavern bullies, and loose women.
Upon the plea of preserving the family property from the
hands of such people, Percy sought to have his wife's
father declared of unsound mind — the natural sequence
of such a declaration being his (Percy's) appointment as
guardian of the Latimer revenues. But the old lord was
considered by the Council to still possess wit sufficient for
the management of his estates ; and Sir Henry dropped
further proceedings for the time being.
As Lord Latimer lived almost entirely in London,
among his disreputable associates, Percy gradually arro-
gated to himself the position of head of the house. In
this capacity he proceeded to busy himself with the matri-
monial affairs of his sisters-in-law, using the good looks
and prospects of these young ladies as baits to attract
suitors whose influence might prove of value to him-
self. Latimer's second daughter he resolved to marry
to the Lord Treasurer's first son, Thomas Cecil.1 With
this aim in view, he addressed the elder Cecil on
January 25, 1561 — (only a few months after his own
wedding!) — making a formal offer of Mistress Nevill's
hand, just as though no such persons as Lord Latimer or
Lady Latimer existed. In fact he had not even spoken of
the matter to the proposed bride, or to her mother, when
he took it upon himself to make this match. The Lord
Treasurer was assured that the fair co-heir of Latimer
would prove an ideal wife for his son. She was, declared
her brother-in-law, " so good and vertuous, as hard it is to
find suche a sparke of youthe in this Reahne ; ffor bothe is she
very -wise, sober of behavoure, womanly and in her doinges so
1 Afterwards 2nd Lord Burghley and 1st Earl of Exeter.
6 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
temperate as if she bare the age double hir yeres. Of stature
like to be goodlie, and of Beutie verry well ; hir haire browne,
yet hir complexion veryffaire and cleare ; the ffa-voure of hir face
euery Bodie may iudge it to haue bothe grace and ivysdome." J
Sir Henry was crafty enough to realise that, in his case,
frankness was the best policy with Cecil. Accordingly he
admits that his particular reason for desiring such a union
was the connection which it would establish between him-
self and the family of the powerful minister : — " But the
cheif cause (by my ffaithe) is ffor that I had rather to be lynked
w&youe, than withe any man in this Realms, and so I hartely
desier youe to excepte it. S?, when youe haue posed this, and
pawsed of the same, I pray youe left me be aduertisede." 2 At
the close of this remarkable epistle, he requests Cecil
to deal with him solely in the affair, and not to speak to
Lord Latimer until everything has been settled. It would
also be as well, he explains, to allow him to break the news
to Lady Latimer, and to the damsel whose future was thus,
without her knowledge, being mapped out ; — "ffor women
will be willfull if they be notffirst soughte unto." 3
Percy's matchmaking was completely successful. The
Lord Treasurer fell in with his views ; and Thomas Cecil
was married to Sir Henry's sister-in-law in the course of
the following year. 4
The prospects of Sir Henry Percy seemed bright enough
at this period. In high favour with the Queen and her
The Prime Minister ; wealthy enough, in right of his
Northern wife, to keep the state he desired at Tynemouth :
Rising, and . . ' .. ,, _, . , J .
one of its heir presumptive to the Earldom and estates
results. of Northumberland ; and regarded throughout
England as a bulwark of Protestantism ; — he seemed in a
fair way to rise to the proudest honours in the gift of
royalty. There were not wanting those who looked upon
him as the predestined heir of Burghley's power. Cer-
tainly nobody suspected such a man of holding in secret
1 Orig. Stale Papers, vol. xxi. 26. " Ibid. 3 Ibid.
* From this union the present Marquis of Exeter is descended.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 7
views favourable to the Roman Catholic religion. They
could hardly do so in view of Sir Henry's loyal attitude at
the outbreak of the Northern Rising. His own brother,
and most of his kindred, were involved in that demonstra-
tion against the penal laws of Elizabeth ; but Henry Percy
apparently stood firmly by the Queen and the dominant
creed. We have seen how he went so far as to offer his
services (if not to join openly) in the pursuit of Northumber-
land. Sussex had nothing but praise for his conduct during
the crisis. According to the President of the North, if the
elder Percy were " a papist and a tray tour," the younger was
" holly at the Queene's Majesties devotion in the cawse of the
Scottishe maryage,1 sounde from this rebellion, redie with all
his force to serve against them, and willing to venter his person
with the first" 2 By way of reward for his steadfastness,
Elizabeth sent him a letter of commendation expressly
promising that the sins of Northumberland should not be
visited upon his brother's head, and that the Earl's attainder
should in no wise affect the blood of the next heir.3 Nothing
of a more substantial nature, however, accompanied these
fine phrases ; nor was Sir Henry chosen as Queen's factor
over the confiscated estates, as he had hoped to be.* Praise
and lip favour could not console Percy for such a disappoint-
ment. But as yet he had no idea of throwing off the mask
of Protestantism. He continued his active support of Sussex
in the North, and entered no protest against the persecu-
tions which followed. There is an old tradition that the
venerable priest, Plumtre, who was hanged before Durham
Cathedral for having celebrated mass, "prophesied for Sir
Harry Percy a life of trouble and a violent death." Percy
does not appear to have taken an active part in the massacre
of suspected Catholics, but he helped to capture and dis-
arm these unfortunates. Moreover, when his brother wrote
to him from Scotland for aid, he exerted himself to induce
1 The project of a union between Queen Mary and the Duke of Norfolk.
a State Papers, Sussex to Cecil, January 7, 1570.
3 State Papers, Queen to Sir H. Percy. November 17, 1569.
4 This lucrative post fell to Sir John Forster.
8 THE HOUSE OP PERCY
the Earl to surrender, and positively refused to extend any
kindness to a rebel.1
Believing himself in a position to look with confidence
for some material recognition of his services, Sir Henry ven-
tured, early in 1571, to petition the Queen with regard to the
Northumberland lands and titles. The attainted Earl, he
pointed out, was without male issue, and, under the patent
of Queen Mary, the Earldom must eventually pass to himself.
He therefore asked Elizabeth to show her sense of his loyalty
by conferring the dignity upon him there and then, without
waiting for the late Earl's death.2 The sending of this peti-
tion was most ill-advised. Elizabeth was fully determined to
retain her hold upon the Northumberland revenues as long
as decency permitted. For this reason, and not because of
any feeling of clemency, she postponed the execution of the
seventh Earl (which would, at the time, have terminated the
Crown control of the estates). Consequently her grasping
Majesty looked upon Sir Henry Percy's claim as most ill-
timed and awkward. It was particularly awkward indeed,
since Percy's consistent Protestantism and apparent good
faith rendered it extremely difficult to find any adequate
reason for refusing his request. Loyalty and zealous devotion
to the new faith counted but lightly in Elizabeth's mind
against the heavy rent-roll of the Northumberland acres ;
and so she confessed to her ministers, with the brazen can-
dour which, like avarice, was a notable characteristic of the
Tudor dynasty. Under the circumstances, even Burghley's
voice was unable to protect Sir Henry Percy. A score of
cunning brains were at work planning some means by which
the latter might be effectually silenced, and it was not long
before a scheme as ingenious as it was amazing had been
devised for the arrest and imprisonment of the unsuspecting
claimant. Briefly, it was proposed to involve Sir Henry in
one of the alleged plots for the liberation of Mary Stuart,
and on these grounds to lodge him in the Tower, and, if
possible, contrive his attainder.
1 Portion of this letter has been quoted already.
3 A copy of this petition is preserved at Sion House.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 9
In the corrupt state of society, largely brought about by
Burghley's methods of government, there was little difficulty
in finding false witnesses. It apparently made no difference
to these plotters against his liberty that Percy had never seen
or communicated with the Queen of Scots in his life, that
he had never betrayed the slightest interest in her cause, and
that he was cordially hated by Mary herself, as well as by all
her friends and adherents. Despite these evident facts, a
vague list of charges was drawn up against him, on the autho-
rity (it was pretended) of the Bishop of Ross, formerly
Mary's minister to England, but at the time a prisoner in the
Tower. The Bishop was quoted as having declared that Sir
Henry Percy, when informed of the plan by which the royal
prisoner was to be liberated, had agreed not to interfere with
Mary and her escort, should they choose to pass by Tyne-
mouth on their way towards the Border. No other evidence
was produced in support of the allegations of treason, but
a warrant for Percy's arrest was at once issued and signed
by the Queen. The more one examines into the affair, the
more one becomes convinced that the accused man was ab-
solutely guiltless, and that the charges had been deliberately
trumped up for the purpose of getting him out of the way.
Next to Sir Henry himself, the persons most astonished by the
publication of his " treason" were the very people with whom
he was declared to have intrigued. The Duke of Norfolk
scoffed at the bare idea of Percy's connection with any
Catholic plot,1 and Charles Paget alluded to the matter as a
palpable absurdity. It is to be feared from their letters that
the exiled English Catholics looked upon the arrest of
Northumberland's Protestant brother with a certain grim
satisfaction. He had chosen to desert their cause for
that of the party in power, and this was his reward !
By order of October 23, 1571, Sir John Forster was
commissioned to arrest Percy at Tynemouth Castle. But
private warning of what was intended had already reached
Sir Henry (probably through the instrumentality of Burgh-
ley), and he had hurried to London, enraged at the
1 Murdin, p. 22 : " Deposition of William Barker."
10 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
accusations of disloyalty, and confident of establishing his
innocence. Vain hope ! The Queen positively refused to
grant him an audience ; neither Burghley nor Leicester
dared to say a word in his favour ; and on November 15
he was committed to the custody of that stern Puritan, Sir
Ralph Sadler. If anything further were needed to prove
to Percy that he was the victim of a conspiracy, it was the
identity of the person selected as his gaoler. Sadler had
always disliked him, distrusted him, and as far back as
the summer of 1559,* had gone out of his way to disparage
him to Cecil as lacking in integrity. While in the charge
of one so prejudiced Sir Henry was not likely to be allowed
many chances of vindication. Lest, however, he might by
any possible means succeed in establishing his blameless-
ness in respect of the supposed plot, Elizabeth's advisers
decided to bring forward a secondary charge, to be held
in reserve against him. A commission was appointed,
consisting of Sir John Forster and two justices of the
peace, to make a rigorous inquiry into the condition and
defences of Tynemouth Castle under Percy's governorship.
Of course it was to Forster's interest, as Crown factor over
the Northumberland possessions, to keep Sir Henry in
durance as long as possible. The Commission made an
examination of the Castle, and returned a report to the
effect that it was inadequately defended in the matter of
ordnance. Upon this Percy was indicted for "criminal
negligence in the Queen's service," and sent to the Tower,
without being allowed to say one word in his own defence.
It is easy to imagine the bitter feelings which the heir
of Northumberland must have experienced when he found
sir Henry in himself thus mewed up, probably without cause,
the Tower. ancj certainly without trial. He was too quick-
witted not to have divined by this time the real explanation
of Elizabeth's resentment, viz., her fixed resolve not to part
with the confiscated estates until they had been drained of
a sum sufficient to satisfy her cupidity. It was for such an
1 State Fafcn: Sadler to Cecil, August 29, 1559.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 11
ungrateful mistress, then, that he had sacrificed his con-
science and quarrelled with his kindred and friends. After
all the years of unswerving obedience, discreet flattery, and
well-acted religious fervour, he was doomed to linger in the
Tower, among Papists and similar traitors, unless he agreed
to forego his claim to the family estates. His brother, an
avowed rebel and open contemner of the reformed religion,
had, so far, been treated little worse than he. It is safe to
say that the dismal days of his imprisonment wrought a
great change in Henry Percy, and instilled into him that
secret hatred of Queen Elizabeth which he ever afterwards
retained.
Months passed by, and yet there was no hint of the
charges against him being brought to trial. The Queen
was probably unwilling to risk a trial upon such flimsy
grounds, nor could her agents, with all their ingenuity,
discover anything more damaging against the prisoner.
It was felt, however, that if he could be tricked into a
"confession of guilt," the difficulty would be at an end.
Several persons professing the warmest friendship towards
him advised Percy to make such a confession ; but this
he at first refused to do, although he was assured that an
immediate pardon would result therefrom. The restraints
of prison life grew more and more irksome, however, and,
in the end, he was induced to make a vague statement to
the effect that he had been cognisant of some scheme for
Mary Stuart's release, and had negligently omitted to give
warning to the Government. This admission was all that
his enemies required. A new indictment was immediately
drawn up against him, and preparations for his trial begun.
On February 23, 1571-72, he addressed a letter to Leicester
and Burghley, reiterating his unwise acknowledgment of
"carelessness in her Majesty's service," and concluding
with these words: — "And altho' I ame fully detarmyned
lykewysse without any grudginge or repinynge tkarat, duty-
ffully to abyde the tyme of suche corectyone as hir hyghnes
shall thynke suffescnl to satisfy hir displesure consauyed aganst
me . . . yet yff it shall please her maicste to stand so myche
12 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
my good and grasius lady (and the rather by your Llordshipps'
good meanesffor me) as to releasse, or releue me of this harde
imprasonement wyche I suffer, beinge more hurtfful to my wake
body thene greuous to my mynde (I thanke God), I wyl promys
to hir hyghnes by your honors nott only my best and vtter-
most endeuyre to contenue suche true and fathefull saruys as I
haue bein heretofore always redy and wyllynge to do for her
maieste, but to better it hereafter ycff I may passably by any
meanest l
To this very humble petition the Queen turned a deaf
ear. Percy waited vainly all through the spring and
summer of 1572 for the release which had been promised
to him if he "confessed" to an uncommitted fault. In
August came the news that his brother, the Earl of Nor-
thumberland, had died upon the scaffold, and Sir Henry's
own head began to sit uneasily upon his shoulders. But
Elizabeth had, as yet, no intention of taking his life. She
merely wished to impress upon him the dangers of run-
ning counter to her wishes, and the wisdom of accepting
thankfully whatever rewards fell to his share, without ven-
turing to ask for anything further.
On November i, 1572, Leicester informed Burghley of
the Queen's determination to bring the prisoner to a
speedy trial. In the meantime she wished him to be very
strictly guarded, and deprived of the various privileges which
had been obtained for him through Burghley's influence
with Sir Owen Hopton, lieutenant-governor of the Tower.
" Besyde," writes Leicester, "she said she was informyd that
Sir Hary Percy e had, as yt wer, the liberty of the Tower and
walked openlie uppon the Hill at his plesure, and who lyst talked
with hym. . . . ' Thys manner of specyell favor shewyd to him
above the rest ' (sayth she) ' wyll cawse some folks to thinke that
it is for Burleigh's sake : therefore Ictt him have specyall care
to give chardge, both to my learned councell and the Judges, to
have good regard to the Proceedings with him ; for I think,1
quoth she, ' his faulte is as grete as any mans, though yt be no
1 Stale Papers: Sir II. Percy to the Earl of Leicester and Lord Burghley.
. Murdin.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 13
hie treeson.' Suerly I find site lookes to have Sir Hary Percye
secretly^ dealt withal, and the more for that yt toucheth not his
lyfe." At last, after an imprisonment of over eighteen
months, Percy was brought to trial. No evidence of any
sort was produced, save the written admissions of negli-
gence, which he had been prevailed upon to make in hope
of pardon. These were regarded as tantamount to a plea of
"guilty ; " and the judges condemned him to forfeit to the
Queen's privy purse a fine of 5000 marks. His salary as
Governor of Tynemouth had not been paid for a year, and
he was utterly unable to raise this large sum. Legally the
Northumberland estates were his from the moment of his
brother's execution, but he did not dare to claim them, and
was accordingly sent back to his cell in the Tower, until he
could raise at least ^200 as security for the discharge of his
fine. With the help of Burghley and old Lord Latimer
(whom Percy had attempted to place under restraint) the
earnest money was obtained and the prisoner set at liberty.
He was even permitted to enter into possession of his landed
property in the south of England ; but it was expressly
stipulated that he should confine himself as much as possible
to the manor of Petworth, and that on no account was he to
approach within ten miles of London. A few weeks later,
however, we read that " at the humble suit of his wife, being
with child, Her Majestye for more case permits the Earl of
Northumberland to come to London or thereabouts, using him-
self circumspectly ; and that he should not depart above one or
two miles from thence until her highness' $ pleasure were
known." 2 The last clause was inserted in order to prevent
Percy from making a journey to the north of England.3
Strictly speaking, Sir Henry had been Earl of Northum-
berland since August 22, 1572.* But the Queen did not at
1 Such is the reading in the printed version of the letter. The original, how-
ever, is very hard to read, and the word may have been "severely."
2 Murdin, p. 228.
3 Journal of Privy Council.
4 By the terms of Queen Mary's patent, his blood was not affected by the
7th Earl's attainder.
i4 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
first choose to recognise him as such ; and, following the
wise course which he had already pursued in regard to the
estates of his late brother, he made no attempt to assert
his rights. Such submissive conduct could not fail to pro-
pitiate her Majesty. Percy was invited to Court, where,
by judiciously blended penitence and flattery, he succeeded
in making an excellent impression. On February 8, 1575-76,
he was allowed to take his seat in the House of Lords as
eighth Earl. But the road to the North Country remained
closed to him. York, Durham, and the Border counties
were being slowly terrorised into submission, and men like
Sadler, Bowes, and Forster wanted no ambitious Percy to
take the work, and the rewards thereof, out of their
hands. Still the Earl continued patient. He had accom-
plished much when he won back the family honours ; per-
haps, in due time, he might once more occupy the Percy's
hereditary position north of the Humber. In the meantime
he applied himself with assiduity to the improvement of his
southern manors, and to the various pursuits of a country
gentleman. Hunting and hawking occupied most of his time,
and it was upon safe subjects such as these that he corre-
sponded with the busy world without. On September 9,
1576, we find him writing to Burghley that he "is sorry he
was not at the killing of the great stag ; for he did bear a
malice against him since he was first at hunting of him." *
The stables at Petvvorth were capable of holding a very large
number of horses, and Northumberland proposed to the
Secretary that, since he was temporarily debarred from serv-
ing the Queen in more important affairs, he might turn his
leisure to some use by breeding and training "steedes of
war." Elizabeth, pleased with the suggestion appointed him
a " commissioner of war-horses " for the county of Sussex.
From 1577 to 1582 his name and that of his wife appear re-
gularly in the lists of donors and recipients of New Year
gifts ; "- and the Queen even consented to visit Petworth. It
is probable, however, that the expedition was abandoned on
1 State Papers.
2 Calendar of State Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 15
account of the wretched condition of the roads. The old
saw, " Sussex for mire " was as true then as now ; and
Northumberland's brother-in-law, Cornwallis,1 protested
that the roughness and inequality of the various tracks
across the downs rendered them wholly unsuited for
a royal progress. In the latter 's account of the various
journeys of Elizabeth, he omits to mention that to Petworth ;*
but there is, or was, a local tradition to the effect that her
Majesty did actually spend a night under the roof of the
old mansion.
Seeing the renewed favour with which he was ap-
parently regarded, the Earl's friends and adherents in
the North began to agitate for his return to the Border.
Sir George Bowes was now dead, and it was pointed out
to the Queen that his place might be advantageously
filled by a soldier and statesman of approved skill like
the banished heir of Alnwick. Most of the disinterested
Northern Protestants lent their support to the movement ;
and Sir Charles Rokeby, addressing Burghley in September
1580, accused the then Lord President, Shrewsbury, of
treachery and incapacity, asking at the same time for
Northumberland's nomination to the post.3 There re-
mained, however, a few of the old ultra-Puritan -party, such
as Sadler and Forster, who hated the name and race of
Percy, and who succeeded in persuading Elizabeth that,
although outwardly loyal, the Earl was at heart a Romanist,
devoted to the cause of Mary Stuart. Cecil, following the
plan upon which he had decided at the time of Nor-
thumberland's arrest, remained absolutely neutral in the
matter. In the end, the Queen expressed herself as not
yet fully satisfied of the Earl's steadfastness in the estab-
lished faith, and forbade him to go North until further
orders. This was bad news to all those who had been
1 Sir William Cornwallis of Brome, who had married Lucy, third daughter
and co-heir of Lord Latimer.
2 The forerunner of the present house at Petworth was a large structure, set
in a ring of rolling downs and surrounded by stables, outhouses, and lofty
walls.
3 State Wafers.
16 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
hopefully building upon the rehabilitation of the House
of Percy. To the Earl himself it came as a bitter disap-
pointment ; nor could the release of nearly all his Northern
estates by the Crown (a measure of royal clemency which
soon followed) altogether console him for this continued
restraint. It was his belief that great properties could not
be adequately administered without considerable personal
supervision on the part of their owners ; and although the
chief Percy agent in the North (Sir Cuthbert Collingwood)
was one in whom he trusted absolutely, it was nevertheless
his earnest desire to see for himself the condition in which
ten years of Government control and lawless raiding had
left his lands and houses. Collingwood's first report only
strengthened this wish, for it presented a most gloomy
picture of affairs.1 The outlawed Catholics of Redesdale
and Tynedale had for several seasons made the country
about Alnwick their chosen foraging ground ; nor had the
Scots been behindhand in ravaging this devoted territory.
Poaching went on openly in broad daylight ; and now
that the Crown rangers had been ordered to resign their
horns of office to those of the Earl, conflicts between the
two bodies were of frequent occurrence, and the slaughter
of deer proved so great that there was a possibility of the
forests being completely denuded of game. The poorer
tenants were in dire straits ; for, owing to the depredations
of various armed bands, they had been unable to keep
either cattle or grain with any degree of safety. The ter-
rible massacre of the Catholics, moreover, had left most
of the smaller farms in the hands of women and young
children, so that many thousand acres of arable land re-
mained untilled and unproductive, — another evil result of
Elizabeth's intolerant policy. But although Northumber-
land's friends laid all these facts before the Council, and
pleaded that the strong hand of the master was needed to
restore order and right abuses in the Percy domains, the
old prohibition continued in force, and the Earl's restless
spirit chafed more and more against the confinement of
1 Harleian A1SS., vol. v.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 17
Petworth. Excluded from active participation in state or
military government, he found the simple occupations of
the country irksome, and began to take a dangerous interest
in following, from a distance, the devious turns and tricks
of the great game of politics.
At first Northumberland's connection with the intrigues
of the period was purely that of a discreet spectator ; but
The Earrs as ^me went on, he brooded over the unjust
Catholic treatment meted out to him by the Queen, and,
sympathies , .. . . ,. . . ,
breed reeling himself an injured man, lent a too ready
trouble. ear t0 anv projects which might tend to bring
about an alteration in his condition. Whoever had a tale
to tell of Catholic plots or cabals against the Ministry,
found a warm welcome at Petworth. These things were,
of course, duly reported to the Queen ; for all the great
officers of state had now adopted Burghley's system of
espionage, and Hatton, Walsingham, and the rest had their
jackals just like my Lord Secretary. Elizabeth felt that she
had acted wisely in not making Henry Percy free of the
North Country, and there were whispers at Court that the
Earl's recently restored estates might soon find other
owners.
The first note of royal displeasure reached Petworth in
the form of a complaint concerning Northumberland's
hospitality towards a French gentleman, the Chevalier de
Pre"aux, Sieur du Bee,1 who was suspected of being an
emissary from the English Catholics abroad. News of
Prdaux's prolonged sojourn at Petworth was conveyed to
Elizabeth, and Sir Christopher Hatton and others sought to
1 The identity of this person has been a source of some confusion. He is
variously styled " Prevaux" "Bex" &c., in the State Papers ; while Mr. De
Fonblanque identifies him as " M. de Prevaux" a gentleman of the chamber in
the Due d'Anjou's household, and then secretary to the French Embassy in
London. He was actually the Chevalier Hector de Preaux, a cadet of the ancient
house of Preaux in Touraine, and had acquired the estate of Bee through his wife
Anne de Vardes, Dame du Bee. He afterwards rose to be Lieutenant-General
under Henry IV. It is easy to understand how Northumberland mixed up
" Preaux" and the territorial " Bee."
II. B
i8 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
persuade her that the Frenchman's visit boded no good.
Burghley despatched a warning note to Northumberland ;
to which the latter at once replied, protesting that the
relations between his guest and himself had been perfectly
harmless. The Earl explains that his eldest son, who was
resident in Paris, had fallen "in great extremitye of siknes
and danger of lyffe" — a not unnatural result of the gay
life which that young man had been leading.1 "Being
advertysed thereof" continues the letter, "/ sent one of my
servants to Mons. de Marchemonde? as well to understands if
he had any worde in what cass my boye was in, as also to
require him to reseve from me one hundrythe poundes, and
to causse so myche mony be delivered to my boye with all the
expedission he myght. . . . Hereupon my servante ddyvered
one hundrythe poundes in angelles to Mons. Marchemonde as
in way of exchange, who had resayved at that instante letters
from my sone of his recoverye to helthe ; and being withall
determyned to geve me knowlyche of his departure and to bide
ml farewell sent Mons. du Bex unto me, both with the letters
and message'' s It does not appear why Northumberland's
servant was not considered good enough to carry March-
mont's compliments to Petworth. Perhaps the Chevalier
de Pre"aux desired to see something of English country
life before returning to Paris. If so, he was destined
to disappointment, for Northumberland declares that he
(Preaux) was overtaken by a severe illness the morning
after his arrival, and lay for months confined to bed under
the care of one " master doctor Jhonsone." 4
The Earl's enemies at court declined to accept this
specious story as explanatory of the lengthy stay of M.
d'Anjou's servant at Petworth, and Northumberland's
doings were watched more carefully than ever. It was not
long before new and graver cause for suspicion arose.
1 The youth of Lord Percy, afterwards ninth Earl, was anything but regular,
if one may believe the accounts of his mother, Lady Northumberland, and others.
2 De Marchmont, the French Ambassador to England.
3 Northumberland to Burghley, September 25, 1582; Harleian MSS., vol.
v. 6993.
* Md.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 19
During the winter of 1582-83, while the Throckmorton
scheme for Mary Stuart's release was being hatched, several
of the conspirators visited the Earl and were entertained by
him. Of course, as Mr. De Fonblanque points out, many of
these "had been his friends in former times, and his reception
of such persons at Petworth, and even his general sympathy
with their cause, is compatible with his innocence of com-
plicity in their more criminal designs."1 But Elizabeth was
not one to admit of any fine distinctions between actual par-
ticipation in the plot and mere passive sympathy with its
aims. To her mind the presence at Petworth of such men
as Arundel, Dr. Parry, Chidiock Tichbourne, and the Irish
conspirators Patrick and Robert Barnewall, was quite suffi-
cient to brand Northumberland as a " traitor and relapsed
Papist." The Earl was summoned to London, and there
ordered to confine himself to the precincts of his town-
house,2 until full investigation could be made into his
conduct.
Despite their utmost efforts, Hatton and the other per-
sons entrusted with the collection of this part of the evidence
could produce little or nothing of an incriminatory nature
against Northumberland or his cousin, Arundel, beyond the
admitted fact that they had been on terms of intimacy with
sundry friends and adherents of the Scottish Queen. In-
deed, most of the " depositions " laid before the Council in
regard to the Earl are ridiculously trivial. " One man de-
posed that he had been employed by the Earl to carry a
pack from Petworth to Arundel, which was 'so weighty that
it almost spoilt his horse;' another that 'on the day that
Arthur Shaf toe's house was searched, the Earl lent his white
gelding' to a suspected person ; and a third stated that
among the conspirators he had ' seen somebody disguised in a
1 Annals of the House of Percy, vol. ii.
2 The Northumberland House of the day was near St. Andrews Hill, Black-
friars, and opposite the church of St. Andrews Wardrobe. Adjoining was a tene-
ment afterwards inhabited by William Shakespeare while an actor at the Black-
friars Theatre. When Shakespeare retired to Stratford, he rented this latter
house to one Robinson. [See Will of William Shakespcare^\
20 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
white frieze jerkin, who might have been the Earl of Northum-
berland.'"^ Nevertheless, when Throckmorton and Lord
Henry Howard were sent to the Tower in February 1584,
the Queen insisted that Northumberland should also be
committed. The unhappy Throckmorton was three times
subjected to the rack, but refused to implicate any of his
associates in the conspiracy. A fourth application of the
torture proved too much for his fortitude, however,
and he , made a so-called "confession" to Elizabeth's
Inquisitors, in which Northumberland and others were
admitted to be relapsed Romanists and sympathisers with
Queen Mary's cause. But if the Puritan " Holy Office "
hoped by these means to secure the conviction of Earl
Henry they were deprived of that satisfaction ; for Throck-
morton solemnly retracted on the scaffold almost every-
thing which had been wrung from him in the torture-
chamber.
Greatly against her will, the Queen was forced to set
Northumberland at liberty. But she had no idea of allow-
ing him to wholly escape unpunished, and so commanded
that, as a mark of her displeasure, he should be removed
from the governorship of Tynemouth Castle.
The Earl protested strenuously against this piece of
feminine spite, pointing out that he was being punished for
bins which could not be proved against him, and that he had
governed Tynemouth loyally for her Majesty during a
quarter of a century.2 Furthermore he pleaded that such a
measure would deprive some twenty of his old soldiers —
men who had fought stoutly for the Queen on many a field
— of their sole means of livelihood ; for if the governorship
were taken from him, he could not, in consequence of his
own large family, spare enough money to maintain these
veteran retainers any longer. Disgrace, too, would attach
to his name in the North Country, and all his former
1 De Fonblanque, quoting from Original State Puftrs, Record Office.
3 He had been appointed to the post, while still in his minority, by Queen
Mary, and had twice re-fortified Tynemouth Castle almost entirely at his own
expense.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 21
services be forgotten.1 These pleas fell upon deaf ears.
Northumberland was dismissed, and the wardenship of
Tynemouth bestowed upon Sir Francis Russell.
If Northumberland had been indiscreet before his
second imprisonment, he now became positively reckless,
The Eari's openly professing the Roman Catholic religion,
plots lead an(j mixing freely with those most interested
further in the welfare of the Scottish Queen. Two
danger. years before, an acquaintance had sprung up
between him and Charles Paget,2 in consequence of the
latter's kindness to young Lord Percy while a resident
of Paris. Paget's name was written very largely in the
Government's black books, and when he visited England
on a pretended matter of business, spies dogged his foot-
steps everywhere. One of his first visits was to the town
residence of Northumberland, and subsequently he was
invited to Petworth, in company with his brother, Lord
Paget. This supplied the Earl's relentless foes with the
opportunity they longed for. In spite of Burghley's efforts
to exculpate him, Northumberland was once more arrested
on a charge of holding treasonable conferences with the
Pagets, Babington, and Robert Barnewall. " Yesterday"
wrote Walsingham to Sir E. Stafford, on December 16,
1584, " the Earl of Northumberland was committed prisoner to
his own house, under the charge of Sir S. L eighton, for confer-
ence with Charles Paget. He confesses the conference; but
denies that he knew of any cause for Pagets return to England,
except to confer with his brother, Lord Paget, on private affairs ;
but others say that the Earl knew more than this. . . .
Charles Paget is a most dangerous instrument, and I wish,
for Northumberland's sake, he had never been born." 3
Once again the ingenuity of the Vice-Chancellor, Sir
Christopher Hatton, was strained to bring home to the Earl
1 Original State Papers, Addenda; Record Office (1580-1625).
a One of the most energetic secret agents of the Catholic party. He was
attainted in the following year, together with his elder brother William, Lotd
Paget, Sir Francis Englefield, and several others.
3 Raleigh to Sir Robert Cecil (Murdin, p. 811).
22 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the charges of conspiracy. His prosecution was pushed
forward with a persistent malevolence which could only
have emanated from persons keenly desirous of compassing
his death or the consfication of his estates. Sir Walter
Raleigh l and many of the Earl's Catholic friends point to
Hatton as the secret enemy who laboured thus relentlessly
to bring the accused to the scaffold. Others advance the
Queen's covetousness as the real motive of this and former
attempts to convict the holder of the Percy estates. But
whoever his chief antagonists may have been, they failed
for the third time to prove him guilty of any overt act of
treason.
The Queen of Scots herself, while sending messages of
condolence to Throckmorton and Lord Henry Howard,
absolutely disowned any connection with Northumberland,
and this too in a private letter to one of her agents, inter-
cepted by the Crown.2 All the arrested conspirators, save
one, denied that the Earl was privy to their schemes. The
solitary exception, William Shelley, while being tortured on
the rack, is said to have acknowledged that Northumberland
was under promise to join the plot ; but, as in Throck-
morton's case, Shelley afterwards retracted this statement.
Years afterwards, while a free agent in France, and when
nobody could be harmed or benefited by the declaration,
Charles Paget solemnly denied that the Earl had given any
such pledge, or that he had taken any part in the intrigue.
Northumberland himself demanded an inquiry ; which, he
maintained, would prove him free from any taint of treason.
That he had reverted to the old faith he tacitly admitted,
nor did he conceal his sympathy with the imprisoned heir
to the throne ; but to all the other charges made against him
he returned an indignant denial. The persistence with
which he asked for a full investigation, and his refusal of all
offers of compromise, speak volumes in his favour. Hatton
admits that he tempted the Earl with the promise of a free
pardon if he agreed to sign some form of trumped up
1 Raleigh to Sir Robert Cecil (Murdin, p. 811).
2 Mary Stuart to M. de Maurissiere, 1584; Harltian AfSS., No. 1582.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 23
confession, but that his prisoner absolutely refused to
be entrapped.1
Shortly before Christmas, Northumberland was re-
moved from his own house, and, for the third time, im-
prisoned in the Tower. The journey thither was made by
water, and it was noted as ominous that on this occasion
the Earl passed through "Traitor's Gate." From his cell
he wrote appeal after appeal, — to the Queen, to Burghley,
and even to the Vice-Chancellor (Hatton), whom he had
learned to look upon as the most active of his persecutors.
But all his arguments and prayers were left unheeded.
The Government did not even dare to accord him the
poor privilege of a secret inquiry, which, failing open trial
by his peers, he was "full willing to accept." The plain
truth was, that while they desired his conviction on charges
of high treason, the evidence in their possession merely
warranted his arraignment as a religious backslider and
confessed harbourer of Roman Catholics. Burghley, too,
remained neutral in the case of his friend, and refused to
lend either his own talents as prosecutor, or the services of
his bloodhound spies to the cause of the Earl's adversaries.
Thus matters stood when — at an ill time for the good name
of Queen Elizabeth or of her "frisking favourite,"2 Hatton
— all England was shocked by the news that the Earl had
met with a violent death in the Tower.
Did Northumberland commit self-murder, or was he
done to death as the result of a conspiracy ? To this day
the mystery remains as dark as the midnight
ouicide or J J
assassina- under cover of which the crime itself, suicide or
assassination, was committed. From that summer
morning when the finding of Henry Percy's mangled
corpse was first noised abroad, controversy and party
rancour have raged around the subject. Let the reader
1 Statement of Sir C. Hatton. A True and Summarit Report: Lord Sowers'
Tracts, vol. i.
2 "Frisking" was an expression applied to Hatton by stout old Sir John
Perrot, the Queen's half-brother, who was vindictively prosecuted by the Vice-
Chamberlain.
24 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
draw his own conclusions from the evidence here set
forth, remembering first that there are no less than four
distinct theories, each of which professes to give the true
version of the tragedy. The Puritan Government main-
tained that Northumberland, knowing himself to be a
traitor and a rebel, and aware that his treason was discovered,
had taken his own life in order to avoid the disgrace of a
public execution. The more moderate Protestants, while
accepting the hypothesis of suicide, refused to admit the
Earl's treason, and held that he had deliberately slain him-
self in order to avoid unjust condemnation at the hands of
unscrupulous foes, and in the hope, by this desperate means,
of saving his threatened estates for his eldest son, whom he
dearly loved. Again, many persons of note — among them
Sir Walter Raleigh — accused Sir Christopher Hatton of
assassinating the Earl, either for his own private ends or in
obedience to the promptings of higher authority. And,
lastly, the Catholic and Marian faction, with one accord,
proclaimed Elizabeth guilty of having procured Nor-
thumberland's murder in order to possess herself of his
property.
On the evening of June 20, 1585, Sir Christopher
Hatton (in his capacity of Vice-Chamberlain) sent sealed
instructions to Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower,
commanding the latter to remove the special warder who
had hitherto guarded the Earl of Northumberland's person
and to substitute one Bailiffe, a tenant and retainer of
Hatton's own. This was done, and Bailiffe entered upon
his new duties. Early next morning, Northumberland was
found in his bed, shot through the heart. A coroner's
jury was hastily summoned, consisting of Tower officials
and tradesmen of the neighbourhood. Bailiffe, Sir Owen
Hopton, and a few other witnesses were examined, and
the jury returned a verdict to the effect that the Earl of
Northumberland, having secretly obtained possession of a
dagg, or pistol, had " bolted the door on the inner side, lest
any man should foresee or withstande his devilish intent and
purpose ; and not having the Almightie God or his fear e before
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 25
his eies, but being moued and seduced by the instigation of the
devil, did discharge the said dag into his bodie and hearte . . .
of which he instantlie died"
Little time was lost in getting rid of the dead man's
body, which was buried at daybreak on June 23, in the
Church of St. Peter-ad- Vincula, within the precincts of the
Tower. The grim news spread far and near, circulated by
the various foreign representatives and secret agents in
London, and the verdict of felo de se was greeted on
every side by a chorus of incredulity. At first even staunch
supporters of the dominant party refused to believe that
Northumberland had taken his own life. If the Puritans
fancied that they had heard the last of the Earl, when " his
wretched carcase," as they called it,1 was bestowed in
the tomb, they were quickly disillusioned. On June 26,
Walsingham received a letter from Sir Francis Russell,
voicing the scepticism which prevailed among Northern
Protestants. " The manner of Lord Northumberland's death"
wrote his successor in the government of Tynemouth, "will
hardlie be believed in this countrie to be as you have written "*
From Paris the English Ambassador protested that he
could persuade no person of intelligence to credit the find-
ing of the Tower jury ; and added on his own account a
broad hint that the official story needed mending.3 The
French and Spanish Ambassadors to England, in reporting
the event to their several Governments, expressly stated
that Northumberland had been assassinated with the aid
and connivance of Elizabeth ; 4 and this was the version
generally accepted throughout the Continent, alike by
Catholics and Protestants. At Cologne there was published
a naming tract entitled Crudelitas Calviniancz Exempla duo
recentissima ex Anglia, in which the British "Calvinist"
leaders, and notably the Queen, were charged with "foul
and deliberate murder." This work was at once translated
into French, German, Spanish, Italian, and English, and in
the last-named tongue it was smuggled to these shores, and
distributed through the three kingdoms.
1 Holinshed. 2 State Papers, June-July, 1585. 3 2bid. * Ibid.
26 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Such was the effect produced throughout Europe by
this attack, and by the many suspicious circumstances
surrounding the Earl's death, that the Queen was advised
by Burghley and Walsingham to hold a Star Chamber
inquiry into the affair. This secret tribunal met on July 23,
and, after long deliberation, issued a reply to the Cologne
tract. The second pamphlet, which professes to be A
True and Summarie Reporte of the tragic occurrence in the
Tower, bears evidence of having been hastily and injudi-
ciously compiled. Burghley's cunning and caution were
sadly lacking in the men who aimed at succeeding to his
power. Many barefaced perversions of the truth were
allowed to slip into the True and Summarie Reporte, such
as the absurd statement of Attorney-General Popham that
the eighth Earl of Northumberland had been implicated in
the Rising of 1569, and had " as farr plunged into the same
as the Earl his brother" The contention of Popham and
others was that new evidence had been brought to light
convicting the deceased of treason, and that seeing no
means of escape from the scaffold, he had committed self-
murder. The nature of the supposed new evidence, how-
ever, is not given, and it is only alluded to in the vaguest
terms. In the report of the inquest, it had been stated that
one of the Earl's attendants, James Pryce, yeoman, had on
June 1 6 procured a pistol and ammunition for his master.
But although Pryce was himself a prisoner in the Tower at
the time, he was not summoned as a witness either at the
inquest or at the subsequent Star Chamber investigation.1
Thus a most important point was left practically unproved
— i.e. the manner in which Northumberland had obtained
the weapon with which he was supposed to have killed
himself. On the other hand, it was established that the man
Bailiffe had been specially placed on duty in the prisoner's
apartments only a few hours before the catastrophe ; that
Bailiffe was a creature of Sir Christopher Hatton, and
had been suddenly appointed warder by Hatton's orders ;
1 Howell's State Trials, vol. i.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 27
and that Bailiffe's ears alone had heard the shots fired
which terminated Northumberland's life.
The evidence of this substitute warder was that, having
retired to rest in the chamber adjoining the Earl's cell, he
was aroused from sleep "a little after midnight . . . by a
noise so sudden and so greate, like the falling of some dore, or
rather a piece of the house ; " and so " started out of his bed,
and crying to the Earle, with a loud voice said, ' My Lord,
knowe you what this is ? ' ; but receiving no answer, he con-
tinued his crying and calling, until an aide man that lay with-
out spake unto him, saying, ' Gentleman, shall I not call the
watch, seeing he will not speakef ' Yea,' quoth Bailiff e, 'for
God's sake ! ' Then did this aide man rise, and call one of
the watch, whom Bailiff e intreaded with all possible speede to
call Master Lieutenant unto him. In the meane time Bailiffe
heard the Earle give a long and grievous grone, and after that
gave a second grone ; and then the Lieutenant (being come)
called to the Earle, who not answering, Bailiffe cried to the
Lieutenant to breake open the Earle' s chamber dore, bolted unto
him on the inner side, which was done : and then they found
the Erie dead in his bed, and by his bedside a dagge, where-
with he had killed himself e'' 1
A few hours after the discovery of the corpse, it was
carefully examined by our honest old friend, Lord Hunsdon,
and by a skilled surgeon. Hunsdon's reported evidence is
that they found the Earl's heart "pearced and torn in diuerse
lobes and pieces, three of his ribbes broken, and the spinebone of
his back cut almost in sunder.'"1 The three bullets with
which the pistol had been loaded were extracted from the
body under Hunsdon's supervision ; and the surgeon de-
clared that, from the terrible nature of the injuries, death
must have been instantaneous.3
It is upon this expert testimony that the accusation of
murder chiefly rests ; for the arguments advanced in the
Cologne tract are at best vague and unsatisfactory. The
1 A True and Siimmat ie Repot te. '2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
28 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
surgeon's evidence gives the lie direct to part of Bailiffe's
sworn statement, and so tends to invalidate the entire narra-
tive put forward in defence of the Queen's ministers. If
Northumberland died immediately after the discharge of the
pistol, how was it that Bailiffe heard him "give a long and
most grievous grone, and after that . . . a second grone"
when, according to the warder's own story, many minutes
must have elapsed from the time that he heard the shot fired
" a little after midnight " ? Between the firing of the shot and
the Earl's last groan, Bailiffe alleged that he found time to
leave his bed in the adjoining room ; to call loudly upon the
prisoner ; to ascertain that the latter's door had been bolted
upon the inside ; to continue "crying and calling" until he
awakened an old man sleeping without ; to despatch this old
man for the watch ; and finally to send one of the watch-
men in quest of the Lieutenant of the Tower.1 That, under
the circumstances, Northumberland should have been able
to utter two distinct groans appears in itself impossible ; that
he should have given these evidences of life so long after the
infliction of the wounds is impossible indeed. And if
Bailiffe was capable of perjuring himself in this part of his
testimony, may not the statement relating to the bolting of
the Earl's door upon the inside (to which he alone bore wit-
ness) have been also untrue ? Thus at least argued the many
who believed that Northumberland had been done to death
at the instigation of the Queen or the Vice-Chamberlain.
These people furthermore pointed out that, even granting
the inner bolting of Northumberland's door, no search had
been made through the cell for concealed assailants, or for
any secret mode of egress by which such could escape.
The facts that Bailiffe was in Hatton's employ, and that
James Pryce (who was said to have supplied the Earl with
pistol, powder, and bullets) had not been called upon to give
evidence, either at the inquest or Star Chamber inquiry, were
1 The Lieutenant, Sir O. Ilopton, deposed that he was called at " lesse than
a quarter of an hour before one of the clocke " — more than forty-five minutes
after the shot was said to have been fired, but only a few minutes after the Earl
gave his last groan !
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 29
also made use of by the accusers of the Government. Al-
together The True and Summarie Reporte rather damaged the
case of the Crown than otherwise in the minds of those dis-
posed to weigh the evidence impartially ; and it is perhaps
well for the memories of Sir Christopher Hatton and others
that the Catholic party on the Continent did not esteem
Earl Henry sufficiently to publish a reply.
It has been said that Sir Walter Raleigh and other Pro-
testants looked upon Hatton as the Earl's assassin. In proof
of this, a letter from Raleigh to Robert Cecil in 1601 may be
quoted. Sir Walter, arguing against blood-feuds handed
down from father to son, writes : — " For your oivn father,
that was esteemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin,1 yet
his (Norfolk's) son 2 followeth your father 's son, and loveth him ;
Somerset made no revenge on the Duke of Northumberland's
heirs ; 3 . . . and Northumberland that now is* thinks not of
Hatton' s issue."5 This is plain speaking, and establishes
clearly enough the fact that Raleigh regarded the connec-
tion of Hatton with the bloody affair in the Tower as a matter
of history. Nor does Cecil, in replying to this letter, attempt
to combat the belief. The majority of modern historians,
however, prefer to disregard all discrepancies in the evidence,
and to hold that, for no apparently adequate reason, the
eighth Earl of Northumberland disregarded the teachings
of Christianity, and deliberately took his own life.
The eighth Earl left behind him ten children — eight sons,
and two daughters.6 The sons we shall meet again in the
course of this history : of the daughters, the elder, Lucy,
was twice married, firstly to Sir John Wotton (whereby hangs
a romance presently to be narrated), and secondly to Sir
Hugh Owen of Anglesea ; while the younger, Eleanor,
became the wife of William Herbert, first Lord Powis. The
Countess of Northumberland survived her first husband
1 Burghley had been largely instrumental in bringing the fourth Duke of Norfolk
to the scaffold, in 1572.
2 Allusion is made to Thomas, Lord Howard de Walden.
3 The downfall and death of the Protector Somerset were brought about by
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.
4 The ninth Earl. » Murdin, p. 8u. « See Genealogy, Table III.
3o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
eleven years.1 Having inherited much of the large estates
of the Nevills, Lords Latimer, the widowed dame was much
sought after by fortune-hunters, and eventually bestowed
her hand and fortune upon a kinsman of the deceased Earl,
one Francis Fitton of Binfield in Berkshire, who had long
officiated as her steward. This alliance was vigorously
opposed by the ninth Earl of Northumberland.
The eighth Earl had made his will while in the Tower,
several months before his death. He desired to be buried
with his ancestors in Beverley Minster, " if it should fortune
him to die in the county of York." As we have seen, his
death occurred far from his native country, and his body
was laid to rest under the flagstones of St. Peter's-ad-Vincula
within the shadow of the Tower.
1 She died October 28, 1596.
-•?-
•-" • "V. • ™rfto • '-
mf/pl1**^
II
HENRY PERCY, who now became ninth Earl of Nor-
thumberland, first saw the light at Tynemouth Castle in
The outhof ^ay 1564. He was thus a mere child at the
the"W«ard outbreak of the Northern Rising; but the brutal
massacres by which Elizabeth and Cecil sought
to avenge that rash and ill-directed enterprise made a
deep impression upon his youthful mind, and rendered
him (although personally of the State religion) a life-
long advocate of toleration towards the Catholics. His
father, at that time a professed zealot in the Protestant
cause, took care to bring up the heir of the house strictly
in accordance with the new doctrines ; and even in after
years, when the eighth Earl himself fell under suspicion
of Romanism, every effort was made to "guard the young
lorde against temptation and popish friendes" His earliest
tutor and religious instructor was one Thompson, " a loyall
Protestant" parson of Egremond in Yorkshire.1 When he
had attained the age of eighteen, Lord Percy was sent
abroad for the purpose of broadening his mind by travel.
Burghley sent him a long letter of advice, in which he was
cautioned against the wiles of Roman Catholic agents in
Paris and elsewhere, and particularly against his aunt, the
exiled Countess of Northumberland, for whose powers of
intrigue the minister entertained a lively respect. Percy
acknowledged the receipt of these counsels with becoming
modesty. " Thanks" he wrote, "for your exquisite and rare
counsel, and your directions for my travels, which I would gladly
recompense."* The "travels " in question do not appear to have
been extensive, even for the time. The north of Italy was
1 Syon House MSS., 1575-79.
2 Lord Percy to Burghley, from Paris, April 16, 1581 ; State Papers.
TI
32 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
visited, as were parts of France and the Low Countries ;
but we soon find the pilgrim permanently established at
Paris, where his " studies " were not of unmixed benefit.
Puritan spies surrounded him, and his every movement
was duly reported to Burghley and Walsingham, lest by any
chance he might follow in the footsteps of his father, grand-
father, and uncle, and permit the Romanist sympathies
inherent in his blood to gain the mastery. Indeed, the zeal
of those appointed to watch over this hope of Protestantism
led them at times to lay undue stress upon trivial details,
and to make accusations which they could not substantiate.
Percy looked upon the Catholics with a liberal eye, and had
more than one acquaintance among them ; but there is no
proof that he evinced any leanings towards the old faith or
meditated disloyalty to her whom he had been taught to
regard as head of the English Church. Nevertheless, Sir
Henry Cobham, the British Ambassador to Paris, com-
plained to his Government that the young lord consorted
with at least one " most dangerous Papist" in the person of
that Charles Paget — stormcock of Catholic agitation — whose
acquaintance was at a later date to brew for the father
trouble far more serious than it now did for the son.1 Even
to know Charles Paget was suggestive of backsliding in
Cobham's mind, and doubtless in that of Secretary Walsing-
ham as well, for the latter lost no time in protesting to the
Earl of Northumberland against Lord Percy's undesirable
Parisian acquaintance. Northumberland, who loved his
eldest son dearly, and feared lest the lad's inheritance might
be imperilled by any entanglements with men of the Paget
stamp, sent a trusty servant to remonstrate with Percy and
put him in possession of all that Cobham had reported. It
is highly probable that the intercourse between Paget and
the future Earl was, in that stage at least, purely social,
and that the former spoke the truth when he accused
Cobham of being a mischief-maker, and assured Secretary
Walsingham by letter that he had never sought to turn
Lord Percy from the reformed faith. Rather than cause
1 See ante.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 33
his young friend any inconvenience, Paget declared himself
willing to move forthwith to a distant quarter of Paris ; for, at
the time, Percy "lodged not far from him" and their com-
panionship had been merely that of neighbours and com-
patriots. The heir of Northumberland stood sadly in need
of friendly advice ; and Charles Paget declared that his
efforts had been mainly directed towards the guidance and
protection of this raw boy from the innumerable snares and
pitfalls of the Gallic capital, "he (Percy) not being in a com-
mendable course, either for studies or manners." 1 These state-
ments are borne out by Percy himself in two epistles, one
directed to Walsingham, the other to Northumberland.
That intended for the Secretary's eye runs in this wise : —
" Righte honnorable ; I doe vnderstande that Sir Henry
Cobham, Ambassador here for her mates te, hat he not long agoe
informed your Honnor, both against me and Mr. Pagett,for
conuersing some tymes one with the other, and that Mr. Pagett
should not onelie seeke to dissuade me from the Religion I
have been nourrished and bredd upp in, but also deale with me
in vndewtifull Practises. When I hard of this Manner of my
Lo : Ambassador's proceedinge, it greued me very muche, in
resfect of his place, wliat force his Advertisment might carie
against me, to bringe me in Disgrace with her Maiesle, and
Displeasure with my Lo : my Father, both whicke thinges I
will euer seeke \to avoid} by all possible meanes, as that I am
bounde vnto by the Lawes of God, Nature and Raison. But
when I better aduised my selfe, my griefe began to diminish,
bycause I remembered your Wisdome and Indifference to be
suche, as that this bare Reporte of my Lo : Ambassador,
grounded without Reason or Trewth, should not be imparted to
any by your Honor to my hurte, vntil suche tyme as you harde
what I could say in my Defence. And tharfore havinge this
good Occasion presented vnto me by the comminge of my Lo :
my Father's man, who is sent of pourpose by his Lo: to me
with charge as I tender my Dewtie towardes him to signifie all
thinges in trewth vnto his Lo : I could not lett slipp the same,
but in like sorte by thes lines declare vnto your Honor that
1 Charles Paget to Walsingham, March 4, 1582 ; State facers.
II. C
34 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Mr. Pagett did sometimes resorte vnto me, of whom I haue neuer
harde other speches then becommeth a dewtifull subiect to her
Majeste, and great Wellwiller to me. Assuringe your Honor
that if he had delte with me in other termes, either for matters
of Religion or otherwise, I would not haue allowed of his
Companie, but hated his Person. Neuertheless when I heard
by my Lo : A mbassador suche harde Construction of Mr. Pagett
his Resorte to me, bycause I wold haue it appear how loth I
wold be to do anie thinge that might anie way shake me in the
Fauor of her Maieste, I frayed Mr. Pagett to forbear my
Companie. Whiche verie willinglie he yeelded vnto, and as
soone as he coulde prouide him a lodging further from me, he
presentlie removed" 1
By the same servant, Lord Percy sent to reassure his
anxious father, and to urge that Cobham might be called
upon to prove his loose assertions. This was accordingly
done ; and the over-keen Ambassador failed ignominiously
in establishing any of the charges. Indeed, he found him-
self compelled to apologise very humbly to Charles Paget ;
a fact which, we may be sure, was made the most of by that
astute plotter against Elizabethan methods of government.
Paget certainly kept his word in regard to a change of
residence, but his acquaintance with Percy did not by any
means terminate, and the part which he had played in the
recent difficulty led to his gaining that for which (if we are
to believe his opponents) he had been striving all along —
i.e. the friendship of old Northumberland. Very shortly
after the Cobham incident we find him in confidential
correspondence with the Earl,2 and it has been told how he
subsequently visited Northumberland House as an honoured
guest.3
The various English spies in Paris continued to keep
the Home Government fully informed of all Lord Percy's
1 Lord Percy to Secretary Walsingham, April 5, 1582 ; Original Stale Paper
(Holograph), Record Office.
2 Stale Papers : Syon MSS.
s See ante, under eighth Earl.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 35
movements, of the persons with whom he most consorted,
and of the more or less vague tales which were circulated re-
A oun specting his matrimonial, religious, and political
noble of views. The life led by the young man at this
tim«r; hu period appears to have been a medley of study
Parisian and amusement, the latter at first predominating.
The Earl his father (then living like a rustike at
Petworth) kept him lavishly supplied with money, and his
allowance is said to have " equalled that of a prince of the
blood." But, in spite of the temptations by which he was sur-
rounded, Percy did not drain the cup of pleasure to the dregs.
From lapsing into the graver excesses of that depraved period,
he was saved through the shrewd precepts and example of
Charles Paget. But he acquired a taste for the gaming
table, periodically losing large sums of money thereby, and
in other paths of dissipation he is known to have strayed at
times. The unwonted indulgences of his first year of
Parisian life brought on. great extremity e of siknes and danger
°f fyffe"1 in the shape of a raging fever. His constitution
was still vigorous, however, and he recovered from this
attack, but the lesson was not thrown away upon him.
After his convalescence, he took up the study of history and
the occult sciences with great avidity, devoting to reading
and experiments as much of his time as he had formerly
expended in less learned pursuits. Alchemy and astrology
possessed for him especial attractions. He purchased a
crystal divining globe, cast his friends' horoscopes with the
ease of a Nostrodamus, and laboured hopefully to transmute
the baser metals into gold. Masked dames and richly clad
gallants frequented his apartments no longer. In their
place came a train of solemn personages, whose sad-coloured
garments at first led Sir Henry Cobham to think them
Romish agents, but whom he soon discovered to be men of
science, the new associates of Lord Percy. The young
man's reputation as a worker of mystery spread abroad
throughout Paris, and even the Puritan spies began to
1 See Northumberland's letter to Buryhley, September 25, 1582 ; Harleian
MSS., vol. v. 6993.
36 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
entertain a fear of those accomplishments which afterwards
earned for their possessor the name of the " Wizard Earl." In
history Percy read the works of Guicciardini and Holinshed,
and the French painters of the day found him an intelligent
patron.
In 1583 reports were sent home that the heir of Nor-
thumberland had fallen in love with "Lady Kitson's
daughter," and that he had even asked this damsel's hand
in marriage. But this affair came to naught ; and a little
later the Catholic party suggested an alliance between the
young Arabella Stuart, third in the line of succession to the
throne,1 and Northumberland. The Lady Arabella was
barely nine years old at the time, however; so that this
project was also set aside, to be revived on a later occasion.
Young Percy's peaceful researches were rudely inter-
rupted during the summer of 1585 by the news of his father's
death in the Tower. Whatever were the faults
^eTd°ywer of the eighth Earl of Northumberland, he had
and its always shown himself passionately attached to his
eldest son, and this affection had been recipro-
cated to the full. The grief of the new chief of the Percies
was bitter in the extreme, and for weeks his door remained
closed to the world. Then a rumour spread abroad, and
was duly conveyed to England, that he had embraced the
Catholic Church, and forsworn all allegiance to Elizabeth.
The truth was that William Percy, the Earl's next brother,
had arrived from England with an account of the inquest
and of the many highly suspicious circumstances connected
with the death of his unhappy parent. These facts, added
to the stories of Hatton's guilt which had been from the
first in circulation, so inflamed the Earl against the English
Government that he did indeed lend ear to the intrigues
of the Catholic and Stuart parties. Convinced that the
ministers of Elizabeth, if not the Queen herself, had deliber-
1 Arabella Stuart was directly descended from Henry VII., being the daughter
of Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox, brother of Darnley.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 37
ately brought about his father's murder, Northumberland's
hot temper urged him towards revenge. In August 1585,
the spy Thomas Rogers reported to Walsingham that the
Earl and his brother William were implicated with the
Due de Guise1 in the preparation of a great naval and
military expedition against England, with the dual object
of placing Mary Stuart upon the throne and avenging the
supposed murder in the Tower.2 Nothing was done by the
British Ambassador in Paris or by the Home Government to
dissuade the youthful Percies from any rash act of the kind,
and it is to be feared that, to at least one section of the
dominant party, the rebellion of yet another Northumber-
land might have proved by no means displeasing. Fortu-
nately for the safety of the Percy family estates, Guise and
the French Leaguers had more pressing matters to think of
than an invasion of England, and if the plot described by
Rogers ever existed, it did not develop beyond the early
stages. Acting on the cautious advice of personal friends
was not the cunning Paget one of these ?— the Earl dis-
sembled his feelings towards the ministry, and asked per-
mission to return to England. This was granted after some
delay, and early in 1586 we find him installed in the family
residence at Blackfriars. But although he hid whatever re-
vengeful sentiments he entertained against those in power,
the cruel death of his father was never by him forgotten or
forgiven. For years he was accustomed to give way to fits of
melancholy occasioned by that occurrence, and to style him-
self a wretched parricide for serving under those whose hands
were red with the blood of so loving a sire. As late as 1592,
the spy Paul Crushe or Cruise3 informed Burghley that " the
present Earl of Northumberland, who is discontent about his
father's death, may be seduced thereby to the See of Rome." 4 1 1
is said that the Catholic party took every opportunity to
1 Henri, " Le Balafre," fourth Due de Guise, the great leader of the Catholic
League.
1 Rogers to Walsingham ; State Papers.
3 An Irish Romanist secretly in the pay of the ministry.
4 Crushe to Burghley, March 1592 ; State Papers.
38 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
remind the Earl of this great sorrow, and to bring before him
arguments connecting Elizabeth and Hatton with the crime.
The irresponsible manner in which Northumberland had
been accustomed to live in Paris rendered him peculiarly unfit
to direct with skill the great landed and other interests thus
suddenly committed to his charge. Sent from home at an
early age, and encouraged to spend his money without let
or hindrance, he knew practically nothing of the duties or
economies of his station. Add to this that his return to
England found him by turns moody or irascible, grieving
constantly over his predecessor's fate, seeing spies and
secret enemies in all around him, and it will be readily
understood that not only Northumberland's mother, but the
old stewards and retainers of the house, found him impos-
sible to control and difficult to brook. Quarrels were fre-
quent, particularly between mother and son (for the Earl
taunted Lady Northumberland with lack of sympathy to-
wards his father) ; and among those who refused to submit
longer to the varying temper of this new lord was one whose
services the house of Percy could ill afford to lose — old Sir
Cuthbert Collingwood, for thirty years agent of the northern
estates. Collingwood resigned his stewardship in February
1586 ; l and the Earl was imprudent enough to think that he
could himself supply the place of such a man. The results
were unfortunate, and Northumberland only succeeded in
earning throughout his North Country domains the reputa-
tion of a spendthrift and a harsh landlord.2 That he fully
realised his failure may be gathered from certain com-
ments made in the MS. volume, entitled Instructions to my
Son, which he left after him.
" / knewe not where I was or what I did, " he writes, " till
out of my meanes of £3000 yearely, I had made shifte, in one
yeare and a halfe, to be £15,000 in debt; so as the burden of my
son, must still conclude ignorance in myne estate to be the
mayn cause."* Nor were matters bettered when he opened
1 Collingwood to Anderson, February n, 1586 ; State Papers.
" Sidney Lee in Diftionary of National Biography.
3 Instructions to my Son.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 39
up Alnwick Castle, the ancient stronghold of his race, and
went to reside there ; for he refused Border service, and
took but scant interest in the sports and customs of the
country. Even as the squires of Northumbria and Yorkshire
distrusted his great-grandfather, the fifth Earl, because he
preferred book and scrip to horn and spear, so now their
descendants, or Protestant successors, did this latest and
most learned Earl of the race. His loyalty to the estab-
lished religion was also suspected among Northern
Puritans. As time went on, however, his character as a
territorial magnate somewhat improved, particularly in his
relations with the poorer class of tenants. On November 24,
1593, he wrote to Fenwick, his chief constable at Alnwick,
complaining that, owing to the negligence of his factors and
clerks, the court rolls and records of his estates were " not
kept in due and honest sort, to the great confusion of . . . poor
tenants' estates," and to his own "great loss and dishonour."
Fenwick is warmly reproved for having evicted a certain
widow from her farm, " especially at a time when her Corn
was still standing" This action, continues the Earl, " was
extreem, and not according to the Customs of the country. . . .
Wherefore I require that the old woman should be reinstated to
her former estate." 1
Northumberland soon gave up the attempt to act as
his own chief steward, and returned to his old Parisian
pursuits. The library of his great-grandfather had long
been scattered, but he set about forming another and larger
one at his town-house in Blackfriars. The works of Mac-
chiavelli, Guicciardini and many others were purchased ;
and the charges for binding and cataloguing the Earl's
books grew heavier every year. His studies were multi-
farious, including architecture, archasology, gardening,
geography, military and political science, astronomy,
alchemy and astrology ; but to the two last-named subjects
he was still peculiarly addicted, and a superstitious age
called him "Wizard" because of his alembics, "speculative
glasses," and reputed knowledge of the occult. Unfortu-
1 Alnwick MSS.
40 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
nately another taste acquired in France, that of gambling,
still held sway over his nature. During the year 1586
alone he lost about .£1000 at cards and dice to Sir Walter
Raleigh and other rufflers of the court.1 But if Raleigh
won the Earl's money, he repaid him to some extent by
introducing into his life that which afterwards became one
of its chief solaces — the use of tobacco. Northumberland
was one of those men clearly intended by nature to be a
smoker of the Indian herb. His hasty temper was soothed
or his wits stimulated by its influence ; and during the
monotonous days of his captivity, he found it a constant
and agreeable companion. After 1586 we find him buying
quantities of tobacco from the Virginian merchants, and
he possessed scores of pipes, some of them made from his
own designing.2
Allusion has been made to the differences of opinion
which arose between the young Earl and his mother.
Lady Northumberland had seen but little of her
A family •*
quarrel; and first-born since his boyhood, and was vastly dis-
lce' appointed to find in the returned wanderer a
haughty nobleman, impatient of rebuke, and in intellect
matured beyond his years. No doubt the good dame
had looked forward to some few seasons more of un-
disputed sway over Petworth and the other houses and
estates which her late husband had confided to her care
when he passed through Traitor's Gate. With this prospect
in view she had chosen as her auditor and receiver, Master
Francis Fitton, a mild-mannered and presentable bachelor,
whose father had filled similar household posts under the
eighth Earl, and who was, in fact, a near relative of the
family.3 But Lady Northumberland soon found that her
1 Syon House MSS. Rolls. In the same year he lost twenty shillings to the
Earl of Rutland over a game of chess.
2 Syon House MSS. Rolls.
8 One of the daughters of Sir Guiscard Harbottel of Beamish was mother of
the seventh and eighth Earls, while another married one Fitton, a gentleman of
Cheshire. This latter was father of the above Francis Fitton, afterwards of
Binfield in Berkshire, who was thus a cousin of the ninth Earl. Fitton's father
had compiled an exhaustive summary of the Northumberland revenues.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 41
rule was at an end, and that only a dowager's rights were
left to her. Moreover, her son cast anything but a favour-
able eye upon his cousin, Master Fitton, whom he accused
(and with justice, as afterwards appeared) of entertain-
ing designs upon the jointure and hand of the widowed
Countess. It is a common thing for sons to dislike those
whom they suspect of plotting to fill their father's shoes ;
and young Northumberland was not only of a headstrong
temperament, but also devoted to the memory of his father.
Little wonder, therefore, that relations grow more and more
strained between the Earl on the one hand and the
Countess and her auditor on the other. Northumberland's
brothers were all away from home ; but of his two sisters,
the elder, Lucy, sided with him against their mother. This
internal revolt was too much for Lady Northumberland, who
moved to a suburban residence of her own near St. Martin's
Church, the Lady Lucy, like a dutiful daughter, accompany-
ing her. But even in this removal Northumberland found
a new grievance ; for he alleged that his mother had fur-
nished her new home with furniture taken illegally from
Petworth and Blackfriars. This is what he alludes to in his
Instructions, when he says, " Wyves commonly are great
scratchers after their husbands death, if things be loose." * He
confined himself to complaints, however, and made no
effort to recover the valuables thus appropriated. But the
Countess was not so forbearing, and made several attempts
to see Lord Burghley for the purpose of pouring her woes
into his ear. But Burghley had not been for thirty years
a statesman without learning the inadvisability of embroil-
ing himself in family quarrels ; so that the angry and
anxious lady failed to obtain the desired interview. Not to
be defeated, however, she addressed the minister in a long
letter, describing the manifold sins and shortcomings of her
son. The handwriting of this epistle seems that of a man,
and it is possible that it was written from Lady Northum-
berland's dictation by the aforesaid Master Francis Fitton.
It will be seen that her Ladyship had now an additional and
1 Instructions to my Son,
42 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
grievous trouble (which, like the rest, she blamed upon the
Earl) ; — to wit, the attachment which her elder daughter, the
wilful Lucy, had formed for John Wotton,1 a gallant of the
court, and Northumberland's bosom friend. To this in-
cipient love affair the Countess opposed herself tooth and
nail ; but maternal disapproval of the match is surely no
excuse for the venom with which she attacks the uncon-
scious Wotton, who, so far from being the mercenary de-
bauchee here described, was a young man of unblemished
honour and good birth, whose addresses to Lucy Percy
were fostered and encouraged by that lady's brother. Nor
was Wotton "more than double" the age of her whose
affection he had gained ; at the most his years could not
have exceeded thirty.
This, then, is the letter of complaint which Burghley
was unable to avoid : —
" My good Lord, I was twise to waite vppon your Lordship
at yor Howse, but could not finde yor Lp. at home ; -whereby
I am enforced to complaine vnto you in writinge my great
Disquiett and Discomfort. I have longe seene the disordered
Lif of my Sonne the Earl, and, asmuch as a Mother might
out of whose rule he knewe himself, pswaded the Amendment.
But nowe, pceavinge to my great Greif that he regardeth
neither Parent, Frende, nor Kinsman, and lacketh Grace to
governe himself like one of his callings, I make vnto yor Lp.
my most Jiumble Request that it maie please yor Lp. to be well
enfonned of his mann" of Lif, andnowe of his Beliavio* towards
me, that when I shall offer the same to the wholle Councell,
yor Lp. maie be the redier to iudge and see Redresse of the
Wronge and Disgrace lie hath don me, and to take some course
for correcting his mispcndinge and misordered Lif, soe as he
might hereafter be able to serve the Queues Ma'*, and his
Countrey ; and that I may be put in better Assurance of
Quiett in myne owne Howse, growing into Yeres and Sicklines.
My Sonne hath taken to his spcciall Companion Mr. John
1 Afterwards Sir John Wotton, Knt.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 43
Wotton, not with standeinge he had knowen before his enter-
teyninge of his Sister, my eldest Daughter, in Love and
Follies, whereof six or seaven monethes since I warned him
againe by my Ires, whereunto he made a short aud slaight
Auttsweare. Within theis fewe Dates by dilligent Care had
of this Enterteynement of Love, not Love but his desier and
hope to gett Money by the gettinge of her, a Ire was intercepted,
wherein appeared there had ben practise to entice my Daughter
to an Assurance, and since, by the ptie about whome the letter
was taken, confessed, that she should have ben pswaded in
some eveninge downe to the Gate, and there before two Gentle-
men fitt for such a Councell contracted unto Mr. Wotton, a
man of noe Livinge, of evill Name, and more than double my
Daughters Veres. Yet the Plott went further, howe by meanes
of some highlie in the quenes favor I should be forced (the
Contract beinge once past,} to geve him two or three Thousande
Pounds with her. Whereof he beinge disapointed by the Dis-
cou'ie of this Ire, he hath threatened Revenge vppon my
Servaunts, and namelie vppon my Steward, who openlie in
Pawles he reviled, and threatned to thrust his Dagger in him
had he ben out of the Church. The next daie followinge this
Behavio" of Mr. Wottons, cometh my Sonne (after he and
Mr. Wotton had supped at Arrundells1 together) to my Howse,
and p'tendinge for Curtesie to see me, tarryinge a smalle while,
and vsinge almost noe Words to my self, he departed. On
whome, nowe, as he accustomed, my Cosen Frauncis Fitton
(his fathers Cosen Jermaine, and chief Dealer in matters of
his livinge, as still he is for me), way ted on him doune into
the Hall, where, without any cause, knoivne or worde spoken,
he drew his Rapier (which he seldome vseth to carry, but of
purpose that night) and strake at him, beinge in his Night
Gowne, atnased at the matter, cutt his Head, and brake the
Rapier vppon his Anne, havinge nothinge to defende his life
wit/tall but his handes, till at length some of my Servantts
rescued him. Since wf" nights Behavio", beinge Saturdaie last,
he hath come by my Gate w1" Mr. Wotton, and in scorne asked
for Mr. Fitton, bravinge and storminge the rest of my Sen<ants
1 The townhouse of the Earl of Arundel.
44 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
that attended at my Gate. And after Supper cominge by,
caused a Page to rapp at the Gate, asking in more scornes
whether he might come in or noe.
" This hath ben my Sonnes and his Companions be-
havio' iustly and truly sett downe, and the cause of it (I sate)
onelie this matter and Quarrell of Wotton to my men, and
to my kinsman Mr. Fitton, w/wme he suspected did my
Comandement in takinge of a badd Boy (who once served me}
the Carrier of these Ires betivene him and my Daughter ;
for in all his Lif my Cosen Fitton hath never offended my
Sonne that ever he or I can tell of. Nowe humblie I besech
yor Lp. to consider the Wronge that this Wotton hath gon
aboute to doe me, the Howse, and my vnfortunate Daughter,
nowe to my Servants ; and next the Vnnaturallnes of my
Sonne takinge his newe Companions part against his owne
Mother, whose Lief belike he desirs to shorten with Greif if
he cannot doe it otherwise, and howe unkinde and vndiscrett
he is to be content to cast awaie his Sister into Beggerie and
Want, to please his newe Acquaintaunce. Hoping e _/ for the
Howse sake (though it hath ben vnfortunate) as for comon
Example of outragious Misorder, and Contempt of me his
Mother, your Lp. and the rest of my Lords, when I shall
exhibitt my PeticZn, will take some Order wch maie in tyme
to come be good for him, yf euer he will be good. Thus even
hartely greved I take my leave of yo" Lp. From my Howse
in St. Martyns, this ffifte of December 1587.
" Yor Lp. assured frende,
" K. NORTHUMBERLAND.
" / had forgotten to declare vnto yo' Lordship howe on
Siindaie last came to my Hoiuse diu's Citizens of good will,
warninge my Folkes to beware of Cominge forth of my Howse,
for that the Streats were laid by Mr. Wotton, and namely
forLegg my Steward. And within lesse than half an Hower
came one Forrest, a man of my Sonnes, into my Howse,
gevinge Warninge that this Legg, my man should not goe
forth to watte upon me, for that Streates were laid for him
by Mr- Wotton, his Men and Frendes."
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 45
Lady Northumberland, it will be noticed, says nothing
whatever of the more or less tender feelings which existed
between herself and the Master Francis Fitton thus ignomi-
niously thrashed with her son's rapier ; nor does she admit
the probability that this thrashing and the Earl's subsequent
scornful words were caused by the latter's knowledge that
his mother meditated a marriage with her man of affairs at
the very time that she railed against Lucy Percy's love for
John Wotton.1 But old Burghley, who knew most things
concerning the English society of his day, was probably
well aware of the true condition of affairs, and acted ac-
cordingly. At any rate, the wrathful Countess did not, so
far as is known, succeed in airing her troubles before " the
wholle Councell" ; and the happy settlement of this trouble-
some business leads us to believe that the crafty Cecil may
himself have taken a hand in it. For both quarrel and
romance were brought to an agreeable conclusion. John
Wotton was knighted by the Queen, and in a little while
married Lady Lucy Percy, without being driven to " lay the
streates " for the purpose of carrying her off. The young
Earl was induced to seek an outlet for his fiery spirit in the
Low Countries ; whither he went with a handsome train to
serve as a volunteer under Leicester against the Spaniards.
Lastly, the Countess was, presumably, made happy by
being wedded to the man of her choice ; and mild Francis
Fitton found her Ladyship's large private fortune a service-
able salve for the blows which he had received from his hot-
tempered stepson. The Earl's near neighbour at Blackfriars,
Master William Shakespeare, might well have turned the
whole story into a diverting comedy.
When the execution of Mary Queen of Scots led to
war with Spain, and Philip sent his vast fleet to harry these
••Mountedon snores> young Northumberland was one of those
Fortune's patriotic peers who shamed the sordid parsimony
of Elizabeth, and the perilous inactivity of her
ministers, by fitting forth ships at their own expense,
raising companies of volunteers, and expending large
1 Statt Pilfers.
46 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
sums for the fortification of the coast and the defence
of the nation. " A great many of the young nobility and
gentry," says Nichols,1 "entered themselves as volun-
teers in the navy, hired ships at their own expense, and
from a zeal to serve their country joined in the grand fleet
in vast numbers — among which were the Earls of Oxford,
Northumberland, and Cumberland." These private exer-
tions, combined with the fury of the elements, were the real
saving of England in that time of danger. Northumberland
and his associates followed up their disinterested conduct
by advancing many thousands of pounds to Raleigh and
the other fathers of the British navy, and thus made
possible the long sea war which followed the failure of
the Armada.
If the Queen was loath to part with any of her hoarded
gains, she proved as eager as ever to add to them ; and the
Earl very wisely adopted his father's policy of placating
her Majesty by frequent and costly gifts. The Calendar of
State Papers from this time until the date of Elizabeth's
death contains regular entries of New Year presents given
by Northumberland to his sovereign. In January 1589
his offering consisted of " one jewel of golde like a lamfe,
garnesshed with diamonds, and one opal ; " but his later
tokens of loyalty were far more costly than this. The
Queen regarded him as favourably as she had once done
his father ; and in 1591 he was restored to the latter's for-
feited post as Governor of Tynemouth Castle. On April
23, 1593, the same chapel of Windsor Castle which,
twenty-three years before, had witnessed his uncle's
shameful degradation from the dignity of the Garter,
now saw the ninth Earl of Northumberland installed a
knight of that order with due pomp and ceremony. The
dramatist, George Peele, turned this event to account by
publishing a series of verses entitled The Honour of the
Garter, which he dedicated to the new knight in the ful-
some phraseology of the literary man of the period seeking
1 Pi-ogresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. ii.
THE 'HOUSE OF PERCY 47
a patron. In the verses themselves the Earl was thus
apostrophised : —
" Young Northumberland,
Mounted on Fortune's wheel by Virtue's aim,
Become thy badge, as it becometh thee !
Leaving our schoolmen's vulgar trodden paths,
And following the ancient reverend steps
Of Trismegistus and Pythagoras,
Thro' uncouth ways and inacessible,
Dost pass into the spacious pleasant fields
Of divine Science and Philosophy ! "
Northumberland does not appear to have looked upon this
production as a masterpiece of genius, if we are to judge by
the manner in which he rewarded the author. The Earl's
House Rolls, now preserved in Syon House, contain the
following order : — •" Deliver to Mr. Warnour, at my Lords
appointment, to give to one George Peel, a poett, as my Lord's
liberalise, ^3." It is likely, however, that "my Lord's liber-
alitie" sufficed for at least one merry night at the " Mermaid,"
the " Devil," or any of the taverns where Peele was wont to
spend his scanty gains with Jonson and the rest ; so that
some lines of true poetry may have come out of The Honour
of the Garter after all.
In 1590 the Earl had moved his town residence from
Blackfriars to Russell House, St. Martins-in-the-Fields, "at
a little distance beyond Charing Cross." This mansion he
rented for .£60 per annum. He also possessed a small villa
in the hamlet of Barking, where he frequently entertained
Raleigh, Drake, and other sea-captains whose vessels were
anchored in the river hard by. His great country estates he
now seldom visited, for he found it impossible to transport
hither and thither the books and scientific instruments
among which he loved to spend his time. This neglect
caused discontent, and even more serious troubles, among
his tenantry, particularly at Petworth — which place he loved
least of all his houses, perhaps because it had been for
years practically the prison of his father. With the Sussex
folk he had waged a species of feud which lasted from the
48 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
beginning of 1592 until 1595, or even later. The tenantry
periodically mustered in force, and, under cover of darkness,
pulled down the fences and other enclosures which the
servants of the manorial lord had erected. When Nor-
thumberland's bailiffs retaliated, the malcontents shut off
the water supply of the estate.1 He was somewhat com-
forted for these annoyances when, in consequence of his
petition to that end, the Queen exempted his estate from
liability for the unpaid balance of that fine of ^5000 imposed
upon the eighth Earl by the Star Chamber in I572.2
Perhaps the court favour which he clearly enjoyed led
the Catholic party at this time to bring forward the old
proposal of an alliance between Northumberland and the
Lady Arabella Stuart ; perhaps that dangerous subject was
broached by those jealous of his growing power and
influence. It is certain that rumours of such a marriage
were bruited abroad, and speedily reached the ears of
the Queen and Council. The succession to the throne was
a grave problem to all thinking persons. Elizabeth had
chosen no successor, nor would she in any way allow
the rights of the King of Scots, James VI., to be regarded as
heir. Arabella Stuart stood next to James in order of
inheritance, and was now in her nineteenth year. It ap-
pears that Northumberland was by no means averse to
the advantages to be gained by so illustrious a union,
and his Catholic friends, both at home and on the Continent,
encouraged him to offer his hand to the Lady Arabella, and
even to carry her off, if such violent measures became
necessary.3 The Earl's own descent from the House of
York placed him at least seventh in the order of succession
(only James of Scotland,4 Arabella Stuart,4 Lord Beau-
champ,5 Lord Henry Seymour,5 the Earl of Derby,5 and
1 Northumberland to Sir John Pickering, Lord Keeper, June 29, 1592 ; and
again Nov. 8, 1594 : Harleian MSS., Nos. 6995 and 6996.
* The balance of the fine was remitted in December 1594.
3 Original State Papers (Domestic Series, Eliz. v. 235).
4 Both descended from Margaret, first sister of Henry VIII.
• Descended from Mary, second sister of Henry VIII.
TttE HOUSE OF PERCY 49
the Earl of Huntingdon1 standing between him and the
position of legitimate heir to the throne of England ; but
some of his more ardent supporters went so far as to revive
for his benefit the old tale to the effect that Edmund
" Crouchback," 2 Earl of Lancaster, was the elder, rather
than the younger brother of Edward I. ; which, if it had been
true, would have set aside the rights of both Tudor and
Stuart, and after the Houses of Spain and Portugal (the
members of which could, of course, never succeed), and
the banished and outlawed Earl of Westmoreland, made
Northumberland dejure sovereign of England. The pro-
ject of settling the crown upon the Lady Arabella, and
marrying her to Northumberland, was well received in
England, — so well, indeed, that Elizabeth's jealousy caught
fire, and she decided to put a stop to the affair before it
went any further.
Arabella Stuart was at once imprisoned, or at least
" placed under close restraint," while the Queen hastened
to procure for Northumberland a wife less liable to involve
him in dangerous designs. So eager was the royal match-
maker in this quest that she apparently overlooked the im-
portant matter of suitability altogether, and chose for the
Earl a consort wholly unfitted to fill that position. There is
even a serious doubt whether Lady Dorothy Devereux,
otherwise Perrott (the person thus rashly selected), was free
to enter into the bonds of matrimony ; for, in the words of
a contemporary, she was " nor maid, nor wife, nor yet widowe."
Her first husband, Sir Thomas Perrott, was still living, and
no record exists to show that their union had ever been set
aside. Young as she was, her name had already been made
notorious by the tongue of scandal, and she had been sub-
jected to a public affront by the very sovereign who now
1 Descended from George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV.
a Edmund " Crouchback " was actually born in 1245, six years after Edward I.
The story of his having been set aside on account of deformity was probably an
invention of the Lancastrian Princes, who derived from him through Blanche,
wife of John of Gaunt. His eldest grand-daughter, Mary, married Henry, Lord
Percy, and was mother of the first Earl of Northumberland.
II. D
5o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
wished to make her Countess of Northumberland. She
had no dowry, save that of beauty and birth ; and the
ungovernable temper with which she was cursed made
it extremely improbable that she could live in peace
with Northumberland — himself by no means of a placid
disposition.
But the strange history and equally strange character
of the future Countess deserve a more extended notice.
Dorothy Devereux was born at Chartley in Stafford-
shire, about the year 1565, the second daughter of Walter
Concerning Devereux, first Earl of Essex, by his wife
Dorothy, Lettice Knollys. Believers in heredity may find
Nortkumber- the best excuse for Lady Dorothy's faults and
land. follies in the nature of the stock from which she
sprang. Her father was of mixed Norman and Cymbric
descent, the representative of more than one race long
settled upon the Welsh Marches.1 A brave, though unskil-
ful soldier, he became, when blinded by rage, bloodthirsty
and even treacherous.2 He squandered most of his great
fortune in a futile attempt to reconquer the North of Ireland,
and would probably have utterly ruined himself and his
children in the same cause, but for his early death in I576.3
From him Lady Dorothy (as well as her brother, the second
Earl of Essex) inherited neither prudence nor tranquillity
of temper. Other phases of her character are traceable to
her mother, Lettice Knollys. This remarkable woman is
1 In addition to being the heir of the old house of Devereux of Hereford,
he also represented the families of Bourchier, Earls of Essex, and Ferrers of
Chartley, besides tracing his descent through several strains to the ancient princes
of Wales. He is said to have boasted to Sir Brian O'Neill that he " possessed no
drop of Saxon blood."
2 He was directly responsible for the brutal massacre of the Scoto-Irish of
Rathlin in July 1575 (a deed of blood condemned by so partial a historian as
Fronde), for the massacre of Ards in Down, and for the slaughter of his Irish
guests at the banquet to which he had invited them in Belfast, October 1574.
These, and other cruel and perfidious acts, are said to have been committed in
the heat of passion.
3 He died at Dublin in 1576, it is said by poison administered by Leicester's
agents.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 51
accused of having been engaged in an adulterous intrigue
with the Earl of Leicester during her husband's lifetime.1
She was certainly at Kenilworth with Leicester in I575,2
and she became his wife with almost indecent haste after
the death of Essex. She was subsequently married, for the
third time, to Sir Christopher Blount, and died at the great
age of ninety-four on Christmas Day 1634. It is worthy of
note that her grandmother was Mary Boleyn, stated to have
been one of Henry VIII.'s mistresses,3 and sister of Queen
Anne Boleyn.* Lettice Knollys was thus nearly related to
Elizabeth.
As to Robert, Earl of Essex, brother of the future Lady
Northumberland, his reckless and inflammable tempera-
ment bore no slight resemblance to that of his sister ; and
those familiar with his history will remember the character
given him by Elizabeth when he was wounded in a duel
with Charles Blount — a character which might have been
applied with equal force to Lady Dorothy Devereux. " By
God's death, " swore the Queen, " it were fitting that some one
should take Essex down and teach him better manners, or there
were no rule with him ! " It will be remembered that the
Earl's bitter words on one occasion goaded Elizabeth into
boxing his ears.
Another member of this remarkable family was Lady
Penelope Devereux (elder sister of Lady Dorothy), who
openly defied the received laws of morality in order to
follow the dictates of her heart. In early life she had met
and loved Charles Blount, then a younger son of Lord
Mountjoy. Blount's empty purse, and the comparative
poverty in which the first Essex had left his children, pre-
cluded all hope of a union at that time, and Lady Penelope
was induced to bestow her hand upon Robert, third Lord
1 In Parsons' Leicester's Commonwealth, Leicester is accused of having
procured the poisoning of Essex in order to enjoy undisputed possession of the
latter's wife. The familiar Ballad of Leicester's Ghost makes a similar accusation.
2 Essex was then absent in Ireland.
3 See that king's own statement under the account of Anne Boleyn's trial.
4 Mary Boleyn, by her husband William Carey (or, as some have it, by Henry
VIII.), was mother of Katherine Carey, wife of Sir Francis Knollys.
52 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Kich, afterwards Earl of Warwick. Presently, however,
when Blount succeeded to the barony and estates of
Mountjoy, Lady Rich fled from her husband's house, and
became the mistress of her former lover.1 She had an
illegitimate family of five children by Mountjoy. One of
these was afterwards created first Baron Mountjoy and
Earl of Newport, owing to the fact that he had married a
niece of the favourite, Buckingham. Eventually Lady Rich
was divorced from her husband, and married to Mountjoy,
but she left by the latter no legitimate offspring.2
So much for the immediate relatives of Lady Dorothy
Devereux.3 She herself soon proved as reckless and diffi-
cult of restraint as either her brother or her sister. Leicester
soon grew weary of playing step-father to one so un-
manageable, and banished her to the household of the
Queen's Cofferer, Master Henry Cock.4 Cock sent his
difficult charge to the Manor of Broxbourne in Hertford-
shire, some sixteen miles to the north of London, where
it was hoped she would be sufficiently far removed from the
temptations of town. But even in this secluded country
parish Lady Dorothy contrived to follow her mother's and
her sister's example by becoming the heroine of a romantic
love-affair. In July 1583, when barely eighteen, she eloped
with Sir Thomas Perrott, a man of thirty-two, and was
married to him under very curious circumstances.
Thomas Perrott was son of that stout old soldier, Sir
John Perrott, Lord Deputy of Ireland, who was in his
turn a natural son of Henry VIII.5 Young Perrott had
1 Sinclair, More Percy Anecdotes, Old and Nav.
- Ibid.
3 There was one other reputed child of Walter, first Earl of Essex—Sir
Charles Devereux, killed in a skirmish before Rouen, 1591. He was by some
declared to be a natural son of Leicester by Lady Essex.
4 Henry Cock was Sheriff of Herts in 1575, and received the honour of
knighthood in 1589. The estate of Broxbourne (formerly monastic land) has long
passed out of the Cock family.
8 By "the Fair Thyamis" (as Spenser called her in The Faery Queen}, Mary
lierkeley, wife of Thomas Perrott of Haroldston. Old Sir John Perrott was (like
the eighth Earl of Northumberland) persecuted by Sir Christopher Hatton, whom
he called his "frisking adversary." He died in the Tower, Septeml>er 1592.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 53
served under his father with considerable distinction, and
in 1578 was knighted at Waterford by Lord Justice Drury.
How, or where, he first met Lady Dorothy is unknown ;
but some sort of understanding must have been come
to between them, for in July 1583, when Perrott rode to
Broxbourne with a band of armed friends (veterans like
himself of the Irish wars), the fair ward of Master Cock
awaited the party at the door of the parish church, and
declared her readiness to wed Sir Thomas in defiance of
friends and kindred. A special licence had been obtained
through the office of the Bishop of London ; and efforts
were afterwards made to prove it irregular. It is, never-
theless, duly recorded as follows : —
" Thomas Perott gen. and Dorothy
Devorax spinster of the City
of London, on 17 July,
Strype, Bishop of London, with his chancellor and other
officers, were afterwards brought before the Privy Council
and censured for issuing a licence without full inquiry into
the condition and circumstances of the parties. The evi-
dence regarding the actual marriage ceremony, elicited at
the time, is as follows : —
" The stolen Match of the Lady Dorothy Devereux with
Sir Thomas Parrot. That unequal Mariage} for the solem-
nizing' ivhereof a Licence was obtained out of the Bishop's
Faculty-Office, was mentioned to have been complained of at
Court, and occasioned Blame to the Bishop. The Particulars
of it omitted in the History? were as follow. The Parties
were Sir Thomas Parrot, and the Lady Dorothy Devereux,
Daughter to the Earl of Essex, of right Noble and antient
Blood : which Lady at that Time lived with Sir Henry Cock
Kt, in the Parish of Broxburn in Hertfordshire? Where
getting into the Parish Church, they were married by a
1 London Marriage Licenses, 1521-1869 ; edited by Joseph Foster, from
excerpts by Col. Chester, D.C.L.
s i.e., in the Life of Bishop Aylmcr by Strype, from the supplement of which
work these facts are taken.
3 Cock was not knighted, however, at the time of the stolen marriage.
54 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
strange Minister, whom they procured, two Men guarding
the Church Door with their Swords and Daggers under their
Cloaks, as the rest of the Company had, to the number of five
or six. One Green was then Vicar of the Parish? to whom
that Morning repaired two Persons. One of them told him,
that he was a Minister and a Batchelour of Divinity, and had
been a Preacher of long Time ; and asked him for the Key of
the Church Door, which must be opened to him, for he had a
Commission, whereupon he was to examine certain Men, and
to swear them. And therefore asked him also for the Com-
munion Book. The Vicar told him it was locked up in the
Vestry, and he could not come by it. But instead tliercof he
offered him a Latin Testament. But the other said that
would not serve his Turn. Coming to the Church, he found
it open, and Sir Thomas and the Lady ready to enter in ; who
hindred him by any means from shutting it. But perceiving
that they meant to proceed to a Manage, he persuaded the
strange Minister not to deal herein, wondering how he would
intrude himself into his {the Vicar 's] charge ; and then offered
to him an Injunction against it ; and began to read it unto
them?' . . . But they refused to hear it ; and the strange
Minister (whose name was Lewis) told the Vicar he had suffi-
cient Authority, shewing him a Licence under Seal ; which
tlte Vicar offered to read: but before he had read half of it,
Sir Thomas snatched it away from him, and offered him a
Ryal to marry him. But he refusing, Sir Thomas bad the
other go forward. But the Vicar, when the other began to
read, resisted him, and shut the Book. Whereupon Sir
Thomas thrust him away, and told him he had nothing to do
therewith, and that he should answer it for resisting my Lord
Bishop's Authority. And one Godolphin, one of Sir Thomas's
Party, took him up, and told him lie shewed himself malicious.
Whereupon after once more forbidding him, he held his Peace.
Edmund Lucy Esq., one that lived in Sir Henry Cock's
1 William Greene was vicar of Broxbourne from 1580 to 1583. In consequence
of the scandal arising out of this affair he resigned the living in the latter year.
2 The terms of this Injunction, forbidding clergymen to solemnise marriages
save in their own parishes, and when fully satisfied as to the legality of the
ceremony, is here quoted at length.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 55
Family J together ^vith the Lady Dorothy, coming in, plucked
away the Book front the Minister. Who told him he should
answer it, and was in danger of a Premunire for resisting
the Bishop's Authority; and so he went forward with his
Office without the Surplice, in his Cloak with his riding Boots
and Spurs ; and dispatched it hastily.
" This soon came to the Court: and She being a Daughter
of one of the antient Noblesse (tho1 she her self was in the
Plot), gave great Offence ; and Sir Henry Cock being a Justice
of Peace was commanded to take the Examination of the
Matter, and send it up. And in fine the Bishop of London
underwent much blame for his Faculties"*
The Parish Registers of Broxbourne at present date
only from 1688 ;8 so that there is no means of knowing
whether or not the marriage of Sir Thomas Perrott and
Lady Dorothy was duly entered. As for Bishop Aylmer,
he was called to account for " too hastily and negligently
granting Licenses for marriage, without due Examination
concerning the consent of the Parents, Guardians and Friends
of the Parties to be married. The Occasion whereof was that
in July 1583, some Noble Person's Son or Daughter was
matched unequally and unhappily by means of one of these
Licenses. Whereupon the . . . Officer, named Mr. Black'Mel,
was sent for by a Warrant from the Lord Treasurer, to
appear before the Council, to examine him about granting this
License. But both he and Dr' Stanhop, the Bishop's Chan-
cellor, protested they neither knew nor heard of the Fault till
the Lord Treasurer's Warrant came. Whose Charge they
confest it was, if tliey had been present to have lookt unto it.
The Bishop himself was also sent for to the Council, where he
was twitted for his Licenses ; tho' if there were any Fault
committed in this Particular, the Blame lay in his Officers,
not in him."*
1 Afterwards Sir Edmund Lucy, Kt. He married Frances, elder daughter
and co-heir of Sir Henry Cock of Broxbourne.
2 Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer (Supplement), p. 327.
3 Cussan's Hertfordshire. A former clerk of the parish coolly appropriated
the more ancient volumes, and cut the pages up " into slips for measures " !
4 Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer, p. 197.
56 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
In spite of opposition from the Council and examina-
tions by Justices of the Peace, Sir Thomas Perrott carried
off his newly made bride in triumph — the eight gentlemen
" with their Swords and Daggers under their Cloaks " pro-
bably proving sufficient to prevent any interference on the
part of the people of Broxbourne. There is no record of the
marriage having been pronounced null and void ; indeed
we may assume that such was not the case, from the fact
that long subsequently (in 1603) Lady Northumberland
was granted portion of the money settled upon her by
" her former husband, Sir Thomas Perrott." J They lived
together in London and elsewhere for about four years,2
during which time two children were born to them. A
separation then took place, but no evidence can be dis-
covered of any divorce. Perhaps they looked upon their
union as irregular and invalid, and therefore believed no
divorce necessary. "The usual statement," says Sinclair,3
"is that after Sir Thomas's death, she (Lady Perrott) married
her second husband (the Earl of Northumberland).4 But
that is glaringly incorrect, as she must have been married
to the Earl about 1594, and Sir Thomas lived until 1611."
The entire circumstances surrounding Lady Dorothy's
separation from Perrott, and second marriage, are mysteri-
ous. In 1591 Sir Thomas succeeded Sir George Carew as
Master of the Ordnance; and in 1592 he made a will
settling considerable sums upon his wife and his "two
littdl children by her" then living. His father's persecution
at the hands of Hatton had, however, led to the loss of the
family estates,5 and the younger Perrott went to mend his
fortunes by serving in the Netherlands. In process of
1 Domestic State Papers, fames I.
2 She had left him in July 1587, when, as will be seen, the Queen publicly in-
sulted her at North Hall.
3 Mart Percy Aneaio/es, Old and New.
• This statement is, in fact, accepted as true by most historians of the Peerage.
Eurke describes Lady Dorothy as " widow of Sir Thomas Perrott."
6 Old Sir John Perrott died in the Tower, September 1592. Evidence of the
manner in which Sir Christopher Hatton influenced the Queen against him may
be found in the Calendar of State Paptrs, Elizabeth (Addenda).
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 57
time, some portion of the forfeited lands were restored to
him. The exact date and place of his death are unknown,
but Sinclair's statement to the effect that he lived into the
reign of James I. is probably correct. He certainly sur-
vived his wife's second marriage to Northumberland. Of
one of his two children by her there is no account. The
second, Penelope Perrott, described as his "sole heir,"
married firstly Sir William Gower, Kt., and secondly Sir
Robert Naunton, Kt.1
Whether Lady Perrott's violent temper led to a separa-
tion, or whether (as before suggested) they had come to
look upon their marriage as not binding, Sir Thomas and
his wife parted by mutual consent about the beginning of
1587. The star of the young Earl of Essex was now
rapidly eclipsing that of Raleigh at Court, and the Queen
found herself unable to remain long apart from her latest
minion. Lady Dorothy, between whom and her brother
there existed a tender attachment, went to join the latter at
North Hall, the seat of Lord Warwick. In July 1587
Elizabeth visited North Hall, and hearing of Lady
Dorothy's presence there, expressed her displeasure in no
measured terms, positively refusing to receive her. It is
amusing to find a sovereign of Elizabeth's reputation
playing the prude under such circumstances, and affecting
to be shocked at the proximity of one whose worst faults
were a clandestine marriage and a separation from her
husband. Essex was supremely disgusted at the royal
attitude, and remonstrated with Elizabeth for insulting his
sister, and, through her, the honour of his house. This he
declared had been done to please " that knave Raleigh"
Bitter recriminations followed. Eventually, about mid-
night, Essex left North Hall in company with his sister, and
took the road to Theobalds, the home of Burghley. Next
day he hurried to Sandwich with the intention of sailing
for Holland, and would probably have carried his design
into effect, had not Elizabeth despatched Sir Robert Carey
1 Craik, Romance of tht Peerage. See also Herald and Genealogist, vol.
viii. pp. 314-24.
58 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
in hot haste to bring him back. A reconciliation was
effected, and, rather than lose her favourite, Elizabeth
consented to extend some slight favour to his sister, Lady
Dorothy.
With the attainder and death in the Tower of Sir John
Perrott, the fortune settled by his son and heir upon
Lady Dorothy Devereux was held by the lawyers to have
become confiscate to the Crown. Being without means,
however, Lady Dorothy sued for this money, and the Queen
(anxious to see her married to the Earl of Northumber-
land) was now willing to forego the Crown claims in her
favour. Burghley and Attorney-General Coke, however,
advanced other reasons for withholding the lady's settle-
ments. The alleged irregularity of her marriage was
probably one of the points upon which Burghley and
Attorney-General Coke (her chief opponents) took their
stand. Long and costly litigation was the result, which was
only stopped by Northumberland (who had in the mean-
time married Lady Dorothy) refusing to loosen his purse-
strings any further for the prosecution of an apparently
fruitless case. Lady Northumberland then had recourse
to petitions, varied by personal abuse of Burghley, Coke,
and even of her husband. In the end the Queen, utterly
wearied by her importunities, granted her a pension of ^400
per annum, to take the place of the Perrott settlements,
and enable her to bring up her daughter by Sir Thomas.1
Northumberland's honeymoon was disturbed by news
of trouble upon his Border estates. In December 1595
North Lord Eure, Warden of the Middle Marches, re-
Country ported that a few days previously a large hosting
and religious of " Burnes, Youngs and Mowes, with xxvij. horsses"
difficulties. came to Rugieyj2 one of the Earl's "towns,"
and raided the neighbourhood. Eure complained that Sir
John Forster and others of the Puritan leaders could have
1 fat. and Close Rolls, Elizabeth. This pension was afterwards revoked when,
in 1603, Lady Northumberland renewed her suit with success.
2 A small village about two miles south of Alnwick, under Aydon Forest.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 59
prevented this and similar raids, but did not choose to do
so. Although the "common bell" was rung in Alnwick,
and Sir John Forster was present in the town with a large
force, no attempt had been made to help the Earl's tenants,
or to pursue the freebooters. Sir John Forster was the
former lessee and receiver of the forfeited Percy estates
under the Crown ; which fact may help to explain his con-
duct on this occasion. He it was also who had acted as
the seventh Earl's gaoler and custodian during that noble-
man's last sad journey to York. Lord Eure's suspicion that
Forster did not desire to protect Northumberland's tenants
is borne out by the information that, within a week after the
first raid, the Youngs boldly returned to the Alnwick
district with twenty-five horses, and spoiled several villages,
sparing only the property of one Salkeld, a kinsman and
follower of Sir John. On this occasion, as before, there
was no pursuit of the daring marauders ; and Eure openly
accuses Forster of conniving at both raids.1
It is certain that the Puritan knight, although in com-
mand of considerable forces, remained inert at Alnwick,
while hamlets and farmsteads for miles around were
plundered and burnt. The entire county of Northumber-
land lay at the mercy of these ravaging outlaws ; the
peasantry were houseless and almost starving. Nor did the
condition of Cumberland and the Western Marches present
a less gloomy picture. Elizabeth and Burghley had up-
rooted the old Catholic aristocracy from the soil, and placed
the government of these regions in the hands of men like
Forster, little respected by the people, and prevented by
mutual suspicions and petty jealousy from keeping the peace
of the Border-side. Lord Eure, alone of the Wardens, seems
to have been actuated by any public spirit ; but even he
admitted that while Forster and his fellows were allowed to
rule as they listed, nothing could be done to suppress rapine
and alleviate the sufferings of the people. This was at last
realised by the Queen's ministers ; and they looked about
for a warden general — some man whose dignity of birth and
1 Alnwick MSS.
60 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
natural capacities might entitle him to govern not only the
Marches, but the March Wardens, Constables, and Captains
as well. The first choice fell upon Northumberland, and
to him this signal honour was offered. It is perhaps to be
regretted, not only for the sake of the North Country, but
for his own fame, that he did not accept. But in truth he
loved too well his Court friends and courtly interests, his
laboratory and his books, to leave them thus for the rough,
perhaps thankless, service of the Border. Courage he had
in plenty, as we shall see ; it was personal prudence that
deterred him. But midnight raids and noonday hangings ;
life in the saddle or in rude march-peels ; conversation with
men whose only science was the tracking of deer or outlaw,
whose only literature was drawn from the ballads of some
strolling harper — these things were not for the splendid
Earl of Northumberland. Only yesterday he returned from
buckling the Garter around the knee of King Henry of
France of Navarre ; l to-day he had an audience with her
Majesty, and a merry Parisian tale for her private ear.
Thence to the Globe, to hear Master Shakespeare's latest
play ; after which supper at one of the great houses in the
Strand, with Raleigh's wild stories of adventure overseas,
and a budget of half-treasonable gossip from Edinburgh or
Antwerp to flavour the viands and add a zest to the wine !
And when supper was done, perhaps a mysterious flitting by
barge up the river to Mortlake, where Dr. John Dee 2 waited
with furnace and crucible, " to conjure up the Devil " (so
say the country folk) " for the Wizard Earl and his gay com-
panions ! " Such were the occupations to which Northum-
berland was devoted " in times of peace " (for, be it
remembered, he did not consider the raidings and march-
treasons of the Border in the light of war) ; and so he prayed
1 Northumberland was sent by Elizabeth to carry the insignia of the Garter to
Henry IV. in 1596 ; and had just returned from this mission when he was selected
as Queen's Lieutenant on the Border.
* The English Nostradamus, who at this time resided chiefly at Mortlake.
Northumberland and he were associated in many astrological and other experi-
ments [Syon House MSS.]. Dee had been prosecuted for wizard-craft under
Mary, and was still regarded by many as in league with Satan.
TT I_J /"V T T O IT /"\I? D 17
c
AUTOGRAPH OK HENRY, NINT
r T^ TT/^TTOTT* f\_T? D T? t? /"* V
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 61
the Queen to hold him excused of serving her in this
manner. " The Borders are ill governed, and the Wardens
threatened to be removed" writes Sir Robert Cecil to Lord
Shrewsbury, "because their Equality breeds Emulation and
Contention : it was offered to the Earl of Northumberland to be
Warden of the My ddle March and Lieutenant for the time . . .
of the three shires ; * . . . but my Lord this conceipt hath spent,
and we that love him, whom he hath ser-importuned to keepe him
from it, have now delivered him from the Impositions with
which he is very well contented ; and joys, I perceive, rather in
his pryvate lyfe, than to be placed from it some where he doubts
his Purse will be picked." The Earl's refusal caused grave
disappointment among the ancient Catholic houses in the
North that had survived the religious troubles and perse-
cutions. These people had hoped for an era of peace and
toleration under his rule ; instead of which they were con-
demned to a longer term of suffering, harried on the one
side by religious exactions, and on the other by the unre-
strained attacks of godless moss-riders.
Northumberland's creed had long been an object of
suspicion to the advanced Protestants. He was known to
have expressed disapproval of the bloody excesses com-
mitted by the elder Essex in Ireland under the banner of
the Reformed Faith ; and his objection to command in the
Border counties was explained by the zealots as due to a
fear that he should be called upon to enforce the laws
against Romanism. Protestant feeling against him grew
still more bitter when it was discovered that he had refused
to accept the mission to Henry IV. on behalf of the French
Huguenots, although it was pressed upon him by the
Queen. All the old stories of his relations with Charles
Paget and the exiled Catholics were revived ; and he was
accused of being a " secret Papist, and no friend to
the Queen's Supremacy." So far as can be ascertained,
Northumberland continued thoroughly loyal to the Estab-
lished Faith. His position was practically that of the
1 Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham.
62 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Anglican Catholics of to-day ; and while recognising
Elizabeth as the head of the Church, he had little or no
sympathy with the tenets of the Puritans.
It is impossible to say how far the Protestant outcry
against him might have proceeded, had not the rumour of
a second Armada given his enemies something else to think
about. As on the previous occasion, Northumberland
showed both his country and his niggardly Queen an admir-
able example in this threatened emergency. Entirely at
his own expense, and assisted only by one of his brothers
and two other friends, he raised a regiment of horse and
fitted out two ships for defensive service. His reward was
the rank of general of cavalry, bestowed upon him in
August 1599.
Meanwhile the young Countess of Northumberland,
thwarted on every side in her attempts to gain possession
of the property settled upon her by Sir Thomas
Domestic * •
strife and Perrott, had given full rein to her violent temper
— furiously assailing all those whom she believed
rightly or wrongly to have stood in her way. What
possible reason the husband could have had for taking
sides against his wife in this cause, it is hard to dis-
cover ; but Countess Dorothy chose to look upon him
as an enemy almost from the beginning of their married
life, and he it was who had to bear the brunt of her
reproaches when Coke or Burghley prevailed against the
pleading of her advocates. She wrote in abuse of
Northumberland to the Queen ; she complained of his
conduct wildly, incoherently, to the suave and mock-
sympathetic Francis Bacon.1 Now the Earl himself, far
from being a patient man, was most easily roused to
anger ; and it is not to be supposed that he listened in
silence to the unfair denunciations of his consort, or
allowed her to calumniate him at Court without stormy
protest. In fact, the existence of this unhappy couple soon
1 Kirch, Queen Elizabeth.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 63
became one of turbulence and animosity — a long series of
frenzied quarrels, each one more bitter and more pro-
tracted than the last. Some idea of the wretched state of
affairs which prevailed between them may be gleaned from
the fact that the Earl and Countess were formally separated
no less than four times during the first five years of their
wedded life !
As if any new cause of discord between them were
wanting, it was supplied by the intrigues of the young Earl
of Essex, Lady Northumberland's brother. Brother and
sister loved each other with all the ardour of their wild
headstrong natures ; 1 and the Countess entered eagerly into
the network of plots and counter-plots by which the
sanguine Essex imagined he was playing the game of nations
against trained hands like Robert Cecil.2 Not only did
Northumberland look upon his brother-in-law as " of slender
qualities, a mere royal minion," but he had at the same time
a great regard for Sir Walter Raleigh, between whom and
his rival favourite Essex there existed a cordia-1 hatred.
When, therefore, Essex championed the claims of the
Scottish king as heir to the throne, Northumberland found
himself, naturally enough, in the opposite camp amongst
those who refused to pledge their fealty to a foreigner of
whose opinions they knew so little. Naturally, too, Lady
Northumberland was all for the Stuart ; and when her
husband taunted her with the stories then current reflecting
upon the birth and character of James, she replied in terms
which deserve reproduction if only to exemplify the bitterness
of their disputes. The closing part of the dialogue was thus
reported by Lord Henry Howard (who had the particulars
from my lady herself, and therefore told her side of the
story) : —
He (Northumberland} told his wife that he had ratlier the
King of Scots were buried than croivned, and that both he and
1 The courageous manner in which Essex had flouted the Queen herself, as a
protest against his sister's treatment at North Hall, may be recalled.
2 Essex House was said to rival the State Office in the number and extent of
its sources of information.
64 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
all his friends would end their lives before her brother's 'great
' God' should reign in this element.
" The lady told him again that, rather than any other than
King James should reign in this place, she would eat their hearts
in salt, though she were drought to the gallows instantly ! " J
The strifes and separations of the pair soon became
matter of common gossip, although at first the scandal was
successfully concealed by the joint efforts of Northumber-
land and Essex. But when Essex left England on his ill-
starred Irish expedition in 1599, Lady Northumberland's
last restraint was removed, and thenceforward her frequent
separations from the Earl were the talk of London. " Yester-
night," wrote Roland White to Sir Robert Sidney on October
1 6 in that year, "somewhat late, the Countess of Northum-
berland came to Essex House. A muttering there is that there is
unkindness grown between her and the Earl, her husband, upon
which they are parted." 2 We have seen how they quarrelled
in 1601, and observed that the lady's promise to devour the
hearts of her husband and his friends, should James VI. fail
to win the throne, was duly reported to that doubtlessly
gratified monarch. The incident occasioned a separation
of six weeks.3 Again, on January 5, 1602, the Earl's
secretary, Dudley Carleton, informs his correspondent,
Chamberlain, that " my Lord Northumberland is reconciled with
his lady, for which he was a 'while in disgrace in higher place."*
This reconciliation was probably brought about by the ap-
proaching birth of an infant — afterwards Algernon, tenth
Earl. The factious couple had already suffered the loss of
four children— two sons and two daughters ; and there
was a mutual desire that an heir to the honours of Nor-
thumberland should come into the world at a time when
his parents were at peace with each other. Syon House,5
1 Secret Correspondence with King James I, : Lord Henry Howard to Bruce.
Dec. 4, 1601.
2 Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 133.
3 Howard's Letters.
4 State Papers.
5 Some account of Syon, still one of the seats of the Percy family, will be
found on pages 93-6.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 65
a Crown property, was leased, and to these quiet surround-
ings, far from the noise of factions, Northumberland con-
veyed his wife, with many protestations of future tenderness.
There too he remained even after the baby, the hoped-
for boy, had seen the light. The Court gossips missed
their usual pabulum, and those " in higher place " began to
wonder if these mates, so often estranged, were at last in
truth united. When lo ! one morning came the bruit that
the old feud had broken forth afresh. To Chamberlain
wrote Dudley Carleton in November : — " / heard tJie Earl
of Northumberland lives again apart from his lady, now she
hath brought him an heir, -which he said was the solder of tlieir
reconcilement. She lives at Sion with the child, being otherwise
of a very melancholy spirit"1
Much of Lady Northumberland's "melancholy spirit"
may have been due to her own and her husband's inability
The Essex to keep the good resolutions which they had
Revolt, and made before the birth of little Lord Percy ; but
lands"™ " who can doubt that the Countess also mourned
brothers. deeply over the fate of her beloved brother, the
rash, the brilliant Essex ? His failure in Ireland ; his
return in disgrace to London ; his attempt at insurrection —
that foolhardy attempt by which the lives and liberties of so
many brave and faithful gentlemen were jeopardised ; and
finally his pitiful death at the age of thirty-four upon Tower
Hill2 — these are matters of national history. Now to the
lonely, disappointed woman at Syon they came as the first,
perhaps as the only great sorrow of her life. She was not
of a sympathetic nature, this Countess of Northumberland.
Her father she scarcely remembered ; to her mother she
was indifferent ; while there were periods, and frequent
periods, during which she looked upon her husband with
abhorrence. But Robert, Earl of Essex, had ever been her
hero and her hope, so that with his downfall and death
the being she held dearest in the world passed away.
1 Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, November 1602, Harleian MSS., 5353.
2 F'ebruary 1601.
II. E
66 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Her husband, too, albeit he recked little of his brother-in-
law's doom, had stern reason to remember that mad, boyish
folly for which Essex paid with his life. Although the two
Earls had never been friends, the chance of war had led
Northumberland's brothers, Sir Charles and Sir Richard
Percy, to fight under Essex in Ireland. These young
soldiers were, indeed, veterans of the Irish wars when the
handsome favourite came thither with mighty dreams of
conquest and pacification. At the disastrous battle of the
Blackwater, when the army of the Lord Marshal, Bagenal,
was crushingly defeated by Red Hugh O'Neil,1 and when
the Marshal himself perished with 1500 men, Colonel
Charles Percy led the rear-guard in the retreat, and by
personal bravery and skilful manoeuvring succeeded in
saving the English host from annihilation. A year later he
joined Essex and won his knighthood by leading the assault
upon Cahir Castle, and during the action at Dundalk he
fought like a worthy son of him who had once been the
bravest and most resourceful captain on the Scottish
Border.2 As for the other brother, Sir Richard Percy, he
was in command at Kinsale when Acquila and his Spaniards
invaded Munster. With a force of 150 men he defended
the fortress obstinately, and in the end retreated with little
or no loss. Later, under Mountjoy, it fell to his share to
recapture Kinsale.
Sir Charles Percy accompanied Essex to London, and
made one of the small army of officers from the Irish army
that practically garrisoned Essex House. The courage and
many other fine qualities of the disgraced Earl had won
Percy's heart, and it was not long before he succeeded in
winning over yet another brother, Sir Josceline Percy, to
a like enthusiasm. The result was that when Essex strove
to raise London against the Queen, these foolish young men
were among the first to draw their swords in the desperate
venture. Arrested and thrown into the Tower, they must
1 See Carav AfSS., &c.
* This was the reputation once borne by Sir Thomas Percy, afterwards the
eighth Karl.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 67
have gone to the scaffold like their leader, were it not for
Northumberland's influence as one of the chiefs of the fac-
tion opposed to that of Essex. The Earl worked zealously
in their favour, as did Raleigh, Grey, and Cobham ; and,
after a brief interval of confinement, they were pardoned
on payment of ^Soo.1
If the Earl's domestic relations were constantly strained
and unhappy, so too (for that very reason perhaps) were
Ouarreiswith manv °^ his dealings with the outer world during
Southampton the trying period just described. Naturally quick-
ana vere. tempered and impetuous, " after the manner of his
race,"3 the shrewish tongue of Lady Northumberland
had not tended to make him less irascible ; and, while
his pride kept him silent upon family matters, these bitter
quarrels permanently soured his disposition and ren-
dered him unreasonably susceptible to affront. Of his
many lesser disputes, most of them settled at the sword's
point, it will not be necessary to speak here, further than
to say that Northumberland came out of these affrays with
the reputation of a brave and honourable man, but an in-
different hand at the rapier.3 Two important affairs of the
kind must, however, be described, although neither ended
(so far as is known) in the duello,
The first of these took place between Northumberland
and the Earl of Southampton. Henry Wriothesley, third
Earl of Southampton, the friend and patron of Shakespeare,
was one of those young nobles who followed most assiduously
1 Fadera, torn. xvi.
* Ever since the days of William Ah-gernons a fiery temper had been one of
the chief attributes of the House of Percy. The first Earl of Northumberland
(according to Walsingham) answered John of Gaunt "with, furious words, after
the manner of his race." The similar character of Hotspur has become famous ;and
we have seen how the seventh Earl vented his rage upon Lowther at Carlisle, and
how the ninth Earl assailed his future stepfather, Master Francis Fitton. The
hereditary temper may also be traced in the Earl's cousin, Thomas Percy of
"Gunpowder Plot" notoriety, and in other offshoots of the family.
3 His studies seem to have seriously affected his eyesight, which fact would have
naturally counted against him in fencing. Nevertheless he was ever ready for a
fight.
68 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the fortunes of Essex. He was indeed a near relative of
the favourite, who had placed him in command of the
cavalry during the disastrous attempt to reconquer Ireland.
Presuming upon his kinship, Southampton sided somewhat
too openly with the Countess of Northumberland as against
her husband ; and even allowed himself — so said the gossips
— "to speak disparagingly of the Earl." These things
coming to Northumberland's ears, he sent one of his friends
" in hot haste " to demand an explanation. But Southamp-
ton would vouchsafe neither explanation nor apology, and
a hostile meeting was accordingly agreed upon. The Queen,
however, heard rumours of what had taken place, and, on
the very morning chosen for the duel, both principals were
arrested by her orders, and haled before the Council. Here
Southampton at length condescended to explain that his
remarks had been grossly exaggerated, and some sort of
reconciliation was patched up between the belligerent Earls.
To prevent a renewal of the trouble, they were placed under
heavy bonds to keep the peace. Northumberland, when
his rage had cooled down, came to look upon the wrangle
as due to scandal and mischief-making and he told Sir
Francis Bacon that the Queen's pacific settlement was " the
end of an idle tale." l
This matter happily concluded, it was not long before the
Earl's over-sensitive nature betrayed him once more into
strife. The object of his enmity on this occasion was Sir
Francis Vere, commander of the British auxiliary forces in
the 'Netherlands, and one of the most renowned captains
of his time. In June 1600, Northumberland, accompanied
by the Earl of Rutland and Lords Monteagle and Grey,
crossed over to Flanders to join in the fighting about Ostend.
Before the latter town they were joined by their boon com-
panions Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh, with whom
they had made tryst, and all six found their way into
Ostend before the siege. They brought with them con-
siderable retinues, and were as splendidly attired as though
they had been bound for the Queen's Court rather than for
1 Letters t>f Lord Bacon.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 69
the stern business of battle. Such, in fact, were the " pomp
and circumstance " attendant upon their arrival in Flanders
that the days of the " Field of the Cloth of Gold " were re-
called ; and it was whispered that they had been sent by
Elizabeth, not to fight under Vere, but rather as envoys
plenipotentiary to the Catholics.1
To the rough old soldier, Sir Francis Vere, so much
needless display was particularly distasteful ; and when he
learned from Cecil that the brilliant newcomers were not
royal envoys,2 but simple volunteers, he did not hesitate to let
them know his opinion of their fine trappings. Truth to
tell, Sir Francis was a disciplinarian of the sternest kind,
and did not mince matters when giving orders to his
subordinates. The lieutenants serving under him at Ostend
— his brother, Horace Vere, the two Sidneys, and Sir John
Norris3 — were forbidden to wear "ante but plaine stuffs and
serviceable harness;" and being all men of small fortune,
they were the more easily governed in this direction. But
with my Lord of Northumberland and the other Court
gallants it was quite a different matter ; and Vere began to
fear lest their fine raiment and haughty manners might
threaten his authority. Accordingly he felt himself con-
strained to be more than usually severe towards them and
they were given to understand that the gold so lavishly
expended upon their backs might have been used to far
greater advantage in furnishing sorely needed recruits for
the service. The noble " adventurers " were vastly offended
by this blunt treatment, and their feelings found vent in
complaining letters to their friends at home. But Vere was
not the man to allow home influence to interfere with his
plans of campaign, and to all remonstrances from England
he turned a deaf ear. Such differences between rugged
generals and the young patricians temporarily under their
1 Winwood, Memorials of Affairs of State, vol. i.
2 Cecil went to extraordinary trouble to deny that Northumberland and his
companions had been entrusted with a mission to the Catholics.
• ' Afterwards President of Munster, and grandson of the Henry Norris executed
as one of the alleged paramours of Anne Boleyn.
7o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
command have been common enough from Roman times
to our own ; and Sir Francis was undoubtedly right from a
military standpointwhen he insisted upon absolute obedience
from his subordinates. He seems, however, to have shown
little tact in dealing with these spoilt children of fortune.
Northumberland, Rutland, and the others, finding them-
selves ungraciously received and their plans for active
service rejected, grew more and more discontented with
Vere's conduct of the war, and talked of leaving Flanders.
" The likelihood of these cold wars" wrote Sir Robert Cecil
in August 1600, " make the Earls of Northumberland, Rutland,
and Grey to repent their journey, being half in mind to go into
France, where there is some appearance of a war, whereby
Spain may be lapped into the quarrel" 1 It would have been
better for both sides if our volunteers had really gone to
France at this juncture ; but various obstacles — the encir-
cling Spanish army and the disapproval of Vere among the
rest — combined to detain them in Ostend, until the out-
break of the famous siege of that place.* Relations grew
daily more and more unpleasant meanwhile between the
leader of the British troops and the young men whom he
had set himself to humble. Lord Grey angrily complained
both to the States General and to the English Council that
he was forced to obey the whims and submit to the sneers
of a man greatly his inferior in rank. Northumberland,
Rutland, Monteagle and Cobham wrote in similar strains ;
and even Raleigh, himself a veteran captain, found fault
with Vere's arrogant methods. It is possible that those in
authority remonstrated with Sir Francis ; but if so, the
interference only rendered him more brusque than ever.
When Northumberland (who was by way of being a student
of military science) referred some question of strategy to
his chief, the latter returned a surly and even contemptuous
answer.3 This was enough to fire the Percy blood, and a
1 Cecil to Sir George Carew ; Carcw MSS.
2 Ostend was besieged by the Spaniards from 1601 until 1604, when it finally
surrendered. The losses on both sides were enormous.
'J Chamberlain's Letters, p. 126.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 71
violent quarrel immediately resulted. It was even reported
in England that "at a banquet in the Low Countries, the
Erie of Northumberland had stroken him (Sir Francis Vere)"
before the assembled Dutch and English officers ; x but it
seems hard to believe that so flagrant an attack upon the
person of the Commander should have been allowed to go
unpunished or unavenged.
Whether the Earl, goaded to fury by Vere's churlish
reply, actually struck the latter or not, it is certain that by
the end of January 1601 affairs reached a climax between
the two English factions at Ostend. Sir Francis Vere
would not resign his command : Northumberland and his
friends therefore left the beleaguered city, and returned in
high dudgeon to England. It is to their credit that they
made no attempts to undermine Vere's reputation at Court ;
but they treasured up feelings of the bitterest resentment
against him, and vowed to seek satisfaction at the first avail-
able opportunity.
Northumberland found that the expenses of the campaign
had proved a heavy drain upon his purse, and that a period
Sir Francis °^ re^renchment was necessary before he could
Vere6ghts again hope to serve abroad with the splendour
but in war. wjjich he believed to be necessary to his station.
The eight months which he had spent in the Low Countries
cost him .£5140, 1 8s. ofd., exclusive of gaming losses and
some other unrecorded expenditures.2 It was at this
time that he engaged as his private secretary a young man
of good family, Dudley Carleton3by name. Carleton was
introduced to the Earl by Sir Calisthenes Brooke, and
entered upon his secretarial duties in July 1601. He
became a close friend of Northumberland's fifth brother,
Alan Percy ; and from the letters written by him to another
friend, John Chamberlain, we glean many interesting particu-
1 Chamberlain, p. 1 12.
2 Alnwick MSS.
3 From these modest beginnings Carleton rose to high political distinction,
and became the first Viscount Dorchester.
72 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
lars regarding the Earl at this period. At the end of 1601,
for instance, Carleton wrote to Chamberlain : — " Lord Nor-
thumberland uses me with much favor. He is gone to Syon
House, and means to live privately to recover his last year's ex-
fences in the Low Countries, and to provide for another journey
the next."1
Early in 1602, Sir Francis Vere temporarily relinquished
the command in Flanders to his brother, Sir Horace, and
paid a visit to England. So far from following the example
of Northumberland and his associates in keeping silence at
Court, Vere spoke freely of the trouble which had occurred
at Ostend, and apparently sought to justify himself in high
places by disparaging remarks levelled at the Earl and Lord
Grey. The exact nature of these strictures cannot now be
determined ; but they were sufficiently caustic to rekindle
all Northumberland's former animosity, and to draw the
latter into a course of action at once ill-timed and ill-advised.
Calm reflection must have shown him that the person of a
general commanding the forces in war-time should be held
sacred by his countrymen, and that the supposed wrongs
of himself and his friends should remain unavenged until
such time as Vere returned to civil life. But we know that
the Earl, when under the influence of strong emotions, was
not given to logical reasoning ; and moreover, he found
himself surrounded by men whose counsels had anything
but a peaceful tendency. These rash advisers argued that
Sir Francis Vere, being absent even temporarily from his
post, was at liberty to give satisfaction to those whom he
had offended ; and that, furthermore, his action in publicly
discussing the Ostend affair at such a time had placed him
beyond the pale of forbearance.
Accordingly, on April 24, 1602, Northumberland sent
from Syon House the following challenge : —
" To the Valourous and Worthy Capt. S" Francis Vere, L.
Governor of the Brill, and Commander of ye English Forces
under the States :
" Sir; I told you at Ostend y! then was no tyme to expostulate
1 Slate Papers. 2 Chamberlain's Letters.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 73
matters ; now I hold it proper to call you to accomptfor those
wronges I have heard you have done me. You love to take ye
air, and ride abroad. Appoint, therefore, a place betyme to your
owne likynge y1 1 may meet you : Bringe you a friend w"1 you
I will be accompaneyd w'h another, y1 shall be wittnes to ye
t 'hinges I will lay to your charge.
" If you satisfye me, we will be good Friendes ; if not, we
will doe as God sttall put into our myndes. I will eschew all
bitter wordes, as unfitt for men of our occupation. Seeke not by
frivolous shiftes to divert this course of satisfaction ; for all
other means than this y' I have proscribed, I shall take as an
affirmation ofy1 1 have heard, which will cause me to proceed in
righting myselfe, as the wronges require.
" Make no replyes by letters, but sende me your minde by
this Bearer directly, whether you will or will not ; for
from me you shall have no more. Give no cause of noyse in
the World, to hinder this course, lest you baffle your own
reputacon.
" Whatsoever else I shall doe in this just cause of offence,
fewer wordes I could not have used to have exprest my
mynde." l
This message was delivered at Vere's lodgings in Alders-
gate Street by Captain Whitelock. Sir Francis positively
refused to send any reply " by bearer," as the Earl had re-
quested. On such a serious subject, he declared that "he
could no suddenly gyve answere." Next morning, however,
he despatched his friend, Captain Ogle, to Syon with a long
letter, in which he again pointed out that a meeting such
as that proposed should not be undertaken without due
weighing of consequences. He also asked for an oppor-
tunity to explain his position, in the presence of several
witnesses ; and expressed the belief that he could readily
clear himself of the charge of having given the first offence.
Evidently he recognised the full significance of Northum-
berland's epistle, for he alludes openly to the prospect of
a duel : —
"7 despise private comba tinge, especially att this Tyme, that
1 Harlfian AfSS., No. 787.
74 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
/ am ingaged in soe greate and important an action, as your
Lordshipp knoweth."
In conclusion he refuses to believe that the Earl, or any
other adversary, would dare to inflict personal chastisement
upon him while in London, even should he refuse to meet
them in the field of honour. He was the Queen's lieutenant,
and that he deemed sufficient protection ; nor would he
seek to augment his ordinary bodyguard when he went to
take the air, being (to quote his own words), "confident
that your Lordshipp will attempte nothinge unfitting yourself
upon me, that alwayes lived in good reputation, and am de-
scended from a grandfather of your owne ranke." 1
Northumberland refused to receive this missive from
Captain Ogle, and demanded a verbal reply. Ogle, how-
ever, read the contents aloud in the Earl's hearing, and the
latter consented to allow Vere time for further deliberation
before insisting on what he termed " the soldier's answer —
yea or nay," Eventually Sir Francis sent word that he was
prepared to meet his challenger ; but his intentions were
still to avoid a duel if possible, and he chose as his witness
Sir Edward Stafford, a civilian, in preference to the many
military men by whom he was surrounded. Northumber-
land suspected that a peaceful termination to the affair was
aimed at, and objected to Stafford as too nicely diplomatic
for the disputes of men whose profession was the sword.
The Earl's keen desire to figure as a veteran of the wars
may be noted here, as well as in his former letter. It was
a foible at which even his friends must have covertly smiled.
For the soldier, he declared, there was no second like a
soldier. " Statesmen " and mere courtiers were too prone
to "acquaint the Queene and Councill, if they sawe any
differences betwixte them both " (i.e. Vere and himself) " that
might breed further contention, and bringe them under the
power of her Majesty's commandmentes, by their information,
or . . . . hinder them from goinge together into the Field, if
either partye should have just cause soe to doe." Upon these
1 Sir Francis Vere to the Earl of Northumberland ; from Aldersgate Street,
April 25, 1602. Vere was grandson of John de Vere, l6th Earl of Oxford,
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 75
grounds he urged Vere to choose, in place of Stafford, some
military man over whom he had absolute authority.
But Vere held out for Stafford and a peaceful settlement,
protesting in another weighty letter against being forced
into a duel. The correspondence had by this time attained
considerable proportions, and Northumberland was thor-
oughly disgusted by the parleying of his antagonist — a
course of conduct which, in common with most of the
young bloods of the day, he failed to understand, and which
he looked upon as arising either from cowardice or a sense
of guilt on the part of Sir Francis. To the Commander he
wrote that "hee was thoroughly persuaded that hee had done him
these wronges, which hee meant to laye to his charge ; and that
hee would laye upp this injurious dealinge in his hearte, and
righte himself thereafter as hee should think fit"
Vere's friends now judged it high time to interfere.
None knew to what excess Northumberland's wrath might
lead him, nor could Sir Francis be trusted to maintain
much longer the restraint which he had imposed upon him-
self. The negotiations had hitherto been successfully kept
from the Queen and Council ; for Northumberland, warned
by the failure of his attempted duel with Lord Southampton,
had taken elaborate precautions to surround this new affair
with secrecy, and had begged Vere to do likewise. Never-
theless it leaked out that a duel was intended, and the news
unquestionably came from the side of Sir Francis. It is
not to be supposed that the Commander appealed to his
Court acquaintances to prevent hostilities, although such
was the expressed opinion of Northumberland, Grey, Raleigh,
and other prejudiced persons. Sir Noel Caron, agent for
the States General in England, and one of Vere's intimates,
was the person who actually divulged the matter to the
Queen, and implored her Majesty to put a stop to the con-
troversy. As on the previous occasion, Elizabeth took
prompt steps to prevent bloodshed, and commanded Nor-
thumberland, under pain of her lasting displeasure, "tofor-
beare any action against Sir Francis Vere, att that instant
employed in her service"
76 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
If Northumberland had been angry before, this "foul
treason," as he termed it, lashed him into a species of frenzy.
Thru and A^ tnat Cecil, anc* even the Queen herself, could
counter- say, failed to persuade him that Sir Francis Vere
had not deliberately betrayed the entire corre-
spondence, in order to save himself from an encounter
which he feared. It was hard that a man like Vere,
who had fought and bled for his country, should
be suspected of such unworthy motives ; but the head-
strong Earl would accept no other explanation of his
opponent's behaviour. The stern mandate of Elizabeth
he did not venture to disobey, but he swore that
when fate sent him an opportunity Sir Francis should
feel the weight of his arm. In the meantime he
caused a declaration to be drawn up, and published
in English, French and Italian, to the effect that " Vere
was a Knave and Cowarde, and that, in fleeringe and
gearinge like a common Buffoon, would wrong men of all
conditions, and had neyther the honestye or the courage to
satisfye any!" This denunciation was circulated widely,
not only in England, but upon the Continent ; and
particularly throughout the Low Countries, where Sir
Francis held command, and where copies of it were
derisively affixed to the walls of Ostend by venturesome
Spaniards.
But if Northumberland was not able to claim satisfaction
at that time, neither was he permitted to have the last word
in this bitter controversy. Before a week went by, Sir
Francis Vere issued a counterblast to the Earl's denunciation,
which he, in his turn, had set forth not only in English,
French, and Italian, but in Spanish as well. "Because I
refused to meete you!' — thus ran the English version, —
" uppon your peremptorye and foolishe summons, you con-
clude mee, in a discourse sent abroad tinder your Name, to bee
a Knave, a Coward and a Buffoone ; whereuppon you have pro-
cured me to set aside all Respecte to your person, and to saye
that ' You are a most lyinge and unworthy Lord! You are
bounde by Her Majesty e's commandmente not to assay le mee, and
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 77
/, by this Business committed to mee, not to seeke you. When
you shall bee freer, as God shall make us meete, I maintayn it
with my sworde. FRA : VERB."
Having thus unburthened his mind, the Commander
went back to the Low Countries, where he proved to the
Spaniards that, in warfare at least, he was neither a buffoon
nor a dastard. As might have been expected, opinions in
England differed regarding the quarrel. The wild spirits
of the Raleigh-Cobham faction upheld Northumberland's
behaviour with enthusiasm ; while, on the other hand, the
Queen and most of the ministers sided with Vere, and
condemned the Earl "for challenging a great Commander of
the State at suck a time as, without breach of duty, he could
not, nor might not, answer him." l
There is no known English record of any subsequent
collision between Northumberland and Sir Francis, but a
contemporary foreign historian distinctly states that such an
event took place, and that the Earl publicly avenged himself
upon his enemy on the very steps of the throne. In Sully's
Mlmoires we read that, shortly after the accession of James I.,
"the Earl of Northumberland struck Colonel Vere, in the pre-
sence of the whole court, and was for a time confined in Lambeth
by the King's order."
The reconciliation between Northumberland and his wife
in 1602 contributed largely to an important change in the
Earl's public policy. Hitherto, in company with
The Earl, the , • r • j r» 1 • u jr-.ii
catholics, "is friends Raleigh and Cobham, as well as with
and King n|s pretended friends Cecil and Bacon, he had
James.
strenuously opposed the succession of James VI.
of Scotland to the English throne. In so doing, he was no
doubt influenced somewhat by a spirit of opposition to the
party of Essex, but his main reason for refusing allegiance to
the King of Scots had been founded upon a motive far higher
than that of mere personal feeling. He desired, in fine, to
see full religious toleration established in England, as it
1 Lord Henry Howard to Edward Bruce; Secret Correspondence with James
VI., 1602.
78 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
had been in France by the Edict of 1598 ; l and he doubted
whether James could be relied upon to give to the Catholics
even half as much liberty as Henri IV. had granted to the
Huguenots. Northumberland's own creed has already been
dwelt upon in these pages. Hallam and other historians are
quite in error in assuming that he belonged to the Church
of Rome, simply because he consistently championed the
rights of his Catholic fellow-subjects. The truth was, as he
himself states, that among family connections and tenantry
he numbered hundreds of Romanist families. These people,
knowing him to be a man of broad and liberal views, as
well as one to whom they were bound by countless here-
ditary ties, came in time to trust him implicitly, and to look
to him for guidance and protection. Hence Northum-
berland felt himself to a great extent responsible for their
welfare ; and, as they were prevented by the penal laws
from speaking for themselves, he frequently acted as their
advocate, in a manner which afterwards cost him dear.
His first intimation that James VI. looked favourably
upon the claims of the English Catholics came from Lady
Northumberland during the happy months which they spent
together at Syon, before the birth of their son, Algernon.
The Countess was still a violent partisan of the Scottish King ;
and it is possible that she acted under orders from Edinburgh
when she endeavoured to win over her husband by vague
hints of religious freedom. Northumberland at first hardly
credited what she said, but little by little he began to hope
that there might be truth in these reiterated assertions of
James's friendly attitude towards the English Romanists.
Were that point once established to his satisfaction, he
admitted that James would be a monarch more to his liking
than the Lady Arabella, or than any of the other personages
who were looked upon as pretenders to the throne. The
Countess, knowing her ground, then suggested that he
should send some discreet individual to sound the King of
Scots upon the subject.
1 The Edict of Nantes, which for over eighty years gave liberty of conscience to
France, until shamefully revoked by Louis XIV.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 79
When the Earl returned to Court after the birth of his
heir, he noticed an ominous change in the condition of
Elizabeth. Her iron will was no longer sufficient to hide
from those about her the many infirmities from which she
suffered, and to the discerning eye death was plainly
written upon her face. Among the ministers, too, North-
umberland found changes, none more surprising to him
than that which had converted Sir Robert Cecil into an
adherent of James. This unscrupulous son of an unscrupu-
lous sire had skilfully trimmed his sails to the new breeze,
and was busy making as good bargains for himself, his
brother, and others of his kinsmen and connections as
time and circumstances permitted. To placate James the
more readily, he enlisted in his service Lord Henry Howard,1
who had been for years the principal secret agent of the
Scottish King in England. These things made a deep im-
pression upon Northumberland, an impression which was
strengthened by his certainty that Elizabeth had but a
few months to live. He attended the Queen on her last
progress, and we find him writing to Lord Cobham from
Sir William Cecil's house at Burnham, " Wednesday night
the Queen was not well, but would not be known of it, for the
next day she walked abroad in the Park, lest any should take
notice of it.'"1 On his return to London, the Earl determined
to take his wife's counsel and sound James in regard to the
Catholics. With this end in view, he made overtures
through the Scottish Ambassador, promising his unqualified
support if "toleration for the Catholics" were part of the
King's policy. James replied through his Ambassador in a
conciliatory manner, and promised abundant favour to all,
Catholic or Protestant, who embraced his cause. Such an
answer was too vague, however, for Northumberland's
liking. He resolved, if possible, to bind the Scottish King
to something tangible, and accordingly despatched to
1 Youngest brother of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, who had been executed in
1572. Lord Henry afterwards became Earl of Northampton. He was a tireless
inventor of the gross flattery to which James was addicted.
2 State Papers, 1602.
80 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Edinburgh a man in whose diplomatic powers he had the
fullest confidence, — his own cousin, Thomas Percy,1 then
Constable of Alnwick Castle.
The good looks and plausible manners of Percy greatly
pleased King James, who treated him more as a nobleman
of distinction than as a private gentleman. The condition
and prospects of the Catholics were discussed at much length
between them, the King displaying " a greate sympathy" for
this section of his future subjects.2 James even went so far
as to invite Percy "to lay in his chamber'' for several nights,
in order that they might the more freely talk the matter
over. Eventually the Earl's agent was sent away with pro-
mises calculated to inspire English Catholics with the live-
liest hope. These promises James afterwards repudiated,
thinking, no doubt, that Percy's word would scarcely be
believed against that of the King. In this surmise he was
right, so far as his own times were concerned, but, to the un-
prejudiced historian of to-day, the balance of probability
seems vastly in favour of Percy's veracity. For in various
letters still extant, which the shifty monarch wrote to
Northumberland during 1602 and 1603, the very pledges of
toleration thus shamelessly denied are reiterated almost in
the very words reported to the Catholics by Thomas Percy.3
There can be no doubt as to the effect produced upon
his co-religionists 4 by the agent's rosy account of this
mission to Scotland. Northumberland, now practically con-
vinced of James's liberal intentions, strongly advised his
Catholic friends and adherents to accept the son of Mary
Stuart as heir to the throne. Even shrewd Jesuits like
Garnet, as well acquainted with the secrets of Court intrigue
as most foreign ministers, were persuaded into abandoning
their opposition to the Scottish monarch, and voluntarily
tore up the tracts which they had prepared in favour of the
1 Afterwards one of the ringleaders in the Gunpowder Plot. A full account
of the career of this remarkable scion of the Percy family will be found on a later
page.
2 Thomas Percy to Northumberland ; Alnwick MSS.
3 See stifra. 4 Percy was a Romanist.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 81
Lady Arabella or the Infanta of Spain. The great majority
of the Romanists declared for James ; and only a few vener-
able survivors of the Northern Massacre, men whose hearts
had been embittered by persecution, still held suspiciously
aloof. To satisfy these, and so unite the entire Catholic
body in allegiance, Northumberland wrote to James the
first of a series of letters which deserve perusal, as much for
their evident honesty and patriotism as for the remarkable
absence from their pages of that cringing flattery which
Cecil, Howard, and the other " king's men " in England used
so unsparingly in their.correspondence with Holyrood.1
In pressing the urgency of the Catholic claims upon the
King's notice, the Earl remarks : — " It were a pity to lose a
good Kingdom for not tolerating a mass in a corner (if upon
that it restetK), so long as they shall not be too busy disturbers
of the Government of the State, nor seek to make us contribu-
tors to a Peter Priest." 2
This passage was, a year or so later, used against him in
Star Chamber proceedings ; but for the time being James
acquiesced, or pretended to acquiesce, in the opinion so
frankly expressed that no real harm could come out of per-
mitting Catholics to worship God in their own way. The
removal of political disabilities was not asked for, but merely
leave to celebrate " mass in a corner " without fear of prose-
cution.
In reply James thanked Northumberland and his Catholic
friends for their support, declared that he had no intention
of persecuting the latter, and expressed himself as overjoyed
to discover in the Earl " a nobleman carrying so honourable a
mind, as also that doeth rightly interpret and discern " his (the
King's)" honest intentions."* Other letters were exchanged
in a like strain ; and the last doubter among the Catholics
was finally won over by an epistle (presently to be quoted)
in which James, in unequivocal terms, pledged his honour to
1 The letters of Northumberland to James may be found in Caniden Society
Publications, No. LXX VIII. ( Correspondence of King James, from the original
Ilalfield MSS.).
^ Correspondence of King James. 3 Ibid.
II. F
82 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
grant liberty of conscience to all of that faith, and even to
advance such of them as proved worthy to positions of
power and trust.
The correspondence between Northumberland and the
King of Scots proved most disquieting to Sir Robert Cecil,
Cecil plays wno was as vet unaware °* its purport. Fully
the Eari conscious of his own double-dealing, he feared
lest the Earl might attempt to injure him at
Holyrood by disclosing proofs of the many intrigues
which he had fathered in the past for the purpose of
excluding James from the throne. His long and intimate
knowledge of Northumberland's character might have
banished any thoughts of underhand dealing irom his mind ;
for, amid many faults, the Earl possessed the virtue of
thorough loyalty to those whom he accounted his friends.
But the suspicious and cynical nature, which Cecil had in-
herited from his father, led him to regard loyalty between
man and man as an almost impossible quality. Even while
he assiduously cultivated the interests of his immediate family
circle, he trusted no member thereof ; and his favourite
maxim, like that of Mazarin, was that, in cases of suspected
treachery, it was good policy to be the first traitor.
He had rather discouraged Northumberland from joining
in the general change of front adopted by the party formerly
opposed to James,1 for it was his design that the King should
welcome him as the first and most important of these con-
verts. It now became Sir Robert's aim to forestall any dan-
ger which might threaten his own supremacy by poisoning
James's mind in advance against the Earl, as well as against
Cobham and Raleigh. In Lord Henry Howard, who acted
as go-between in the secret dealings with Scotland, he found
a willing instrument ; for Howard treasured a spite of long
standing against all three of the persons thus attacked, and
in his letters to James styled them " the diabolic triplidty"'1
1 This party included the two Cecils, Northumberland, Rutland, Cobham, Grey,
Raleigh, and Sir Francis Bacon.
2 Correspondence of King James.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 83
Hints, innuendoes, and even deliberate perversions of truth,
all designed to fill James with detestation of Northumberland
and his associates, were dictated by Cecil to his agent, for
immediate transmission into Scotland. And all the while,
this worthy inheritor of Burghley's mantle preserved an
outward appearance of friendship towards the men whom
he slandered daily, and for the Earl in particular professed
the most disinterested affection.
Nothing could afford a greater contrast than the allusions
made to Cecil in Northumberland's Scottish correspond-
ence. Thoroughly honest himself, and frank even to a
fault, the Earl never for a moment suspected the cruel trick
which was being played upon him. In his eyes, Cecil's mock
friendship was a real and valued possession ; and when he
mentioned the latter's name to James it was always in terms
of praise. At the very time when Sir Robert was assuring
his future sovereign that Northumberland was a traitor at
heart, without credit or respect, and utterly odious to his
countrymen, we find the Earl writing to Holyrood in this
fashion : —
" The secret of his (Cecil's') conscience doth conclude your
right to be the next heir, and that his heart will then wish that
it may have that approbation with all men. The ancient
familiarity and inward trust hath been between us, which
doeth make him understand me very well ; his knowledge of
my opinion of yr title, when necessity of death must leave it to
any other hand ; his conceiving of my determination to run that
course in setting up all the faults of my fortune that way ; yet
doth he continue his love in preferring me, and in befriending
me what he is able."
It was but scant preferment and scurvy friendship that
the Earl received at the hands of this " loving " familiar.
Read what Cecil (using Lord Henry Howard as a mouth-
piece) sent by way of " certaine information " to the Scottish
Court, at this very time : —
" The man is beloved of none, followed by none, trusted by
no one gentleman or nobleman of quality within the land, beside
his faction ; no, not by the gentlemen or peasants of his own
84 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
country, in respect of his vexation and sport, which you may
know by your neighbours ; and the Queen repeated one month
since, when she was moved in his behalf for a regiment, saying
that Raleigh had made him as odious as himself, because he
would not be singular ; and such were not to be employed by
princes of sound policy. I protest to God nothing vexeth Cecil
so much as trust imparted above merit, unto men that are
unsecret and indiscreet!' J
We are not informed why so much trouble and time
should have been wasted in attacking, behind his back, a
person so utterly without worth or influence, as North-
umberland is here declared to he. On a later occasion,
Cecil endeavoured to frighten the King by describing
Northumberland as the very soul of rapacity. The Earl, it
would appear, looked for gifts and favours of extraordinary
value, in return for his services, and hoped to exercise
great influence over James " out of a residue of kind affection
in his uncle " 2 towards Mary Queen of Scots.
It is probable, however, that the very bitterness of the
secret campaign against Northumberland had the effect of
arousing suspicion in the King's mind that a line of policy
was being quietly forced upon him from England. No
monarch was more easily led than James by wary ministers
who knew how to conceal their power; but let him once
suspect being led, and none could show greater obstinacy.
On this occasion he surprised Cecil by a cold reply to one
of the letters vilifying the Earl ; and even praised the latter
for his good sense and honesty. In the secret code by
the aid of which these communications were written, each
important name was represented by a particular cipher or
letter— "o" standing for Northumberland, "20" for Cecil,
"24" for Elizabeth, and "30" for James. " The letter sent
from o to 30," wrote the King's secretary, " is very discreetly
and temperately written, and in all parts very near the truth.
He says not that he is a Catholick himself, but that sundry of
1 Lord II. Howard (for Sir R. Cecil) to Edw. Bruce, 1602 ; Secret Corre-
spondence,
3 Thomas, seventh Earl of Northumberland.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 85
his retinue and dependants hath oares in their boat ; and that
they are not able to resolve in any course into the whiche he
shall not be made acquainted" J
A week before the death of the Queen, Northumberland
sent word to James, warning him that the end was nigh,
james ain anc* *^at it was well to be in readiness. The Earl
promises had no fear of any difficulties arising ; and fore-
toleration. ^ thg Kmg,s peaceful succeSsion. " She "
(Elizabeth) "is grown very weak," he wrote, "yet some-
times gives us comfort of recovering ; a few hours threatens
us with despair of her well-doinge. Physic she will not take
any, and the physicians conclude th', if this continue, she must
needs fall into a distemper ; not a phrensy but rather into a
dullness and a lethargy" 2
He then proceeds to dwell once more upon the subject
nearest his heart — the clemency promised by James to the
English Catholics : — " Some Papists I have in my family, who
serve me as watches how others are affected ; and some that I
am acquainted with ; but yet did I never hear any of them say
but that they all of them wished Your Majesty the fruition of
your right ; and that if supplication might procure them tolera-
tion of their consciences, they should hold themselves happy ; if
not they must, by the laws of God and Right, endure it with
patience ; to which hopes I ever give comfort that it would be
obtained. Your Majesty may do in this case as your wisest
Judgment shall direct you" 3
All the quibbles of James's apologists cannot disguise
the significance of the autograph letter which the King
despatched in reply to the above appeal ; nor can any but
one meaning be attached to the sentence in which peace,
and even public advancement, are so freely guaranteed to
those of the Romanist persuasion. Little wonder was it
that, with the knowledge of such a plain-spoken promise
on the part of James, English Catholics should hail his
1 Edward Bruce (for James VI.) to Lord H. Howard (for Cecil) ; Corre-
spondence of King fames, p. 47.
12 Correspondence of King James, 1603. 3 Ibid.
86 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
accession with confidence and joy ; or that a terrible re-
vulsion of feeling should take place among them, when they
found themselves deceived. The letter, which is dated on
the day of Elizabeth's death, had best be quoted in full : —
" Right tritely and well beloved Cousin :
" The more I hear from you, the more I am rejoiced and
do think myself infinitely happy that one of your place, endowed
with such sincerity of love towards me, and with all other parts
of sufficiency, should be born one day to be a subject unto me.
. . . And as to the form of my entry there, whenever it
shall please God to call your Sovereign, as in my first letter I
wrote unto you. so now by these presents do I confirm and renew
the same ; that is to say, as God is my witness, it never was, is,
or shall be my intention, to enter that kingdom in any other sort
but as the son and righteous heir of England ; with all peace
and calmness, and without any kind of alteration in State and
Government as far as possible I can. All men that hath truely
served their present Sovereign, shall be alike welcome to me as
they are presently, or were in times past, unto her; claiming
nothing in that turn as King of Scotland, but hoping thereby to
have the means to knit this wJwle Island in a happy and per-
petual amity.
" As for the Catholics, I will neither persecute any that will
be quiet, and give but an outward obedience to the law ; neither
will I spare to advance any of them that will, by good service,
worthily deserve it, and if this course will not serve every par-
ticular honest man, my privy dealing with any of them can
avail but little.
"And thus I end, pray ing you for your own fart to rest fully
assured that you shall, in the own time, have proof in what
high account you are with your most loving friend
"JAMES R.
" To the Earl of Northumberland :
From Holyrood House ; Mar. ye z^th, I6O3."1
The courier that bore this kingly message might have
encountered somewhere between Tyne and Tees a horse-
1 Correspondence of King James,
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 87
man, haggard and travel-stained, spurring furiously north-
ward— a horseman that only shook his head and galloped
The Queen the harder in answer to each eager hail. And
is dead. again, a few hours later, while he baited his
nag at some Yorkshire inn, our wondering courier might
have seen yet another cavalier pass by in headlong
flight, and vanish in the northern dusk. For the great
Queen Elizabeth was dead — had died, indeed, while the
ink was still wet upon her successor's letter to North-
umberland ; and now two stout-hearted gallants of the
Court were riding a race to Edinburgh with the momentous
news. The twain were Sir Robert Carey,1 youngest son of
old Hunsdon ; and Sir Charles Percy, brother of the Earl
of Northumberland.
Thanks to the wit of his elder brother, Lord Hunsdon5,
and to his own promptness, Carey had a long start
in the race. Hunsdon, who was a Privy Councillor,
and as such admitted to the dying monarch's bed-
chamber, instructed his brother to lurk in the neigh-
bouring anteroom. No sooner had the Queen ceased to
breathe than a concerted signal was given ; Robert Carey
sprang from his place of concealment, and, elbowing his
way to the courtyard, mounted a swift horse which stood
there saddled and bridled for the journey. Before the
lords of the Council had sufficiently recovered from the
horror of the Queen's death to think of notifying her
successor, Carey was already miles away. A meeting of
the lords being summoned, the necessary letter to James
was duly drafted ; and Sir Charles Percy was chosen to
carry it post-haste into Scotland. Percy had not antici-
pated any such mission, nor had he any picked steed wait-
ing in the courtyard. But he was an experienced soldier,
1 Sir Robert Carey was the seventh son of Henry, first Lord Hunsdon, and
hence first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth. This ride first brought him
to the notice of James I. In 1626 he became Lord Carey of Leppington, and in
1626 Earl of Monmouth. The titles became extinct with the death of his son
Henry, second Earl of Monmouth, in 1661.
s George, second Lord Hunsdon, who died in the same year.
88 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
and it was not long before he too was speeding northward.
Neither he, nor those that sent him, knew aught of the other
messenger who had gone before.
James reached Enfield Chase on May 4, and thence
proceeded to London. " He rid" says Nicholls, " the most
. .. part of the way from the Chace, between two
and an old ' honourable personages of our land ; the Earl of
premise. Northumberland upon his right hand, and the Earl
of Nottingham upon his left hand" *
One of the new sovereign's first acts was to make
Northumberland a Privy Councillor, and to confer upon
him the post of Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners.
He also granted the Earl's petition for the restoration to
the House of Percy of the manors of Kirk-Levinton,
Hunmanby, Nafferton, Wanford, and Gembling, all in
Yorkshire.2 These estates had been alienated by the
unhappy sixth Earl to Henry VIII., and subsequently
granted by that monarch to Matthew Stuart, Earl of
Lennox, and his wife, ancestors of King James. Lady
Northumberland, too, was rewarded for her fidelity to
the King by a grant of portion of Sir John Perrott's
forfeited estates, to the yearly value of ^soo.8 Her old
enemy, Coke, however, insisted on her resigning the pen-
sion of ^400 allowed her by Elizabeth, when she re-
ceived this new mark of royal favour ; * so that she found
herself little better off after all, and — as might have been
expected from one of her temper — assailed the Attorney-
General with bitter reproaches. Later in the same year
Northumberland and his wife officiated as godfather and
godmother at the christening of the Princess Mary.6
But these honours and emoluments were empty or
of small account in Northumberland's opinion. The real
power, he soon realised, was to be in the hands of Cecil ;
while, so far from keeping his word to the Catholics, the
1 Nicholl's Progresses of James /., vol. i. p. 135.
' Domestic State Papers, James I. ' Ibid.
* ibid. 5 Stow's Annals, p. 863.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 89
King was hardly seated upon the throne before he as-
sumed an attitude of vigorous hostility towards their
religion. Dignities and wealth could not atone to the
Earl for the fact that, through the craft of Cecil and the
King's insincerity, he found himself unable to help the
cause of toleration in any way. Moreover, although his
own position at Court was as yet strong enough to resist
the insidious schemes of the chief minister, his friends
Raleigh, Grey, and Cobham were not long in experiencing
the evils of Cecil's jealousy. The Secretary had inspired
James with his own detestation of Raleigh, and the King
came to England already convinced that Sir Walter was a
breeder of discontent and a traitor in embryo. Lingard,1
speaking of the condition of affairs among those who
had placed James upon the throne, says : — " They were
now divided into two factions. . . . The Secretary (Cecil),
with his colleagues of the Council, and the Earl of Nor-
thumberland, with Lord Grey, Lord Cobham, and Sir
Walter Raleigh. All hastened to meet the new monarch,
that they might remind him of their past, and tender to
him their first services. But James had already made
his election. If the Secretary had more deeply offended,
he was yet the more likely to prove useful. Him he
confirmed in office ; a share of the royal favour was also
promised to Northumberland ; but Cobham and Grey
were left to complain of ingratitude and neglect. Raleigh
lost not only the honourable post of Captain of the
Guard, but the more valuable office of Warden of the
Stannaries." 2
Although gravely disappointed, the Earl, however, hoped
for better things ; and took no part in the rash intrigues
by which Raleigh, Cobham, and Grey sought to reassert
their influence and, at the same time, revenge themselves
upon Cecil. Thus, when his three friends were arrested,
1 The partiality of this historian for the Catholics is well known : but
his account of the events leading up to the trial of Raleigh can scarcely be
impugned.
2 Hist, of England, vol. vii. p. $•
90 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
tried — if indeed the extraordinary travesty of justice
exhibited by Attorney-General Coke, in his savage abuse
of Raleigh, can be regarded as part of a legal trial1 —
and sentenced to death for high treason, he was able to
plead vigorously in their favour. De Fonblanque, indeed,
ascribes to the Earl's efforts the reprieve of Raleigh almost
on the steps of the scaffold. No sooner did he learn that
this "ancient cameradoe," this chosen companion of many
years, had been sentenced by a packed Commission at
Coke's savage dictation than he hurried to Windsor to
intercede with the King for clemency. By this time he
must have understood the real virulence of Cecil's feelings
towards Sir Walter ; and his loyalty to a fallen friend is all
the more praiseworthy, since thereby he deliberately jeopar-
dised his own fortunes, and dared to cross the Secretary's
dearest wish. When the panther has smelt blood, it is
dangerous to baulk him of his quarry. But Northumber-
land cared not for consequences, when the life of a friend
was at stake. He insisted upon an audience with the King,
denounced the trial of Raleigh as a sham, and hotly pro-
claimed Sir Walter's innocence of treason. But his argu-
ments and entreaties alike fell upon deaf ears ; James
would have none of them. The west-country pirate had
been justly condemned, he said, and "there was an end
on't." Almost desperate, Northumberland turned to
Queen Anne ; that gentle lady who, like the consort of our
own sovereign, was a princess of Denmark. Anne had
little esteem for most of the lords at her husband's new
Court ; but the frank, impetuous Earl was one of those
1 The following may be quoted as an example of Coke's brutal method of
bolstering up his extremely weak case against Sir Walter Raleigh, and of the
latter's dignified replies. Coke in open court called Raleigh "A damnable
atheist ; a spider of hell ; the most vile and execrable of traitors"
(Raleigh): — " You speak indiscreetly, barbarously, and uncivilly."
(Coke) : — " I want words sufficient to express thy viperous treasons"
(Raleigh) : — " You want words, indeed, for you have spoken the one thing half
a dozen times." — State Trials, II. 26.
Cobham shuffled lamentably under his various examinations ; but Grey, we
are told, " won the esteem of the very judges by whom he was condemned."
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 91
whom she really liked. Northumberland, returning from
the audience with James, went to pay his respects to the
Queen ; and in his usual unreserved fashion told her
everything which had occurred. Shocked at the reports
of Coke's brutality, and convinced that Raleigh was guilt-
less of the graver sins alleged against him, Anne volun-
teered her services as his advocate. With tears in her
eyes, she implored the King to pardon this great captain,
who had served his country so well. Her prayers won
the day. Raleigh's sentence was exchanged for one of im-
prisonment ; and Northumberland posted back to London
with the joyful tidings. Cobham and Grey being par-
doned as well, the disappointed Secretary had to rest
content, for the time, with the hanging of two poor clerics,1
who at best were but pawns in the game. But Cecil
neither forgot nor forgave ; and in the end Northumber-
land paid dearly for his temerity.
Disillusioned as to the character of James, and cut to
the quick by the King's betrayal of the Catholics, the
The Eari Earl now asked permission to retire from Court,
seeks and devote himself to avocations more grateful
than that of politics. James readily granted the
boon ; for he found Northumberland's presence an un-
ceasing reproach to his conscience, and a restraint upon
the coarseness of his nature. Monarchs do not care to be
constantly reminded of their treacheries, or to feel that they
are scorned by their own courtiers. Here was a great
noble, a man of learning, honour, and unblemished descent,
whose ears James Stuart dared not paw, and whom he
feared to nickname as he did his "Ferrets" his "Beagles" 2
or (in after years) his " Dog Steenie" 3 The royal wit at best
was hardly of a refined sort ; and in many other respects
Northumberland and the King had little in common. Even
1 Watson and Clarke.
2 "Ferret" and "Beagle" were playful court-names which James bestowed
upon Cecil. He had many such for the compliant members of the Council.
3 The Duke of Buckingham.
92 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
through the self-satisfied pedantry of " Christendom's wisest
ass " there stole at times an awkward suspicion that the
Earl was laughing at him in his sleeve. Then, too, there
was the old alliance between the House of Percy and Mary
Queen of Scots — a secret grievance with James ; for it is
a historical fact that, through some strange perversion of
nature, this prince cherished a grudge against most of those
whose families had striven or suffered in the cause of his
mother.1 Gossip assigns yet another reason for the Earl's
growing unpopularity at Court — he was a confirmed
smoker of u the noxious weed nicotiana" \ and it is by no
means improbable that this fact may have strongly pre-
judiced the author of the "Counterblast" against him.
The young Prince of Wales shared with his mother a
great partiality for Northumberland, and James is said to
have feared lest his heir might acquire a taste for
tobacco, or religious toleration. Among the Cecils and
Howards this intimacy was keenly disliked for other
causes, easy to penetrate ; and if anything were lacking
to render the Earl completely distasteful to James, there
was ever the malevolent Cecil with new tales of the evil
influence exercised over Prince Henry, and of Northum-
berland's reprehensible merriment at the expense of the
Scottish lords.2
These things being so, it is not surprising to find James
rather relieved than otherwise at the prospect of the Earl's
practical retirement from Court and Council. He would,
perhaps, have preferred that Northumberland should take
up his residence on some remote estate, such as Alnwick
or Petworth ; but this might not be, for the Earl could not
tear himself away from the society of the wits and scholars
whom he loved. Syon House was the retreat which he
most favoured. There, by "the shore of silver-streaming
1 Some writers have adduced this point in support of the changeling theory as
to James's parentage.
3 It was one of the charges against the Earl that he spoke " openly and with
contempt " of some of the personages whom James brought with him from
Scotland.— Alnwick MSS.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 93
Thames," he could, like his friend Spenser, solace his mind
with country joys, and forget the
" long fruitless stay
In princes' court, and expectation vain
Of idle hopes, which still do fly away
Like empty shadows " :
while London was still so near that, at his will, he could
surround himself with all that was pleasant to him in the
restless life of town. Up to this time he had only leased
Syon from the Crown. In July 1604, however, the King
granted him under Letters Patent "the manor of Isleworth-
Syon and Syon House, and the demesne lands, with Free Warren
and all Royalties and Appurtinunces'.' It was a parting gift,
and certainly a royal one — whatever the giver's motives
may have been.
The monastery of Syon was founded in February 1416
by Henry V., for the accommodation of sixty sisters and
oms on about twenty-five brethren of the Order of St.
House and Bridget. The Bridgetines followed in a modified
form the Augustinian rule, and most of those
who originally settled at Syon were of Scandinavian birth.
The first house which they built on the banks of the
Thames was a very small one ; but in 1431 the settlement
had so flourished that a larger edifice was erected on
the site of the present mansion of the Duke of Northumber-
land. The Rev. J. H. Blunt describes Syon as the most
important establishment of its kind " founded in England
during the 180 years preceding the Reformation." J When
suppressed by Henry VIII. the annual income of the
monastery amounted to about .£20,000 of modern money,
which was exceeded by only seven other religious houses
in England. It was called the " Monastery of St. Saviour
and St. Bridget of Syon." The monks and nuns dwelt
1 Introduction to The Myroure of onre Lady, a work largely used by the ladies
of Syon Monastery.
94
THE HOUSE OF PERCY
quite apart from each other ; the sole means of communi-
cation being a species of postern-gate which was never
opened save upon occasions of great ceremony, such as
the profession of novices. The keys of this gate were kept
by the Abbess and " two sisters that have drede of God on the
one side, and by the Confessor General and two brothers on the
other, that so al occasion of sclaunder be vtterly take away
both outwarde and inwarde."
Syon was one of the first of the nunneries to fall
under the ban of Henry VIII. and his jackal, Cromwell.
The quiet sisters were accused of sympathising with
Elizabeth Burton, the " Holy Maid of Kent," and their
estates were pronounced forfeit to the Crown. One of the
Syon monks and the vicar of Isleworth were hanged at
Tyburn ; while the nuns under their superior, Katherine
Palmer,1 fled to Holland and then to Flanders. At
Dermond in the latter country they sojourned for a time,
until summoned back to England by Queen Mary. Mean-
while, in 1541, Syon had been used as the prison of
Queen Katherine Howard, during the period immediately
preceding her execution. Seven years later, the body
of Henry VIII. rested here for the night, on its way to
Windsor ; and there is a gruesome tradition to the effect
that the carcase of the royal spoliator burst as it was
being conveyed from the portals of the suppressed monas-
tery, and that Henry's blood was licked up by dogs, like
the blood of King Ahab in Samaria. 2
The Lord Protector Somerset, in the first year of
Edward VI.'s reign, granted to himself the manor of Isle-
worth, with Syon House, and the other property held by
the Bridgetine sisters in Middlesex. The old convent
proved quite inadequate for Somerset's needs, and he
began the erection of a new building — the nucleus of
that which stands to-day. He also laid out a botanical
1 This lady, the last Abbess of Syon, had, a few years before, succeeded Agnes
Jordan in that office. A brass to the memory of Madame Jordan exists in Denham
Church, near Uxbridge.
8 Walford's Greater London. Augnier's Hist, of fsleworth.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 95
garden, in which were planted some of the earliest mul-
berry-trees known in England. Many of these ancient
trees are still green and flourishing. After Somerset's
attainder, Syon passed to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick
(now known as Duke of Northumberland), and became
the residence of his son, Lord Guilford Dudley, and of the
latter 's wife, Lady Jane Grey. From Syon Lady Jane
went to London, in her ill-starred attempt to wrest the
crown from the hands of Queen Mary. This sovereign
kept the estate in her own hands for four years ; but in
1557 the banished sisters of St. Bridget were invited to
return to their old home. They found a palace where
they had left a modest abbey ; but their chapel and most
of their treasured symbols of devotion had been destroyed
by the Seymours and Dudleys. Nor were they long per-
mitted to retain possession. In 1559 Elizabeth suppressed
the Bridgetine Order once more ; and the harassed ladies
left Syon for the last time, taking with them the keys of
the establishment. After many wanderings,1 they found
an asylum at Lisbon, where, on the banks of the Tagus,
a new Syon House was founded. The sisterhood clung
staunchly to their English traditions, however ; and only
British novices were admitted to the new convent. Dame
Katherine Palmer, their leader, died in 1576. In the
seventeenth century a fire broke out, which completely
destroyed the nunnery buildings; but the followers of
St. Bridget succeeded, with the help of their friends and
relatives at home, in raising sufficient funds for the erec-
tion of a newer and finer abode. In 1755 the terrible
earthquake of Lisbon levelled this structure in turn to
the ground ; and the sisters were again compelled to have
recourse to alms in order to place a roof over their heads.
For fifty years more they lived peacefully among their
orange-groves, hearing little of the outside world or of
" Home," save when some young novice or pupil was
sent out to them from England. About the beginning
of the last century they were visited by the then Duke
1 Described at length in Augnier's Hist, of Isleworth.
96 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of Northumberland.1 The good ladies rallied the Duke
upon "his unhallowed possession of the estates granted
to their Order by Henry V." ; and, by way of further im-
pressing him, the Abbess produced from her strong room
the rusty and ponderous keys of Syon House, which had
been carried off when the Bridgetines were dispossessed
by Elizabeth. " You see," they observed, " that when the
Lord brings us back to our old home, we shall have the
means of entering ! " 2 The questions which they put
showed that while most of them had never seen Syon-
upon-Thames in their lives, the neighbourhood had be-
come familiar to them through the traditions of refectory
and cloister.
During the early part of the Peninsular War, when
Lisbon was the headquarters of the English army, the
convent of these unfortunate women was seized by the
authorities, and turned into a military hospital. Thus for
the fifth time rendered homeless, the sisters (nine in
number, and all of English birth) made their way as best
they could to these shores. The Earl of Shrewsbury and
others gave them shelter, and in 1825 a few survivors of
those who had left Lisbon still resided near the Stafford-
shire potteries. Since then, branches of the Order have
been established at Newcastle, in Staffordshire, at Peckham
in Surrey, and at Spettisbury in Dorset.3 The ancient
keys of Syon House are still jealously preserved by the
Abbess-Provincial.
From 1559 until 1604 Syon and Isleworth remained
crown property, although leased during that time to various
subjects. We have seen how Northumberland, after occu-
pying the house for some years as a tenant, finally entered
into full possession of the estate by grace of James I.
1 The second Duke.
1 The Duke, however, took great pains to explain to the nuns that "all the
locks at Syon House had been altered." — Walford's Greater London.
3 The English Bridgetines have no connection with the Irish community of
the same name founded in 1808 by Bishop Delany of Kildare, under the autho-
rity of Pope Gregory XVI.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 97
Freed by his own wish from the strain of Court life,
Northumberland devoted himself to scientific studies, to
Northum- gardening (then almost an unknown art in Eng-
beriand's life land), and to the entertainment of those friends
who gladly sought him out in his retirement. Nor
were the pilgrims to Syon either few or undistinguished ;
for the fame of the Earl as a scholar, and a patron of
scholars, had spread through many lands. Even Bacon,
his secret enemy, commended him in the most flattering
terms for his "culture, capacity, and learning."1 The bent
of his mind was naturally towards mathematics and
physics; but he had a catholic taste and "could talk
wisely and well in full many branches of knowledge."
To his own order he was proud and distant, caring little
for their tortuous intrigues and alternate pomp and ser-
vility. But among men of genius he was truly at home ;
and to these his purse and his house were never closed.
Shakespeare2 and Ben Jonson he knew, and appreciated;
and the last days of Spenser had been comforted by his kind-
ness. Among scientists, Thomas Harriot the mathematician
(who had been introduced to him by Raleigh) 3 received
at his hands a yearly pension of £120 ; as did Robert
Hues, Walter Warner, and, at a later day, Nicholas
Tarporley.4 Dr. Alexander Rhead, in one of his medical
treatises, describes the Earl as "the favourer of all good
learning, and Majcaenas of learned men." Bacon, by
his own admission, owed much to the encouragement
of Northumberland, and was a frequent guest at Syon ;
although he \vas at the time engaged in more than one
intrigue against his host. The Syon Household Accounts
bear witness to countless benefactions to writers, geo-
graphers, physicians, &c., as well as to schools and colleges,
1 Cabala, p. 23.
2 Shakespeare is said to have drawn the noble character of the Earl of
Northumberland (the "Loyal Earl") in Henry VII. out of affection for the
similar qualities of his descendant.
3 Harriot had accompanied Raleigh on his first voyage to Virginia.
4 Wood's Atkemc Oxoiiienses (Bliss), p. 299. Hues and Warner were among
the pioneers of mathematical study in England.
II. G
98 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
No foreign man of letters visited London without paying
at least one visit to the Earl, and special agents scoured
the marts of Europe to add new volumes to the great
library which was growing so rapidly under his watchful
eye.1
His services to learning were so well recognised, that
on August 30, 1605, the University of Oxford conferred
the honorary degree of M.A. upon " Henry Percy, the
most generous Earl of Northumberland, a great encourager
of learning and learned men, especially mathematicians,
who, as others, have in a high manner celebrated his
worth." 2
This was perhaps the part of his life to which the Earl
always looked back with the greatest fondness. Raleigh's
society he missed greatly, no doubt ; although there is a
possibility that the frequent licences which he obtained for
"searching the recordes at the Tower" z may have led to
secret meetings with his friend, then beginning the " History
of the World" in that gloomy stronghold. But he still had
his books, his laboratory, his gardens, and his " pypes of
tobacco " for constant companions ; while the building
operations in which he was engaged, and the comings and
goings of his guests, kept him agreeably employed. His
wife's quarrelsome disposition troubled him but little,
since she now, save at rare intervals, lived apart from
him ; and altogether he had turned his back for good
upon the sordid troubles of the world.
But dire trouble came to him notwithstanding ; and
even in his quiet library the relentless world sought
him out.
1 Northumberland's bills for bookbinding, and for the cataloguing of his
library at Syon, were at this time very large. He also expended considerable
sums in the purchase of scientific appliances ; and there are frequent mentions of
tobacco consigned to him, and of " pypes for tobacco." — Syon J\fSS.
2 Wood's fasti Oxonitnses, Part I. p. 312.
3 Syon MSS.
Ill
THE man whose desperate acts brought about the ruin
of Northumberland's life was his cousin, Thomas Percy —
he who had visited King James at Holyrood on
behalf of the Catholics, and who now filled the
"Gunpowder pOSts of Constable of Alnwick Castle and general
agent of the Earl's northern estates. The career
of this individual — half fanatic, half ruffian — was so strange,
and withal so characteristic of the time, that little apology
is needed for recalling it here.
To begin with, Thomas Percy was a great-grandson of
the "Magnificent Earl" of Northumberland,1 and a grand-
son of that Josceline Percy of Beverley who was reported
to have been poisoned by the relatives of his son's wife,
the Watertons of Walton.2 Percy's father and mother
were Edward Percy of Beverley, and Elizabeth, daughter
of Sir Thomas Waterton, knight. His elder brother, Alan,
inherited the property of this branch of the family, and
served for some years as M.P. for Beverley.3 He himself
was born at Beverley about 1560, and, like his kinsman
the Earl, bred in the Protestant faith. Coming to London,
with the intention of studying for the law, he changed his
mind and took to the sword instead. Of active service
he apparently saw none, although he participated in the
movements for the defence of the country against Spanish
invasion. For years the life which he led was of the
wildest ; and that part of London known as " Alsatia " —
the haunt of rufflers and cut-throats — knew him as one
1 See Genealogy, Tables II. and III.
* See ante, under the sixth Earl.
* His last known male representative was Alan Percy, Esquire, of Beverley,
said to have been de jure Earl of Northumberland after the extinction of the
senior male line in 1686.
99
zoo THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of its "free companions." His dare-devil exploits not
infrequently led him into trouble, and, on at least one
occasion, into perilous proximity to the hangman's noose.
It was then that one of his cousins, Charles or Alan Percy,
learned of his predicament, and appealed to Northumber-
land and Essex in his behalf. The latter wrote to Justice
Beaumont in February 1596 : — "7 understand by this bearer,
my servant Meyricke, of your willing disposition to favour
Thomas Percy, a near kinsman of my brother of Northumber-
land, who is in trouble for some offence imputed to him. I
pray you to continue the same, that therefore his life may not
be in hazard. He is a gentleman, well descended and of good
parts, and very able to do his country good service ; you shall
do a thing very acceptable to us both, and not disagreeable
with equity, which we will upon all occasions deserve of you." 1
Percy was accordingly released from the clink by favour
of Beaumont ; and Northumberland, on his promising to
reform, took him into his London household. Here his
plausible manners made such an impression that, a month
or two later, he was sent north to act as Constable of
Alnwick. By birth a Yorkshireman, he was not popular
among the Earl's tenants on the Border, whose customs
and prejudices he took no pains to understand. His irre-
sponsible life in London, moreover, had rendered him not
over nice in dealing with his neighbours, and on more than
one occasion he was accused of absolute dishonesty. The
people beneath him he treated either with unjustifiable
harshness, or equally unjustifiable laxity ; and the charges
made against him by the enraged Northumbrians fill many
closely written pages of the Alnwick MSS.
At length complaints became so numerous, that the
Earl was compelled to hold an investigation into Percy's
conduct. The result was hardly in the culprit's favour ;
but he wrote several letters to Northumberland, justifying
himself with so great a skill and such an admirable assump-
tion of simplicity, that the latter was convinced of his
probity and fidelity. Faithful, according to his lights, he
1 Alnwick MSS., vol. v.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 101
seems certainly to have been, so far as his cousin was
concerned ; but his sense of morality was sadly dulled,
and nature had fitted him for a moss-trooper or a gentle-
man-adventurer rather than for the factor of a great estate.
After the investigation into his affairs, Northumberland for-
gave him, and even permitted him to retain his posts ; but
henceforward he exercised his duties through the medium
of a deputy, merely visiting the North at intervals for the
collection of rents.
In the meantime he had married a Catholic lady,
Martha, daughter of Robert Wright of Plowland-in-Holder-
ness ; and, not professing any particular religion of his
own at the time, had decided to embrace that of his wife.
He was received into the Romanist faith about 1596, and
at once became one of its strongest partisans. Gifted with
considerable eloquence, a comely presence, and exceptional
talents for intrigue, he always obtained a hearing in the
councils of the Catholics, to the exclusion of wiser and
more prudent men ; and while the conservative majority
shrank from the violence of the measures which he pro-
posed, there was a fanatical remnant which applauded and
encouraged him.
About this time Northumberland, urged by the happy
state of affairs which liberty of conscience had produced in
France, began to dream of an English Edict of Toleration.
Thomas Percy, as we have seen, was very useful to him in
gathering Catholic opinion on this subject. While attending
a meeting of the suppressed religion during 1598, he fell into
the hands of the Watch, together with a number of other
" recusants," and was lodged for the night in Wood Street
compter.1 Northumberland's influence procured him his
liberty early next day ; but one of his fellow-prisoners die?
not fare so well. This unfortunate, William Richardson
by name, a Jesuit of Seville Ecclesiastical College, was con-
victed of being a " Popish priest" and of " It living come to
England contrary to the statute." For these crimes he was
hanged within twelve hours after his capture.2
1 State Papers. '* Ibid.
102 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
The journey of Thomas Percy to Scotland, the welcome
accorded to him at Holyrood, and the promises alleged to
have been made to him by James, have been
P" already dwelt upon. Upon his shoulders and
piot, and those of Northumberland the whole responsibility
rested for the attitude which the Catholics adopted
towards the Scottish King up to the time of his
accession. Indeed by his co-religionists Percy was held re-
sponsible not only for the truth of his own statements, but
for the Earl's good faith as well. Therefore when James
proved false, it was but natural that an outcry should arise
from the Romanists (and particularly from Garnet and
the old leaders, whose opposition had been overcome by
Percy's arguments) that they had been sold by North-
umberland and his cousin. The accusation was a most
unjust one in the Earl's case, for if ever a man had acted
disinterestedly and with good intention it was he. Thomas
Percy, too, had been clearly duped by the King ; and the
shameful and undeserved position in which he found himself
wrought him to a pitch of ungovernable fury. In his
reckless anger, he even dared to present a remonstrance
to the King, calling upon him to be true to his plighted
word ; an exploit for which, singularly enough, he was
allowed to go unpunished. No answer was returned to
this appeal ; and the conservative Catholics, still looking
with suspicion upon Percy, failed to summon him to their
councils. This cruel buffet of fortune — unjust treatment
from his own people — extinguished the last glimmer of
prudence in his mind. He turned aside from his former
friends, and enlisted himself among that small minority of
rabid fanatics already spoken of as forming the most ad-
vanced wing of the English Catholics. These extremists,
desperadoes and madmen for the most part, had pledged
themselves to stop at nothing save the complete supremacy
of the Catholic faith in England. By the moderate party —
those who asked merely for liberty of conscience — the
fanatical element was shunned and condemned ; but
although its numbers were few, it made up for this lack
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 103
by that extraordinary strength of will peculiar to religious
enthusiasts.
We have two contemporary descriptions of Thomas
Percy's appearance. His fellow-conspirator, the priest
Greenway, states that Percy was forty-five years of age,
but looked older through premature greyness. "In figure"
says the same authority, he was " tall and handsome, his eyes
large and lively, and the expression of his countenance pleasing,
tho' grave ; and, not-withstanding the boldness of his character,
his manners . . . gentle and quiet" * The Proclamation of
a reward for his capture is as follows : — " The said Percy
is a tall man with a great broad beard, a good face, and hair,
mingled with white hairs, but the head more white than his
beard. He stoopeth somewhat in the shoulders, is well
coloured in the face, long-footed, and small-legged"^ The
well-known picture "from life" of the conspirators in
council, represents Percy as by no means the tallest among
them, with a keen face, and up-curled moustaches.
Even the fanatics, among whom Percy now found
himself, had at first no intention of resorting to such
The terrible measures as those which they afterwards
Gunpowder adopted. They hoped to terrorise James by
threats of war from abroad, and agents were
despatched to the Catholic Courts of Europe with vague
schemes of this kind. There were also projects for the
release of Arabella Stuart, and for the capture of the
Prince of Wales. The bloody Lancashire Assizes of 1604
and their results, however, filled Percy and his fellows with
a lust for immediate and awful revenge. At these assizes
six Catholic priests had been tried and executed under the
penal statute known as " 27 Elizabeth " ; and one of the
judges had laid it down as law that any layman hearing
mass or taking part in Romanist sacraments was guilty
of treason-felony. An ancient gentleman of Lancashire,
Pound by name, who protested against this decision, was
J Father Greenway's AfSS.
2 "Gunpowder Plot Book," Original State Papers, Record Office.
104 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
dragged before the Star Chamber,1 fined ^1000, pilloried,
and committed to the Fleet Prison " at the King's pleasure."
Moderate Catholics throughout the realm realised that
their high hopes were at an end ; and prepared themselves
to bear with fortitude a continuance of the Elizabethan
persecution. Not so the frenzied band that looked to
Robert Catesby as its chief. These men — they were not
more than seven — resolved to strike a blow which, they
madly fancied, would paralyse the Protestant power.
Once embarked with Catesby and Thomas Winter in
their atrocious conspiracy, Percy became the most ardent
and impatient of the seven. He had been recently admitted,
through Northumberland's influence, to a position in the
corps of Gentlemen Pensioners ; and this enabled him to
supply his partners with news of the Court. He also
brought into the league a valuable recruit in the person of
his brother-in-law, John Wright,2 formerly a follower of
Essex, and renowned as " the best swordsman of his time
in England." "About the middle of Easter Term (1605)"
according to Speed, " Thomas Percy, as hole as Hotspur him-
self, came puffing to Catesby1 s lodging in Lambeth, and asked
' Shall we always be talking, and never doe anything? ' " 3 The
" lodging in Lambeth " was a desolate house in Lambeth
marshes, which was for months the principal meeting-place
of the plotters.
It was at length determined to attempt the destruction
of the King, Lords and Commons at one stroke by means
of gunpowder, large stores of which were accordingly
purchased abroad and conveyed to England. Meanwhile
the number of those in the dreadful secret had been
increased. Guido Fawkes (a soldier of fortune, born of
good family in Yorkshire), Robert Winter, Keyes, and
1 During Mr. Pound's examination he was attacked by Coke, Cecil, Chief
Justice Popham, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, with extraordinary vin-
dictiveness.
2 Percy had married Wright's sister (see Genealogy, Table III.). Christopher
Wright, brother of John, subsequently joined the plot at Percy's instigation.
Both brothers had been subjected to fines and imprisonment as Romanists,
3 Speed's Chronicle.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 105
Christopher Wright, and Bates, a confidential lackey, one
after another joined the black list. Funds were, however,
lacking ; and to remedy this defect Sir Everard Digby,
Rookwood, and Tresham, all gentlemen of large fortune,
were admitted to the league and took the oath, subse-
quently receiving the Blessed Sacrament from the hands
of the Jesuit priest, Garnet. That Father Garnet had no
suspicion of the Plot is abundantly proved by the Crown
evidence collected for his subsequent trial,1 and by the
statements of Fawkes and Robert Winter. Another priest,
however (Greenway), was certainly cognisant of the con-
spirators' designs, and probably shared in their councils,
until sent abroad in the extravagant hope of obtaining papal
sanction for the meditated crime.
An important step was taken when Percy hired a small
dwelling in Westminster, next to the Houses of Parliament.
It was a two-storied building, with a little garden, surrounded
by high walls ; and belonged to one Whinneard, keeper of
the King's Wardrobe. Whinneard let it to a person named
Ferris, who in turn sub-let it to Thomas Percy ; the latter
explaining that, as a Gentleman Pensioner and the Earl of
Northumberland's agent, he desired a town residence in that
quarter. The gunpowder recently purchased was next con-
veyed up the river, landed in sacks and carried to the West-
minster house, where Guido Fawkes was installed as caretaker
under the name of "John Johnson, servant to Mr. Percy."
Catesby, Percy, Fawkes, and Thomas Winter at once set
to work upon a tunnel, by which they proposed to gain
access to the cellars of Westminster Hall. A fortnight was
spent in excavating the basement of Percy's house, and
piercing through the massive walls of the neighbouring
structure. The work had to be done at night, and the
conspirators worked with extraordinary energy and perse-
verance. Greenway expresses his astonishment that " men
of their quality should do more than as many workmen accus-
1 The parts of this evidence which most clearly bore out Garnet's innocence
were coolly suppressed by Attorney-General Coke, but may be seen in the M.S.
still preserved. The oath was taken in a lonely house situated in the fields
between Clement's and Lincoln's Inns.
106 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
touted to earn their daily bread by labour" 1 He also marvels
how they, " who were unusually tall men, should endure for
so long a time the intense fatigue of working, day and night,
in the stooping posture rendered necessary by the straitness of
the place!' 2 While engaged in this work, they were one
night startled by loud noises on the further side of the
wall. Thinking themselves discovered, they retreated in
haste ; but investigation proved that the sounds proceeded
from a cellar occupied by a dealer in coals. Overtures
were made to this person ; and as his business happened
to be poor, he was persuaded into transferring the tenancy
of the cellar to Percy. This took place in March 1605 ;
and the tunnel having been completed, the stored gun-
powder was carried through it into the cellar.
Matters were now in readiness for the actual consum-
mation of their fiendish enterprise, and it was determined
to explode the powder on the day that the King came to
open Parliament — i.e. on November 5, 1605. Fawkes, either
by lot or at the prompting of his own fanaticism, was
chosen to light the fatal train. It was at first intended
that all the Catholic members of both Houses, and all
fair-minded Protestants like Northumberland, should be
warned to absent themselves from the doomed gathering.
It soon became apparent, however, that this could not be
done without betraying the murderous scheme. Sundry
of the conspirators then pleaded earnestly that warnings
should be sent to one or two persons at least. Percy
was anxious to save his cousin and patron, the Earl of
Northumberland ; and Tresham exerted all his influence
in favour of Lord Monteagle,3 his brother-in-law. Catesby,
however, strenuously opposed even this slight concession
to humanity, and vowed that were his own son Robert4 one
1 Gremway's MSS. * Ibid.
3 William Parker, Lord Monteagle, was the son of Lord Morley by the
heiress of Monteagle. He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas
Tresham, and was a secret Romanist. Among his direct descendants was the
late Poet Laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
4 This youth married a daughter of Thomas Percy, his father's fellow-criminal,
a little while before the discovery of the Gunpowder treason.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 107
of those about to attend Parliament he would not imperil
the success of the Plot by giving him the slightest hint.
Language like this carried the day ; and it was decided by
a majority of the plotters that the presence or absence of
Northumberland and Monteagle must be left to chance.
Percy bowed to this decision ; Tresham, on the contrary,
inveighed so bitterly against it that Catesby began to
regret the admission of his cousin to their league of wrath.
In the end, as we shall see, the anxiety of Tresham in
Monteagle's behalf led to the discovery of the Plot.
Sir Everard Digby contributed the sum of ^1500 to
the undertaking, and promised that, on the fateful day,
he would gather all his Catholic country neighbours at
Dunsmore Heath in Warwickshire, under pretext of a
great hunting party. Thus, when the blow was struck,
he would be able (while disclaiming any connection with
the terrible crime) to proclaim as sovereign some prince
or princess favourable to the Romanist party. This should
have been the Prince of Wales, who was known to be
of liberal mind ; but, when it was learned that Henry
was to accompany his father to Westminster, the choice
of the conspirators fell upon his younger brother. The
task of carrying off Prince Charles was allotted to Thomas
Percy ; and if this failed the Princess Elizabeth,1 then
under the tuition of Lord Harrington near Coventry, was
to be seized by Digby, and proclaimed Queen.
These preliminaries having been settled, Thomas Percy
went north, according to his custom, for the purpose of
taking over the rents collected by his deputies, the Earl
of Northumberland's bailiffs. The amount of which he
possessed himself exceeded ^3000 ; and this he resolved
to devote to the expenses of the Plot. On Friday,
November i, he returned to London, unknown to his
patron the Earl, who believed him still absent in the
North. Indeed Northumberland would not have learned
of Percy's presence in town until after the discovery of
1 Through this princess the present Royal House of Great Britain derives its
descent from James I. and the English monarch.,.
io8 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the conspiracy, but for the mistake made by one of his
cousin's servants, a man named Davison. Not being in
the confidence of his master, Davison went to visit the
former's nephew, Josceline Percy,1 at Syon, on Sunday,
November 3, and casually let fall the news that Thomas
had come back from his northern excursion. When Percy
discovered that his treacherous plan had been thus spoilt
by his servitor, he decided that it were best to show him-
self at Syon, and make some kind of false report. Accord-
ingly, on the following day 2 — which was the eve of that
fixed for the blowing up of Parliament — he rode out to
Isleworth, "sauced with a gudgeon"8 the unsuspecting
Northumberland, and afterwards dined with the latter and
his guests at table, discussing politics in an apparently
frank and natural manner.4 Later in the day he called at
Essex House, which was occupied by Lady Northumber-
land and her children, and where the Earl occasionally
resided when on good terms with his wife. To all that
he met he announced his intention of departing anew for
the North that evening. But, although these visits to
Syon and Essex House were brought forward by the
Earl's enemies as tending to prove the assertion that
Northumberland had been warned to absent himself from
Parliament on the 5th, there seems no reason to believe
that any such warning was given. Percy's sole interview
with his patron took place at Syon, when they were sur-
rounded by witnesses, and when any such secret com-
munication was impossible. Moreover if he had been
warned, and was a party to the Plot, Northumberland
would scarcely have come to London that evening, and
spent the night at Essex House so as to be able to
attend the morrow's ceremony with convenience. And,
1 This Josceline was son of Alan Percy of Bevcrley, elder brother of Thomas
Percy, and occupied a position in the Earl's household. Like his uncle, he was
a Catholic.
2 Monday, November 4.
a The Earl's own expression, meaning that Percy put him off with some tale
about the rents.
4 Correspondence of Northumberland with the Council, Orig. Slate Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 109
if cognisant of the Plot, he would have, on his side, en-
deavoured to penetrate the designs of the Council — a
matter of little difficulty, seeing that he was a Councillor
himself, and had more than one warm friend in that body
— and thus given Percy, Catesby, and the others an oppor-
tunity of avoiding discovery even at the last moment. But
Thomas Percy left his patron's presence in high feather,
confident that the dastardly scheme must certainly suc-
ceed, and that the mysterious letter sent by Tresham to
Lord Monteagle had failed to awaken the Government to
a sense of their danger.
For Percy knew of the existence of this notorious letter,
as did most of his brother-plotters ; Monteagle's body-
servant having seen the document on his master's table,
and conveyed the startling intelligence to his friend Bates.
But when the morning of November 4 passed by without
any signs of ministerial activity, and when Percy observed
nothing suspicious in the manner of those whom he met
at Syon and Essex House, they deemed themselves safe
from interference.
Francis Tresham, hoping at all hazards to preserve
Lord Monteagle's life, sent to him that obscurely worded
missive which, while intended merely as a vague
revealed: hint of danger, was sufficient to betray the whole
death of plot. Monteagle, greatly puzzled by this com-
munication, carried it to Whitehall, where it was
laid before Salisbury and the inner circle of the Council.
The ease with which the meaning of these vague phrases
was penetrated, and the unaccountable delay in acting
upon the discovery thus made, have given rise in some
quarters to the fantastic charge that Salisbury had known
of the Plot from its inception, and even secretly fostered
it in order to cover the Catholics with odium and put an
end to their claims. The world has seldom known a falser
or more unscrupulous minister than Robert Cecil, first
Earl of Salisbury ; but even he was hardly capable of an
intrigue so diabolical as this. One explanation of the delay
no THE HOUSE OF PERCY
is doubtless to be found in the King's absence at Royston
with a hunting-party. Fully aware of the royal weakness,
Salisbury and his friends were willing to have it appear
that the riddle of the letter had been solved by the wisdom
of the "British Solomon" alone. James returned from
the chase on October 31, and, according to his courtiers,
at once divined that the threatened peril was connected
with gunpowder, and that the Houses of Parliament were
menaced with destruction " from below " i.e. from the
vaults.
On Monday, November 4, the Lord Chamberlain,
Suffolk, visited the cellars of Westminster Hall on a
pretended tour of inspection. There he found Guido
Fawkes mounting guard over the gunpowder, which lay
about him in sacks like so much small-coal. When
questioned by Suffolk, Fawkes answered boldly that his
name was John Johnson, and that he had been placed
there to look after the coals of his employer, Mr. Percy.
Suffolk pretended to be satisfied by this reply, and, merely
remarking that Mr. Percy was well supplied with fuel, he
left the vault, and reported what had occurred at White-
hall. No sooner had he gone, than Fawkes hastened
(presumably through the tunnel, although the evidence
on this point is not clear) to inform Percy of the visit
which he had received. One might have thought an
occurrence so suspicious, coupled with their knowledge
of Tresham's letter, quite enough to alarm the con-
spirators to the point of panic. But these fanatics were
as sanguine as they were resolute. Guido Fawkes re-
turned to his cellar with the utmost sangfroid, and Percy
went quietly towards the meeting-place l beyond Clement's
Inn, calling at Essex House on his way. Catesby and
John Wright had left town on the preceding day, with
the intention of joining Digby's "hunt" on Dunsmore
Heath ; but Christopher Wright, Rookwood, Keyes, Tres-
ham, Thomas Winter, and the servant, Bates, were still
in London, and apparently still confident.
1 The " lonely home " already mentioned.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY in
Meanwhile Sir Thomas Knyvet,1 with a strong body
of men-at-arms, had been sent from Whitehall to appre-
hend Guido Fawkes, and investigate the contents of his
"coal-sacks." Knyvet, however, like Lord Suffolk, had
too great a respect for the safety of his own person to
think of taking the cellar by storm. He had reason to
believe that a great quantity of gunpowder was stored
therein ; and any rash attempt to seize the pretended
" John Johnson " might result in a terrific explosion and
loss of life. Indeed, had Fawkes but remained in his
retreat, and waited for Knyvet's party to attack him, the
day might have had a disastrous ending. But some
motive — curiosity, perhaps, or a desire for fresh air — in-
duced him to raise the trap-door by which the cellar
communicated with the street without. Instantly his arms
and neck were firmly grasped by the men-at-arms whom
Knyvet had stationed around the doorway. In vain he
struggled to free himself, his intention being to light the
powder-train with the fuse which he held in his hand, and
thus blow himself .and his captors to eternity. But the
men-at-arms knew the risk they ran, and held fast. Fawkes
was dragged into the street, and overpowered by numbers ;
after which the cautious Knyvet descended into the vault,
found the gunpowder, and sealed up the premises in the
King's name. Fawkes was at once haled before James
and the Council, in whose presence he bore himself with
extraordinary bravado.2 Although subjected to indescrib-
able tortures for five days, he steadfastly refused to betray
his associates, or even to admit that his supposed em-
ployer, Percy, had anything to do with the Plot.
No attempt was made to keep the arrest of Fawkes
secret, and the news spread rapidly from Westminster
to the city. Thomas Percy heard of it as he passed
1 Sir Thomas Knyvet, afterwards the first (and last) Lord Knyvet. His
nephew and heir was Henry Carey, first Viscount Falkland.
" When one of James's Scottish courtiers demanded why he had placed the
gunpowder under Westminster, he replied, " To blow the Scots back to their own
country."
ii2 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Clement's Inn. Hurrying to the lonely rendezvous in
the fields, he found there his brother-in-law, Christopher
Wright, and a pair of fleet horses kept in readiness for
such an emergency. Leaving a secret token for their
friends, the two men mounted and fled. They rode at
headlong speed, throwing their cloaks away to lighten
the load. The line of flight lay through Dunstable, Fenny
Stratford, and Stoney Stratford. Just beyond the last-
named village, they overtook Catesby and John Wright
riding leisurely along the high-road. A few words sufficed
to explain what had happened, and in a trice Catesby and
the elder Wright had set spurs to their horses, and were
galloping as fast as the others. Rookwood, Keyes, and
Bates (who had waited in London until the 5th) overtook
the party near Towcester ; and about 6 P.M. on Novem-
ber 6 the entire company of fugitives reached Ashby St.
Legers1 in Northamptonshire. The ancient mansion was
filled with guests, among them Robert Winter, one of
the conspirators ; and Thomas Percy met there his young
daughter, wife of Catesby's eldest son. The lord of the
mansion would not stay longer than to drink a tankard of
ale, obtain fresh horses, and give Robert Winter and some
other gentlemen time to mount. Then all pushed on to
Dunchurch, five miles away, where Sir Everard Digby
was entertaining a great company of Catholic gentlemen
after their hunt on Dunsmore Heath. The priests Garnet
and Oldcorne were of this party, and it was vaguely known
that important news was expected from London, although
Digby had taken care to keep his honest guests in the
dark as to the nature of that news.
The assembled sportsmen were sitting down to supper,
when Catesby and his companions rode furiously into
the courtyard. " Save yourself, Digby ! " they shouted
" The Plot is betrayed. There is a price upon our heads."
In a few moments, the household was in confusion, and
the grim story of the Gunpowder treason and its failure
were known to all. Old Garnet wrung his hands, and
1 Catesby's ancestral seat.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 113
cried out that now indeed the Catholic cause was undone.
Murmurs of abhorrence and anger rose on every side.
At this Sir Everard Digby drew his sword, and called
upon all true Catholics to join him in arms against " the
perjured King of Scots." Only the nine conspirators *
rallied to his call. The rest of those present recoiled
in horror from the confessed partner in such a crime.
Led by his own relative, Sir Robert Digby of Coleshill,
they passed one after another from the hall, mounted,
and rode away. " Had we succeeded," exclaimed Thomas
Percy bitterly, "they would not have looked upon us
with such despite ! " 2 This may or may not be true ;
but it is at least certain that the Catholic gentlemen as-
sembled at Dunchurch, while frankly disaffected against
King James, had no share, active or passive, in the Gun-
powder Plot.
The conspirators, seeing themselves abandoned by
those upon whom they had counted for support, held
urgent deliberation around Digby's supper-table. At
length, upon the advice of Catesby, it was resolved to fly
into Wales, where there were many Catholics, and there
raise the standard of rebellion. Taking with them abund-
ance of provisions, as well as arms and ammunition, they
rode through Warwick and into Worcestershire, forcibly
possessing themselves of horses when they could obtain
them. None of the Catholic gentry to whom they ap-
pealed were willing to aid them ; indeed Digby complains
that they were driven from many doors as men who had
brought ruin and disgrace upon the Romanist faith.3 Only
one recruit was added to their ranks, a country squire of
Worcestershire, named John Grant. As they crossed the
borders of Staffordshire, they learned that a hue and cry
had been raised, and that Sir Richard Walsh, Sheriff of
Worcester, at the head of the posse comitatus, was hard
I Thomas Winter, brother of Robert, was a guest at the Dunchurch "hunting-
party."
II Evidence of Bates ; Orig. State Papers.
3 Statement of Sir Everard Digby ; Orig, Slate Papers.
II. II
u4 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
upon their track. The road lay clear before them into
Wales ; but their long journey had so fatigued them, that
they determined to make a stand at a small house called
Holbeach, the residence of Stephen Littleton.1 To this
place, which was just over the Staffordshire border, they
came late on the night of Thursday, November 7. It
had been raining hard, and the gunpowder which they
carried with them became so damp that they were ob-
liged to spread it out on the hearth to dry. Then they
laid themselves down with the intention of obtaining
a few hours' repose, before the pursuers learned their
whereabouts.
In the grey of dawn, a loud explosion broke the still-
ness ; and some of the conspirators, thus suddenly roused
from sleep, for the moment fancied themselves victims
of their own fell design. Investigation showed that the
powder spread before the fire to dry had been ignited by
a blazing splinter of wood. Accepting the event as an
ill omen sent from Heaven, the startled men threw them-
selves upon their knees and prayed to God for forgiveness.
Their nerves seemed completely shattered, and they were
no longer able to sleep. Digby paced restlessly up and
clown, and at length left the house, with the intention, he
declared, of seeking succour from his friends in the neigh-
bourhood. Robert Winter, Littleton, the owner of the
place, and the lackey Bates next stole out, and concealed
themselves in a wood hard by. But Catesby, Thomas
Percy, the two Wrights, Rookwood, Grant, Keyes, and
Thomas Winter made no attempt to leave Holbeach. The
explosion had been heard for some distance around, and
when Sheriff Walsh and his followers reached the Stafford-
shire border, a number of peasants were ready to guide
them " to where the traitors lay."
About noon Walsh succeeded in surrounding Holbeach
with armed men. He himself then rode within earshot of
1 Of the Staffordshire family, represented by Lord llatherton. The present
Lord Ilatherton's mother was Lady Margaret Percy, daughter of the fifth Duke
of Northumberland.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 115
the house, and in a loud voice called upon the inmates to
surrender. The only reply was a shot, for the conspirators
preferred to die in fight rather than suffer the hideous
tortures which awaited them, should they be taken alive.
The sheriff then ordered his men to advance. The house
was set on fire by one party, while another attacked
the door of the courtyard, and discharged their muskets
through the breach made by the exploding gunpowder.
" Stand by me, Tom 1 " cried Catesby to Thomas Percy.
" Stand by me, and we will die together ! "
Percy and he stood back to back accordingly, and were
shot through the bodies with two bullets from a single
musket,1 but not before they had killed or disabled several of
their assailants.2 Catesby, with a last effort, drew himself to
a corner of the room where a picture of the Virgin Mary
hung, and there died making the sign of the cross. Percy
lingered until the following day (November 9), when he
too passed away, expressing deep contrition for his sins.
His brothers-in-law, the Wrights, fought bravely ; but even
John Wright's great skill as a swordsman could not avail
against numbers, and both Christopher and he were slain.
The rest then surrendered ; and, later in the day, Robert
Winter and Keyes were discovered hiding in the wood.
Sir Everard Digby also fell into Walsh's hands, being
betrayed by the servant of one of his friends. All except
Bates followed the example of Guido Fawkes in defying
the torture, and heroically refusing to incriminate Father
Garnet,3 the Earl of Northumberland, or any other innocent
person. Bates, however, while on the rack, admitted almost
everything which his inquisitors suggested. Tresham made
a voluntary statement, involving Garnet, but this he sub-
sequently recanted.
1 The man who fired this shot, one Thomas Hall, received a life pension of
two shillings a day from the King. He continued to draw this annual gratuity
until 1640. — Exchequer Rolls.
2 Speed's Chronicle.
* This unfortunate priest was captured with his companion Oldcorne, at
Hindlip Hall, near Worcester, a few days later, and charged with complicity
in the Plot.
u6 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
The bodies of Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, and John
and Christopher Wright were laid to rest with scant cere-
mony in the little garden of Holbeach. Of the other
conspirators, all save Tresham suffered capital punishment.
Sir Everard Digby, Robert Winter, John Grant, and
Thomas Bates (whose "confession " did not save him, poor
wretch !) suffered on January 30 ; and on January 31
Thomas Winter, Rookwood, Keyes, and Guido Fawkes
met their doom.1 The condemned men (none of whom
could stand erect after the tortures they had endured) were
drawn upon hurdles to the west end of St. Paul's church-
yard, and there hanged, drawn, and quartered, in the
presence of an enormous concourse of people.2
While the surviving conspirators were thus paying the
dread penalty of their crime, the Earl of Northumberland
saiisbu 'av a Pr'soner m the Tower, charged with being
remembers an accessory to the Gunpowder Plot. Salisbury's
old scores. cj,ance of vengeance had come at last, and he
was determined that it should be used to the full.
We have seen how Thomas Percy dined with his
cousin, the Earl, at Syon on November 4, 1605. That
night Northumberland lay at Essex House in London, so
as to be able to attend the proposed opening of Parliament
on November 5 with greater ease. He retired to rest early,
and was already asleep when the news of Guido Fawkes's
arrest reached his household. Fearful of his temper,
none dared to disturb him, until soon after dawn, when
the Earl of Worcester3 arrived from the torture-chamber
of Fawkes with messages from the Council. Northumber-
land, awakened from his morning slumbers, addressed Lord
Worcester with some asperity, and replied to the questions
of the Council " with scorne and confidence"* Thomas
1 Speed's Chronicle.
2 There is a contemporary woodcut depicting this repulsive scene, which
may be found reproduced in the Pictorial History of England.
3 Ancestor of the Duke of Beaufort.
4 Worcester's Report ; State Pafers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 117
Percy, he declared, was certainly his cousin, and had
assuredly dined with him at Syon on the preceding day.
When informed of the Plot, he expressed anxiety regarding
the large sum collected for him by Thomas Percy in the
North ; and at once volunteered to join in the pursuit of
his relative, with men and horses.1 To this offer Salisbury
sent back a most discouraging reply, advising Northumber-
land that his departure from London at such a time, and
under such circumstances, was certain to be misconstrued.
The • Earl now saw that his enemies intended to make
capital out of the connection between Thomas Percy and
himself, and his well-known liberal views in regard to the
Catholics. This belief was confirmed when, later in the
morning, an intimation reached him that the King desired
his absence from Council until "certain matters of im-
portance " were cleared up.
At the Council held on November 5, under the King's
presidency, Lord Salisbury brought forward a number of
facts bearing upon Northumberland's past conduct, which
he held to be of a highly suspicious character. Although
James had not yet outlived his respect for the Earl, he
was easily persuaded to sign a warrant, placing the latter
temporarily " under restraint" so that he might be brought
before the Council at any time. Bancroft, Archbishop of
Canterbury, was the person to whose care the quasi-
prisoner was committed ; and the indignant Earl was com-
manded to present himself without further delay or parley
at the Primate's palace in Croydon — there to remain until
the Council felt disposed to accord him a hearing.
Well knowing that Northumberland had many powerful
friends at home and abroad, it was Lord Salisbury's plan
to prevent any interference on their part by pretending to
regard the Earl's confinement as a petty piece of formality,
intended rather for the prisoner's benefit than otherwise,
and certain to terminate very shortly. To all the King's
ministers at foreign Courts letters were written in this strain.
As a specimen, that addressed to Sir Charles Cornwallis
1 Worcester's Report.
ii8 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
may be quoted here : — " // hath been thought meet in pollicie
of State (all circumstances considered) to commit the Earl of
Northumberland to the Archbishop of Canterbury, there to be
honorably used untill things be more quiett ; whereof if you
should hear any Judgment made, as if His Majesty or his
Councill could harbour a thought of such a savadge practise
to be lodged in such a nobleman's breast, you shall do well
to suppresse it as a malicious Discourse and Invention ; this
being only done to satisfie the World that nothing be undone
which belongeth to pollicie of State wJten the whole Monarchy
was proscribed to dissolution ; and being no more than himself
discreetly approved as necessarie, when he received the sentence
of the Council for his Restrainte" *
We have only Salisbury's word for the statement that
the Earl "himself discreetly approved as necessarie" this
curtailment of his liberty ; and the chances are that this
was quite as great a falsehood as the assertion that "His
Majesty or his Councill" harboured no thought of connect-
ing their noble prisoner with the Plot. But these artfully
composed letters produced the desired effect, and by lulling
the fears of Northumberland's friends, prevented James
from being tampered with in the former's behalf. Mean-
while, through various secret channels, Salisbury caused to
be spread a number of reports most discreditable to the
Earl. These stories could, if necessary, be disowned by
the minister ; but in the meantime they did their victim
much harm, and cost him at least one valued friend. Sir
William Browne, then in the Netherlands, was informed by
Salisbury's agents that Northumberland had been deeply
concerned in the Gunpowder treason, and that his cousin
Thomas Percy had given him warning not to attend the
opening of Parliament on November 5. Greatly shocked
by this intelligence (which he believed, as coming from a
person high in the British secret service), Browne wrote
from Flushing to Lord Lisle, on November 9 : —
" Seeing the Earle of Northumberland hath so villainously
and deuilishly forgot himself, I am sorry that euer I honored
J Salisbury lo Cornwallis ; Wimwotts Memoirs, ii. 172.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 119
kirn, and more sory that 1 have a chyld that carryes his
name." *
In many other directions there is evidence of the work
of defamation which was making the way clear for the
Earl's impeachment. The Irish Viceroy wrote to Lord
Suffolk asking if the "evill tales" about Northumberland
were true ; and on November 19 Sir Edmond Hoby in-
forms Sir Thomas Edmonds, that "some say that North-
umberland received the like letter that Monteagle did, but
concealed it." 2
The behaviour of an accused person placed upon his
own defence frequently sheds a great light upon the
TheE«ri question of that person's guilt or innocence,
defends him- This being so, it must be admitted that the
seifstoutiy. ietters written by Northumberland, and the
straightforward manner in which he bore himself during
the period of detention at Croydon, are strongly in
his favour. His language, when addressing King or
ministers, is that of a man who feels himself unjustly
accused, and who courts the fullest inquiry into his actions.
There is also discernible through his correspondence a
not unnatural feeling of resentment towards Thomas
Percy, and a desire to give the fullest information at his
disposal concerning the latter's misdeeds. While protest-
ing against his needless detention and enforced absence
from his beloved Syon, he obeyed the King's command to
the letter ; and Archbishop Bancroft had nothing to
complain of in the conduct of his prisoner.
On November 8, Northumberland wrote from the
Archbishop's house at Croydon, to the " Most Honourable
Councill," in these terms : —
" / shalbe gladde as matters falles out to store you with
circumstances, to the ende that the bare truth may appearc.
A mongst the rest forgett not this one, I praye you. First by
1 Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 316.
3 Sidney Papers.
120 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the letters of Ffotherleyf you may see how he [Percy] stored
himself e with my money, as passing with three Portmantues
filled upon Friday, at night, at Ware. Secondlie, his horse
kept in diett at Doncaster for his retorne ; and Wednesday e,
the day after this horrible fact should be committed, was the
lyme appointed for him to meet with the rest of my Money and
the rest of my Companie. Thirdly, that by Ffotherleys letter,
your Lordships may see Percy's excuse ; for the money that was
wanting was to be receaved at London, so as there was a
greater proportion of horses sente doune by appointment than
tliere was that came upp.
" Ffourthlie, as most palpable ; This was one. Ffriday was,
the day hee came to London ; I, neither ante ofmyne, did see him
till Monday twelve of the clock, when he came to Sion to me ;
went away presentlie after dinner, after he had ' Sawsed mee
with a Gudgeon,' 2 and then appeared to the rest of my people at
Essex House, from whence hee was to passe as hee told me, and
then told them, to Ware, that night ; givinge them all the same
gudgeon that hee hadde bestowed on me before, as alsoe to
my brother Charles, my brother Alan, Sir Edward Ffrancis,
Edmund Powton, Giles Greene and Captain Whitlock, as may
appeare if they be examined. Soe as, my Lords, it is probable
I should not have seen him at Sion uppon Monday, if one acci-
dent had not happened ; and that was this ; A man of his came
to the Courte to my lodging uppon Sonday to enquire for
Thomas Percy ; this man was a stranger to all the Companie,
and never scene before by anie of them ; the fashion of the man
your lordships shall understande to the end he may bee caught
hereafter. If this man by this means had not discovered that
his master, Thomas Percy, had lyne in tonne by this Accidente ;
and that he founde that my followers of necessilie must knowe
it, I thinke I should not have seene him uppon Monday at Sion
and the rest of my companie that afternoone at Essex House,
one of the greatest arguments of suspition laid to my chardge.
1 Letters from this official, the Earl's auditor, were enclosed. They bore date
November 7th and 8th.
2 According to the evidence of Keyes, one of the conspirators, Percy had told
the Earl a falsehood "in order to get money from him."
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 121
Though I be somewhat tedious in these triffles, I say to your
Lordships tlicy be matters of moment to me, and I hope you
•will pardon me, for I sate still, the more you know, the better it
will be for me."1
Next day (November 9) he addressed the King in the
following appeal for justice : —
" Sir,
" The true integrity of my soule towards you hastens me
to put all conceits of anger owt ofyr Ma'! hart towards y' faith-
fullest seruant, the want of yr presence besides that it is
disgracefull to me in the world grieues my inwardest thoughts.
V Ma : in y" function vppon earth is a God ; your self out of
y' justice and mercy seekes to imitate that great Master. He
forgives those that repent. I auowe that I am sorrie in my
minde of y" displeasure (now got by my passions, and neuer im-
braced in my thoughts w1" the lest Jot of Intention) I beseche y'
Ma : therefore hold on that imitaon the world takes notice of
in you in this case of mine ; for y' ma'y knowes not how much
it stinges me yr displeasure. At this time the burden is much
more heauy, because the world may take Jealosy as things fall
out at this pnt, and lay a greater imputaon to my charge, then
euer they can rite me, in hereafter. Saue, 1 humbly crauey' My,
the bird in my bosome 2; I mean my loyalty, or the lest imaginadn
y' may fall w"1 in the compas of fooles censures. If I have not
endured enough allready of y" indignaon for my offence, rcturne
me hereafter to begin again fro whence yr Ma'y shall free me for
the pnt. If my seruice at any time have deserued this favor,
or may hereafter, lett these lines move his hart to forgett it, to
whose person and seruice he is deuoted for euer that desires the
attribute of one of
" V Ma" loyallest subiects and
" humble vassals,
" Croydon this pnt " NORTHUD.3
" Thursday?
1 Alnwick MSS., vol. ci. p. 4.
2 This self-same figure of speech was used by Sir Ralph Percy, "the Gledd of
Dunstanburgh," when he died for the Lancastrian cause at Hedgeley Moor.
3 Orig. State Papers— Domestic ; Jas. I. : Record Office.
122 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
It was not until the morning of November 10 that the
Earl learned of the capture of Thomas Percy and the
others at Holbeach. He at once wrote to the Council,
urging that Percy's wounds should be tended with the
best surgical skill, in order that the conspirator's life
might be prolonged sufficiently to enable him to make a
full confession. He advised that foreign surgeons of skill
should be employed, as the English surgeons were clumsy
in dealing with bullet wounds ; and even offered to defray
the expense of bringing over some experienced foreigner.1
While this solicitude for his unhappy cousin was con-
fessedly due to selfish motives,2 no better argument could
have been advanced to show that the Earl had nothing
to fear, and perhaps much to gain, from a deathbed state-
ment by Thomas Percy.
No surgeon, however, of any sort, good or bad, was
summoned to dress Percy's wounds, and the sometime
Constable of Alnwick died without making any recorded
deposition. If tradition be not a liar, there was at least
one personage in Great Britain who felt relieved that such
was the case. We know that the dead man had been a
persistent witness to certain pledges alleged to have been
made to him by King James in favour of the English
Catholics. It may be, therefore, that the uneasy monarch
dreaded a sworn statement to the same effect from the
lips of a dying man. At any rate, the following story is
recorded by the Bishop of Dromore : — " The present Earl
of Hardwicke informs me that he had heard his father, the
late Lord Chancellor, tell this remarkable anecdote concerning
the gunpowder conspirators: That when the account was
brought to King James of some of them having been pursued
into Worcester, where part of them were secured, and the rest
killed by the Posse Comitatus, the King eagerly inquired what
they had done with Percy ; and when they told him that he
was killed, the King could not conceal his satisfaction, but
1 Original Slate Papers ; Gunpowder Plot Book.
2 The writer states that he wished Percy to live so that he (Northumberland)
and his brothers, Charles and Alan, might be vindicated.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 123
seemed relieved from an anxious suspense, that evidently
showed he was glad that Percy was in a condition to tell no
tales." i
Even as his father had done while a prisoner in the
Tower, Northumberland continued day after day, and week
after week, to demand a fair trial, or else his
forjustice, release, at the hands of the King and Council.
and it» AII(J ;ust as jn the case of his father, these
outcome. 11, • • •
appeals were unheeded by sovereign or ministers.
In vain he pointed to the whole tenor of his life as free
from any evidence of disloyalty. In vain he used argu-
ments like the following :— " The seruis that I can doe in
this case is but to present to your memories sutche things as
are most lykely to give means of discovery. Therefore consider,
I desier your lordships, the course of my lyfe ; ^vhether it hathe
not leaned more of late yeares to private domesticall pleasures,
than to other ambitions. Examin but my humors in Build-
ings, Gardenings, and Private Expenses, theas two yeares past.
Looke but upon those few arms at Syon ; my stable of hors at
this instant ; the Dispersedness of them and of my scruants ;
the littell concours of followers ; and your Lordships will fynd
they be very consonant one to another, and all of them to put
by all iealousy. WeigJie but a little further, that not any one
of theas men yett knowen, or that have busied themselves in
this action, so mutche as their faces have been noted of me
(Percy only excepted). Besides looke but into the store of
Treasor that I had gathered into my purse against thys tyme
(which I will be aschamed to write, but your lordships may
understand^ uppon Enquire), and there will, in somme of them
be found circumstances that will leade on to a better and
certainter knowledge of the thing in question. In what sorte,
or howe, or to whome, out of theas perticulars your Lordship
shall precede, I leaue to your graver iudgments ; but suere I
am out of theas, coniectures may be made and somwhat bolted
out, if the sentence be not true, ' Qui vadit plane vadit sane."
Theas things I write, not but in way of rememora~ons, by cause
1 Ahnuick MSS., quoted by De Funblanque, vol. ii. p. 263.
124 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
they are things pryuat, and not open to your lordships' knotv-
ledges ; yett sutche things as may give satisfaction if they be
scanned.
" I hope your Lordships will pardon me if I be earnest in
this cause, for the obloquie lies as yett heauy vpon me ; and
that your Lordships will as well embrace, and bundle upp
circumstances out of your charites that makes for me, as thos
that gives suspitions'' *
By this time even Salisbury was compelled to admit,
however reluctantly, that it was impossible to connect the
Earl in any reasonable way with the Gunpowder Plot.
But even when this fact was fully established, Northumber-
land was as far from obtaining his freedom as ever. With
a Cecil at the helm of State, charges, true or false, were
never lacking against those to whom a grudge was owing.
At the instigation of Salisbury and Northampton it was
decided to investigate the dealings between the Earl of
Northumberland and the discontented Catholics. In point
of fact an attempt was to be made to implicate the Earl in
the old, vague plots for which Raleigh, Cobham, and Grey
had been punished. The Archbishop was ordered to
bring his prisoner before the Council ; and Chief-Justice
Popham examined the latter searchingly and at great length.
Nothing of a treasonable nature was discovered ; and the
baffled Salisbury was obliged to hark back to Elizabethan
times for a pretext upon which to accuse Northumberland.
But even then, the principal fact elicited by Popham's
questions could scarcely have made pleasant reading for
the King. For the Earl said : — " In the late Queens time,
the King alloived me to give hopes to the English Catholics,
which I did, but went no further." 2
During his long examination (it lasted for several
hours) he had been obliged to stand ; and the fatigue thus
caused might, he feared, have caused him to forget some
items of importance. Accordingly, on the day following,
he supplemented his evidence by a letter to the Council,
1 Northumberland to the Council, November 15, 1605; Orig. State Papers:
Record Office. 3 State Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 125
bringing forward some points which had slipped his
memory through " standing soe long and talkinge soe long."
Among other things, he said : — " Nowe my Lords it is
requisitt that I doe lay doune circumstances and truthes
that will cleare whatsoever was said in that tyme " [before
Elizabeth's death] "was don with an honest intention to
obey the King and doe him service, and one is this : —
the wordel " [world] " knowes that I am no Papist ; the
wordel knows no man is more obedient to the laws of the
Church of England than I am ; and the wordel may knowe
I am noe Supporter of Recusants, neither is my house
pestered with them, some one or two old servants to my
House excepted." 1
If Northumberland desired his freedom, he made a fatal
mistake in repeating the old charge that James had de-
liberately encouraged the English Catholics to look for
toleration under his rule. A wiser or less honest man
would have followed the safe course of suppressing this
fact altogether ; but the Earl, anxious only to tell the truth,
practically accused his sovereign of hypocrisy and false-
hood— thus playing directly into the hands of Salisbury
and the Cecil Party. The " little Beagle " * was no longer
obliged to scent out new charges in order to course his
quarry down. Northumberland's own rash statements
were quite sufficient to fill the King with a bitter spite
against him ; and no further arguments were necessary to
bring about his committal to the Tower — the recognised
preliminary to a Star Chamber trial. James signed the
warrant for his imprisonment on November 27 ; and he
was removed from Croydon to the Tower on the following
day.
More than six months passed by before Attorney-
General Coke could frame an indictment sufficiently
plausible to be laid even before such a body as the Star
Chamber. In the hope of discovering some peg upon
which to hang an accusation of treason, the Earl's northern
1 Northumberland to the Council ; Nov. 24, 1605 ; Orig. Slate Papers.
1 James's nickname for Lord Salisbury.
126 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
castles were seized and searched under royal warrant.
Evidently Northumberland's conscience was at ease, for he
wrote in jesting vein to Salisbury1 on this subject. Sir
Henry Widdrington (who owed him a considerable sum of
money) had been ordered to conduct the investigations at
Alnwick, Tynemouth, Prudhoe, and Cockermouth. Hear-
ing of this, Northumberland begged that "Percys closet
doore at Alnwick might be sealed up, as it contained, among
other papers, bonds of Wither ington's to the value of 1000
marks, which he might be tempted to dispose of to his owne
advantage' '2 The only documents discovered in the North
which bore in any way upon the Catholic intrigues were
letters from the Earl to his tenants, written after the dis-
covery of the Gunpowder Plot, and warning them against
paying any more money to Thomas Percy. The members
of Catesby's conspiracy suffered torture and death without
implicating Northumberland in any way. Nevertheless
Coke succeeded, by sheer impudence and exaggeration, in
drawing up a case for the Crown sufficient to give the pro-
ceedings a far-off semblance of justice. The extraordinary
animus displayed against the Earl by Salisbury, North-
ampton, and Coke, as well as by the King, may be judged
from unprejudiced contemporary evidence. The letters
of the French Ambassador, La Boderie,3 show conclu-
sively that Northumberland's conviction had been de-
cided on from the date of his committal to the Tower,
and that the very terms of his sentence were arranged
between James and the Cecil clique at least twenty-four
hours before the so-called trial.4 La Boderie in his ex-
traordinarily accurate letter of forecast (written on June 26)
asserts that the intended sentence was dictated entirely
" by political feeling and the wish to get ridof a spirited rival" 5
Continuing, he describes how Cecil had worked upon the
1 He still considered Salisbury well disposed towards him and never suspected
treachery.
2 Alnwick A/SS., vol. viii.
3 Ambassadts de M. di la Boderie.
4 La Boderie to Villeroi, June 26, 1606 ; Ambassadcs de M. de la Boderie.
'" Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 127
King's natural cowardliness in order to attain his ends.
The cases of Lords Stourton and Mordaunt, too, afford
striking comment upon the manner in which Northumber-
land was treated. Both of these noblemen were under
grave suspicion, if not of complicity in the Gunpowder
Plot, at least of being aware that some such blow was to
be attempted against the Government. It is highly pro-
bable that they had both received warnings similar to that
sent by Tresham to Monteagle. On the fateful fifth of
November they absented themselves from London, and it
was proved that relays of horses were kept in readiness
for them along the roads in case of emergency, yet
Stourton and Mordaunt were merely charged with having
" disregarded the King's summons to Parliament," and the
cases against them were dismissed with insignificant fines.
Northumberland, against whom no such suspicions
existed, was at length brought before the Star Chamber,
on June 27, 1606. There, to quote the words of Gardiner,1
he " was forced to listen to a long and passionate harangue
from Coke, who, after mentioning, as he had done in
Raleigh's case, all manner of plots with which he was
unable to prove that the prisoner had ever been con-
nected,2 charged him with having committed certain
contempts and misdemeanours against the King. His
employment of Percy to carry letters to James in Scotland
was brought against him, as if he had attempted to put
himself at the head of the Catholic party. It was also
objected that after the discovery of the Plot he had
written letters to his tenants, directing them to keep his
rents out of Percy's hands, but saying nothing of the
apprehension of the traitor." He had also allowed Percy
to become one of the band of Gentlemen Pensioners,
knowing that his cousin, as a Catholic, was hardly likely
1 History of England.
1 The Attorney-General attempted to bolster up his case by the assertion
(probably false) that "other mailers of higher nature'1'' were reserved by the
Crown, and would be brought forward in case the Council was not fully con-
vinced of Northumberland's guilt.- Star Chamber Proceedings, 1606; Cotton
MSS., Vespasian, E. xiv. 452.
I28 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
to take the oath of Supremacy. " By this weakness — for
undoubtedly it was no more than a weakness," continues
Gardiner, "he had disobeyed the orders given him, and
placed about the person of the King a man who was en-
gaged in plotting his death." It was not even pretended,
however, that the Earl had the slightest cognisance of
these plots.
Such was the sum-total of Coke's accusations — the
outcome of six months of rigorous inquiry ! No wonder
that Northumberland hardly considered it necessary to
plead at all in rebuttal of such trivial charges, and con-
tented himself with proving that his brother, Sir Alan
Percy, and not himself, was responsible for the admission
of Thomas Percy to the band of Gentlemen Pensioners.1
Apparently he anticipated no more serious outcome of
the trial than a reprimand, and a small fine, for having
taken King James at his word,2 and allowed the employ-
ment of a Catholic in the royal service. He was soon to
learn that the "trial" was a mere pretext; and that "he
occupied the position of the hapless victim in the old
fable of ' The Wolf and the Lamb.' " The Court found him
guilty of ''serious offences against the King's Majesty" ; and
proceeded to pass the following outrageous sentence : —
"Adjudged and ordered that the said Earl shall, for the said
offences, pay for a Fine, to the use of His Majesty, the sum of
^30,000 ; and shall be displaced and removed from the place,
of a Privy Counsellor, and from being Lieutenant of His
Majesty's Counties, and from all and every other Office, Honour
or Place, which he holdeth by His Majesty's Grace and Favour,
and hereafter be disabled to take upon him, or exercise, any of
the said Offices or Places; and that he shall be returned
Prisoner to the said Tower of London, from whence he came,
there to remain Prisoner as before, during His Majesty's
Pleasure." 3
Northumberland appears to have been stunned by the
1 Proceedings of the Star Chamber.
" See the King's letter to Northumberland already quoted.
3 Decree in the Star Chamber; Cotton MSS., Vesf., E. xiv.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 129
Appalling injustice of this sentence. He uttered no word
of protest; and passed silently from the Star Chamber
to " that Charon's barge " (as he termed it afterwards) which
bore him back to the Tower, there to expiate for sixteen
years the dual folly of having believed a King's promises,
and robbed a minister of his intended victim. Modern
historians are almost unanimous in condemning the tri-
bunal and its decision. In his critical work on the Gun-
powder Plot,1 Jardyne shows the unconstitutional methods
pursued, and the colossal injustice of the Earl's punish-
ment. In summing up the proceedings Hallam says : —
" Every one must agree that the fine imposed upon
this nobleman was preposterous. Were we even to admit
that suspicion might justify his long imprisonment, a
participation in one of the most atrocious conspiracies
recorded in history was, if proved, to be more severely
punished ; if not proved, not at all." 2
Five days after his conviction, Northumberland wrote
from the Tower s a letter of protest addressed to the King.
He pointed out in calm and dignified terms
™o friend's: the utter incompatibility between the venial
his wife and faults for which he had been tried, and the ex-
traordinary magnitude of the penalties inflicted.
Under the circumstances he asked James to exercise his
clemency in so far as to grant a further inquiry.
No answer was vouchsafed to this appeal for justice.
Six weeks later, Northumberland again addressed the
throne, this time with reference to the fine in which he
found himself condemned. Lifelong imprisonment and
forfeiture of all his honours he was prepared to bear with
resignation ; but for the sake of his wife, family, and great
army of dependants, he petitions James to reduce in some
degree the enormous fine. " // is," he declares with justice,"
(he greatest Fine that ever was gott upon any Subject in this
1 The Gunpowder Plot, p. 245.
2 Hallam, Constitutional History, vol ii. p. 47.
3 Original Stale Papers, July 2, 1606.
II. I
i3o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Realme. My Estate is not stick as perhapps the World takes it
for ; my Debts are greater than is believed, and there is a
Companie of little ones to provide for, which lies uppon my
Handes. I know Your Ma" to be soe gratious that you
desire not to punish others for my Falte ; this is a Burden will
light as well uppon their Fortunes as upon myne. Besides, I
knowe it is not a little Money will doe Your Ma"' Good, and
it is a little that would doe us a greate deal of Harme ; and
howsoever it hath pleased the Lords to censure me, I doe appeale
to Your Ma"', a higher Judge, for Favour, who knowes more
than them in this Case. Therefore I most humblie desire Your
Ma"' for Mitligacon. What it shall please you that I shall
undergoe I will, as I am able, endeavour to satiisfie."1 If
James ever received this second plea, he left it unanswered
and unacknowledged, as he had done the former one.
In the day of his sorrow and persecution, when the
timorous world shrank from sympathy with the fallen
lest blame should fall upon those who lent him counte-
nance, Northumberland was fortunate in finding at least
two outspoken and faithful friends. One of these was
Anne of Denmark, Queen of Great Britain ; in the other
we are at once surprised and gratified to recognise the
imprisoned Earl's shrewish wife — she whose fiery temper
had made their married life one long series of quarrels and
separations. The fair shrew was a shrew still (as we
shall presently discover), but only to the enemies of her
husband. The latter's undeserved disgrace did more to
win for him his wife's regard, and to arouse her loyalty in
his interest, than anything that had transpired since the
time of their marriage. No sooner, indeed, did prison
doors close upon the Earl — no sooner did it become
difficult, and even perilous, to befriend him, than Lady
Northumberland forsook all else for his sake, and resolved
to devote her life to the cause of his liberation. In James's
gentle consort she found an unfailing ally and protectress.
Queen Anne positively refused to believe in the Earl's
guilt, and, not being afraid of Lord Salisbury and his
1 Northumberland to the King, Sept. 13, 1606; Original State Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 131
crew, she proclaimed her sentiments without hesitation.
Nay, she even wrote to Northumberland, assuring him
of her unshaken confidence and sympathy. We are not
told how King James regarded this act of domestic re-
bellion ; but it is easy to understand that the Queen's
gracious letter brought consolation and hope to the
captive in the Tower. He wrote in heartfelt acknow-
ledgment ; and received from Anne a second missive,
condemning the ministers who had plotted his ruin and
reasserting a belief in his innocence. She added that
she had already interceded with the King in his behalf,
and hoped to do so again with greater success. Northum-
berland's reply was as follows : —
" Most gratious Soueraigne : — / am soe much bounden to
your Met" for your Favours, and especallie for this last Desire
you had of releasing me of my Misfortunes by the Motion you
last made, as I can saie no more towards the Expressing of my
in-warde Thoughts, but that I am the same to your Ma'" that
ever I was, since the first Day I saw you ; that is Your Ma'"'
faithful Seruant, as readie to sacrifice his Life for you and
yours ; and although these are but small Ceremonies of my
Dutie, and humble Acceptance and acknowledging of them, as
being common trafficks from Prisoners and Men stung with
Afflictions, yett are they such as wee can present Princes with
no others.
" Therefore, good Madam, give me leave, I beseech you, to
wish for better Occasions wherein I may make good that I
have vowed to you. If Fortune denie me of suck a Happiness,
then doe I presente the humble Prayers of a Prisoner (to God],
that hath leisure to doe that and means to do nothing els to
demonstrate his Faith.
" Your Mat'" faithfull Vassall and Servant,
" H. NORTHUMBERLAND.
" Tower, xx of August,
"i6o6."1
The friendship so openly shown him by Anne of
Denmark, and the zeal and courage with which Lady
1 Northumberland to the Queen ; Original State Papers.
I32 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Northumberland championed his cause, led the Earl to
believe that his term of imprisonment was destined to be
of short duration. Already he pictured himself back again
at Syon among his books and gardens ; and in this spirit
wrote confidently to Lord Exeter.1 The King, he declared
would soon discover how false were the charges which
had been made against him. One official mistake had
been distorted by Coke's sophistries into the semblance
of " haynous treasone" ; but now, when James had time to
give the matter full consideration, he felt sure that justice
would be done him. But the year 1606 was allowed to pass
by — as were many other years ! — without any sign of
clemency on the part of the King. Northumberland wrote
him two more letters during the autumn and winter ;
but these were ignored as their predecessors had been.
The Countess imagined that it was James's intention to
release her husband from the Tower at the expiration of
one twelvemonth from his first committal, z>. on November
27, 1606. This expectation proving vain, both husband and
wife hoped that the order of release would be issued on the
anniversary of the Star Chamber sentence ; and so com-
forted themselves through the winter and spring. But June
27, 1607, came and went without any sign of royal leniency.
The Countess, who had come to Essex House for the pur-
pose of welcoming her liberated lord, went back in deepest
grief to Syon ; while Northumberland asked for a few
books, and prepared to face another year of confinement.
This was the time chosen by Queen Anne for a visit
of consolation to the sorrowing woman at Syon. She
The Queen knew well that by publicly countenancing Lady
comforts Northumberland at such a period, she braved
Lady
Northumber- the King's anger, and earned for herself the
land. venomous hatred of Lord Salisbury. Yet she
drove from London to Isleworth, for the sole purpose of
1 The Earl of Exeter, Salisbury's elder brolher, while not a partisan of
Northumberland, does not seem to have joined the rest of the Cecil confederacy
in actively persecuting their former friend and associate. This letter is dated July
20, 1606.
THE. HOUSE OF PERCY 133
comforting this wife whom the selfish world had abandoned
in her misfortune. What must Attorney-General Coke
have thought if, driving along the Brentford road from his
mansion at Osterley, he had seen the royal liveries entering
the north gates of Syon ! And what must they have said
(and thought) at the Council, when the news was carried
thither 1
We are not told what passed between the two women,
consoler and consoled, upon that June afternoon in the
Syon gardens. But a playful, yet pathetic touch in one of
Northumberland's letters, shows us the gentle Queen pre-
siding over a loving little court composed of the Countess
and her babes. The words were written immediately after
Anne's journey to Syon, and the epistle breathes throughout
a spirit of earnest gratitude. Despite the assumed lightness
of his allusion to those "little servants" his children, it is
plain that the Earl was deeply moved by this generous and
womanly action on the part of the Queen : —
" It pleaseth Your Ma"' euerie Day soe to adde new
Favours on our poore Familie that I must, from myselfe and
for them, presente you still with one and the same Gifte ; an
unprofitable Servant's Devotion : and sing still and so often
one Noate ; ' Thankes, Thankes, T/wnkes, and nothing but
Thankes ! ' Thus I desire to ende my Letter before it be
almoste begonne, least I prouve tedious, being Banckrout of all
other Occasions to rend open my Brest, that you may see my
Harte how much it is Your Ma'"'1.
" I understand how evill you were waited on at Sion by
your little Servants ; theire Wills weare good, though their
Endeavours nought ; and Your Ma'"* Acceptance soe noble as,
because I may not saie what I would, I will close up my Lipps,
and will my Penne to yeald noe more Inke for the Present." x
Through the Queen's incessant persuasions, James was
at last (sorely against his will) induced to grant an audience
to Lady Northumberland. His Majesty had heard tales to
the effect that the Countess possessed a biting tongue upon
occasion, and that, when stirred to anger, she was no
1 Northumberland to the Queen ; Original Slate Papers.
i34 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
respecter of persons. He also knew (from efforts in his
own behalf during Elizabeth's lifetime) that she could urge
a cause with untiring perseverance. For all these reasons,
he dreaded an interview with her, knowing full well that
he could advance no reason worthy of respect for keeping
the Earl longer in prison. Queen Anne's entreaties, how-
ever, finally resulted in his consenting to hear what Lady
Northumberland had to say. Very sagaciously (from his
own standpoint) he refused to enter into argument with
her, listened to her pleading with a profound assumption
of judicial wisdom, and dismissed her with the unpromising
statements that he would " take his own time " in the matter,
and that before Northumberland could hope to be released
he must prove to the satisfaction of King and Council " that
Thomas Percy gave him no warning of the intended crime'' l
He could show himself obstinate enough at times, especially
when (as in the case of the Earl) he believed that his
personal safety or peace of mind might be endangered
by a lenient policy ; and neither the Queen nor Lady
Northumberland could move him to any further con-
cession.
From the Tower the Earl then wrote, pointing out,
among other things, the practical impossibility of bringing
forward any but circumstantial evidence to prove that the
Conspirator Percy had not warned him of the Gunpowder
Plot. " At my last soliciting Your Mafestie, by my Wife, to think
of my Libertie," he observes; " it pleased you to sate that you
would take your owne Tyme. I have not byne importunate
since, because I conceaved it disliked you ; though it be a matter
almost the dearest Thing Man enjoys. Your Mafestie hath byne
a King manie Yeares, and can judge of Offences. I will not
therefore dispute of myne, but must still be an Intercessor for
myselfe to Your Majestie for your favour ; and I beseech you
let the former Desire of my House and self e to doe you Service,
•move you somewhat, since I doubt not but that I shall see the
Day that you will esteeme me to have byne as honest and faith-
ful a Servant as ever you had in England. It pleased Your
1 Original State fafvrs.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 135
Majestie amongst other Speeches uppon her, urging of my
Innocence, to wish I could prove that Percie gave me no
Notice (the verie mayne Pointe of my Troubles) ; but Your
Majestie, that is soe greate a Scholler, and soe judicious, cannot
but know how impossible it is to prove a negative" '
Even while her husband still believed in and trusted
Salisbury, Lady Northumberland, with feminine in-
stinct, had suspected the latter's treachery.
The "Little , . . J,
The Earl at first disregarded her opinions, and
feels the persisted in treating the Lord Treasurer as a
friend, or at least as one that did not seek to
injure him. His misfortunes he chose rather to ascribe
to the jealousy of the Scottish courtiers than to any bad
faith on the part of the Cecils and Howards. Lady
Northumberland, on the contrary, grew more and more
convinced, as time went on, that Salisbury, and no other,
was at the bottom of her lord's undeserved persecution.
There is little doubt that her sentiments were shared, if not
for the most part inspired, by the Queen, who thoroughly
disliked this double-dealing minister. As time went on,
without any signs of Northumberland's release, or the
mitigation of his fine, the Countess (in her new character
of docile wife) strove to conceal the increasing anger and
bitterness which she felt towards the King's first adviser.
But neither dissimulation nor self-restraint were natural to
her, nor could she wear these disguises long. The day
came when neither the wishes of her lord nor the Queen's
advice could curb her temper further. Some new evidence
of the Treasurer's perfidy being brought to light, she
ordered her coach and drove to Whitehall, resolved once
and for all " to give the Ferrett a nipp."
She found Salisbury walking up and down in the
orchard ; 2 and with her usual impetuosity, demanded that
he should at once prove his friendship for Northumberland
1 Northumberland to the King, Jan. 7, 1608 ; Original State Papers.
3 The same orchard in which the ministers held hurried council after
Elizabeth's death. — Memoirs of Sir R. Carey.
136 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
by procuring a reduction of the Star Chamber fine, or else
lay aside the mask which he had hitherto worn, and openly
avow himself as the enemy of the man whom he had
wronged. Countess Dorothy had as sharp a tongue as
any woman in England ; and when Salisbury proceeded
(in that imitation of his father which he affected) to make
some would-be subtle rejoinder, my lady assailed him
with a torrent of reproach and invective. In vain he tried
to speak — he whose lightest word had weight in Council
and Star Chamber. The sister of Essex was not to be
silenced, so she said, " by any Cyssle borne" Nor did she
mince matters in telling the Lord Treasurer of his " manifold
base treasons" If he had never been told the truth about
himself before, he was told it then. It is somewhat to be
regretted that we have no complete account of what oc-
curred between the enraged wife and the betrayer of her
husband ; but we know that after enduring the soundest of
verbal castigations, Salisbury at last took to his heels and
fled. It is a picture worthy of a Hogarth — the little
Treasurer, sallow-faced and baleful-eyed, shrinking before
the attack of the wrathful Countess, while, at discreet
distances, among the apple-trees of Whitehall, foreign
envoys and underlings of the Court make believe to hide
their merriment ! A man is never so ridiculous as when
publicly and deservedly castigated by a woman ; and if
that woman be fair to look upon, as was this daughter of
" the handsome Devereux," the sentiment of the spectators
is all the more in her favour. Lord Salisbury's frame of
mind, when he beat an undignified retreat before this fair
virago, could hardly have been an enviable one.
His first act, upon reaching the private apartment
allotted to him, was to issue orders that never again,
under any pretext, was Lady Northumberland to be ad-
mitted to his presence.1 He next sent one of his secre-
taries, Sir William Wade, to the Tower with instructions
to seek out Northumberland, and insist upon the latter's
reproving his wife for her conduct in thus shaming the
1 Sir Alan Percy to Sir Dudley Carleton, Sept. 1606.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 137
chief of Council in a public place. It is likely, however,
that either Lady Northumberland or the Queen found
means to communicate with the Earl before Wade arrived
with his budget of grievances ; for the prisoner was by
no means disposed to gratify his " verie good frende," l
Salisbury, by administering the desired rebuke ; and gave
it as his opinion that, if the Countess had erred at all, it
was through love for her husband, and a very natural
impatience at the lukewarm policy of his former associ-
ates.2 To this the Lord Treasurer made answer, by letter
— undated, but almost certainly written in the same month
(September 1606) : —
" When I sent unto you by Sir William Wade, a relation
of my Lady's sore dealing with me, in myne own Perticular,
I intreated him to lay this first Foundation : that I made no
Complainte, nor could say any tiling but that which must increase
your Lordship's Affection towards her whom, in all my Observa-
tions, time hath discovered to be a loving, careful, and a worthy
Wife to your Lordship. My End was onely to infuse into your
lordship some little part of that which I found convenient you
should know ; seeing the strange course that was taken ^v^th
me. . . But tritely, my Lord, I see that there remayns yet some
Dreggs of t)ie Discourses which Sir Walter Rawlegh and others
have dispersed of me, that the way to make me break my Pace
is not always good Usadge, but sometyme to be spoken to in a
high Style, which Aspersion (seeming to savour of servilitie) I
was desirous that your Lordship should know, when my Lady
should give you any account of her Talent, that though I forbare
to returne any one harsh Word to the contumelious Language she
used in cliardginga man of my Place to be one of those that used
to devise Causes and Cullurs and Trickcs to procure Favour and
the contrary, whenever I listed ; yet I had shown no such
Stupiditie as not to declare unto her Ladyship that I heild my-
sdfe no way tyed to medle with your Lordship or her Perticular
beyond the Incidents of my Place, further than I might list, or
1 Salisbury thus signed himself in writing to Northumberland, at the very
time when he was most busily plotting his ruin.
2 Northumberland to Salisbury (Copy) ; Alnwick MSS.
138 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
could or should, be deserved by good Usadge ; a matter which I
know your Lordship can well conceave, who knows best the true
Wisdome of Friendshiffs, and uppon what grounds one man is
to expect from another the effects of private Affection. A Ithough
my Ladye's bitter VVordes hath done Harm to your Cause, yet
they should be of no Consequence to move me to doe, or not to doe,
anything therein, further than I should see just cause at any
Tyme. I have ever honoured her Vertue, and will doe soe still
(though I am not suche a Stock not to see her Passion) how much
soever it may please her to injure me.
" Your Lordship's loving Friend to Command,
" SALISBURY." l
Northumberland does not appear to have replied to this
characteristic epistle ; nor did he reproach his wife for the
zealous manner in which she had carried out her intention
of "giving the Ferrett a nipp." Salisbury could see no way
of avenging himself directly upon the Countess ; but there
were indirect means by which he might make her feel his
spite, and thus teach her that the " nipped " ferret can bite
shrewdly in return.
The fall of Northumberland involved many persons
equally innocent, among others his brothers Alan and
Josceline Percy, and his secretary, Dudley Carle-
friends" ton. It is stated in the " Dictionary of National
hifslkr Biography " 2 that Carleton resigned his secretarial
duties in 1605, and went abroad as companion to
Lord Norris.3 The precise truth seems to have been that,
when Northumberland was sent to the Tower, Carleton
(while still considering himself in the Earl's service)
obtained leave from his patron to accompany young Norris
to the Low Countries, France and Spain. The travellers
had reached Paris on their return journey, when Carleton
1 Lord Salisbury to Northumberland (undated) ; Original State Papers,
3 Art. " Dudley Carleton," by Rev. A. Jessop, D.D.
3 Afterwards first Earl of Berkshire. He was great-grandson of that Henry
Norreys or Norris who suffered death in 1532 as an alleged paramour of Queen
Anne Boleyn.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 139
was summoned to London by an urgent order of Council.
Unconscious of having in any degree offended, he hastened
home, only to be placed in close confinement in the bailiff's
house at Westminster. One of the charges brought against
him was to the effect that he had been concerned in rent-
ing the house occupied by the conspirator, Thomas Percy,
next to Westminster Hall. He was several times brought
before the Council, and subjected to severe examinations ;
but the result was only to establish his complete guiltless-
ness, and he was released from arrest. This liberation
Dr. Jessop declares to have been due to " Salisbury's
favour " ; l but so far as can be discovered, the Lord
Treasurer showed no more favour to Dudley Carleton than
he did to Alan or Josceline Percy, and only set the Earl's
secretary free because he could in nowise connect him
with the Gunpowder Plot. Indeed while the two latter
had the Queen to help them, Carleton was possessed of
but scant influence ; and Salisbury was thus enabled to suc-
cessfully debar him from all Court offices, and to prevent
Lord Norris from giving him further employment abroad
— surely an unusual way of showing " favour " to a young
man so deserving.
Finding himself thus under a ban, because of his
connection with Northumberland, Carleton wrote to the
Tower asking for some post upon the Earl's country estates.
Already weary of politics, he wished to turn "country
farmer." Northumberland, who fully recognised the talents
of his secretary, and rightly judged that the latter's sphere
of action lay rather among courts and cities than in re-
tirement, hastened to make Carleton an allowance, and to
reply to him in the following kindly terms : —
"Carleton; As desperatto hathe made yow a Monke, so
hathe Necessite made me a Prisoner, patient ; and so, by Conse-
quent, hathe given a Crosse Byte to many that had any De-
pendency or Hopes vppon me. If it had proceeded out of myne
owen Fault, I shoold haue bene sorry for my selfe ; but since it
1 Diet, ef Nat. Biography.
I4o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
is not, I can beare it as a Misfortun of the World whiche we are
all subiect too. Thatgrieffe that stickes by me is for other Mens
sakes, that hathe deserued as littell Euyll as I haue donne.
The Strength of myne owen Mynde none knowes soe well as
my selfe ; and it is very strange against all but that whiche
others suffer for me. If I had been maculated with dishonest
or false Thoughts to the King, or my Cuntry, none could haue
spyed it sooner than yowr selfe; and so enoughe for that
Matter.
" But thoughe yow had runne into a Course of trauelling
abroade better to enable your selfe, yctt can I not but thinke of
yow as one had Dependency of me ; and althoughe yow knewe
(whaf) my Mynde was euer, and soe gaue I yow Freedom to doe
the best good yow coulde for yowr selfe, to whiche I euer
promised my helping Hand ; soe noiv, since yow haue suffered
ivith me, I can biit adde to that Charite rather than to sub-
stracte from it ; for I must nedes see that the Court Gates are
s/iutt vppon yow for my sake, and Trauell abroad is tarred
yow out of the same Consequent. Theas Disputes with my
selfe makes vie enter into the Examination of yowr selfe and
me relatiucly ; of my selfe and my Estate; of yow and the
Means I may employ yow in. Hopes I haue none left for being
any Mcdler in Matters of State, so long as I Hue ; and euery
Day soe long as I doe Hue, I shall be lessefitt by Reason of my
Imperfection of Hearing, and olde Age, whiche will comme
vpon me daly, desiring rest out of his owen Nature. Your
Endeuors hathe bend them selfes most that Way, and I holde
it Pitty that thos Parts should be lost in yow. I wold those
that might make Vse of yow, knew yow but as well as I doe.
" Well to conclude, I am of the same Mynde I was euer of:
I leaue yow to yowr owen Lyberty, and yowr beste Means to
doe yowr self c Good, to whiche I will put my helping Hand by
all Means I can. If it shall pleas the King to giue me Lyberty
to Lytte at myne owen House, comme, and yow shall be welcom
if yow be not otherwyse prouided. Besides, in the meane Tyme,
thoughe my Means are littell to doe good for any,yett as a
Badge that yow are one of mine, somewhat yerely shall be
allowed yow, with out any tying yow from any other Course.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 141
Out ofinyne owen Businesses yow know how I can, or what is left
for me to employ any man : for yow to becomme now a Cloune,1
nether is proper for those Endeuors you haue begunne with,
nether is my Estate sutche as I know well how to place to yowr
Contentement. The whiche I will adde is noe more but to
helpe yow from sinking for the Present, without any Barre of
farther retching out my helping Hand to yow hereafter, if
Fortun make me myne owen Man againe-
" Soe I rest, this 20 August
" NORTHUMBERLAND." 2
The Earl's brother, Sir Alan Percy, wrote to his friend
Carleton about the same time, but in lighter vein. Alan
Percy had just succeeded in winning a victory over
Salisbury, and was in high feather for that reason. He de-
sired to laugh Carleton out of his project of a country
life ; but there is a decided flavour of sarcasm in his letter :
" / am sorry that yow are soe near to be Jacke out of Office,
yet yow need not despair of making a Fortune without either
digging or begging ; for . . . I dottbt not but by the helpe
of some of my Frendes, which my attendance at Court hath
purchased me, to procure yow one, though it be but to attende
the King's dogges ; which yow must rather obtain by Favor
than by Merit, your experience hath bine soe small in such
ivaightie Affaires ! Thinke uppon this, if the rest faile ; for
the Dogges run very fleet, and lykelie the sooner to come to
Promotion"* At such a Court, indeed, the dog-leech was
as likely to win royal favour as the honest statesman.
Ill as Dudley Carleton fared, his case was not so hard
as that of many another follower of the Earl. When all
Northumberland's offices of state and crown lieutenancies
were taken from him under the infamous Star Chamber
decision, the patronage connected with them was of course
also lost. The new grantees, frequently Scottish lords with
hosts of needy dependants, had no notion of allowing
1 i.e. a country clown, or rustic. The allusion is to Carleton's expressed wish
to turn farmer.
• Northumberland to Mr. D. Carleton, Aug. 20, i6c6 ; Original Slate Papers.
3 Sir Alan Percy to Mr. D. Carleton, August 1606; Stale J'afcrs.
i42 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the deputies and agents of their predecessor to remain in
enjoyment of their posts ; and thus hundreds of those who
had served not only the Earl of Northumberland, but his
father before him, were deprived of the means of subsist-
ence. High and low, gentle and simple, these unfor-
tunates turned to the prisoner of the Tower, their late
patron, for aid and consolation. It is only justice to
Northumberland to say that he behaved to every man who
had been cast adrift in this way with a generosity as great
as his own circumstances would permit. The compter
rolls of Alnwick are crowded, at this time, with grants of
private pensions to persons who had suffered in his service.
These entries read alike save for the names and conditions
of the interested individuals, and the amounts allotted to
them. For instance, on December 4, 1606, we find a
grant to " Sir George Whitehead, of an annuity of ^20 in
consideratio that he hath been dispossessed of his post of
lieutenant of Tinmouth Castle^ the keeping of which it hath
pleased the king to take awaiefrom the saide Earl." 1
Before Carleton was summoned home from Paris, the
Earl's brothers Alan and Josceline were arrested, and seem
to have passed some time in the Westminster bailiff's
house as prisoners. They too were released after the
collapse of the Crown case against them, but all their
offices2 under the King were declared forfeit, and they
were warned to keep away from Court. This was the
period during which Alan Percy wrote his jesting letter
to Carleton. The jocular spirit died in him, however,
when he found that Salisbury meant, if possible, to make
his exclusion from Court permanent, and his hopes of
preferment impossible. Both Alan and Josceline were
Catholics ; and they now recklessly resolved to forswear
their native country and enlist in the service of some
Catholic power. They had, in fact, taken steps for the
1 Alnwick MSS.
">• Sir Alan Percy was Lieutenant of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners,
and both Josceline and he had held sundry small posts at the Earl's
nomination.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 143
sale of their annuities,1 with the intention of joining the
Spanish army in the Low Countries, when Northumberland
heard from his wife of what was afoot, and succeeded
in dissuading them from their purpose.2 The Queen also
interfered in their favour (thus once more crossing Lord
Salisbury in his designs), and they were permitted to
return to Court, where Alan at least soon recovered lost
ground, and therewith his old bantering spirit.
As was only to be expected, the army of pensioners
which now existed on the Earl's bounty proved extremely
increasing costly to maintain. Northumberland's debts,
ratify a"d * alreadv IarSe (owing to the interrupted building
misunder- operations at Syon, and the sudden loss of his
stands*. wardenships), now threatened to attain propor-
tions which would bring him to bankruptcy. Neither his
friends nor himself at first imagined that the Crown would
demand immediate payment of the £30,000 fine in which
he had been condemned. Rapacious as was the Tudor
dynasty, its successive sovereigns had always been willing
to collect large fines by instalments ; and the Earl believed
that, if he could not secure a reduction of his forfeit,
reasonable time would at least be allowed him to raise it.
James, however, acting upon the advice of the Lord Trea-
surer, notified the Earl that he would be content with no-
thing but an immediate settlement of the vast claim in its
entirety. In vain was immemorial custom appealed to ; in
vain did the unfortunate prisoner plead for leniency. Lord
Salisbury replied that "his Majesty the King could in no-
wise depart from the sentence of the Council." Unless the
£30,000 (an almost impossible sum for a subject to raise)
was speedily paid into the Treasury, sequestration of the
Northumberland estates was openly threatened.
The Lord Treasurer, for his own reasons, made no
secret of this decision, and took good care that the Earl's
1 Left to them by their father, the eighth earl, and subsequently added to by
their brother.
2 Original Stale Fafers, Nov. 1606.
144 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
creditors (hitherto patient enough) were fully informed of
the Government's intentions. A natural result was that
Northumberland and his representatives were at once
besieged by a clamorous mob of persons holding bills
against the estate. The amount of these claims exceeded,
according to the report, ^yooo,1 which brought the Earl's
total indebtedness up to ^37,000. He wrote manly letters
to all his private creditors, stating his exact position, and
assuring them that, whoever suffered, they should not.
In order to bear out his words, he at once proceeded to
negotiate for the raising of sums sufficient, at the worst,
to satisfy his more pressing obligations. It is not quite
clear what were the precise steps taken ; 2 but the Earl
had not gone very far in his dealings with the money-
lenders, when he discovered, to his amazement, that some
person was making use of his (Northumberland's) name,
while deliberately working against him in the financial
world. The identity of this mysterious (though, as it
subsequently appeared, well-intentioned) marplot was soon
disclosed. He proved to be Lord Knollys, maternal uncle
of the Countess of Northumberland.3 Misunderstanding
the conduct of his wife's relative, and believing that the
latter had been set on by the Court party to injure him,
the Earl despatched a letter of protest to Knollys. "/
am sorry" he wrote, " that your Lo^ and I should meete
in a Bargaine to marre one anothers Marckett, to make it
for Strangers. I will not beleeve but there lieth under
this proceeding some unnaturall Secrett, which yett appeares
not"*
1 The Earl's statement of his debts to Lord Knollys; Alnwick MSS.,
vol ix.
2 The main intention was, however, to raise funds by means of mortgage,
perhaps upon the (unentailed) Syon estate.
3 Sir William Knollys, created Baron Knollys in 1603 (and afterwards raised
to the dignities of Viscount Wallingford and Earl of Banbury), was son of Sir
Francis Knollys by Katherine Carey, and thus uncle of Lady Northumberland,
and the second Earl of Essex.
4 Northumberland to Lord Knollys, Feb. 3, 1608 ; Alnwick MSS., vol.
ix.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 145
Lord Knollys, in reply, assured the Earl that he had no
wish to interfere with his projects, but had merely moved
in the matter with a view to securing for Lady Northum-
berland and her younger children a suitable provision " in
case the worst should come to passe." He added that it was
his intention to settle some of his own property upon his
niece and her offspring. So far all was well, nor could
any one object to such a line of conduct ; but unfortunately
Knollys (who appears to have been a benevolent busybody,
frightened by the rumours of Northumberland's threatened
bankruptcy) took occasion, at the close of his long letter, to
complain that the Countess was not allowed enough money
to maintain herself with due dignity in the face of the
world. There is nothing to prove that Lady Northumber-
land herself authorised, or was even aware of this interfer-
ence on her behalf ; indeed she appears to have been quite
satisfied with the allowance made to her by her husband.
Knollys evidently embarked in the affair on his own re-
sponsibility, as in point of fact he admits in his letter to
the Earl. While Northumberland was grateful enough for
the interest shown in his family's welfare, he naturally
resented the imputation that he had been guilty of stingi-
ness in his domestic arrangements. In his answer to
Knollys,1 he endeavoured to show the falsity of such a
charge. Having first heartily thanked his relative, and
apologised for misconstruing the latter's recent action, he
went at great length into his own affairs, and showed that
he could not by any possibility increase Lady Northumber-
land's already large allowance. The epistle sheds an in-
teresting light upon the amount of expenditure recognised
as suitable to a great lady of the time :—
" / am sorry that I must nowe talke off Pence and
Haulffpence to cancell this Imputation — a Discourse jitter
for a Huswife to looke on, then a Councellor off State ; and
that I am forced to proue myselff a reasonable Man, and
that I understand myselff, iff I haue not loste my Wittes. ;
1 Dated Feb. 14, 1608; Alnwick JlfSS., vol. ix.
II. K
146 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
but since their is no Remedy, this I must affirme uppon mine
Honor :
" Shee (my wyfe) is allowed ^1300, yearely, ^500 of her
loincture, and £800 besides ; two faier Houses, Essex House
and Sion, with all Furnitures fitt for them and her use ;
although for the one some parte off the Rent shee doth defray ; *
Litters, Barges, Coaches (one excepted, I doe thinck shee did
buy), Coach- Horses for herselff, Hackneis for her Seruantes, all
Stable Chardges, either in Towne or out of Towne defraicd off
^vhat kind soeuer ; all chardges of Lienges in, as Midwifes,
Nurses Wages, Nursing Children abroade, Apparrell, and all
Necessaries belonging them ; then againe a dozen Servauntes
besides her owne Famely, 2 as Gentlemen of the Horse, Coach-
men, Porters, Groomes, Workefolkes for her Kitching- Gardens
that are emploied in theis Seruices, alwaies ready to attend her
which neuer cosies her Meate nor Money ; as also Schoolmasters.
Jt castes me ^400 this laste yeare paste in building off Bathing-
Houses^ Cabinettes, and other thinges Shee had a fancy to,
which this 1 5 ycare before was neuer miste nor wanting : nor
haitc I spared to satisfy her Contentment, or Delightes, in any
Workes since my Troubles, though I had laied aside all manner
off Buildingcs.
" I say againe, I am ashaimed to talke of Pence and Half-
pence . . . iff it were not to aske your Lordshtp whether
you call this suffering Penury ; and hathe shee not ^5000 or
-£6000 in her Purse able to purchase thinges over my head?
. . . Doe you call this Groning under the Burden of Penury,
that must manifest itselff to the World, though shee be silent ? "
Knollys having withdrawn his opposition, and apolo-
gised in turn, the Earl was enabled to raise various small
sums, sufficient to satisfy his more urgent creditors. The
Crown fine, however, continued unpaid ; and although
the Queen held out hopes that James would soon relent,
the gates of the Tower remained obstinately closed upon
their prisoner.
1 Essex House was only rented by the Earl and Countess.
2 i.e. her immediate attendants, such as serving-women, tyre-women, &c.
8 iiaths.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 147
There is no doubt that the King did at this time mani-
fest a disposition towards clemency in Northumberland's
The Earl's case > but just when the EaiTs expectations were
enemies and raised to the highest pitch, the royal mood
mSru'ntents. suddenly changed, and James declared that until
The case of the last penny of the .£30,000 fine had been
handed over to the Exchequer, there should be
no talk of pardon. Lord Salisbury no longer attempted to
conceal the fact that the King had acted upon his advice
in the matter ; and to a bitterly reproachful letter from
Northumberland he returned the cool reply that he could
not "conscientiously" interfere to mitigate what in his
opinion was a just punishment. So the Earl lingered on
in prison, with Sir Walter Raleigh and other victims of
the Lord Treasurer's jealousy and hate.
The King's fickle nature, however, was well known
to Salisbury ; and he took measures from time to time
to keep James's anger inflamed against Northumber-
land, lest otherwise the Queen's persistent intercession
might carry the day. For this reason the hare-brained
scheme of Alan and Josceline Percy to take service
under Catholic Spain was made much of ; and most
disingenuously, Salisbury represented to James that the
Earl had encouraged his younger brothers to abandon
England. Later on the King was informed that North-
umberland was raising considerable sums of money for
his own delectation, without making any effort to pay the
fine imposed upon him ; and this although the Treasurer
well knew that every penny thus acquired was spent in
staving off bankruptcy. In February 1611 an anonymous
pamphlet made its appearance, denouncing the Earl in the
most violent terms, and pretending "interior knowledge"
on the writer's part, of many facts intimately connecting
him not only with the Gunpowder Plot, but with other
"horrible Popish treasons." The style and wording of
this production are curiously suggestive of Attorney-
General Coke. It had a wide circulation, and did the Earl
much harm. On February 19 he wrote to his friend (and
148 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
former custodian), the Archbishop of Canterbury, pro-
testing against the unsubstantiated Charges with which the
pamphlet was filled.1 It had been published by one Francis
Burton, a bookbinder in St. Paul's Churchyard ; but
Northumberland could probably have hazarded shrewd
guesses at the names of its author and instigator.
The sensation caused by the appearance of " Burton's
Tract," as it was called, had hardly begun to abate at Court,
when another and more determined attempt was made by
the Earl's enemies to compromise him, and even to com-
pass his death as a traitor — for such must have been the
result had this foul intrigue succeeded. A man named
Timothy Elkes was the person chosen to "denounce" the
Earl. This fellow, a former lackey of Northumberland,
had been discharged for insolence some months before ;
and it was while indulging (after the fashion of his kind)
in abuse of his late master, and making sundry loose
accusations against the latter, that this likely instrument
of vengeance was discovered by my Lord Treasurer's
agents. Very little persuasion was needed to change
Elkes from an utterer of tavern slanders, into a " voluntarie
accuser of Northumberland" He declared that he "went in
feare of his life" 2 dreading that the Earl would have him
put to death in consequence of the " terrible secrets " with
which chance had made him acquainted. A special
Council was called to hear the "evidence," the King him-
self being present. Briefly Elkes accused Northumberland
of direct complicity in the Gunpowder Plot, and repeated
the old, exploded story of his having been warned of the
intended blow by Thomas Percy. In addition, the
"witness" claimed that Captain Whitlocke, who was at
Syon with the Earl and Percy on Nov. 4, 1605, was aware
of the secret, but had been bribed by Northumberland to
keep silence.3 Whitlocke, it may be remarked, was dead
when his name was thus made free with. The direct
1 Original State Papers, February 19, 1611.
- Evidence of Elkes ; Domestic Stale Pafers.Jama I., vol. Ixv.
3 Domestic State Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 149
examination of Elkes by Coke, Northampton, and Sir
Francis Bacon passed off without a hitch ; and it was
decided to bring Northumberland from the Tower to listen
to these grave allegations. The Earl accordingly journeyed
to Whitehall, probably by barge. It was the first occasion
upon which he had left his prison for five years. The
King and judges, we are told, found him "much changed ;
reserved, cautious and timid in his answeres." 1 His shoulders
stooped, and his face was pallid from long confinement.
The State Papers do not relate in what manner James
received the man whom he had treated so unjustly ; but
it is not unlikely that his Majesty was impressed by the
Earl's altered appearance, for during the subsequent cross-
examination of Elkes, he commanded the witness some-
what sharply to be careful, and " speake only the truthe."
Northumberland contented himself with repeating his
former evidence in rebuttal of the charge of complicity.
Elkes then made another statement, to the effect that, after
his master had been placed under arrest, he (Elkes) had
been sent to Sir Alan Percy with a message urging the
latter to avow himself responsible for the admission of
Thomas Percy to the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners. It
is difficult to see what bearing this message had upon the
actual Plot ; but Coke and others appeared to think it a
a most important point. Northumberland, when called
upon, fully admitted that he had sent to Alan Percy, but
only to request that he should be prepared to bear his
due share of the blame for the conspirator's irregular entry
into the King's service. Had he wished to convey a secret
or incriminating message (he pointed out), it was hardly
likely that he should do so by word of mouth, or that he
should select as messenger a person like Elkes.
After this, the case for the prosecution rapidly went to
pieces. The King, after bidding Elkes tell the truth or
else hold his tongue altogether, showed plainly that he gave
little credence to the so-called "informer." Taking their
cue from him, the councillors present unanimously agreed
1 Northampton to Salisbury ; State Papers.
150 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
to dismiss the charges as either baseless or absurd ; and
Coke, who had been prominent in conducting the attack,
now wrote to the Lord Treasurer that " the least men acquit
Northumberland of all blame"
Salisbury himself remained at Hatfield during the
inquiry, giving out that he did not wish to take an active
outcome of Par* *n Proceed'ngs so largely instigated by him-
the Hikes self. It is possible that he had no desire to
meet Northumberland face to face. That Elkes
lived under his protection both before and after these
abortive proceedings is indicated by the fact that, imme-
diately after the Lord Treasurer's death, this lying and
treacherous lackey fell into distress, had his goods seized
for debt, and was forced to fly the country. During 1611
and 1612, however, while his patron was still at the head
of affairs, Elkes lived in flourishing circumstances, and (in
spite of his contemptuous dismissal by the Council) had
the effrontery to write several letters renewing his charges
against Northumberland.1 On January 27, 1613, the de-
feated false witness makes his last appearance upon the
stage of public affairs. He writes over that date to
Thomas Lumsden, gentleman of the Privy Council, and
one of the dead Salisbury's proteges. He is, he declares,
" compelled to leave England to avoid the practices of his
adversaries" He "cannot sustain his suits" (for rewards
claimed by him, and promised by the Lord Treasurer)
" against so great a man (as the Earl of Northumberland)
without t/tc King's special grace." For this reason he re-
quests money of Lumsden to take him overseas.2 He
managed in the end to make his way to Leyden, and
thence to the Massachusetts Colony — in which latter
godly settlement he throve as an herb of exceeding
grace.
The collapse of the Elkes case called for elaborate ex-
planations on the part of Lord Salisbury, not only to the
King, but to various foreign courts which began to show
' Domestic Stak l\ipers. - Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 151
renewed interest in Northumberland's affairs. From the
Spanish Court (where the Earl had many warm friends,
and whither James had already begun to cast his eyes with
a view to some future alliance) came more than one ex-
pression of surprise and displeasure that a man repeatedly
proved to be innocent should remain a prisoner, and almost
an outlaw. In order to prevent any formal protest from
this source, Salisbury sent to Sir R. Winwood, British
minister at Madrid, one of his familiar epistles, carefully
prepared with a view to mislead, full of prevarications,
and intentionally overlooking both the main points of
the case and the decision arrived at by the judges. The
letter, which professes to be a full and unprejudiced state-
ment of the recent proceedings, may stand as a good
example of the method in which facts were transmuted in
the Cecil crucible : —
" The Earl of Salisbury, to Sir R. Winwood, his Majesty's
Minister at the Court of Madrid:
"Because you may iiave heard some Bruite touching the
Earl of Northumberland s late Examination ; and knowing
how various a Discourse a Subject of this Nature doth begett,
I have thought good (though there be no other matter for the
present to make this the occasion of a Dispatch) as well to
acquaint you with our Home Occurrences in the exchange of
yours from abroad, as to prevent any erroneous Impression, by
this breife narrative of the true Motive and Progress of the
Busyness.
" There is one Elkes, a Servant to the Earle, and one who it
seems was no Stranger to his Secrets, who hath of late com-
plained to a private Friend (that yet hath kept the same
with no great privacy) that he stood in some Danger of his
Life, seeing that he observed his Lord ' s Affection to be grown
cold towards him ; which he conceived could proceed from no
other Cause but Jealousy, lest he should reveal some Secrets
which he had revealed unto him concerning the Powder Treason.
Thus much being discovered, it could not be avoided to drazv
the same into some further Question ; yet with such Caution as
was requisite when the Accusation is but single, and the
152 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Accuser Servant to the Person accused. The Issue hath been
that the Earl hath confessed two things in Substance : one, that,
after he was committed to the Tower, and before he came to
the Star Chamber, he wrot to his Brother, Sir Alan Percie, to
take it upon him, that by his Means, Percie * was admitted a
Pensioner and suffered to escape the Oath. The other, that he
was acquainted with the Hireing of tliat House from whence
the Mine was made. Both these, you may remember, were by
him very stiffly denied heretofore ; and, though they be not of
such nature, in regard they do not necessarilie inforce the Know-
ledge of the Fact, as to call him to a further Try all for Life
or Landes, yet they serve to justify the former Proceedings,
those Points being now cleared, which at that Time were but
presumed" 2
As for Northumberland's "confession" that "he was
acquainted with the Hireing of that House from whence the
Mine was made," all that transpired in his examination was
that he had been aware of his agent's intention to rent a
residence at Westminster, so as to be near the scene of
his duties, and had sanctioned that apparently innocent
project. This very natural admission, Salisbury ingeni-
ously twists into a most suggestive appearance of guilty
foreknowledge on the Earl's part ! The second Cecil was
hardly so great a master of statecraft as his father, but
there were certain qualities in which he surpassed the latter.
It will be observed that in the letter to Madrid, nothing is
said of Northumberland's "acquittal . . . of all blame,"3 and
of the manner in which Elkes's statements were discredited
by the Council. Indeed a person accepting this missive as
a true history of the affair would naturally come to the
conclusion that, in place of being completely vindicated,
the Earl had been forced by his servant's evidence to con-
fess to new and serious offences. The remark that these
" Points . . . now cleared" served " to justify the former
Proceedings" and to establish the charges "which at that
1 Thomas Percy.
2 Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. The letter was dated July 25, 161 1.
3 Attorney-General Coke's statement to Salisbury.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 153
Time were but presumed" was surely a blunder on the part
of the cunning Salisbury ; for it proves the extraordinary
fact that Northumberland had been condemned, fined, and
imprisoned for faults which had never been proved, but
only "presumed" against him.
By similar means, we must suppose, the King was
induced to alter the intention which he had formed (after
the Elkes Inquiry) of " showing some grace" to the Earl.1
Both the Queen and Lady Northumberland spoke so
confidently of the royal inclination towards clemency,
that Northumberland once more addressed an appeal to
his sovereign. That he entertained great hopes may be
judged from the tone of his letter, which was that of
one who holds himself punished undeservedly, and who
expects redress. He thanks James warmly for the fairness
with which the Inquiry had been conducted, and for the
manner in which "that Viper, his Seruaute, whose Mallice is
soe apparent" had been sternly commanded to speak "no
more than the truth" 2
The appeal proved to be so much waste paper as far as
the King was concerned. With a malignancy that lasted
as long as life itself, Salisbury rose from a sick-bed to
strike his last and hardest blow against the unhappy
prisoner in the Tower.
Five years had now gone by since Northumberland's
sentence in the Star Chamber, and as yet his forfeit of
The Eari's £30,000 remained unsatisfied. As we have seen,
estates m's offers to settle the great fine bv instalments
sequestrated •*
by the (according to the custom followed under Henry
crown. vnit and Elizabeth) had been rejected by the
Lord Treasurer's advice and influence. He could not,
without involving his family in ruin, contrive to pay the
whole sum at one time ; and so the matter had dragged on
for years. The time had now come, however, when, in
Salisbury's opinion, the Crown should enforce its claim.
1 Alnwiek MSS., vol. Ixv.
3 dilate Papers.
154 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
In July 1611 (after Elkes's perjuries had failed of their
intended effect) the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir
Julius Caesar) was ordered to write a peremptory letter to
the Earl demanding immediate payment of at least ^20,000
and adequate security that the balance would be paid
within a few years. Otherwise, declared the Chancellor,
the Percy estates would be sequestrated. Northumberland
at first regarded this as a mere threat to frighten him into
straining his resources to the utmost. He replied that
.£20,000 was still a vast amount of money to a man
in his position, at whom the "traffickers in loans" looked
askance.1 Nevertheless he believed that he could comply
with the Treasury's demands if a little additional time
were given him. This reply was probably the one ex-
pected and desired by Salisbury. No further warning
was sent to Northumberland, and the Lord Treasurer
prevailed upon James to order that the estates of this
obstinate debtor should be declared sequestrated to the
King's uses. The actual instrument of sequestration was
signed on March 7, 1612 ;2 and this proved the first
intimation which the Earl received that his landed pro-
perty had been seized upon by the strong hand of the
State.
Under the scheme drawn up by Salisbury, and thus
made law, the various baronies and manors owned by
Northumberland were leased out to the King's Receivers-
General in the various counties where these possessions lay.
Yearly sums were to be collected by the lessees, and,
after the deduction of certain percentages, handed over to
the Treasury. In the county of Northumberland, for
instance, Ralph Ashton the younger, Receiver of Crown
Revenues, was appointed Fanner-General over the Baronies
of Alnvvick, Warkworth, Prudhoe, and Rothbury, and the
manors of Charleton-in-Tynedale, Corbrigg, &c. Out of
these properties he was to collect annually, until further
1 Almuick MSS, vol. viii.
2 Daincstic and Treasury Stale Pafcrs.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 155
notice, ^243. us.1 Similar leases were issued with regard
to the Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Sussex revenues of the
Earl : and this high-handed plan was put into execution
without delay. Salisbury, although seriously (and as it
proved mortally) ill, could not deny himself the satisfaction
of negotiating and granting every one of the leases. It
must have galled him that he could not touch Syon House,
or the private estate of his particular enemy, the Countess
of Northumberland. But, before death carried him away,
he had signed and sealed the last of these documents of
sequestration.2 From his quarters in the Tower, Northum-
berland wrote to his dying foe a letter of stern remon-
strance. He had no wish, he said, to fling reproaches at a
man almost in extremis, but he could not but loathe the
treachery which had counselled the King to take such a
step. Salisbury he had always looked upon (in spite of
evidence to the contrary) as a friend. He had rejoiced,
and assisted to the best of his ability, in the Lord Treasurer's
advancement. And when Sir William Cecil was elevated to
the ranks of the nobility, the writer reminds him that "wee
joyed to have you of our Societie." The letter was written in
April i6i2.s On May 24 Salisbury died, leaving the letter
unanswered.
The decease of their arch-opponent aroused the Earl's
friends to fresh efforts. On June 12, 1612, Lady Northum-
berland addressed a moving petition to the King, on behalf
of herself and her children. The Queen presented this
memorial in person ; and James is said to have received it
favourably.4 On the same day he received a letter from
Northumberland, entreating him to listen to the prayers
of the Countess and consent to set aside the scheme of
sequestration.5 The writer asked nothing for himself ;
indeed he expressed himself as willing to suffer life im-
1 Alnwick JI/SS. (Sequestration Leases).
" Ibid.
3 Alnwick MSS. (Copy).
4 Ibid,, vol. x.
5 Ibid.
156 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
prisonment, if only his wife and children were restored
to the family possessions, and the Star Chamber fine
reduced to a sum which he could pay without becoming
bankrupt. The effects of Salisbury's death were at once
perceptible in the Council when James proposed to extend
tardy relief to the imprisoned nobleman and those dependent
upon him. No more denunciatory pamphlets were solemnly
read,1 and no "fresh evidence" professing to connect
Northumberland with the Gunpowder Plot came unex-
pectedly to light. In fact the Councillors, with one or
two exceptions, agreed that the time had come to moderate
the Earl's penalties. There was enough of the old Cecil
leaven remaining, however, to prevent James from treating
the House of Percy with any great generosity. The terms
offered were that one-third of the fine should be remitted,
on condition that the Earl gave guaranteed bonds for the
payment of the balance (£20,000) 2 in yearly instalments
of ^3000 — that is to say, charged his estate with the
payment, for nearly six or seven years, of an annual fine
equivalent to .£15,000 in money of our time. The seques-
tration was " to continue in force until the entire claim was
satisfied " — an extraordinary proviso in view of the demand
for "guaranteed bonds," and one which practically nullified
this so-called "gracious Reduction" For, unless Northum-
berland had full control of his estates, he could hardly
contrive to raise the large yearly amounts bargained for by
the Crown. It was in truth a typical Stuart "concession"
— half-hearted, and contradictory in its terms. Against the
cruel absurdity, both Northumberland and his wife at once
protested — the lady in terms which showed at once her
outspoken nature and the low opinion which she enter-
tained of the King's character. We find her scoffing
openly at his Majesty's "pretended wants" and general
avariciousness. " God forbid 'J," she adds, "that one or two
1 The pamphlet printed and circulated by Francis Burton, a few years before,
had been produced and read in Council, as though it were weighty evidence
instead of mere vituperation.
2 Equal to at least £100,000 of to-day.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 157
poor Creatures should suffer because your Ma1'" Coffers are
emptie." l The Earl, for his part, contented himself with a
dignified remonstrance, and with hinting that the Crown
Receivers appointed under the articles of sequestration
were growing needlessly rich, not only at his expense, but
at that of the King as well. These worthies were supposed
to receive two shillings in every pound of rent which they
collected ; but as they enjoyed the use of the money for
twelve months before turning it over to the County Courts,
and were accustomed to lend large sums at interest for their
own benefit, it is easy to see what a profitable traffic was
theirs.
Whether James was moved by Lady Northumberland's
plain speaking (and he prided himself at times upon a
relish for bluntness), or whether, as is more likely, he saw
the justice of the Earl's remarks and began to doubt the
integrity of his Receivers, it was not long before he offered
a further and more reasonable concession. On payment
of .£14,000 he was willing, he declared, to remove the
sequestration, and grant a full quittance of the debt. To
these terms Northumberland lost no time in replying.
He thanked the King cordially ; but argued that even this
greatly reduced sum was difficult of immediate collection
by a person situated as he was. However, in order to
meet James more than half way, he was willing to make
over to the Crown the only part of his property which
had not been affected by Salisbury's vindictive measure,
and which thus still remained wholly at his disposal. This
was none other than the estate and mansion of Syon.
" Sion, ant please your Ma'"" he writes, " is the onlie Lande
I can putt away, the rest being entayled." 2 The building
of Syon House alone, he continues, had cost him over
.£9000; while the lands, as then rented, were "worth to
be sold £8000, within a little more or lesse." The joint
1 Lady Northumberland to the King ; Slate Papers.
a Syon had been granted by the King to Northumberland personally, and
not settled upon his heirs. He could thus sell or bequeath the property as he
saw fit.
158 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
value of house and lands would certainly cover the
reduced fine. "In humble Maner therefore" he con-
cludes, " / lay the same at your Ma"" Feet, to give your
Ma'" Satisfaction." x
This offer the King declined, probably through a feeling
of shame at the thought of receiving back a gift which
he had himself bestowed for services rendered. It was
difficult, however, to refuse a settlement of the affair so
convenient (and, at the same time, so little affecting
the interests of Lady Northumberland and her innocent
children) without taking one more step in the direction
of clemency. Accordingly James consented to receive
.£11,000, in addition to the moneys already collected by
the Crown Receivers,2 as payment in full of the Earl's
fine. Northumberland succeeded in adequately guarantee-
ing this sum ; and was accordingly granted, under Letters
Patent of November 8, nth of James I., what was termed
a "Full Pardon and Release."* This document merely
related to the financial penalties inflicted upon him. The
obnoxious sequestration was cancelled, and the Star
Chamber fine satisfied. But nothing was said or done
with regard to the Earl's release from the Tower — indeed
he had yet nearly nine years of imprisonment before him,
although he had been given to understand from the first
that his captivity was to terminate upon the payment of his
fine. He had confidently looked forward to freedom ;
and had even begun to make arrangements for a departure
from the dreary quarters which he had then occupied for
over seven years. Great indeed must have been his dis-
appointment when he found the Tower gates closed as
sternly upon him as ever. But pride forbade any reminder
to the King upon this head ; nor would the prisoner permit
his wife to make further appeals in his behalf. Now that
the position of his children was assured, and their inherit-
ance freed from debt, his own freedom mattered little.
1 Northumberland to the King, April 14, 1613 ; State Papers.
2 About ^3500.
3 The original is preserved among the archives at Syon'IIouse.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 159
There was another point, however, upon which he did
not hesitate to approach the King. In spite of the "Pardon
and Release" he still remained debarred from all offices
under the Crown, including those which had been made
hereditary in his family by royal grant. Northumberland
claimed that these latter, or a certain one of them at
least, should now be restored him. The fact that he was a
prisoner need not by any means militate against his due
fulfilment of their functions, since it was customary to
appoint deputies in such cases. The governorship of Tyne-
mouth Castle he was particularly desirous of recovering.
This dignity had been settled by Elizabeth upon his father,
with reversion to himself ; and James had renewed the
reversion in favour of the young Lord Percy — thus practi-
cally making the custody of the castle a family heritage for
at least three generations. Under these circumstances, the
Earl held that Tynemouth wardenry was distinct from
the other and uninherited honours which he had forfeited.
The King refused to see matters in this light, and named
the Earl of Dunbar governor of Tynemouth. Northumber-
land then wrote to Dunbar, laying the whole facts of the
case before him. The Scottish Earl at once generously
withdrew from the governorship, and urged James to
bestow it upon " the rightful inheritor!' But his Majesty
merely censured Dunbar for his pains, and, still ignoring
Percy claims, placed Sir William Selby in the coveted post.
Northumberland sent two more letters of remonstrance,
without avail,1 and then allowed the matter to drop.
During the remainder of his long stay in the Tower, he did
not again address the King directly.
An account of Northumberland's strange life in the
Tower of London has been purposely delayed until this
stage of the narrative, for the reason that it was not until
after the payment of his fine that he became really
resigned to prison life, and set about making for himself
1 Northumberland to the King, Nov. 19, 1614, and Feb. 20, 1615 ; State
1'apers.
160 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
a home within the lowering bastions of the old fortress.
No historian of the Tower has omitted to dwell upon the
Earl's sixteen years of durance in a place so full
of bitter associations for one of his name and
lodged in the jjjn> fo him, in truth, the grisly stronghold must
have seemed a haunted spot — haunted by the
ghosts of many sufferers whose chains had been broken
long since by the hand of death. It is one thing to regard
those walls, as we do to-day, with a feeling of romantic
interest in the past ; and another to look upon them, as
Henry Percy of Northumberland must have looked, while
still they were the prison and the torture-room of an
almost irresponsible sovereign. There the Earl's own
father had died a bloody and mysterious death scarce
twenty years before. Thence his grandfather, Sir Thomas
Percy, had been dragged, with his companions of the
Pilgrimage of Grace, to suffer for their faith upon the
scaffold. Thence too, but a little while before, Lady
Northumberland's brother, the rash, the brilliant Essex,
went to his doom ; and in the little church of the prison
his bones had been laid hurriedly by night, not far from
those of the murdered eighth Earl of Northumberland.
Sir Ingelgram Percy's pathetic " Saro Fideli" appeared
but freshly carved upon the wall of the Beauchamp Tower.
Sturdy Sir John Perrott had not long ceased his restless
pacing to and fro upon the inner ramparts ; and in the
little garden at the foot of what we now call the " Bloody
Tower," Raleigh, Grey, and Cobham — companions of the
Earl's youth, and victims like himself of Lord Salisbury's
malevolence — still daily met, and whiled away the hours.
The notorious Waad, Raleigh's cruel persecutor, was
Lieutenant of the Tower when Northumberland made his
first appearance there in the character of a prisoner.1
Waad was little likely to harass and humiliate the Earl, as
he did Raleigh ; for the former was still in possession of a
1 The Earl had been used to frequent the Tower Muniment-Room for the pur-
pose of archaeological research, and perhaps also for the opportunity thus afforded
of obtaining speech with Sir Walter Raleigh.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 161
large rent-roll, and the Governor of the Tower, like him of
the Bastille, fattened upon what he drew from the purses of
his wealthy charges. Still his choice of apartments for the
new prisoner (if, indeed, his choice at all, and not that of
Salisbury) was an ill-omened and most inconsiderate one.
The Earl was lodged in the Garden Tower,1 where twenty
years before his father had been done to death, either by his
own hand, or by that of Hatton's agent. Little wonder that
the son of the unfortunate Earl Henry shuddered to find
himself among such surroundings, and that, as soon as he
realised how protracted his confinement might be, he
sought eagerly for permission to change his quarters. It was
but natural that he should prefer not to allude to the terrible
tragedy which had taken place in the adjoining rooms.
When he applied to the Council for new apartments it was
ostensibly for reasons of health and comfort. His appeal
was as follows: — " It pleased y' Lordshipps when you were
last here, amongst other Speeches, to say if I wanted anything I
might complain and let your Lordshipps know of it. Now, my
Lords, as the Summer groweth on, I find this little Garden*
that lieth all the Day upon the Sun, to be very close ; these
Galleries? very noysome with the Savours from the Ditches?
and Invalidities oftener to threaten me than they were wont.
" These lower Parts are so wet after every Shower of Rain,
as there is no stirring in the Garden ; neither is the A ir so
wholesome as the Hill. Therefore, if it please your Lordshipps
that I may have the Benefitt thereof, as other Prisoners hatJi
had, being here in the same Nature that I am, I shall acknow-
ledge myself much favoured?
1 The Garden or " Bloody " Tower was situated between the main entrance to
the fortress and the Governor's house, directly overlooking the fosse and the river
beyond.
2 The small garden already alluded to, and called the Lieutenant's Garden,
which stretched northward from the foot of the Garden Tower.
3 The walk along the ramparts of the inner Ballium between the Garden
Tower and the Governor's house. On these galleries Raleigh afterwards paced,
while great crowds watched him from the river below.
4 The Tower Moat, which then completely girded the fortress.
6 Northumberland to the Council, May 9, 1606 ; State Papers.
II. L
i6a THE HOUSE OF PERCY
The Council could not well refuse this request, more
especially as Northumberland's trial by the Star Chamber
had not then taken place, and he still technically uncon-
victed. Orders were accordingly given for his removal
to the "Hill" or northern part of the Tower; and the
entire Martin Tower was assigned to him for a residence.
The Martin (as a glance at a plan of the fortress will show)
was a mural tower, situated at the north-east angle of
the inner wall, "over against the Green Mount." Beyond it
were a parade ground and the outer Bailey Wall ; and
beyond these again stretched the fosse or ditch (very wide
at this corner) and the open fields. The house was large
and secluded, and the vaults beneath being exceptionally
strong, it was afterwards used as a treasury for the Crown
jewels. Here, in the reign of Charles II., occurred Blood's
dare-devil attempt to steal the regalia, and here the amusing
vagaries of the " Tower ghost " are supposed to have taken
place. Among the notable prisoners who had occupied
these quarters before Northumberland, were Lord Roch-
ford, Norreys, and others connected with the "crimes"
of poor, foolish Anne Boleyn. In later years Archbishop
Sancroft was to be lodged here, under less tragic circum-
stances.1 The situation was an elevated one. From his
favourite promenade (presently to be described) along the
inner Bailey "gallery," the Earl could overlook upon one
side the inner ward of the great prison. The roofs of the
gunners' houses were immediately below him, while the
huge mass of the White Tower raised itself in the fore-
ground. On the left, along the wall, was the Constable
Tower ; while on the right were the Brick and Bowyer
Towers, with the Church of St. Peter-ad-vincu/a (where
his father's bones reposed) standing in the midst of its
plot of green. But the captive was less likely to dwell
upon this prospect than upon that which lay beyond
the outer wall and moat — the Minoiies and East Smith-
field (hamlets then), and the wide green countryside,
the farmsteads, villages, and woodlands that spread to-
1 Hepworth Dixon ; Her Majesty's Tou'tr.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 163
wards leafy Epping, Bow, Stratford, and the Essex
plains.
To this day the name "Northumberland's Walk" is
applied to the " gallery " or footway which runs along the
battlements from the Martin Tower to the Brick Tower.
The Earl was also accustomed to exercise himself upon the
wall between the Martin and Constable Towers ; but the
first-mentioned promenade was his par excellence, and in the
course of his long imprisonment he came to look upon the
narrow causeway almost as private property. Indeed, when
years and suffering had greatly increased his natural testi-
ness, we read that on one occasion he violently assaulted a
fellow-prisoner who ventured to trespass upon the spot.1
But there was another reason for this ebullition of temper
than the mere objection to find his domains invaded. The
person whom he attacked was Patrick Ruthven, youngest
brother of the last Earl of Cowrie.2 Ruthven, while an
exile at the English Court, had grossly insulted North-
umberland by accusing him of having lampooned a lady
of virtue who had rejected his addresses.3 The arrival
of James I. in England, and the committal of Ruthven to
the Tower, prevented a hostile meeting at the time. But
when the attainted heir of Cowrie, forgetting the old
grudge, made his appearance in the sacred Walk, North-
umberland fell upon and soundly thrashed him.4
The sequel of the affair is unreported ; but Ruthven
and his assailant were released from the Tower in the
same year (1622). Special permission was granted to the
Earl to pave and otherwise arrange the Walk according
1 Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton ; Original State Papers.
3 When John, third Earl of Cowrie (son of Rizzio's murderer), was killed in
1600, he left two surviving brothers, William and Patrick, who found a brief
asylum in England. One of James I.'s earliest acts was to order the arrest of
these fugitives. William escaped overseas, but Patrick was seized and cast into
the Tower, where he remained from 1603 to 1622. After his release he married
Elizabeth, Lady Gerard, and, after a career of strange vicissitudes, died in 1652,
an inmate of King's Bench Prison. His only son Patrick afterwards assumed
the title of Lord Ruthven ; and his daughter married Vandyck.
» Cabala.
' Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton ; Original State Papers.
164 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
to his liking, and at his own expense.1 In Pepys' Diary
it is stated that a large stone was erected at one end (close
by the portal of the Martin Tower), upon which were carved
the armorial bearings of the House of Percy, together with
" holes to put in a peg for every turn they make upon that walk." 2
The device of these pegs suggests the mathematical bent
of Northumberland's mind. One wonders how many such
reminders he placed in the sculptured stone between 1606
and 1622, and how many "turns" he made with his friends
upon the pavement of the Walk within that weary time !
On the southern face of his " house," looking towards the
Constable Tower, he caused to be erected a sun-dial, the
work of his friend and prote'ge', Harriot. This relic still
survives, and its gnomon throws its changing shadow for
all who choose to look ; just as the Earl's jealously guarded
Walk is free to the curious world.
The coming of Northumberland to the Tower had an
immediate and extraordinary effect upon the life of the
place. He found his friends Raleigh, Cobham.
The Wizard ' , „ ... , , , . . , . • ., n • i
Eari works and (j,rey (the latter his neighbour in the Brick
changes in Tower) living a life of stagnation and wretched-
ness. Raleigh, harried by the spiteful Lieutenant
Waad, and well-nigh hopeless of better things, seems to
have passed his waking hours brooding in his apartment,
or walking listlessly in the "little Garden that lieth all day
upon the sun." No thought of the " History of the World "
had as yet crossed his brain. Cobham and Grey, who had
a keen relish for outdoor sports, found nought to please
them in these narrow courts and echoing corridors. No
doubt the Earl, coming freshly from the outside world,
recognised and pitied the state of lethargy into which they
had fallen. At all events he set himself from the first to
change the conditions of their lives, to make their lives
worth the living in fact, and to save them from the Slough
of Despond. The sour Lieutenant had first to be won
over; but sundry judicious gifts (such as " two pendant
1 Kails of Syon House. 2 Pepys' Diary, vol. ii. p. 3t4.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 165
rubies" l by way of earrings, to Mistress Waad, the official's
daughter) soon produced a noticeable effect in this quarter.
A considerable portion of the Governor's perquisites was
derived (as in the Bastille) from the profit made upon food
supplied to prisoners. Northumberland, however, desired
to keep his own table ; and made arrangements to this
effect with Waad, paying that worthy £100 per annum for
the privilege, in addition to the charges for " cookinge and
storinge," which were considerable. He also bought much
of his wine from the Lieutenant, who had private means
of obtaining foreign commodities brought to the port of
London. In these and other ways Sir Arthur Waad made
a large profit out of the generosity of his rich prisoner,
and was, for the latter's sake, inclined to be more com-
plaisant to Raleigh and the others. Permission was granted
to the four friends to exchange visits ; but, as the Martin
and Brick Towers were much farther from the Lieutenant's
house than the quarters occupied by Raleigh and Cobham,
it was more usual for them to meet upon the Earl's Walk
than in the garden of the Bloody Tower. For the purpose
of drawing Cobham and Grey out of the apathy into which
they had fallen, Northumberland had a bowling-alley laid
down,2 and introduced tennis, battledore, and even fencing3
(although anything in the nature of a weapon was supposed
to be forbidden among the prisoners). Raleigh's melancholy
was of a sort that these pastimes could not charm away ;
yet we shall see that even in the case of Raleigh the Earl
succeeded in reviving dead ambitions, and reviving them
so effectually that Sir Walter awoke from his dreams, and,
since he could not wear the sword, turned manfully to
win a new fame with the pen. " Northumberland, the
Maecenas of the age," writes Lingard, "converted that
abode of misery into a temple of the Muses." Raleigh was
gradually inspired by the genius of the place ; at first he
endeavoured to solace the tedium of confinement by the
1 Syon House Rolls.
" " Paid for making a Bmi'ling Alley in Lord Coliham's Garden in the Tower,
£14, Ss. <)d."—Syoii House Kails. 3 Ibid.
i66 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
study of chemistry ; thence he proceeded to different
branches of literature ; and two years before his enlarge-
ment published his celebrated " History of the World." l
No sooner was Northumberland established in the
Martin Tower than he proceeded to surround himself anew
with the companions who had shared his scientific and
literary studies at Syon. Prominent among these were the
three men whom Raleigh, beginning to take a languid
interest in their researches, happily styled "the Barfs
Three Magi." The name, which became a byword in the
Tower, was applied by Sir Walter to Thomas Harriot,
Robert Hues, and Walter Warner. Harriot, described by
Wood as " the Universal Philosopher," 2 was unquestionably
the greatest English mathematician and astronomer of his
day. Northumberland assigned him a private laboratory
and sleeping apartment in the Martin Tower, and the
philosopher voluntarily accepted prison life, so as to be
near his friend and patron.3 During his residence there,
from 1606 to 1609, he kept up a continuous correspondence
with Kepler on various subjects of deep scientific interest.4
From the Tower he went, in 1607, at Northumberland's
expense, to Ilfracombe, in order to make an observation of
the comet afterwards called " Halley's." 6 Between Decem-
ber 1610 and January 1613 he is said to have made 199
observations of sun-spots. Harriot exercised considerable
influence over Sir Walter Raleigh, with whom he had
made a voyage to Virginia, and through whose influence
he had been placed upon Northumberland's pension list.6
The second of "the Earl's Magi" was Robert Hues,7
also a mathematician, but chiefly remembered as a geo-
grapher. He had been confided to the care of his present
1 History of England, vol. vii. p. 198. a Athena Oxon., ii. 230.
3 H. Dixon ; Her Majesty's Tower.
4 Keplcri Optra Omnia, vol. ii. pp. 67-74.
' Diet. Nat. Biography , art. " Harriot."
8 Harriot received a pension of £120 from thfe Earl. He died in 1621, shortly
before Northumberland's release (Dut. Nat. Biog-.), although De Fonblanque
(Annals of the House »f Ptr(y) represents him as accompanying his patron to
Petwoitli in 1622. ' 1553-1632.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 167
patron by Lord Grey after the latter's committal to the
Tower. Hues became tutor to the young Lord Percy,
whom he accompanied to Christchurch.1 The trio of
wise men who most frequented the Martin Tower was
completed by Walter Warner, alchemist and philosopher.
In addition to these, a number of learned persons visited
the Earl from time to time, assisted in his experiments,
and remained for long or short periods as members of
the singular academy which held its deliberations regard-
less of stone walls and iron bars. There was Nicholas
Hill,2 the eminent philosopher and exponent of the Atomic
Theory, who was afterwards forced to fly overseas be-
cause of his obstinate adherence to "the Romish persua-
sion"3 and to whom Ben Jonson alluded in one of his
Epigrams : —
" those atomi ridiculous,
Whereof old Democrite and Hill (Nicholas)
One said, the other swore, the world consists." 4
There was Nathaniel Torperley,5 rector of Salwarpe, in
Worcestershire, and a renowned mathematician. There
was Thomas Allen,6 antiquarian and philosopher, who
had refused a bishopric under Elizabeth because of his
Romanist views.7 And there was Dr. John Dee the as-
trologer-physician, now very old and feeble, who came
from Richmond to visit his " brother wizard." 8
For the due reception of these worthies, Northumber-
land converted the chief rooms of the Martin Tower into
laboratories and libraries. A quantity of important books
were removed thither from Syon ; and " retorts, crucibles,
alembics, zodiacal charts and globes " and human skeletons9
1 Diet. Nal. Biography.
* Died in exile at Rotterdam in 1610. * Wood ; Athena OXOH.
« Epigrams, No. 34. * 1542-1632.
• 1542-1632. Wrongly called by De Fonblanque "James Alleyne."
7 Diet. Nat. Biography. • H. Dixon ; Her Majesty's Tower.
' Dr. Turner, the Earl's physician, supplied him with skeletons.— Sytn Houst
Rath.
i68 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
occupied every available space. The honest warders and
gunners of the Tower grew more and more afraid of the
" Wizard Earl " and his mysterious, long-bearded familiars.
Whispers went around of the "black magick" that was
practised in the Martin Tower, where pale, ghostly flames
were seen to burn through the watches of the night ; and
whence at times loud explosions startled the tramping
sentinel, or strange, witching odours were wafted forth —
the odours of "the noxious weed Nicotian" For the Earl
had brought his love of tobacco to solace his prison life ;
and Raleigh, Cobham, and he consumed great quantities
of the herb. About ^50 per annum was paid for Virginian
tobacco from Northumberland's exchequer ; l and it would,
no doubt, have grieved the soul of Britain's canny King
had he paid a sudden visit to his state-fortress, and found
these condemned lords puffing placidly at their great pipes,
and expelling cloud after cloud of the fragrani smoke which
his Majesty abominated. On the whole, but for the
oppressive sense of restraint, life was not unpleasant for
these noble captives. Before long Raleigh was deep in
the concoction of a " Create Cordiall" which was, he hoped,
to prove the Elixir Vitce ; 2 while Harriot and Northum-
berland corresponded week after week with Johann Kepler
(then the ill-paid astronomer-royal of Rudolph of Haps-
burg) " on things of higher moment than the intrigues of
a Court ; on the laws of vision ; on the cause of rainbows ;
on the sun-spots which Harriot noticed before they were
seen by Galileo ; on the Satellites of Jupiter."3 They were
also busily employed upon "the theory of numbers, to
which Percy (Northumberland) had given a good deal of
his time. In the pursuit of such studies, what to the
Wizard Earl were the rivalries of Buckingham and Hay ?"*
Before 1614 the Martin Tower had become so crowded
with learned sojourners from the outside world, with books,
and with the paraphernalia of Science, that the Earl was
1 Syon House Rolls, Numbers of pipes and " boxes for tobacco " were also
purchased. 2 Diet. Nat. Biography.
* H. Dixon ; Her Majesty's Tower. 4 Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 169
obliged to hire the neighbouring Brick Tower from Lord
Carew, Master of the Ordnance, whose official residence
it was.1 Hither the young Algernon, Lord Percy, was
brought, in or about 1612, so that his father (who dis-
trusted the educational powers of women 2) might person-
ally superintend the boy's early training. For the benefit
of his heir he now resumed and completed the MS.
" Instructions to My Son," which had been commenced at
Syon years before.
Northumberland had never been a believer in the theory
that asceticism promotes intellectual strength ; and, like
Good living, most of the great English wits and scholars of
varied read- the daV) he looked with no unfriendly eye upon
hint 0? the comforts and convivialities of the table. In
flirtation. jjie 'fOwer his hospitality was well-nigh as abun-
dant as it had been at Syon or Essex House, albeit the
guests bidden to his board were not so numerous. The
cost of his larder and cellar, while he remained in prison,
rarely fell below .£1400 a year3 — that is to say, about £jooo
in modern money. His wines were of many kinds, in-
cluding " French, Rhenish and Greek, with Muscatel, Hypocras,
Malmsey, Canary, and Sherrie."* For the benefit of his
friends and visitors he went to the expense of keeping
three stables of horses — one on Tower Hill, another in
the Minories (within sight of his daily promenade), and a
third in Drury Lane.5 A number of servants were employed
to wait upon him and his guests ; but on account of the
scanty accommodation in the Martin and Brick Towers,
most of these lodged without the walls, in the Minories,
Tower Hill, and St. Katherine's.
Northumberland had established a large library at
Syon before his imprisonment. While in the Tower he
1 Her Majesty's Tower.
2 See his frequent strictures on the sex in Instructions to My Son, extracts
from which are given later.
3 Holts of Syon House. This included supplies to servants.
J Ibid. s Ibid.
i7o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
spent, on an average, £200 a year in the purchase of
books,1 chiefly works upon Philosophy, History, Medicine,
Theology, and Horticulture, in English, French, Italian, and
Latin. Books were continually being transferred from
Syon to the Tower and from the Tower to Syon, hundreds
of volumes at a time. A list of some of these, preserved in
the Syon House MSS.,2 shows the miscellaneous nature of
the Earl's readings. It includes the Bible (in Italian) ; the
Iliad ; several works on occult philosophy and witchcraft ;
Marinello on " Les Maladies des Femmes," and the same
author's General Medicine ; treatises on gardening (one deal-
ing with the " Making of Labirintks") ; histories of England,
by Du Chesne and Daniel ; a genealogical and heraldic
account of the Spanish Royal Family ; numerous tomes
dedicated to military science, strategy, bombardment, and
fortification ; " Florio's New Dictionary " ; the Works of
Machiavelli ; the poetical and prose works of Tasso ; and
numerous Italian comedies. One looks in vain through the
long list of over 200 books for one representative of con-
temporary English literature.3
In the roll of Northumberland's expenses there is a
curious item which leads one to wonder if, by chance, the
Earl's mind had forestalled Von Reiswitz in the invention
of a Kriegspiel or " War-game."4 The entry alluded to is
as follows : —
£ '• </•
" For an inlaid Table for the Practice of the Art \ jg
Militaire ....... J
"for making a Mould of Brass to cast Soldiers in, \ , o
. )
and making 140 of them, with wire for Pikes
" Making 300 leaden men, &c., with a Box to put \ g
them in . . . . . . . .}
" The Table, and Points ; and gilding the same . 317 6 " B
1 Syon House Rolls. » Catalogued " W. II. I."
* It should be remembered, however, that this is only one of several such lists.
At Syon he certainly possessed editions of Spenser and Bacon.
4 Lieutenant Von Reiswitz, of the Prussian army, perfected his War-game in
1824, "after years of study." • Syen House Rolls.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 171
The Earl had almost entirely lost his old passion for dice
and cards ; but during his leisure moments he played chess
and draughts. l
Two " readers " were employed, one for English works,
the other for Italian and French, when, in process of time,
Northumberland's eyesight began to weaken. The Italian
reader was Francesco Petrozani, who received £7 and a
lodging for his services ; while John Elkes read in English.
De Fonblanque 2 is under the impression that this Elkes
was the same discharged servant who had in 1611 borne
false witness against the Earl. Such was not the case,
however, the name of the discredited traitor having been
Timothy ; * but the two were possibly brothers.
In 1615, when Raleigh was released from the Tower
to lead his second ill-fated expedition in search of " Et
Dorado" Northumberland appears to have given up all
hope of ever leaving prison alive. In this frame of mind,
he proceeded to make himself as comfortable as possible
in what he perforce looked upon as his home ; and the
incubus of the Star Chamber fine being now removed,
his yearly expenditures showed a notable increase. But
the fact that he had decided to make the best of his lot
hardly justifies many of the large sums spent by him
during the following year in apparently wanton extra-
vagance. His bill for personal apparel alone in 1616
amounted to £1000, money of that time ; 4 and during the
summer and autumn months of the same year he laid
out .£3368 upon silver plate.5 In July 1616 he ordered
from his goldsmith a " newe George"* At first sight these
things seem strange in one so opposed to vulgar display
as he had hitherto shown himself. Why should a man
of his years and habits array himself thus splendidly
for the delectation of the sober philosophers who were
his principal friends ? Why should he buy gorgeous
services of plate, if only for these same unappreciative
1 Rolls of Syon House. * Annals of Ike House of Percy, vol. ii.
' See State Papers ; Letters and Evidence of Timothy Elkes.
4 Kails of Syon House. • Ibid. 6 Ibid.
172 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
scholars to dine upon ? And above all, why should an
imprisoned nobleman desire to buy new " Georges," and to
wear this and the other insignia of the Garter as he paced
to and fro in his stone cage ? The key to the mystery
may be found in the current gossip that Northumber-
land, like many another before him, had fallen victim
to the insidious charms of the beautiful but utterly
unscrupulous Countess of Somerset. Lady Somerset,
together with her second husband, James's unworthy
favourite, had just been committed to the Tower for the
murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Northumberland had
not seen the divorced wife of his nephew1 for ten years.
When he paid her a state visit in the Tower (prepared,
perhaps, • to remonstrate with her upon the evil courses
which had made her name notorious) he was at once
captivated by the siren's spells — and " men can hear a
siren's sigh farther than a preacher's philippic." It must
be pleaded, in extenuation of the Earl's weakness, that
since 1606 he had enjoyed no female society, save during
the occasional visits of his own wife and daughters ; which
fact made him a comparatively easy conquest for Lady
Somerset. There is no proof that any criminal intimacy
existed between them ; but the Earl was so infatuated
that he encouraged his daughters to visit Lady Somerset
daily, in order that he too might have an excuse for paying
his respects in that quarter.2 Chiefly for the Countess's
sake, he showed exceptional civility towards her husband,
although in the case of Robert Carr there were strong
family reasons which might induce the head of the House
of Percy to overlook his ordinary dislike of the King's
Scottish followers. Lord Somerset was a son of that
chivalrous Ker of Fernieherst who had succoured and
sheltered Anne, Countess of Northumberland, in 1572,*
1 The first husband of Frances Howard was Robert, third Earl of Essex,
nephew of Lady Northumberland.
2 Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, May 24, 1617 ; Original State Papers,
:1 Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester and Karl of Somerset, was son of Sir
Thomas Ker of Fernieherst by his second wife (married in 1569) Janet, daughter
of William Scott the younger, of Buccleuch and Branxholm.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 173
after her husband's betrayal by Hector Armstrong. In
the summer of 1616 we read of Somerset "with his Garter
and George about /it's neck, walking and talking with the Earl
of Northumberland" * in the garden of the Bloody Tower.
It was probably this flaunting of the Garter insignia on
Carr's part which induced the Earl to order a " newe
George" fancying that such display was agreeable to "his
dear lady" (as John Chamberlain calls the Countess of
Somerset, in one of his gossiping letters).2 The rich
raiment and costly plate with which he astonished his
learned associates may reasonably be traced to the same
cause — i.e. a desire to cut as fine a figure as his age would
allow in the eyes of the same " dear lady."
Although the Countess of Northumberland still fre-
quented Court, and appeared at most of the masques and
other entertainments of the day, she ceased almost entirely
to visit the Tower after Lady Somerset was imprisoned
there, and a decided coolness once more arose between her
husband and herself. When Dorothy and Lucy Percy
visited their father, they were no longer accompanied by
Lady Northumberland, who sent in her place Penelope
Perrott, Lady Gower,3 the daughter of her earlier marriage.
In 1617 the Earl gave six shillings to the keeper of the
Tower lions,4 for showing the beasts to " Lord Percy, with the
1 Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, July 20, 1616; Original Stale
Papers.
* To Dudley Carleton, May 27, 1617 ; Original State Papers.
3 Penelope Perrott, sole surviving offspring of Lady Northumberland's myste-
riously dissolved union with Sir Thomas Perrott, rnanied firstly Sir John Gower
Knt., and secondly (in 1617) Sir Robert Naunton of Letheringham, in Suffolk.
Her daughter and heiress by Naunton was another Penelope, who (like her mother,
grandmother, and great-grandmother — i.e. Lady Naunton, Lady Northumberland,
and Lady Leicester) was twice married ; a curious coincidence surely. Her first
husband was Paul, Viscount Bayning ; her second, Philip Herbert, fifth Earl of
Pembroke. The senior co-heir of this latter marriage was the late Earl Poulett ;
so that both claimants to the Poulett title — William, styled Viscount Hinton, and
the Hon. William John Lydston Poulett of Himon St. George — are directly
descended from the runaway match of Dorothy Devereux and Thomas Perrott,
and one of the two is the senior representative of that match.
4 Lions were added to the Tower Menagerie in the sixteenth century ; and
6d. per diem was allotted for the keeping of each beast.
174 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Lady Penelope, and his sisters." l There are mentions in the
Syon Rolls of largesse bestowed at this time upon " my lady
of Somerset's woman" and "a servant of the Countess of
Somerset" ; but Northumberland bestowed gifts with a
most liberal hand upon nearly all the residents of the
Tower, from the family of the Governor down to the
maids and lackeys of his friends. The warders and gunners
of the fortress, in particular, had good reason to regret his
subsequent liberation.
After the sequestration had been removed from his
landed possessions, Northumberland once more took their
management into his own hands ; and, con-
The prisoner . ° . '
and his sidenng that he was a prisoner, it must be
estates. owned that he succeeded surprisingly well in
this difficult work. Warned no doubt by costly experience
(as in the case of his kinsman, Thomas Percy of the
Powder Plot), he chose as his agents and representatives
only those in whom he could impose implicit trust, and
whose characters were wholly above suspicion. His chief
officers were : Sir Henry Slingsby, of Scriven, for York-
shire ; Robert Delaval, for Northumberland ; and John
Astell or Astle for Sussex and the southern estates gene-
rally.2 Sergeant Hutton he retained as his standing counsel
in all cases of disputes with his tenantry and neighbours.3
With Hutton, Slingsby, Delaval, and Astell, as well as
with Edmond Powton, his steward of the household, and
John Hippisley, his gentleman of the horse (the two last-
mentioned residing at Syon), he kept up a constant cor-
respondence ; and no affair of importance in connection
with the property was carried out without his knowledge
and consent. Times had changed for the better since it
had been possible for Queen Elizabeth and the elder
Cecil to seize upon the mines of an Earl of Northumber-
land without offering compensation ; * and coal-fields now
formed some of the most valuable of the Percy posses-
1 Syon House Rolls. J Syon Rolls ; Almvick MSS.
'' State Papers ; August 14, 1609. * See ante, under the seventh Earl.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 175
sions. In 1607 the Earl had been glad to let his mines
in Northumberland upon lease for twenty marks a pit.
So rich was the output of coal that he soon regretted
his lack of foresight in not having charged higher rents,
or else worked the field himself. In 1619 he gave orders
that 400 tons of coal from the Lemmington pits1 (the
leases of which had not been renewed) should be sold at
the rate of ^3, 33. 4d. a ton.2
To the best of his ability, he seems to have striven to
act fairly by his tenants ; but at least one charge of arbi-
trary treatment has been brought against him in connection
with the town of Alnwick. The good people of that place
had been accustomed to bake their own bread. Northum-
berland, however, was induced by certain interested persons
to establish a "common bakehouse," which he "farmed
out" in consideration of a percentage upon the profits.
The Alnwick folk looked askance at this novelty ; and
continued to make their loaves in the domestic oven,
instead of bringing the flour to the " town bakers." These
latter made bitter complaint to Master Delaval, and sub-
sequently to the Earl, pleading that they must close their
doors if the people continued to ignore them. Northum-
berland thereupon wrote angry letters to his agent and
bailiff, ordering that the inhabitants of Alnwick should be
forced to patronise " the common bakehouse for the benefit of
the farmers of the same " ; 3 and so baking became a mono-
poly in the district, the poor householders complained
that the cost of their living was increased, and the Earl
was for a long time most unpopular. To offset such acts
as this, there are, on the other hand, many instances of
disinterested kindness and consideration towards those
who dwelt upon his estates.
The work known as " Instructions to my Son " had been
begun by Northumberland after the birth of his first son
in 1597, and temporarily abandoned at the child's death
1 About four miles west of Alnwick.
- Almvic/t MSS. 3 /*/,/.
176 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
in September of the same year.1 When resumed and
eventually completed for Lord Percy's benefit in the
r- Tower, the " Instructions" were supplemented by
land to his a second composition of advice to his son "in his
and domestic Travels'' The " Advice " (which will be quoted
care*. later in its entirety), was written from a much
higher standpoint than the " Instructions," although the
latter is in many ways the more curious and entertain-
ing of the two. Both have been transcribed from the
original MSS. at Petworth, and published — the " Instruc-
tions" by Malone in Arch&ologia, vol. xxvii., the "Advice"
in the Antiquarian Repository, vol. iv.
Alluding to the noticeable differences of tone and style
between the earlier portion of the "Instructions" (written
during more hopeful days at Syon), and the parts com-
posed in the Tower, the Earl addresses his son : —
" Wonder not at the Alteracion of the Style which perhaps
you may fynd ; for ether I have got mutcke since that Tyme
in looking after other Matters more of greater Weights, or
loste mutcke Forme in Phrase, which. Youth commonly pleaseth
itself with" One of the effects, indeed, of his unjust sen-
tence and galling confinement had been to make the
prisoner cynical and at times pessimistic in his writings.
His slight regard for the character and disposition of
women is directly traceable to the facts that he himself
had been brought up almost entirely among men, and
that his wife's temper had made the early years of their
married life a period of continual strife and unhappiness.
The chief objects of the "Instructions" are thus set forth : —
" Fftrste that you (Lord Percy) understand yoivr Estate
generally better than yowr Officers.
" Secondly, that you never suffer yowr Wyfe to have Poore
in the Manage of yowr Affaires.
" Thirdly, that yowr Giftes and Rewardes be yowr owen,
without the Itercession of others"
The methods best suited, in the Earl's belief, for dealing
with " Servants " (i.e. with agents, military pensioners,
1 Ahuvick MSS.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 177
gentlemen of the household, and secretaries, as well as
with the ordinary domestic servants) are described at
length. Northumberland holds that to manage such de-
pendents most advantageously, it was desirable to "let
them fynd out that ye nede them nott, and that yf one be
gonne to-day, you can make an other do your Business as well
to-morrow'' He looks upon most servants as wanton
wasters of their master's substance. They are very jealous
of their privileges, and demand them even when they have
no need to do so, " if it be but a Loafe of Bread or a Canne
of Bere, which, when they have it they will give it to the
Dogges rather than loose it, with a proverb that the ' Lord
payeth for all' " But it is upon women that the Earl is
particularly severe. He admits, somewhat grudgingly,
that at the outset they are in many ways almost, if not
quite, the equals of men, but adds that the hypocritical and
shallow scheme of education by which they are reared
causes them to lose speedily a just sense of right and
wrong, and to act in accordance with worldly fashion,
rather than after the promptings of their own minds
and hearts. With women, he writes, the cry is always
"not what is modest for them to doe, but 'sutche and sutche
doeth this ' ; not what is fitt for them and their Children
to weare . . . but ' sutche and sutche weares this and that ' ;
not that Paynting is an immodest Ornament, but that 'Pajyn-
ting is the Fashion' ; and so on in general, their Affections
founded upon what others do, maketh the Fault appere to them
a Fault or not, and not the Qualite of the Fault itself e"
At their literary and linguistic attainments he scoffs rather
unfairly, for several ladies of the day (and among them his
own brilliant and beautiful daughters) were shining ex-
amples of feminine learning : If any doe excell their Fellowes
in matter of Languages (as some Ladies do) ; if it be in French
yow shall commonly fynd it noe further improved than to the
study of an A madis ; if in Italian, to the reading of A riosto ;
if in Spanish, to looking upon a ' Diana de Monte Maior ' ;
if in English, our natural Tongue, to an Arcadia, or some
Love Discourses to make them able to entertain a Stranger
II. M
178 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
vpon a Hearth in a Privy Chamber" In point of fact it is
his cynical opinion that women are " as wyse at fifteen
as at fifty " ; and that they make no deep study " in any
Learning saving in Love, a littel Craft, and a littel Thriftiness,
if they are so addicted out of Disposition ; Handsomeness and
Trimness being the Idol of there Hartes till Tyme write deep
Wrinkles on their foreheads" Some of his own experiences
in "wife-choosing" are given (although it will be re-
membered that Queen Elizabeth had far more to do
with making the match between Northumberland and
Lady Dorothy Perrott, than the bridegroom himself) :
"In my Chaise of a Wyfe it was long ere I made it; I had
told thirty-one years ere I tooke one, my Resolutions being
grounded upon these Considerations of Chaise ;
" First, that my Wyfe should nether be oughly (ugly) in
Boddy, nor in Mynd.
" Secondly, that she should bring with her Meat in her
Mouth to maintayne her Expensed
" Lastly, that her Frendes should be of that Conscquency,
that they might appcre to be steps for yow to better yow'
Fortune.
" My first Ende I attayned to ; the last I mist and grew
out of Hope within one or two Years ; for Essex and I were
at Warres . . . and Hindrances grew, rather than Love"
The Earl is strenuously opposed to the growing practice
of settling private fortunes upon wives. All money brought
into the family by either of the contracting parties, husband
or wife, should, he thinks, belong to the common stock.
Neither does he approve of the mistress of a household
being permitted " to Keep the Gofers" They are, it appears,
over liable to be victimised by designing persons, as, ac-
cording to the Earl, his widowed mother had been by her
second husband, Master Francis Fitton ; or else they are
naturally extravagant and easily tempted by fine clothes
and costly nothings. "Hardly," indeed, " shall you fynd the
Wyfe of a wyse Man the Possessor of ritche Bagges" When
1 Yet Lady Dorothy had practically no fortune, and was obliged to go to law
in the hope of recovering the money settled upon her by her first husband.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 179
women save up money, it is rarely for their families, but
far more frequently for purposes of personal adornment.
Northumberland believes that Englishmen allow their
wives too much domestic power. That women should
meddle in business matters may be permissible in Germany,
" where the husbands immeasurable beesttlynesse of drynking
causes a necessitefor the Wyfe to look to the Businesse " ; but
in England a man should be master in his own house and
director of his own affairs. As to the duties and pleasures
of women, they are soon summed up. They are to look
after their children "in their Long-Cote Age" to manage
the household servants, to amuse themselves with needle-
work and female society, "and to have a care when great
Personages sliall visitt to sitt at one ende of a Table, and to
carve handsomely"
There is a wise saying to the effect that the best repartee
is that which we think of after the occasion has gone by.
Northumberland's advice to his son, with regard to the
management of an ill-tempered or hysterical wife, may
be shrewd enough ; but the Earl himself had not followed
it in his own domestic relations. He counsels Lord Percy
to preserve a calm demeanour in the face of feminine
threats, and to meet the verbal attacks of an angry consort
with phlegmatic silence. But so far from baffling Lady
Northumberland in this manner, he had invariably allowed
himself to be provoked by her bitter words into retorts
quite as bitter. Writing from the seclusion of the Tower,
however, long after that period of family jars, he adopts
a cynically philosophical tone : " Will you be angry. . . .
at a poore Woman that understands lit fell ? . . . I have often
knowen Men not replying, Women have chid themselves mite
of Breathe." In much the same strain he continues that
so long as a man can restrain his own passion he is enabled
to keep women in subjection. The fair sex is also a foolish
sex, and must by no means be taken seriously. An excellent
plan to bring home to women their lack of common-sense is
(we are told) to treat their extravagant words with silent
raillery. Thus it is advisable, when wrathful dames threaten
i8o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
" to kill themselves, to give them a Knife ; if to hang themselves,
to lend them your Garter ; if to caste themselves headlong out of
Windows, to open the Casements; and if to swound and dye,
to let them lye till they come to themselves again; soe as to
this Daye I can never hear of any that finished by these mourn-
ful Deathes"
In spite of his loudly proclaimed disbelief in the capacity
of women, it was Northumberland's fate throughout life
to find his plans constantly defeated and set aside by
female agency. Queen Elizabeth had wheedled him into
an unsuitable marriage ; his wife for many years openly
defied and intrigued against him ; and in course of time
his two daughters were, one after the other, to marry the
men of their hearts, either without his consent, or in direct
opposition to his wishes.
When the heir of the House of Percy had com-
pleted his English education, and was about
Lord Percy to travel overseas, the Earl addressed to
"m his him a second document, which is here quoted
Travels.
in full, as a good specimen of the author's
literary style : —
"InjftructiomJ for tlje Hurt $ercp in Ijt's Crauelltf j
GIVEN BY HEN. EARL OF NORTHUMB.
" Yow must consider, the ends of yowr travels is not
to learn apishe iestures, or fashons of attyres or varieties
of costely meates, but to gayne the tonges, that hereafter
at yowr leisures, yow may discours with them that are dead,
if they haue left any worth behind them ; talke with them
that are present, if yow haue occasion ; and conferre with
them that are absent, if they haue bestowed vpon vs any
thing fitt for the view of the world ; and soe, by comparing
the acts of men abroade with the deeds of them at home,
yowr carriage may be made cummely, yowr mynde riche,
yowr iudgement wyse to chuse that is best, and to eschew
that is naught.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY
181
[" The Four Percies," said to have been brought from the North, circa 1559.]
16
PERCY, — = ROBERT PERCY, =
enham, ofCogenhoe,
Bedford- : Co. Northants,
re ; and afterwards
a 1555. of Taunton,
Co. Somerset.
15
= EMMA LAURENCE ANNE,
MEADE, PERCY, m. Eson
of Taunton. of Pavenham, or Eason,
late of Careton. a miller at
\ Pavenham.
Two sons. \
s PERCY JAMES PERCY, |,
fenhoe, fought in the
lants ; [Civil Wars.
Elizabeth
mer.
r
FRANCIS PERCY RICHARD PERCY
of Bickley, [a quo Roger Percy,
Co. Devon ; shoemaker, of Charing
b. 1616 ; Cross, in 1681 ; and
m. Richards ; ALEX. PERCY of Ireland ,
d. circa 1666. "who rode in the Life
Guards.1'] (See the case
of Jas. Percy, p. 350.)
1 I
ghters. FRANCIS PERCY
of Cambridge, stonecutter ;
afterwards Alderman and
Mayor (1709) of Cambridge
(m. MARGARET WALE of
Shelford) ; i. 1649 ; d. 1716.
\Claimed to have been de jure
8th EARI. OK NORTHUM-
BERLAND.]
— PERCY,
of Cambridge ;
a tailor.
MARY PERCY,
mentioned in
her uncle's will,
1716.
SRNON and
RY PERCY
Officers in
>yal Navy),
s.p.
MARGARET
(b. 1686),
/«. Arthur Trevor
of Frindsbury,
near Rochester,
Co. Kent.
I
ANN,
m. Rev. Henry
Crispe,
Victor of Catton.
ELIZABETH, Daughter,
m. Dr. — m. Burge.
Perkins.
i8o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 181
" RELIGION is the first thing yow are to vse rightly, to
the honor of God ; in whiche I doubt not but that yow
are soe settled, as I neede but giue this cauiat, that al-
thoughe in ther religion yow shall see many things worthy
of scorne in yowr hart, yett doe it not in yowr outward
fashions ; for soe shall yow free yowr selfe from ther
offence ; and to dispute to conuert, is fitter for a greater
doctor then yowr selfe. Somme churches of our pro-
fession yow shall fynd allowed in most places ; whiche
if yow goe to, besides the benefitt yow shall gett in beinge
edyfyed, yow shall meete with very good language.
" For the regiment of your HEALTHE, three things may
appeare dangerous ; one, the distempers that may groe
out of the violense of exercise ; the other, drinking of
wynes in a country hoter then yowr owen ; the last, the
excesse of women, ther bodies not being the freest from
infections in the world : but in all theas yow must be
yowr owen best phisition, as being best able to obserue
yowr owen boddy, if yow list ; or else yow are lyke to
fynd the smart, and noe man will be soe feeling of yowr
payns as yowrselfe. Your constitution is moist, and there-
fore the more exercise will be required.
" In the attayning to the TONGUES, I wishe the founda-
tions may be layd gramatically at the first ; whiche with
yow will not be a monthes labor, hauing a peece of the
scoller : for soe if yow forgett, hereafter yow shall easely
renew, and know whether thos that write or speake, doe
it rightly. I know that conuersation is the properest for
speache, and reading for vnderstanding ; but boeth dis-
creetly mixt is best of all. A sedentory or a studious lyfe
I knowe is not pleasing to yowth ; but it will be to age,
when yow must sitt out of necessite of affayers, or for
ease ; and yett that necessite of ease or disease, if drawen
on by ouer sitting to yonge, I cannot allow of.
" Emongest the rest of your obseruations, the LAWS of
the lands would not be passed over with a careless eye ;
not that I meane you should labor the whole cours of the
ciuill law, by whiche thos kingdoms are cheefely gouerned ;
182 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
but to read ther statute laws, and customary laws that are
most vsed : in this point I fynd our gentilmen to returne
home very defectiue and lame ; for they nether know the
cours of iustisse, nor the custommes of the cuntry, almost
in any fashon : therefore would I wishe yow to resort
somtymes to ther courts of parlements and other courts
of iustisse, by whiche you shall heare the generall causes
that are handled, the generall enormities that are prouided
for, and soe, by consequent, the generall dispositions of
the state ; as also your eares shall be witnes of the best
deliueryes, and in the best termes.
"The TENURES of ther lands and customs would be
knowen, as well in the generall, as of the perticular
prouinces, towns, jurisdictions, signoryes ; as also in what
sort they receaue ther reuenues, whether by way of money,
or in kind, or part one way, part an other ; what assur-
ances the lord hathe from the tenant, or the tenant from
the lord ; whether lett for years or for lyues ; then agayne,
whether they take annuall rents, or fynes, or boethe ; then
the seruises they owe to ther lords would not be forgotten :
ther mannors of sales, assurances, mortgages, yow shall
doe well not to be ignorant of, and what the generall rates
of ther lands are sold at ; the measurings of ther lands,
whether by acre, or any other common measure perticular
to them selues would be looked into ; the nature of ther
grounds, whether sandy, grauells, clayes, blacke moldes,
heathy, stony, woddy, drye grounds &c. would also be
obserued : for soe may yow, by computation, quantite for
quantite, consider the yealdings of those states to ours :
the quantites of wynes, of grasse, of graynes that ther
acres doe yeald, would also be noted ; as also to compare
the biggenes of ther acres with ours, or any other
measures : somme common measure between them and
vs would be well examyned, as if of lyquids, by tunnes,
gallants, pottells, quartes &c. ; if of waights, by pounds,
by onces, by drams, by scruples &c. ; if for length, by
myles, or paces, or feete, or inches, or barley corns &c.,
must be perfectly vnderstood : the valuation of ther
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 183
monyes, how ther parrs agree with ours, is not the least
thing to be diued into, if you will be a good common-
wealth's man ; for out of theas knowledges that merchants
haue aboue vs, they make vs very fooles in the silent and
creeping gaynes of a state. In our cuntry, theas things
differ almost in euery prouince ; which I wonder the
wisdom of our parlements haue not rectefyed to one kind
certaine ; since the statutes seemeth soe mutch to haue
labored it. Theas things are not difficult to enquier, and
they will aske but the enquiring to learn them.
" The principal COMMODITES that the Cuntryes afford, is
not to be neclected ; as whether it be in wynes, in corne,
in cattel, in salts &c. : if of any of theas, then how one
prouince assists the defects of the others ; as by the wayes
of ther carriages, and by what manor, whether by water or
by land ; if by land, whether by cart, by horse, or other
portage ; if by water, by what kind of boattes, of floatts &c.,
and by what riuers, what lakes, what gulfes, and where
those ryuers doe discharge them seines. Ther would also
be obserued the bayes, the roads ; the hauens, whether
deepe, or bard hauens ; as at loe waters, whether the shipps
lye upon ground or flott; how many fawdom at ful sea the
water riseth, and what windes they are most subiect vnto ;
what number of shipping belongeth to euery hauen, or
what gallyes or other boates of portage, and of what
burdens ; of what shapes ; how they carry ther fights, and
how mand ; by which yow may conieture and gather here-
after the aduantages that one nation hathe of an other in
matter of trafick. Manifactures is not the least things to be
considered ; I mean not littel manyfactures, but the great
ones ; as whether by woolls, by hempes, by flax, by silkes,
by mettells, by dyes &c. : by theas yow shall faule into the
note, whether theas comodytes are vnted, and what re-
turns they make ; whether in bullon or other wares, and out
of what prouinces, states, Kingdoms. From hence will yow
be ledde on to conceaue the chepenes and dirths of any
staple marchandize or others, and how all theas may be
prouided to supply a kingdom, or state. Theas knowledges
184 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
will serue for yowr vse when yow groe a settled home man,
or when yowr master shall command yowr seruis for the
defence of your cuntry, in the necessite of a warre, or your
counsell in the treaty of a peace.
"The PEOPLE is the next thing yow are to passe
thorowghe yowr thought, as how sorted into ther kinds ;
whether consisting of noblesse, artists, trades men, or
pesants, or how mixt of any of theas ; how eury of theas
sorts are employed in the gouernement of the state, and in
whiche of theas kindes the strengthe of ther dominions doe
consiste ; what is ther force, whether in hors or foote ;
what is the armes most vsed emongst them, whether the
armes is in the hands of the prince, or nobilite, or the
commons ; where ther magazins are, and in whose hands
the welthe doeth moest rest; whether a nation prodigall or
parcemonious ; if prodigall, in what ther expences and con-
sumptions is most vsuall ; if parcemonious, in what is ther
gettings and gayne ; whether well-peopled, or scant of in-
habitans, and if scant of inhabitans, whether the cause pro-
cede of the barronnes of the soyle, or want of good portes,
or the bordering neighbours by waye of a warre : The man-
ners and fashons of other attyres, whether constant or
subiect to change, is worthe the notinge ; — ther exercises,
and the kinds of them that are most in vse ; ther dietts
and foodes; whether plentifull or scant, continuall or at
tymes, and whether the better sort, or meaner, haue ther
excesses in that kind ; and then agayne, for ther behauiors,
whether light or graue ; there humors, whether vpon the
cheate, or honest : For ther healthes, as what diseases
doe moest raigne emongst them, whether feuers, plagues,
goutes, stone, droppesies, or cattarres. Out of all theas
considerations shall yow make to yowr selfe sommewhat
hereafter, that were to long to expresse in perticular, yett
mutche for yowr iudgement.
" Now as touching the enquire of PRINCES and ther
COURTS ; theas are the mane points of serche and marke ;
how they are attended by ther nobilyte, if it be a free
prince, or if it be a repuhlicke of the chiefe; whoe they
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 185
may be ; ther alliances ; ther sufficiencyes ; ther powers ;
ther employments by the state, or ther lyuing of them
selues ; the provinces, towens, or commandes they are
trusted with all ; and ther reputations, whether wyse, or
weake ; valiant, or cowards ; riche, or poore ; old, or
yonge ; or whether actiue, or quiet out of nature : what
the priuy-counsellors of ther courts are ; ther loues or ther
hatreds one to another ; how the factions of the courts are
in power ; the officers of the court how disposed ; the
ordenary expence and reuenues of the kingdom, whether
it consist of gabelles, of subsides, or of reuenues of ther
lands, and how managed ; are things worthy the know-
ledge. In cases of offences towards the prince or state ;
the wayes of ther examynations, ther tortures, ther pro-
cesses, ther sentences, ther punishments, if found faulty,
yow shall doe well to be satisfied in. By theas when yow
shall be thought fitt for employment at home, yow shall
inable yowr discretion in many cases to giue aduise and
gesse at the euents vpon the first motions. Lastely, the
general studyes the nations doe affect ; as whether it be to
the laws, or deuinite, or phisicke, or phylosophy, or to any
other arts ; as also whether the nobilitye and gentrye are
adicted to it for ther satisfactions, or it is the meaner sort
that labors it for ther profitt and gayne.
"The vse of MAPPES, whether soe euer yow trauell will
mutch steede yow ; for by them shall yow receaue sutche
an impression of the adjacencies of prouinces, riuers, forts,
forests, towns, and places inaccessable, as they will neuer
afterward be canselled out of yowr memory.
" Concerning FORTIFICATIONS, theas few rules are to be
obserued : whether they be of the ancient molds, or of the
newer formes, or mixt of boethe, as yow shall fynd many ;
then, agayne, whether regular or irregular ; whether of
stone or bricke, as most of the olde ones are, or of earthe,
as thos in the Loe Cuntryes, or withe rampards or without ;
then what grounds of commande is about them ; the
natures of ther earths for approches, or the vicinite of ther
couerts for ambushez : whether they be towens com-
186 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
manded by citadells, or gouerned by ther owen proper
forses : and, lastely, the places of ther situations, ther
auenues, and to what end soe placed, must be considered.
This doe I thinke sufficient to say of this point in generall ;
the more perticulars will appere when yow enter into the
art of it ; a subiect better and fullyer tawght vs in vulgar
tonges, then in the ancient.
"Ther EDIFICES are ether churches, monuments,
palaces, priuat houses of the nobilite, houses in cittyes, or
champetres : in this the knowledge of ther kinds, fashons,
sumptuosites, and ther expence in building with ther plea-
sures of gardings, walkes, shelters and comodytes against
all weathers, will be of vse to yow, when yow shall thinke
yowr owen home your best lodging.
"The WEATHERS, whether constant or changeable,
whether moist or dry, cold or hote, the tymes of ther sea-
sons, and winds that most posesse ther skyes, is a know-
ledge that may giue yow somme aduantage, if euer yow
be a discouerer to gesse at that whiche yowr eie seeth not,
whether it be a continent or an iland, or an iland of great
extent.
" For yowr owen studyes, the TONGES and vnder-
standing them must be yowr chiefe endeuors for the tyme ;
and yett lett yowr readings be of sutche bookes as yow
may gather somwhat else that may serue yowr turne
hereafter ; double gaynes vnder one labor being best : soe
as I may say, lett yowr conuersation be with bookes euer,
with armes when the necessite of yowr cuntry and yowr
master's commands requiers it ; and not, econtra, armes
euer, and bookes when yow haue but neede : for soe shall
yow eschew the warning the prouerbe tells vs of ; ' Qui
amat periculum, peribit in illo ' \ and in the other doe yowr-
selfe very little good when yow shall haue occasion. Yett
withall, armes must not be soe layde asyde, that yow must
then but learne, when yow have neede ; for soe perhapps
yow shal betray yowr cuntry in the trust it may trust yow
with all, and begett shame to yowrselfe to vndertake a
taske yow vnderstand not : — and I know noe surer instru-
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 187
merits in learning to wielde all thos well, than aretheme-
tike, geometry, cosmography ; and astronomy in somme
measure will serue yow, if yow be a nauigator.
" The exercises I would wishe yow to be most skilfull
in, is RYDING, and yowr Weapons ; bycause a skilful
sword, in a hand that will not tremble, procures peace
often, the want of whiche doeth giue men boldenes to be
busy to yowr disgrace or danger : and althowghe I wishe
yow a skilfull sworde for peace sake, yett left it be slippere
sheathed, if the honor of yowr master, or yowr cuntry, or
yowr owen be touched ; for theas are dutyes yow owe,
wherein yowr flesche must not be to deere vnto yow.
" In your obseruations of men's MANNORS, BEHAUIORS
and FASHONS, if anything seeme to yow absurde, sacrefyce
it in yowr thoughts ; for, euery nation esteemes that they
are borne to and bredde in the commelyest : soe shall
yow auoyde quarrells and braules, whiche if yow enter
into, yow will fynde yowrselfe to weake, when noe respecte
shall cause forberance, but that yow are a stranger ; and
in this, the meaner sort yow will fynd most subiect to
error.
"Your EXPENCE, lett it be moderat, and cast asyde
the coat yow are borne vnto for a tyme : for to striue with
them in ther vanites, yow will not be able to hold way;
besides that yow will want soe mutche at yowr returne,
where those superfluities will be better spent, since abroade
nothing will remayne yowrs, here in what kind soe euer
somwhat, euer remembring that yow must dye an Englishe
man ; and to loue yowr owen home best, for I know not
where yow can be markt with soe good a blessing as God
and yowr cuntry hathe markte yow withall. Yowr habitts
would be according to the fashons of the nations yow
Hue in ; soe shall yow auoyde being gazed at ; thinges to
men's eies not vsuall breding wonder. Nether lett yowr
attires be to costely or to many ; for the one will be a
consumption without reason, and the luggage of a ward-
roppe after yow will be troublesomme.
" To his Maiestye's EMBASSADORS, or others employed
i88 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
for our cuntry, be very respectfull ; soe shall yow be sure
to meete with a good report when yow comme home, and
they will grace yow what they canne abroade, laynge vpon
yow all curtosies. Be louing and open handed to his Ma :
subiectes according to yowr means, if yow know them
dutyfull and necessitous, rather then giuing gloriously to
strangers : for soe, besides the goodnes of the charite, yow
will obtaine loue ; wher as the others will laughe at yow
for yowr bonty : giuing idelly being a fait other nations is
not soe subiect vnto as wee are.
" Lastely ; What yow obserue of worthe, take notes of ;
for when yow list to take a reweu, the leaues of yowr books
are easylyer turnd ouer, then the leaues of yowr memory.
"To conclude : What I haue deliuered, is but a cate-
logue of what yow ought to looke into, not how yow are
perticularly to follow them ; for soe I should be to tedious
in my instructions, and take away from yow yowr owen
choise, repeating my former labors whiche yow haue more
at large other where : thos that attend yow, knowes my
desiers at full. And soe I leaue yow to the grace of God,
whiche must be the thinge that must stere yow euer and
euer in all yowr actions, and guide me in my aduise."
Sons do not always follow, or even heed, the carefully
prepared counsels of their parents ; but young Algernon
Percy may be fairly said to have obeyed in the main
these minute parental Instructions, and to have profited
abundantly thereby. The advice given by the Earl de-
serves to be contrasted with that contained in the Letters
of Lord Chesterfield to his son, published over a century
later. Despite the occasional pettiness of Northumber-
land's strictures upon women, his general sentiments con-
vey a far worthier ideal than do those of Chesterfield ; and
the comparison is upon the whole greatly to the advantage
of the former writer, as a father and a man of honour, if
not as a man of " elegance " and wit.
In Northumberland's writings there exists abundant
evidence that he looked upon women as sent into this
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 189
world fully as much for man's vexation as for his happi-
ness. The long series of disagreements which had taken
place between his mother and himself, and the subse-
Northumber- <luent stiH bitterer quarrels with his wife, appear
land and hu to have rendered him suspicious of the other
laughters. gex^ an£j Desirous of keeping them in subjec-
tion. Thus while his two sons were elaborately instructed,
and given the full benefit of their father's wisdom, his
daughters, on the contrary, were kept as much as possible
in the background, and only trained in the brief list of
accomplishments which the Earl deemed necessary or
suitable for young ladies of their age and rank. But the
course which the well-meaning father maps out in advance
for his offspring is rarely the course which they choose.
Dorothy and Lucy Percy had inherited, alike from mother
and father, decided wills of their own. They were both
beauties — especially the younger, Lady Lucy, who was by
many esteemed " the most lovely damsel in all England " ;
and, as was natural in the children of a Devereux and a
Percy, they were exceptionally high-spirited and impatient
of restraint. Add to this, that they were gifted with great
natural intelligence, and it will be seen that the Earl had
anything but an easy task before him when, in his lofty
disregard of the feminine mind, he attempted to make
them ideally subservient to his wishes. Lady Dorothy was
the first of the two to revolt. Her father had issued an
edict forbidding her to attend Court without his permission
— a permission that was granted grudgingly and seldom,
for the Earl feared lest the warm Devereux blood, if
submitted to courtly temptations, might betray his daughters
into serious indiscretions, as it had done more than one
member of their mother's family.1 Moreover he knew
the corruption and extravagance of the society with which
the King and his favourites were surrounded, and dreaded
to see his maids embarked upon such a sea of perils.
1 He was probably thinking in particular of the scandals connected with his
wife's sister, Lady Mountjoy, and of his wife's foolish clandestine marriage with
Terrott.
190 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Accordingly royal masques and similar merry-makings were
denied to Lady Dorothy by his orders ; and, in case the
Countess of Northumberland should disobey him in this
regard, he begged his good friend, the Queen, to discourage
Lady Dorothy's presence at Court festivities. But here
once more the Earl, in his ignorance of femininity, ran
counter to the natural sentiments of the sex. The Queen,
as well as Lady Northumberland, looked at matters from a
woman's point of view, and not from that of a philosopher.
Her Majesty's pet weaknesses were love of dress and of
gaiety ; nor could all the Earl's reasoning make it seem
fair to her mind that Dorothy and Lucy Percy should not
be allowed to enjoy the delights which she herself prized so
highly. Thus it came to pass that, in place of siding with
Northumberland on this occasion, Queen Anne aided and
abetted the Countess and Lady Dorothy against him. The
latter refused to listen to her father, and appeared at Court
to such purpose that, before the winter of 1613, rumours
were flying thick and fast regarding the many distinguished
persons said to have laid their names and fortunes at her
feet. At one time gossip had it that Count Henry of
Nassau was her admirer. " There is whispered" wrote John
Chamberlain to his friend Carleton in August 1613, "that
Count Henry of Nassau hath a month 's mind for my Lord of
Northumberland's daughter, which, if it should fall out, would
be a great match for her." *• The " great match " did not come
to anything, however ; nor did Lady Dorothy grieve for
the loss of this foreign princeling, if indeed she had ever
given his attentions a serious thought. In December 1614
Chamberlain the observant informs his correspondent that
there was talk of a union between Lord Burghley and the
fair Dorothy — " which may " (he continues) " bring about
her father's release" 2 But this affair also fell through ;
whether because of Northumberland's justifiable hatred of
the Cecils, or for other reasons, is unknown. Early in
1 State Papers.
a Ibid. Burghley was son of the Earl of Exeter, nephew of Salisbury, and
grandson of the first Cecil.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 191
1616 Lady Dorothy was privately married, without her
father's knowledge (and probably against his will, for he
disliked the Sidneys and Dudleys almost as strongly as he
did old Burghley's progeny), to Robert Sidney, son and heir
of Viscount Lisle,1 nephew of Sir Philip Sidney, and grand-
nephew of the great Earl of Leicester. Lady Northumber-
land, however, was aware of her daughter's secret union,
the facts concerning which were not divulged until the
following year, when the approaching birth of an infant2
forced Lady Dorothy and her young husband to make
known the truth. Notwithstanding the disapproval of
Northumberland, the alliance turned out a most happy one,
and is distinguished in history for the number of famous
personages which it produced. Among the children of
Dorothy Percy and Robert Sidney (who succeeded in 1626
as second Earl of Leicester) were : — Philip, third Earl of
Leicester, better known as Lord Lisle,3 the gallant Puritan
commander of the Civil War ; Algernon Sidney,4 the great
Republican, who died a martyr to his convictions in 1682 ;
Colonel Robert Sidney,5 the reputed lover of Lucy Waters ;
Henry Sidney, first Earl of Romney 6 ; Dorothy, Countess
of Sunderland, who lives as "Sacharissa" in the verse of
Waller ; and Lady Lucy Pelham, ancestress of Thomas,
Duke of Newcastle, and of Henry Pelham.
Hardly was his elder daughter married, than Northum-
berland began to experience similar trouble with the
younger, Lucy. Lady Dorothy Percy had been accom-
plished and beautiful ; Lady Lucy far surpassed her in both
of these qualities. No sooner did she appear at Court, than
a positive train of devoted admirers enrolled themselves
under her banner. There was no need for the Countess of
Northumberland or the Queen to practise the subtle arts
of matchmaking in this case ; suitors came all unsought to
Lucy Percy. She might, it is said, have married whom she
1 Created in 1618 first Earl of Leicester.
2 This infant was none other than Dorothy Sidney, afterwards immortalised
as Waller's " Sacharissa."
3 1619-1698. 4 1622-1682. 6 1626-1668. 6 1630-1704.
i92 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
pleased out of the brilliant circle that surrounded the throne ;
but her choice fell upon the widower, James, Lord Hay,
who, although no longer in his first youth, still showed
himself handsome of form and face, as he was prodigal
of the great wealth bestowed upon him by the King.
James Hay had been the first (and perhaps the most de-
serving) of King James's favourites, after that monarch's
accession to the English throne. "The King no sooner
came to London," writes Sir Anthony Weldon, "but
notice was taken of a rising favourite, the first meteor
of that nature appearing in our climate ; as the King
cast his eye upon him for affection ; so did all the courtiers
to adore him ; his name was Mr. James Hay, a gentle-
man that long lived in France ; some say of the Scottish
guard to the French King." Hay was born at Pitscorthy,
county Fife, the son of Sir James Hay of Kingask by
Margaret Murray, and the grandson of Sir Peter Hay
of Megginch.1 That he was graceful and good-looking
may be taken for granted, although during his mission to
Germany the Electress Elizabeth nicknamed him " Camel-
face," from the peculiar shape of his visage.2 His early
days had been spent in very straitened circumstances ;
and when through the King's favour he found himself rich
and powerful, it became the chief object of his life to
efface the memories of past privation by the most reckless
prodigality. Advancing rapidly in the royal good graces, he
was made a life Baron in 1606, married in 1607 to Honora,
daughter and heir of Edward, Lord Denny, and in 1615
created Lord Hay of Sawley. Good-humoured and tactful,
he subsequently proved himself a capable diplomatist, and
a letter-writer of no mean ability. His one great fault,
indeed, seems to have been absolute recklessness of ex-
penditure. In the feasts which he gave to his friends, he
aimed at outshining Lucullus. According to Weldon, live
sturgeon were imported for him from the Black Sea, and
1 Diet, of Nat. Biography ; Douglas's Peerage. Osborne sneers at his birth,
and calls him the " son of a Scotch merchant." — Trad. Memoirs of fames I.
1 Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 193
served whole at his banquets. In the course of one of his
suppers a great pie was served up, composed largely of
" ambergris, magisterial of pearl, and musk." This fragrant,
but scarcely appetising dish, cost a sum equal to ^55 of to-
day. Hay's masques were upon a scale of equal magnifi-
cence. He leased Essex House, and there played host to
King and Court, with extraordinary splendour. Not all of
this display, however, was intended for the royal delectation.
Shortly after the death of his first wife, Hay fell passionately
in love with Lady Lucy Percy, and many of his most
gorgeous and costly entertainments were given for the
avowed purpose of dazzling the young beauty, as well
as her pleasure-loving mother, Lady Northumberland.
Rumours of what was going on reached the Earl ; and he
protested so violently against the courtship of Lady Lucy
by one of "those Scottish upstarts of the Court," that his wife
shrank from exasperating him by lending open countenance
to the love affair of her second daughter, as she had done
to that of Lady Dorothy. Nevertheless Hay was secretly
encouraged in his suit by the Countess, whose friend Lady
Bedford played the part of principal match-maker. It was
not long before the favourite learned that his attentions
were anything but unwelcome to Lady Lucy ; and it was
arranged that their betrothal should be announced at a
superb festival given for the purpose. On February 22,
1617, John Chamberlain wrote: "A Masque is to be given
at Lord Hays, zvhere the Countess of Bedford is to be Lady and
Mistress of the Feast, as she is of the managing of his love to
the Earl of Northumberland's younger daughter, with zvhom
lie is far engaged in affection, and finds such acceptance both at
her hands and her Mothers, that it is thought it will prove a
match." x
The masque cost about ^11,000 in money of to-day,
and kept thirty cooks busy for twelve days ; but, in so far
as Lucy Percy was concerned, all this oullay of time and
money was thrown away. The King and Queen honoured
Essex House with their presence, all the fashionable world
1 Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton ; State I'afcrs.
II. N
I94 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
was there, but Hay looked in vain for a sight of his lady
love. At last Lady Dorothy Sidney arrived, pale-faced and
in tears, to inform her would-be brother-in-law that Lucy
was a prisoner — shut up with the Wizard Earl in the
Tower ! It was a curious story, and kept London supplied
with romantic gossip for many days. The two sisters,
Dorothy and Lucy, had gone to the Tower that day with the
intention of pleading in Hay's favour. They assured their
father that the young Scotsman was of gentle birth ; that
his love was wholly disinterested — uninfluenced either by
greed or ambition ; and that a union between Hay and
Lady Lucy might lead to the Earl's release from prison.
The last argument had been better omitted. Northumber-
land's pride was offended at the prospect of owing his
freedom to " a Scots minion," and he roundly swore that
rather than consent to such a match he would remain
within the walls of the Tower for the rest of his life. De-
spairing of winning him over, the sisters prepared to leave
the prison before the gates were closed for the day. But
Northumberland, who had heard of the great masque at
Essex House, was determined that his younger daughter
should not attend the festivities. " After some few caresses,
he dismissed his daughter Sidney to go home to her husband,
and to send her sister's maids to attend her ; for that he meant
not to part with her, but that she should keep him company ;
adding withal that he was a Percy, and could not endure that
his daughter should dance any Scottish jigs ; and there she
remains for aught I hear."1 This was domestic tyranny
with a vengeance ! The disappointed Hay did the
honours of his masque as best he could, although for him
that gay scene had lost its chief attraction ; while Lady
Lucy's " incomparable eyes " were wet, as she pined over
her needlework in the lonely chambers of the Brick Tower,2
or listened to the homilies of her stern parent. No doubt
Northumberland fancied that he was acting very shrewdly
1 Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, March 8, 1617 ; State Papers.
2 The apartments recently vacated by her brother, Lord Percy, had been
assigned to her.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 195
in thus separating his daughter from Hay, and making
her a captive like himself ; but events showed that
the methods which he pursued had had anything but
the desired effect. However Lady Lucy might have
acted had she been left free to decide for herself, this
high-handed conduct rendered her more favourably in-
clined than ever towards her Scottish suitor. Did
Northumberland really understand woman's nature he
would never have allowed his daughter to consider her-
self in the light of a martyr. Although the fair captive
wept, she did not despair, even when the Earl ordered that
her maids (whom he suspected of carrying messages to
Hay and Lady Bedford) should not be allowed to leave
the inner ward of the Tower. A fortnight after the
masque at Essex House, Sir G. Gerard wrote to Carleton :
" The Earl of Northumberland still keeps his daughter, Lady
Lucie Percy, in the Tower, to secure her from the addresses
of Lord Hay'' 1 But in spite of all his precautions, the
Earl himself was, indirectly at least, the means of bring-
ing about the alliance which he abhorred. Allusion has
been made to certain tender feelings inspired in the
elderly scientist's breast by the mischievous charms of his
fellow-prisoner, the Countess of Somerset. He was now
so fatuous as to permit, and even encourage, his innocent
daughter to make daily visits to this wretched woman, in
order that (as Chamberlain told Carleton) he might himself
have a good excuse for dancing attendance upon "his
dear Lady of Somerset." 2 This folly was appropriately
punished. Carr's wife, finding time hang heavily on her
hands, could not resist the temptation of indulging in
another of the conspiracies which she loved — an innocent
conspiracy on this occasion, however. While pretending
to sympathise with Northumberland, she acted as go-
between for the lovers, received letters from Hay to Lady
Lucy, and sent out Lady Lucy's replies by her own
messengers. The Earl was handsomely befooled, and " the
1 Gerard to Carlelon, March 20, 1617 ; Stale Papers,
- Chamberlain to Carleton, May 24, 1617 ; Original State Papers.
196 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
matter • ... so plotted, that where he thought he had his
daughter safest, there he lost her." 1 An accident disclosed
to him the true state of affairs. Furious at what he
deemed the treachery of Lady Somerset, he returned to his
old love, science, and visited the Countess no more.2 As
for his daughter, "seeing that he could prevail no longer with
her," he sent her away "without his blessing" ; nor would
he give her the ^20,000 of dowry which he had promised
on condition that "she would be ruled by Aim."3 Hay,
however, was by no means mercenary. His affection, says
Wilson, " was above money — setting only a valuation upon
his much adored bride ;"4 and no sooner did he learn that
Lady Lucy had left the Tower than he hastened back from
Scotland (whither he had gone on the King's business), and
established himself "in a little house in Richmond Park, to be
near Syon where his fair mistress stops." 6 As Northumber-
land continued obstinately against the match, and refused
to see either Lady Lucy or her mother, the King was
induced by Hay to act in loco parentis, and give the bride
away. James was in Scotland, however, and the ardent
swain was naturally impatient. Yet the summer of 1617
must have been, upon the whole, a pleasant one for the
lovers, and Lord Hay's barge came and went twice a day
between Richmond and Isleworth. There is an element of
humour in the fact that Lady Northumberland, appalled
by the accustomed magnificence of her future son-in-law's
banquets (or perhaps kept purposely upon a meagre allow-
ance by the wrathful Earl) did not venture to ask Hay to
dine or sup ; so that the young man was compelled to
return to his own residence at Richmond, in order to
appease his hunger ! " The Lord Hay thinks it long till
the King's coining, that he may consummate his marriage ; for
the King hath promised to give the bride. He is wonderfully
observant and obsequious to her and her mother ; and spends
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, May 24, 1617; Original State Papers.
- Ibid., July 5, 1617 ; Slate Papers.
3 Kid. 4 Life fif King James I. Collins, ii. 434.
5 Sir G. Gerard to Carkton, July 5, 1617 ; State Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 197
most part of his time there, having taken Sir Francis Darcy' s
house, by Syon, where he takes solemn feasts twice a week at
least, with that cost and expence that the Lady of Northumber-
land dares not so much as once invite him by reason of his
curiosity ; though he be commonly in her house from morning
till dinner, from after dinner till supper, from after supper till
late in the night'' J
The wedding was at length solemnised on October 30,
1617. "On Thursday the Lord Hay married his mistress,
the Lady Lucy Percy, and that night the King and Princess
honoured his wedding supper with their presence at the Ward-
robe." 2 The bride knelt, while James drank her health ;
and some authorities aver that the King made her as "a
bridal present ... a promise for her father's enlargement
from the Tower."3 It was a merry party, and one after
his Majesty's own heart. The guests "ate the wine posset t,
threw the left shoe, ran at the ring, with other fooleries ; " —
" O' th' sudden up they rise and dance ;
Then sit again, and sigh and glance ;
Then dance again, and Kiss :
Thus sev'ral Ways the time did pass,
Whil'st ev'ry Woman wish'd her Place,
And ev'ry Man wish'd his ! "
The supposed pardon obtained by Lady Lucy for her
father (if granted at all) certainly came to nothing at this
time. It was, indeed, " an easier task to get a pardon from
the King than to induce her father to accept it. Percy
would not owe his liberty to Hay ; and when the order
for his release was read to him, the venerable Wizard,
swearing that he would not owe thanks to Hay, went back
to his books, his globes, and his Magi in the Martin
Tower." 4 This probably refers to Northumberland's be-
haviour four years later, when an order for his release
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, Aug. 9, 1617.
1 Ibid., Nov. 5, 1617; State Papers.
3 Hepworth Dixon ; Her Majesty s Ttnacr.
4 Ibid.
198 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
was undoubtedly signed, of which he refused to take ad-
vantage. All that James seems to have done at the
wedding supper was to make Lady Lucy a promise of her
father's pardon ; which promise the King, characteristi-
cally, took four years to carry out.
The year 1618 witnessed the execution of Northumber-
land's life-long friend, Raleigh. In 1619 the Earl was to
suffer the loss of one still nearer to him— his
counteslthe wife. Lady Northumberland died at Syon on
Dorothy. August 3. The register of Petworth records
that on August 14, 1619, "the corps was interred in
the Chappell of Dorothie, that thrice honorable and right
vertuous lady the Countess of Northumberland." Lady
Northumberland was aged about fifty-four years, and had
been married to the Earl for some twenty-four. Her
funeral sermon, preached by Dr. Richard Chambers at
Petworth, was printed and published a few months later.
It is entitled, "Sarah's Sepulture; or a Funerall Sermon
preached for the Right Honourable and vertuous Lady,
Dorothie, Countesse of Northumberland, at Petworth in
Sussex, by Richard Chambers, Doctor of Diuinitie." '
The text chosen was Genesis xxiii. i and 2 :—
" i. And Sarah was an hundred and seauen and twenty
yeares old: These were the y cares of the life of Sarah.
" 2. And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba, the same is Hebron,
in the land of Canaan."
It is difficult to understand how these particular verses
could have been considered appropriate to the occasion.
Neither in her age or general characteristics did Lady
Northumberland resemble Abraham's wife. "Among
many mirrors of modesty," said the preacher, "this elect
Lady was a true mirror. Had any cause to boast in the flesh ?
Shee more. Shee was descended of a Princely family, espoused
to one of the greatest Pecres in the Land, blessed with an
hopefull Seed, grascd with all outward lineaments of beauty,
and endowed with all outward ornaments ofvertue." ''
1 Published by G. Eld, London, 1620. '' Sarah's Sepulture.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 199
Northumberland was greatly shaken by his wife's death,
and reproached himself bitterly with the estrangement
which had arisen between them since the secret marriage
of their elder daughter, and the Earl's indiscreet admiration
for Lady Somerset. So overcome was he, indeed, that his
friends resorted to the strange expedient of recalling to his
mind " his former disputes with his wife, in order to lessen his
grief at her loss." l His infirmities increased so rapidly from
this time, that (as Lord Hay assured the King) only freedom
and complete change of scene could restore him to health.
Hay, now Viscount Doncaster,2 laboured most loyally in his
father-in-law's cause, and good-humouredly excused the
latter's discourteous treatment of himself, by pointing out
that long imprisonment and many sorrows had naturally
spoilt the Earl's temper. At last the promised pardon was
obtained from the King. " But the old Earl," says Wilson,3
" would hardly be drawn to take a release from his (Don-
caster's) hand ; so that when he had liberty, he restrained
himself ; and only with importunity was wrought upon by
such as knew the distemper of his body might best qualify
that of his mind persuading him, for some indisposition, to
make a journey to the Bath." His sons and daughters
joined in urging Northumberland to accept the release
offered to him ; and, after several refusals, he was finally
induced to do so.
The Earl left the Tower, his prison-home for more
than sixteen years, on July 21, 1621.* Several other dis-
Freedomat tinguished prisoners were liberated on the same
last- occasion, among them the Earls of Oxford
and Southampton, Sir Henry Yelverton, Sir Edward
Sandys, Captain North, and Mr. Selden. A grand salute
of the Tower guns was fired in honour of Northtimber-
1 His tried friend, the Queen, had also died in 1619.
3 He was created Viscount Doncaster in 1618, and Earl of Carlisle
in 1622.
* Life of King James I. Collins, ii. 434.
4 Kecords of the Tower. De Fonblanque wrongly states that the date of the
release was 1622.
200 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
land's departure ; and Lord Doncaster escorted his father-
in-law in triumph to Essex House, where his children
awaited him. Chamberlain writes : " On Sunday after-
noon the Earl of Northumberland was released from his long
imprisonment in the Tower, whence the Lord of Doncaster went
to fetch him to his house with a coach and six horses. . . .
The warders of the Tower make great moan that they have
lost such a benefactor. All the lords and great men about this
town go to visit and congratulate the Earl. Lord Arundel
supped with him the first night \ and dined there the next day,
whither came likewise, unbidden, the Spanish Ambassador.
The Earl continues at Syonfor ten days, then goes to Penshurst,
to ste his daughter Lisle, and so on, when he thinks good, within
his precincts."1 The word "precincts" is in allusion to the
fact that, on his first release, Northumberland was ordered
to keep away from London, and to confine himself to
" within thirty mile s compass of Petwortli"'1 — a place which
he had never cared for, and rarely visited. The cause of
this edict was the King's desire to avoid any awkwardness
which might arise from a meeting between himself and the
man whom he had so long persecuted. The injunction
was removed after a few months, and Northumberland
was allowed to return for stated periods to his favourite
residence, Syon, where he found the gardens which he had
laid down in a most flourishing condition. On November
15, 1623, Chamberlain informed Sir Dudley Carleton that
the Earl had " hired Sir Richard Harrison's house in the
Minories, and lived tliere" * It is curious to find the released
captive voluntarily returning to the neighbourhood of his
captivity — for Harrison's house was within musket-shot of
the Martin Tower. There is no mention of his journey to
Bath, but he probably went thither as soon as his " pre-
cincts " had been enlarged. A story is quoted in Collins'
Peerage to the effect that, during his first visit to London,
the Earl having heard of the Duke of Buckingham's ostenta-
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, July 22, 1622 ; State Papers.
2 JbiJ., July 1 8, 1621.
3 Stale Papers, November 15, 1623.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 201
tion in driving through the capital behind six horses, imme-
diately ordered that his own coach should be drawn by
eight, by way of rebuke to the favourite. Such a demon-
stration, however, scarcely tallies with Northumberland's
character.1 His principal place of abode after 1622 was
Petworth, and most of his books and scientific appliances
were transferred thither from the Tower, with considerable
difficulty, owing to the proverbial heaviness of the Sussex
roads. There was nothing to prevent his claiming his seat in
the House of Lords, but no evidence exists of his having
done so during the remainder of James I.'s reign. On
February 22, 1624, we learn that " the Earl of Northumber-
land was either not called to Parliament, or if writs Pro
Forma were isstied, he had been wished to forbear and absent
himself "* Even after the accession of Charles I. he seems
for a time to have shrunk from parliamentary service, as
on January 31, 1626, a Dispensation was issued to "Henry
Earl of Northumberland to be absent from the Parliament
in regard of indisposition of body" 3
One of the most agreeable reminders of the past which
awaited the Earl on his return to freedom was a letter of
warm congratulation from Sir Dudley Carleton — once his
protege" and private secretary, now a person of consequence
and envoy at the Hague. Carleton (soon to become Vis-
count Dorchester) assured his old master that he had never
forgotten how much he owed to the latter's help in times
of need. The Earl, vastly pleased by this evidence of
gratitude — a rare quality in those who have risen to place
and power — replied from Petworth on August 28, thanking
Carleton for his letter, and assuring him that he had more
than wiped out any debt which existed between them by
his kindness to Lord Percy while abroad. This friendship
continued to the end of the Earl's days, and he never
failed to offer his congratulations upon every upward step
1 The Dictionary of National Biography and De Fonblan(|ite's Annals both
suggest that Hay was responsible for the eight horses.
1 Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton ; State Papers.
3 Domestic State Papers.
202 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
taken by Lord Dorchester. On August 29, 1629, he wrote
inviting the diplomatist to visit him at Syon or Petworth,
and adding in hopeful words : " / hope time will bring it
about again that we may communicate some old passages,
and laugh at what is past, joy at the present, and hope
for better to come, ^vhich none shall be gladder than your old
master." 1
James I. died in 1625 ; and the new King, advised by
Buckingham, began at once to make overtures to Northum-
berland. It was felt at Court that the Percy influence
would be of great advantage to the royalist party, and the
Earl was urged to take his seat in Parliament as a supporter
of prerogative. Twenty years before Northumberland
would probably have sided with the King and his advisers
as against the claims of the people ; but his unjust
imprisonment, and the other grievous wounds which he
had received from the reigning dynasty, caused him to
look coldly upon the interested advances of the Crown
party. It was not long, indeed, before he made his voice
heard in Parliament as a vigorous champion of the
Commons and their privileges, and an opponent of
Buckingham's policy. A small body of peers looked upon
Northumberland as their leader, the Earls of Arundel,
Bristol, and Middlesex lending him particularly active aid
in his resistance of autocratic rule. As the King's (or
rather Buckingham's) demands for money grew more
frequent and pressing, the breach between Charles and
Northumberland widened. At first promises and cajoleries
were essayed to win over the obstinate peer. These failing,
Buckingham went so far as to employ threats, broadly
hinting that a refusal on the Earl's part to support and
contribute to the Royal Loan of 1627 would seriously
injure the prospects of the House of Percy. One of the
favourite's letters to Northumberland in regard to the
loan runs as follows: "ft is common bruit of the Toun
that your Lordship is resolved to refuse the Loan to the King
now on foot. I beg your Lordship to think well of it, before
J Northumberland to Viscount Dorchester ; State Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 203
you refuse. The matter is not great, and is generally assented
to by the rest of your Rank. To refuse will not advantage
your Lordship in the Opinion of others, and will frustrate my
endeavour to settle your Lordship and your children in the
King's Favour." l Had the Earl allowed himself to be con-
verted, like Strafford, from sympathy with the Commons
to unqualified allegiance to the King, a dukedom and
the gift of large tracts of land taken from the Catholic
Irish were to have been bestowed upon him. But he
scorned alike bribes and menaces ; and, together with the
other " refractory Lords," sternly refused to " come in," 2 or,
in other words, to countenance the loan in any way. We
learn this from a letter to the future Earl of Strafford,
who was still opposed, like Northumberland, to arbitrary
measures, and who is exhorted in the same context to
" come into the Vineyard at the last hour" lest Buckingham
compass his ruin.3 Wentworth was enticed " into the
Vineyard" to his own eventual destruction ; Northumber-
land remained defiantly aloof. It is impossible to say how
far he was influenced in taking this position by an honest
desire for the public welfare ; and how far by distrust of
the Stuart race (a distrust which he did not attempt to
hide) and contempt for the Cecils, Cavendishes, Russells,
Villierses, and others who had risen to rank since the
Reformation, or even later. But, whether driven into the
arms of the Democracy by the vulgarising of his own
order, or actuated by sentiments such as those afterwards
upheld by his son, and his grandson Algernon Sidney,
it is certain at least that the Earl was thoroughly con-
sistent in his opposition to the rash policy of Buckingham
and the King. Indeed, but for the assassination of the
Duke in 1628, Northumberland and Arundel would pro-
bably have been sent back to the Tower.
The Earl had survived most of his enemies, but there
was one relentless foe from whose attacks he could not
1 Buckingham to Northumberland, Feb. I, 1627 ; Slate Papers.
2 Lord Haughton to Sir Thomas Wentworth, May 19, 1627 ; Stratford Letters,
vol. i. 3 Md.
204 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
escape. Old age, and its attendant infirmities, daily
weighed more and more heavily upon him, and forced
Death of the him, against his will, to abandon London and
wizardEari. the Parliament, and retire to the comparative
solitude of his Sussex home. Even at Petworth, his
peace was disturbed by at least one more family trouble,
of sufficient consequence to cause him grave distress.
This was the marriage of his elder son to Lady Ann
Cecil, granddaughter of the man to whom, more than all
others, Northumberland owed his betrayal and sufferings
— Robert, first Earl of Salisbury. On January 12, 1628, the
Rev. Joseph Mead had written to Sir Martin Stuteville : —
" My Lord Percy is bent upon marrying with my Lord Salis-
bury's Daughter. ^11,000 is her portion ; but my Lord of
Northumberland is averse, because her grandfather was his
greatest enemy"'*- It is not surprising, upon the whole, that
the old Earl should bitterly oppose this alliance of his
honest race with that of the treacherous and unscrupulous
Cecil. He remonstrated hotly with his son, and roundly
declared that "the blood of Percy would not mix with that of
Cecil if you poured them into a dish!'"1 With Algernon Percy,
however, as with his sisters Dorothy and Lucy, love out-
weighed filial devotion. In spite of the Earl's opposition the
marriage took place in 1629 ; but superstitious gossip long
afterwards maintained that the failure of Ann Cecil to bear
her lord a son and heir was due to a curse laid by the
angry "Wizard" upon what he considered an unhallowed
•&
union.
Apart from this, Northumberland's life at Petworth
during the brief remainder of his days seems to have been
contented and happy. In fine weather he amused himself
with gardening and the planting of trees ; at other times
chemical researches and a well-filled library furnished him
with agreeable occupation. For purposes of study his
1 Birch's Charles I. z Ibid.
3 Northumberland was said to have prophesied that " the Earldom should
nevfr pass to a Percy with Cecil blood in his veins" ; as indeed proved to be the
case. The failure of the line of his son-in-law, Hay, was similarly ascribed to the
Karl having withhold his blessing from Lady Lucy Percy at her marriage.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 205
sight had almost entirely failed, and he now employed four
readers and secretaries, instead of two. Among these was
his cousin, Edward Percy, nephew of the conspirator Thomas
Percy, and great-grandson of Josceline Percy, brother of
the fifth Earl.1 De Fonblanque is mistaken in his assertion
that Thomas Harriot accompanied his patron to Petworth,
and helped him to fit up a laboratory there.2 The cele-
brated scientist died in 1621, a month before Northumber-
land obtained his liberty.3 Hues, Torperley, and Thomas
Allen, however, may well have visited Petworth. It is in-
teresting to note that Torperley and Allen both died in the
same year as their friend and fellow-scientist, the Earl.
Part of the summer of 1632 Northumberland spent at
beautiful Penshurst with his elder daughter Dorothy, now
Countess of Leicester. In spite of the superior beauty and
brilliancy of Lady Carlisle, Dorothy had always been his
favourite ; and it was certainly in this leafy corner of Kent
that he saw her at her best, the happy mother of a
lusty brood — all destined to make their mark in the world
some day. Lucy of Carlisle preferred the busy life of the
Court, as her mother and grandmother had done before
her ; and there she had already begun to turn her wit to
account in a thousand subtle plots, and to bend her splendid
eyes admiringly upon " Black Tom " Wentworth. But
gentler Dorothy was quite content with a peaceful life at
Penshurst among her children, where her chosen friends
were kindly, simple-hearted neighbours such as that Dame
Selby of the Moat-House, whose merits are so quaintly
recorded in an epitaph at Ightham hard by.4
1 See Genealogy, Tables II. and III. Edward Percy died at Petworth, and
was buried there in 1630.
2 Annals of the House of Percy. 3 Did. of Nat. Biography.
4 This epitaph to Dame Dorothy Selby of Ightham Moat-House records that
she was : — •
" In heart a Lydia, in tongue a Hanna,
In zeale a Kuthe, in wediock a Susanna.
Prudently simple, fruitfully wary,
Ti> the world a Martha, and to Heav'n a Mary.
She put on \ . ., ,. I a «, 69 ;
, . ... ( in thcyere of her \
Immortality \ \ Redemption, 1641.
206 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Northumberland found his grandchildren urchins of
great promise and exceptional good looks. With the
Sidney blood, at least, that of Percy had mingled happily.
Dorothy, first of the merry tribe, was a blue-eyed maiden
of fifteen, without a thought as yet of the hearts that she
was destined to break, or of the fame that was to be hers
as the Sacharissa of love-sick Master Waller. Lord Lisle,
in his fourteenth year, showed little of that stern serious-
ness which, in after years, distinguished the soldier of the
Commonwealth. And upon the fair face of Algernon
Sidney, godson as well as grandson of the Wizard Earl,
there rested no shadow prophetic of the future. To these
children Northumberland, with his long white beard and
reputation for supernatural wisdom, must have been a
creature of awe, and even of dread ; but the grave scientist
could unbend at times, and it makes a pleasant picture to
think of him, throned upon some "tanned haycock" in
the Penshurst meadows, with his daughter by his side, and
the young Sidneys listening eagerly to the tales which he
told them. To one dark phase of his life we may be sure
he did not turn — the Tower and its gloomy memories
would have been out of place with such an audience. But
upon many another subject he was free to talk — the
foreign lands and peoples which he had visited, the great
wits and doughty captains of his early manhood, the
glories of olden days, the wonders of sky and sea ! English
history was one of the topics which he most delighted to
discuss ; nor could he altogether refrain from tingeing
his narrative with some of that bitterness which he felt
towards ungrateful monarchs and their ministers. Who
can tell how deeply the minds of Algernon Sidney and his
brother were influenced by what they learnt during those
long summer clays at Penshurst ?
With the approach of autumn, the Earl took leave of
his grandchildren and went back to his solitary life in
Petworth. There he was suddenly overtaken by disease
(probably small-pox), and died in his seventy-first year, on
November 5, 1632— "Gunpowder Plot Day." His hasty
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 207
burial beside the remains of Countess Dorothy in Petworth
Chapel, is all that is left to be recorded concerning the
chequered career of Henry Percy, the " Wizard Earl " of
Northumberland.
Only three of the Earl's six brothers outlived him ; and
one of these (George) died later in the same year. The
eldest survivor, William Percy, was a singular
Richard,' and character, who, although endowed with consider-
George aj-,je talents, had drifted (through an unhappy
love-affair, it is said) into obscurity. He entered
Gloucester Hall,1 Oxford, in 1588, at the age of fifteen, and
soon established for himself a reputation as "a young man
of learning and genius." This early promise, however,
was not fulfilled. We find Percy repeatedly in prison —
first in the Tower, upon a charge of homicide, and subse-
quently in the Fleet for debt. His open acknowledgment
of Roman Catholic opinions put an end to all hopes of
his preferment at Court, and he retired to Oxford, where
many holding similar views had found an asylum. Here
he still lived in 1638, upon the pittance of a younger son,
holding no communication of any sort with his relatives,
and " drinking nothing but ale." * He died ten years later
" an aged Bachelor, in Penny Farthing Street, Oxford, after lie
had lived a melancholy and retired life many years ; and was
buried in the Cathedral of Christchurch, near to the grave of
Sir Henry Gage, the 28"" of May 1648." 3 Percy was an asso-
ciate of Barnabie Barnes, the author of "Parthenopie and
Parthenope," who dedicated his "Offices" to " The Right
Noble and Vcrtuous Gentleman M. William Percy, Esquier, his
deerest friend." Percy's own literary works, like those of
Barnes, are forgotten to-day ; but he enjoyed considerable
reputation as a dramatist and writer of sonnets. His
"Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia," composed in 1594, were re-
produced in book form some years ago.4 They are supposed
1 Wood's Oxford M.SS., Ashmole Museum, 8466, Col. 4.
'* Slia/ord Letters, ii. 166. 3 Woods MSS., Ashmole Museum.
' In 1877 ; edited by the Rev. A. B. Grosart, D.D.
208 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
to have been addressed to the unknown lady whose cruelty
wrecked the poet's happiness. Two plays written by him
during the period of his retirement were printed in 1824
" from a MS. in the Library of Joseph Haslewood esquire." l
They display not a little talent, and a great deal of the
coarseness of language common to the age. The first is
entitled "The Cuck Queanes and Cuckolds Errants ; or the
Bearinge down the Inne : A Comcedye, by W. P. ; " the
second, "The faery Pastorall ; or the Forrest of Elues
(introducing Oberon, King of the Faerys, Chloris his
Queene, Orion Prince of Eluida, Sir David a Schoolemaster
of the Faery Children, and others)."
Sir Richard Percy, another brother who survived the
ninth Earl, also ended his life in obscurity, after a youth
of great promise. His military services in Ireland have
been already referred to. When the Earl was unjustly
condemned by the Star Chamber, Richard Percy became
disgusted with life in England, and went abroad. Like
his brother William, he was a Roman Catholic ; and he
died in 1647 in a religious house on the Continent. There
is no record of his having married, or left issue.
George Percy, after the Earl the ablest of the seven
brothers, was born in 1580. He saw some service in the
Low Countries (probably in the company of Northumber-
land and Raleigh), and in December 1606 sailed for
Virginia with the first American expedition of James I.'s
reign. On May 23, 1609, his name occurs in the list
of incorporators of the second company of Virginian ad-
venturers. His first intention was to have settled down
in the Dominion, for he obtained considerable grants of
lands (subsequently alienated) and married Anne Floyd,
daughter of one of the colonists at Jameston. In August
1609 Gabriel Aucher describes him as one of "the re-
spected gentlemen of Virginia." In the quarrel between
the adventurers and Captain John Smith, Percy sided with
the former; and after Smith's recall in 1609 to answer
the charges made against him, Percy was made Deputy-
1 Published by William Nicul, London.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 209
Governor. On June 12, 1610, he became a member of
the Council under the new Governor, Delawarr, and in
1611 again Deputy-Governor. Acting in this capacity
he exchanged gifts with "the great sachem Powhatan,"
father of Pocahontas. His expenditure at this time proved
larger than his income, for on August 17, 1611, he wrote a
letter to his eldest brother, the Earl, apologising for having
overdrawn his allowance to the extent of ^432. is. 6d. It
was necessary, he explained, to "keep a good table" at
Jamestown, where foods and wines were very costly. Nor-
thumberland paid the debt, but apparently advised his
brother to return to England ; and on April 22, 1612, Percy
resigned his office, disposed of whatever goods he owned,
and left Virginia. In London he acted for some time as
agent for the Virginian adventurers opposed to John Smith.
When Smith published his " General History," Percy wrote
in reply " A True Relation of the Proceedings and Occur-
rents of Moment which happened in Virginia from . . .
1609 until . . . 1612." In this he accuses Smith of being
a braggart and a slanderer, and sets forth at length the
various grievances of the settlers. A second work followed
of more permanent value, entitled " A Discourse of the
Plantation of the Southern Colony of Virginia." This
tract was republished by both Hakluyt and Purchas.
Percy's restless nature forbade that he should remain long
inactive, and about 1625 he entered the service of the
United Provinces as a volunteer. He had a finger shot
off in one engagement (1627), and for some time com-
manded a company with distinction. His death occurred
in 1632, a few months after that of Northumberland ; and
he does not appear to have left any children by his wife,
Ann Floyd.1
1 This, however, is not absolutely certain. Ann Floyd remained behind in
America after her husband's return to England.
II.
IV
THE tenth Earl of Northumberland was born on October
13, 1602, after two of his brothers had died in infancy.
He was baptized at Essex House on the follow -
teath fiTri of U1g day; his godmother being Queen Elizabeth
Northumber- (the Marchioness of Northampton acting as
proxy), and his godfathers the Lord Treasurer
and the Lord Admiral (Nottingham) of England.1 It
was an era of fanciful names, and Northumberland went
back to the very fountain-head of his race to find one
for the latest born Percy. " The child" wrote Cham-
berlain, "is called 'Algernon,' after one of his first ances-
tors, that of the House of Brabant. It is thought somewhat
a strange and disused name ; 2 but it is better to have a strange
name than none, as your Dolphin 3 hath not that I can heere
of." 4 The worthy gossip is, of course, mistaken in thinking
that the name "Algernon" had its origin in the House of
Brabant and Louvain. It was, as will be remembered, the
appellation of that William de Percy who first settled in
England, generations before the line merged in that of
Josceline of Brabant.
Almost as soon as he had passed what his father termed
" The Long-Cote Age" Young Percy was taken from his
mother's care and installed in the Tower, where the Earl
was already a prisoner. Northumberland has been blamed
for thus making his son a prisoner like himself ; but he
himself always maintained that the results amply justified
him in the course which he took. That the training which
the lad obtained under his father's direction was far superior
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 15, 1602; State Papers.
2 Certainly a strange name to apply to an infant, if its meaning (" The
Whiskered") be considered ! 3 The Dauphin.
4 Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 15 ; S/atc Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 211
to what might have fallen to his share in the outer world
there can be little doubt ; but, on the other hand, these
years spent within prison walls, apart from companions of
his own age, left upon his character an impression of
seriousness, and even of gloom, which nothing could efface.
In studying the history of Algernon Percy, one is con-
stantly reminded of the fact that his all too brief boyhood
was spent amid these stern surroundings. His only friends
were men far advanced in years — grave, learned men who
had been tried in the fires of suffering ; many of whom
belonged, like Nicholas Hill and Thomas Allen, to the
forbidden religion ; and few of whom had any reason to
look with love or respect upon the Stuart King and his
shifty advisers. He saw his father, one of the greatest peers
in the realm, condemned to imprisonment and threatened
with the loss of his estates at the will of an irresponsible
sovereign, and upon charges deliberately trumped up by
a treacherous rival. To know that this father, the head of
a race which had rendered extraordinary services to the
State, and deserving in his own person of the King's
warmest gratitude, was being persecuted thus wantonly ;
to see innocent men like Walter Raleigh flung into a
dungeon, robbed, and finally butchered, while pimping
Somerset and his murderous paramours went scot free ;
to look day after day upon the wrongs and miseries encom-
passed by the callous walls of the Tower — these were
experiences which rendered Percy old before his time, and
tempered his inherited pride with a reserve which, in after
life, made him seem cold and haughty to those who did not
know him well. As might have been expected, the things
which he heard and witnessed were little calculated to
strengthen his allegiance to the reigning dynasty and its
methods of government. We are told that Northumber-
land was fond of hearing his son read Plutarch ; and of
commenting sagely upon each Life as it was passed in
review, comparing the great men of their own time with
those of antiquity. One wonders whether Lord Percy en-
deavoured to establish any parallels between the luminaries
212
THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of the Court and the subjects of Plutarch's pen. The com-
parison could hardly have been flattering to the former.
When the Brick Tower was rented from Lord Carew
as a residence for the heir of Northumberland, apartments
therein were assigned to Robert Hues (one of the famous
"Three Magi" of the Earl). Hues acted as Algernon's
principal tutor. In addition, capable instructors in
dancing, fencing, writing, and many other accomplish-
ments were engaged and liberally paid for their services.1
The art of riding Percy acquired in the fields and lanes
of Essex, whither he went twice or three times a week
under the care of his father's "gentleman of the horse,"
John Hippesley. Northumberland distrusted Court life
and its influence upon the mind of his son, but he was
determined not to retard in any way the fetter's worldly
welfare. When the future King Charles was created
Prince of Wales in 1616, a number of boys of his own
age were invested with the order of knighthood, and
of these the second in point of rank was Algernon Percy.
" / have not the list of the twenty-four Knights of the Bath
that were made at the time;' writes John Chamberlain ;
"but it may suffice that they were all of noble Houses, and
the Lords Maltravers? Percy and Wriothesley* were the
ringleaders."* Percy's fees on this occasion amounted
to A4o, 143. 2d.5 Next year he bade good-bye to his
quarters in the Tower, and betook himself to Cambridge
University. On this head the "Dictionary of National
Biography" is betrayed into an error. Following De
Fonblanque unquestioningly, it asserts that "Percy was
educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, as family
papers prove, and not at Christ Church, Oxford, as stated
by Collins and Doyle." As a matter of fact Percy
'was educated at both universities, in so far as a very
brief stay at either seat of learning may be regarded
i Syon Hous, Rolh. * Ancestor of the Duke of Norfolk
> Afterwards Earl of Southampton, father-in-law of Joscelme, nth tarl
Northumberland.
< Chamberlain to Guleton, Nov. 9, 1616 : State Paferi.
5 Syon House Rolls.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 213
as education. He cannot have resided at Cambridge
more than six months ; for on July 15, 1617, he matricu-
lated at Christ Church, Oxford, as "Percy, Aulgernoun,
Cantabrigiensis" and signed the register among the Nobilest
While residing in the Tower, in 1615, he had been
entered as a student of the Middle Temple.2 The ex-
penses incurred by his term at Cambridge were by
no means light. For " Admittance and Incorporation " he
was charged £6, 55. od. (" no more ") ; for " Six Months Com-
mons, £28, 2S. 4d " ; for "Extraordinary Diet, £50, i6s. 4d" ;
and for " Furniture of Lodgings, £20, os. od." * His servants
(who were kept upon board wages of seven shillings
a week each) numbered six. By way of personal allow-
ance he had £50 a year; and for his clothing, .£200
for the term. Altogether his Cambridge sojourn must
have cost about .£500 (or, in modern money ^2500) per
annum ; and the Oxford expenditure was on a similar
scale. By way of contrast, it is interesting to note the
very different treatment accorded at this time to his
younger brother, Henry Percy. This poor lad was
brought up at the school of one John Willis in Isle-
worth ; and his annual expenses, including diet, never
exceeded £25. He had no pocket money, and no extras
whatever— except the entry, " 5d. for gages and scourges;'
be looked upon as such.* When Henry Percy was allowed
to travel in France two years later, it was "in a modest
manner" and at " small cost."6
After leaving Oxford, Algernon Percy went abroad,
bringing with him a well-filled purse, and the "Instructions"
regarding foreign travel which his father had prepared for
his benefit. Lads of sixteen, plentifully supplied with
money, and sent out to view the world with no other re-
straint than that offered by an obsequious tutor (whose
hopes of future preferment in the Church depended upon
the favour of his pupil), 6 are rarely disposed to pay great
1 Register, University of Oxford, pp. fol. I&z.
2 Register of the Middle Temple.
3 Syon House Rolls. « Ibid. « Ibid.
1 Lord Percy's tutor was the Rev. William Dowse.
214 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
attention to the grave and carefully written didactics of
their parents. Percy was in no sense of what is now called
a " priggish " temperament ; but he possessed a fund of
sound common sense, even at that early age, which caused
him to realise the value of his father's elaborate sugges-
tions and to follow them faithfully, especially in regard to
the acquiring of languages and the study of maritime
affairs. Northumberland appears to have had a prescience
that his heir would, at some future day, be intimately con-
nected with the naval affairs of his country. Even in the
Tower the Earl had models of shipping (both of war and
commerce, fully rigged and armed) constructed for Percy's
use ; J and in the " Instructions" he devoted much space to
the study of foreign vessels, their tonnage, draught, and
general usefulness. If Percy acquired high reputation as a
linguist, he also developed into one of the shrewdest and
most practical naval authorities of his time, and the know-
ledge which he obtained in this respect during his travels
afterwards stood him in good stead when he came to be
Lord Admiral of England. His stay abroad (varied by
brief visits to London, as on the occasion of his sire's release
from the Tower) lasted for about six years. In 1624, at
the age of twenty-two, he first entered public life as knight
of the shire for Sussex. The King and Buckingham
laboured diligently to attach him to the Court party, but
without success. In spite of a personal liking for the
Prince of Wales, and a deep respect for the memory of
Queen Ann of Denmark, Percy could not be induced to
accept any favours from the sovereign who had treated
his father so unjustly. Already, indeed, the opinion was
forming in his mind that the mode of government practised
by the Tudors, and disastrously imitated by their Stuart
successors, could not and should not be maintained.
James, after an attempt to make a match between him and
Mademoiselle de St Luc2 (which only resulted in the
young man's hurried and ungracious departure to the
1 Syon House Rolls.
1 Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 2, 1623 ; State Papers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 215
Hague), abandoned further efforts at conciliation. Percy
had no wish to marry as yet, certainly not at the royal
dictation. He did not even take his father into his confi-
dence as regarded his matrimonial intentions ; and when
he chose a wife eventually, it was (as we have seen) one by
no means acceptable to the Earl. In 1625 he represented
Chichester in Parliament, and in 1626 the county of
Northumberland. After the death of James, old animosi-
ties were permitted to subside. The Earl took his seat in
the House of Lords, and Percy accepted from Charles I.
the post of Master of the Horse. Buckingham and his
adherents congratulated themselves somewhat prematurely
upon having broken down the opposition of the great
north-county family and once more attached it to the
Crown. On March 28, 1627, a writ was issued by virtue
of which Lord Percy was summoned to Parliament in
his father's barony of Percy of Alnwick. Of course, as
Nichols points out in his admirable "Synopsis of the
Peerage," this summons was due to an error, and could not
have been issued with propriety save under authority of a
special Act. Queen Mary had not reversed the attainder
of Sir Thomas Percy, but had simply created the Barony
of Percy and Earldom of Northumberland anew, on
April 30-31, 1557, in favour of Henry, commonly called
"seventh Earl." It was due to carelessness or ignorance
on the part of the Heralds' College that Algernon Percy
was now summoned in, and conceded the precedency of
the original barony of February 6, 1299. The effect of
this was, according to Nichols, to create a new barony
by writ— the same which is now represented by the Duke
of Athole.i Even had the attainder of Sir Thomas Percy
been removed, the natural heirs of the ancient barony
(between whom and the succession, however, yet another
attainder intervened) would have been the descendants of
Thomas, seventh Earl (beheaded in 1572), through his
daughters. At the time of Lord Percy's summons to
1 Nichols; Synopsis of the Peerage. A like mistake was made in 1722,
when Algernon Seymour, son of Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Somerset, was
summoned to Parliament in the barony of 1299.
216 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Parliament, the senior co-heir of the Barony of Percy of
Alnwick was Joseph Woodroffe of Woolley in Yorkshire.1
No sooner did Algernon Percy take his seat in the
Upper House, than, so far from falling in with Bucking-
ham's views, he joined the band of " refractory lords"
headed by his father, his brother-in-law Leicester, and
the Earls of Arundel, Bristol, and Middlesex. Bucking-
ham ventured to remonstrate with this unexpected
opponent, and possibly animadverted upon his holding
a Court office, while thwarting the King in his demands
upon the public purse. In order to place his conduct
beyond cavil, Percy forthwith resigned the Mastership of
the Horse, and showed himself more " refractory " than
ever. His chosen associates were Wentworth, Edward
Hyde, and Sir Kenelm Digby, all of whom were at this
time enthusiastic upholders of the privileges of the
Commons, although, with less consistency than Percy,
they afterwards altered their attitude, and (in the case
of Hyde particularly) upbraided their former ally with
ingratitude to the King.
Percy and his bride spent their honeymoon in a pro-
tracted tour through the northern estates of their family.
They found all their ancient castles and manor-houses, with
the single exception of Wressill, in a lamentable condition.
Bamburgh, Topcliffe, and Leckonfield were little more than
so many piles of ruined masonry, and deserted Alnwick was
fast falling into decay. The bitter reflection can scarcely
have failed to occur to the mind of Lady Percy, that these
evidences of neglect and devastation were mainly the work
of her own family, the Cecils ; nor could the old Earl
refrain from informing Leicester that he regarded it as one
of time's revenges that Ann Cecil should thus be made a
sufferer by the ruin which her grandsire and her great-grand-
sire had wrought. For over fifty years a Percy had not
been permitted to inhabit the mansions of his fathers north
of Trent, nor had the northern tenantry welcomed an Earl
of Northumberland to his hereditary domains in all that time.
1 See ante, under the seventh Earl.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 217
A better era was now about to dawn, however. Bamburgh,
Topcliffe, and Leckonfield were past repairing ; but orders
were issued for the rehabilitation of Alnwick and Wressill.
After Buckingham's assassination, and the death of the
ninth Earl of Northumberland, Algernon Percy was induced
to return to Court ; but his opinions in favour of con-
stitutional government remained unaltered. His brother
Sir Henry Percy had recently returned to England, and,
possessing a handsome person together with insinuating
manners, had made himself so agreeable to the Queen that
he was given a small place at Court.1 Henrietta Maria and
the " French party " believed that, through the persuasions
of this vivacious but rather shallow younger brother, they
could win over the new Earl. Charles was persuaded to
overlook the latter's views, and to bestow upon him sundry
honours and dignities. In 1633 he was summoned to
accompany the King to Scotland, and in 1634 nominated
to the Privy Council. During the Scottish expedition, a
rather unpleasant incident occurred. Peter Apsley, a hare-
brained ruffler and hanger-on of the Court, son of Sir Allan
Apsley, formerly Lieutenant of the Tower, and notorious
for the many quarrels in which he had been involved,
challenged Northumberland to a duel on account of some
fancied slight. Only two years before Apsley had been the
challenger in another affair, and owed his escape from
punishment (the laws against the duello being very severe)
to Northumberland's personal intercession.2 It does not
appear whether or not an encounter took place on this
occasion between the Earl and "the irascible Peter" (as
Wentworth styles him) ; but news of the matter reached
Charles, who at once ordered Apsley's arrest on the charge
of having challenged an official in active attendance upon the
sovereign. A Star Chamber trial followed, in 1634. Apsley
was ordered to be imprisoned in the Tower at the royal
pleasure, and to pay the (to him) impossible fine of
1 Master of the Horse to the Prince of Wales — something of a sinecure, since
the future Charles II. was an infant.
2 State Papers, Domestic. Apsley's father had been a friend of the ninth Earl
while in the Tower. ' State Papers.
218 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Lord Chief Justice Heath pleaded to have the fine reduced
to ^1000, on the ground that the prisoner was hardly
responsible for his actions ; but Apsley had become so
notorious as a bravo, that a salutary lesson was deemed
necessary. He was eventually pardoned, after a year's
confinement, and his fine "suspended upon good conduct."
Northumberland's investiture as a Knight of the Garter
took place on May 16, 1635, and was an event of great
splendour — the last occasion, indeed, upon which knights
rode in procession to receive the honour. A Garter had been
vacant for two years, and the Earl's friends had expected
that it would be conferred upon him ; but his pride delayed
the bestowal. Charles was desirous that Northumberland
should unbend to the extent of asking (indirectly at least)
for the coveted favour ; but nature had not made Algernon
Percy a courtier, and he remained obstinately silent, even
when his wife and brother urged him to move in the
matter. At length the Queen, in pursuance of her policy
of conciliation, prevailed upon Charles to take the initia-
tive.1 She was careful, at the same time, to personally
convey to Northumberland that he owed his blue ribbon
to her influence alone. The informal manner in which
the Earl was notified of his new dignity is thus described
by his chaplain, George Garrard (afterwards master of the
Charterhouse, and a lifelong friend of the Percy family) :
" On tlie twelfth day my Lord of Northumberland being
in the Queen s Withdrawing Chamber, the King and Queen
coming in, she looked about until she espied him, then beck' tied
him unto her, and told him that she had moved the King for
one of the vacant Garter Places now empty for him, and the
King had granted her request. So she took him up to the
King, who confirmed it ; and thereupon kissed His Majesty's
Hand. And I verily believe he is beholden to no Courtier of
them all for this noble Favour, but the King and Queen :
They can judge best of Men's Worth, for neither in the
Kingdom, nor out of the Kingdom, do I know any that better
deserves this Honour. He is a Man composed of so many
1 Lord Conway to Wentworth ; Strafford Letters, vol. i.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 219
Virtues, that I admire him, which I do not ordinarily bestow
but tipon those tliat deserve it." x
A broadside ballad in black-letter, preserved in the
British Museum, commemorates the gorgeous progress of
the new Knight of the Garter to Windsor. Chaplain
Garrard (who mounted his own pad-nag for the occasion)
writes as follows : " My Lord of Northumberland was in-
stalled the 1 ^th of this month at Windsor. Never Subject of
this Kingdom rode better attended from his House than he
did, nor performed the Business more nobly or more sumptu-
ously. The King, Queen, and Prince stood at my Lord
Wimbledon 'sz in the Strand; thirteen Earls and a Marquis
rode with him, besides almost all the young Nobility and
many Barons. I must not forget my Lord Cottington^ who
was very rich in Jewels and his Feather but the Spanish
Way, and a competent number of the Gentry, near an hundred
Horse in all, besides his Servants, who were fifty, costly and
bravely cloathed, beyond any that hath been seen before. Four
Pages, all Earls' Sons ; two of my Lord Chamberlain, one
of my Lord Salisbury, and the fotirth my Lord of Leicester s ;
twelve footmen, two brave Coaches, with four in Livery to
drive them. My Lord Clanrickard, his sonf and my Lord
Dunluce6 were of our Company (for I rode too), but not one of
the Scottish Nation ; which was the more observed because
many of our English did the last honour unto my Lord
Morton. The Garter is grown a dear Honour ; few Subjects
will be able to follow this Pattern.' '° A dear honour to
Northumberland it certainly proved. According to the
accounts kept in Alnwick Castle, his expenditure during
1 Rev. G. Garrard to Wentworth ; Strafford Letters, vol. i. 427.
" Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon (1572-1638), brother of Salisbury.
3 Francis Cottington, Lord Cottington, then Master of the Court of Wards,
afterwards one of Charles's chief ministers.
4 This was the Earl of Clanricarde who rebelled four years later, and was one
of the leaders of the Confederate Catholics in Ireland.
6 Randal MacDonnell, Lord Dunluce, son of the first Earl of Antrim, chief of
the Irish MacDonnells. His mother was a daughter of Hugh O'Neill, Earl
of Tyrone. We shall hear of him again as quarrelling with Sir Henry
Percy.
6 Garrard to Wentworth ; Strafonl Letters, May 19, 1635.
220 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the pageant and subsequent investiture at Windsor (in-
cluding heralds' fees) amounted to "^1493, us. 3d."1
The Earl's practical knowledge of maritime affairs
was no secret at Court ; and on March 23, 1636, he was
Admiral of appointed to command the new fleet raised
the Fleet by dint of "ship-money." His full title was
"Admiral, Gustos Mart's, Captain-General and Governor of
the Fleet and Sea Forces" 2 The higher dignity of Lord
Admiral, Charles as yet held in reserve for his infant
son, James, Duke of York. Northumberland chose as his
Vice-Admiral Sir John Pennington, and as Rear-Admiral
Sir Henry Mervyn — the latter of whom Garrard describes
as a protege and pensioner of the Earl.3
If the new Admiral had hoped to sweep the seas with
his fleet (and the Court apparently looked for some such
exploit), he was doomed to grievous disappointment. One
cruise sufficed to convince him that, with such ships and
such sailors, England could never hope for supremacy
upon the deep. The much-heralded navy was indeed in
a deplorable state ; and, to make matters worse, Northum-
berland found himself still further hampered by corrupt
officials, and a viciously incompetent Board of Admiralty.
To the latter was due a measure which, at the very outset,
deprived some of the most trustworthy captains of their
commands, i.e. the needless enforcement of the oath of
supremacy, which even in the bigoted days of Elizabeth
and James had not been demanded from ships' officers.
Northumberland, although personally as well disposed
towards the Catholics as his father had been, had no
choice but to comply with the instructions which he
received from the King, through Secretary Windebank.
To quote from Gardiner's "History of England"4: "The
fleet which was to maintain these exorbitant pretensions
had been entrusted to a new Admiral. This time it was
sent out under the command of the young Earl of Nor-
1 Almuick MSS. ; Memorandum Book No. 10. 3 F/rdera, xix. 761.
3 Garrard to Wentworth, May 15, 1636; Stratford Letters. * Vol. viii.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 221
thumberland. ... A courteous and high-spirited young
nobleman, who took care to keep himself aloof from the
factions of the Court, he was on the best terms with
everybody. He was himself in friendly intercourse with
Wentworth. His sister, Lady Carlisle . . . was still the
reigning beauty at Whitehall, and his brother, Henry
Percy, had gained a strong influence over the Queen by
his light and amusing conversation. . . . Lindsey's Vice-
Admiral, Sir William Monson, had been a Catholic. Nor-
thumberland was now ordered not to admit any officer
who refused to take the oath of supremacy as well as
the oath of allegiance." Among the captains who asked
for "time to consider," and who subsequently resigned
their commissions rather than take the obnoxious oath
were Sir John Digby, Sir Kenelm Digby,1 and Mr. Pen-
ruddocke. On May 20 Northumberland hoisted his flag
on the Triumph, and sailed for the Downs. He found
that his ships were heavy and lumbering craft, ill-equipped
in every respect, and by no means worthy to cope with
the comparatively swift and well-armed French or Dutch
men-of-war. A large French fleet was reported at
Rochelle ; but Northumberland failed to fall in with it.
Off Portland he sighted eight warships of the enemy,
and at once gave chase. The English vessels crowded
on all sail, but were ignominiously left behind in the
race. A rumour that the French had stolen out of
Rochelle and proceeded up the Channel brought the
Earl back to the Downs with all the speed his lagging
armaments could afford. The rumour proved to be false,
however, and when the French did actually leave their
anchorage it was to proceed in a southerly direction.2
Northumberland wished to pursue, but Charles — at the
advice of Windebank and the Admiralty — forbade this
course ; and the Earl, greatly against his will, was ordered
to use his fleet for the purpose of exacting tribute from
1 Kenelm Digby had married Venetia Stanley, a near relative of Northumber-
land (she was granddaughter of the seventh Earl, and a co-heir of the ancient
Barony of Percy)
a Northumberland to the Admiralty, May 23 to June 22, 1636 ; Stale Papers.
222 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
a few Dutch fishing-smacks. The Dutch fishermen had
long been accustomed to frequent English waters in the
herring season, and it was now determined to make each of
these foreign boats take out a licence for the privilege.
Chafing inwardly at the inglorious mission to which he
was condemned, Northumberland nevertheless obeyed,
and succeeded in forcing some 200 owners of Dutch
herring-smacks to pay toll to Great Britain. The govern-
ment of the United Provinces protested warmly against
what was held to be a most high-handed and unjustifiable
proceeding, but the English Admiral carried out his in-
structions to the letter, and threatened with confiscation
all boats that were not duly licensed. Thus terminated
the first season of his command. That he had not ac-
complished more was due, not to his own lack of energy
or skill, but rather to the uncertain policy of Charles, and
the wretched state of his ships.1
But it must not be supposed that the Earl had done
nothing but crawl in the wake of French ships and drag
shillings from the pockets of peaceful fisher-folk.
fuKellted Denied the honours of active service against the
reforms m eoemv, he turned his attention to the Augean
the Navy. re- -^ if i •
task of reforming the navy itselt, and, in
December 1636, presented the King with a full statement
of the many crying abuses which existed in fleet and Admir-
alty. Justice has never been done to this first of English
naval reformers for the good which he accomplished, or
for the still greater good which he fearlessly attempted.
Long afterwards Pepys, when Secretary to the Admiralty,
found and profited by many of Northumberland's straight-
forward and practical reports. The navy, according to the
Earl's memorial to Charles, consisted at that time of 60
ships, of from 7 to 22 feet draught of water. Some of
these were rotten ; all were faultily built, and easily out-
sailed by French vessels of fair speed. The sails supplied
were of the very worst material ; and the cordage (in
1 Gardiner, viii. p. 158.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 223
the expressive language of Northumberland — language of
which we sometimes hear an echo to-day) was "worthless
stuff, which none but His Majesty's officers will buy " ! The
crews were " the very refuse of the whole Kingdom " ; and (it
speaks volumes for the Earl's superiority to his contempo-
rary commanders, that he should complain of such a lack)
there was no decent provision for the sick and wounded. l
Contracts for ships' stores brought commissions and per-
quisites to the Admiralty Board and its underlings ; hence
the victualling of the fleet was of the vilest description.
" Food," wrote Northumberland, " is bad and scant — the beer
not fit to drink, and the dry salted meat is naught"
With regard to the character of the officers serving
under him, the Earl had little to say that was compli-
mentary ; and on this head we find him making a sugges-
tion in the way of reform startlingly in advance of his time.
Briefly he proposed that skilled navigators who had risen
from the forecastle might be eligible for commissions as
officers. Many of his captains and lieutenants, he declared,
were mere creatures of the Court, who owed their appoint-
ments to influential or wealthy relatives. These he held in
undisguised contempt, as useless in peace and dangerous
only to their country in time of war. The rest of his sub-
ordinates were well enough, but might be the better for a
slight admixture of experienced sailors of humble birth.
" With these Gentlemen Captains" he writes, " it ivill be
requisite to mingle some of the better sort of Seamen, who
have been taught on severe Occasions, and have by their Merit
raised both their Fortunes and Reputations."
This daring report raised a storm of indignation among
the Lords and Commissioners of the Admiralty. Every-
thing was done at Court to retard or prevent the proposed
reforms, and Charles learnt from the friends of the
threatened department that his new Admiral was a rash
man who would ruin the navy with his new-fangled
1 In spite of Northumberland's plea for proper "sick-bays" on board war-
ships, the bad old system continued with little alteration down to the days of
Smollett.
224 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
theories. In the end, the King referred the Earl's report
to the very persons most interested in suppressing it —
the Naval Commissioners, " with whom" wrote Northumber-
land in February, " it hath lain dead ever since, and is never
likely to revive again." x Meanwhile the corrupt contractors,
who had been temporarily frightened by threats of exposure
and dismissal, took heart from the delay and returned to
their old evil practices, sneering at the "great Admiral
•whose bark was worse than his bite" Thoroughly disgusted
at the manner in which his representations and complaints
had been shelved, the Earl resolved to leave the navy to
its fate. " The slackness in punishing the offenders" he told
Wentworth (with whom, at this time, he kept up a constant
correspondence), " hath made them so insolent, that now they
justify those facts which hitherto they have tacitly admitted.
This proceeding hath brought me to a resolution not to humble
myself any more with endeavouring a reformation, unless I am
commanded to it." * Wentworth sympathised warmly with
his friend, and replied : " Let the Commissioners think as
they please ; you have done right, and, whether it take or not,
in my judgment it concerneth His Majesty more than yourself !' 3
To these words of encouragement he added help of a more
substantial nature. Laud was inspired by him to raise anew
the question of reform in the navy ; and just when the
officials thought themselves again secure from interference,
they found their peace once more disturbed from a wholly
unexpected quarter — the bench of bishops. Northumber-
land had been upon the point of resigning, in the belief
that a command in the navy was scarcely "fit for any person
of honour" '* Now, however, the King and Laud joined in
pressing him to continue at the head of the fleet for another
year. Laud, still prompted by Wentworth, strongly advised
the King, as a preliminary step in the direction of reform,
either to call the Earl to the Commission, or else to make
1 Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 46.
2 Northumberland to Wentworth, Feb. 7, 1637 ; Strafford Letters.
' Wentworth to Northumberland, Feb. 18, 1637; Ibid.
' Northumberland to Wentworth, Feb. 20, 1637 ; Ibid,
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 225
him Lord High Admiral and place the affairs of the navy
absolutely under his control. As we have already stated,
this proud position was being reserved for the little Duke
of York ; but Laud suggested that Northumberland might
be allowed to occupy it until the Duke arrived at suitable
years.1 At the personal request of Charles, the Earl again
took command in April 1637. He found that much the
same conditions prevailed as in the previous year ; and to
his intense annoyance the campaign against the Dutch
fishermen was resumed. These men had in the meantime
received assurances of support from their government,
however, and were no longer disposed to submit tamely.
One or two smacks which were overhauled offered a smart
resistance, and the Admiral ordered them to be seized.
The United Provinces at once sent a letter of protest to
Charles ; whereupon the latter retreated from the position
which he had taken up, and, fearful of war with the Dutch,
ordered Northumberland not to pursue such fishers as
endeavoured to escape the payment of toll, but to collect
what moneys he could from the less determined opponents
of the herring licence.2 Such instructions made the Earl's
position doubly humiliating, but it also afforded him an
excuse for permitting the Dutch fishing-smacks to go their
ways undisturbed. He implored the King to allow him to
enter French waters, but the desired permission was not
granted, and he remained for the most part stationary in
the Downs. This inaction was galling in the extreme.
" To ride in this Place (the Downs} a whole Summer togetfer,"
he wrote to Wentworth, " without hope of action ; to see
daily disorders in the fleet, and not to have the means to
remedy them ; and to be in an employment where a man can
neither do service to the state, gain honour to himself, nor do
courtesies for his friends, is a condition that I think nobody will
be ambitious of." 3
1 Wentworth to Northumberland, Feb. 21 ; Strafford Letters.
2 Holograph Letter from the King ; dated July 28, 1637, from Windsor ;
Alnwick MSS,
3 Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 84.
II. P
226 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Meanwhile Charles had been persuaded by Laud and
Wentworth that the appointment of Northumberland as
Lord High Admiral was desirable, not only for the good
of the navy, but also as a possible means of turning the
Earl from his views against the principle of Divine Right,
and converting him into an adherent of the Court. More
than one personage of importance had angled for this
dignity since it lapsed with the death of Buckingham, and
there was disappointment in various quarters when the
King gave it, somewhat unexpectedly, to one who was re-
commended as much by merit as by influence. The Earl
of Holland in particular felt that he had been ungratefully
overlooked by the King ; and an amusing description is
given in the Strafforcl Letters of the consternation wrought
by the news in his lordship's " petticoat council " of great
Court Dames.1 These ladies had worked zealously to obtain
the Lord Admiralship for Holland, and they now reviled
the more fortunate Northumberland in no measured terms.
The new patent was issued (in the interest of the Duke
of York) as "during the King's pleasure" and not, as in
Buckingham's case, for life.2 Consternation spread through
the ranks of the corrupt naval officials when they learned
that their avowed foe had been placed in practical control
of the service ; and, in accordance with the nature of these
gentry, scores of the worst sinners at once offered to do
penance (and at the same time save their places) by
giving evidence against their fellows. On March 31, the
day after Northumberland's appointment, Thomas Smith
wrote to Sir John Pennington, the Vice-Admiral : "In-
formers begin to bestir themselves, and a great deal of knavery
•will be discovered." 3
The new and responsible duties to which he was thus
called were at first insufficient to distract Northumberland's
mind from the effects of a great loss which he had
1 This feminine cabal consisted mainly of Lady Devonshire, Lady Essex, and
Lady Rich. — Str afford Letters.
- Collins, vol. ii. p. 247. The date of the patent was March 30, 1638.
3 StJte Pilfers.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 227
recently sustained — the untimely death of his wife. Ann
Cecil, Countess of Northumberland, died on December 6,
1637, of small-pox, following upon a miscarriage.
Earl's first Her decease afflicted the Earl deeply; although
wife. His from the outward calmness of bearing in which
he had schooled himself, many fancied that his
nature was too stoical for grief. But men of this sort,
who through pride or shyness conceal their sorrows
from the world, often suffer far more poignantly than
those who find relief in unchecked emotion. In Northum-
berland's case, the bereavement preyed so keenly upon his
spirits that it finally brought about a serious illness. In
the words of George Garrard, the Earl took his wife's death
" most heavily : passion hath the least outward power of him
of any man I know, yet in this it hath got on him a great
mastery" 1
Lady Northumberland was not yet thirty when she died,
without leaving a male heir. Five daughters, however,
survived her. After the birth of the fourth of these, the
gossiping Garrard wrote on October 30, 1635, to Went-
worth : " He (Northumberland) is but a bungler of getting
boys; but I hope tltey will come." 2 A fifth daughter was
born in 1636. The body of the young Countess was
embalmed, and carried in a barge from London to Syon,
and from Syon to Petworth in a mourning coach. Ed-
mund Waller wrote an elegy upon her death ; but his lines
are spoilt by an indelicate hint to Northumberland that
grief should not prevent him from marrying again, since an
heir was wanting in the direct line of Percy. As for the
Earl, he brooded in secret over the loss, rejecting the well-
meant consolations of Cottington, Garrard, and other friends.
Such was the strain upon his mind that, about a fortnight
after his elevation to the Lord Admiralship, he broke down
completely ; and hundreds of naval offenders breathed
more freely when they learned that their enemy was
dangerously ill of fever. He was not pronounced out of
i Garrard to Wentworth, Dec. 16, 1637; Strajford Let/crs.
- Stratford Letters.
228 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
danger until May 10 ; and the attack left behind it an
intermittent ailment which afflicted the Earl to the end of
his life. " My Lord of Northumberland hath had a long
sickness" (so Wentworth was informed by Garrard, who, in
spite of his new-won dignity as master of the Charter-
house, found time to visit the patient daily) ; "it began with
a Headache, a violent one. . . . Mayerne and Baskerville his
physicians let him blood four times, and phy sick enough they
have given him, which hath brought him very low. . . .
These last t^vo nights he rested very well, so that the lookers-
on as well as physicians begin to conceive good hopes of his
recovery, which I beseech God to grant. . . . His brother,
Percy, hath been also desperately sick of a burning fever, stark
mad with it, but mends somewhat, though but slowly. I
thought last week we should have lost both the brothers to-
gether''^ Had Northumberland and Sir Henry Percy died
at this time, the title and estates must have passed to their
uncle, the strange old-bachelor recluse who lived in Penny-
farthing Street, Oxford, "drinking nothing but beer," and
thinking sadly of his "fairest Coelia."2 As matters stood,
Henry Percy was heir presumptive to his brother, with
an excellent chance of eventually succeeding to the
earldom. After the death of the Countess, he found his
consequence at Court greatly enhanced. The Queen came
in person to inquire how his illness went ; and soon after
his recovery he was made Captain-General of Jersey. The
sudden change in his circumstances rendered him arrogant
and quarrelsome. He first engaged in a dispute with his
brother-in-law, Carlisle, who had shown him many kind-
nesses in the past, but whom he now deemed it safe to
flout. " He had rather be damned" he declared, " than
receive a courtesy from my Lord of Carlisle'1 3 Carlisle,
good-humoured always, took the words at their true value ;
and contented himself with ceasing to invite Percy to his
house. A subsequent dispute between Sir Henry and
1 Garrard to Wentworth, May 10, 1638 ; Straffonl Letters.
* William Percy survived until 1648.
3 Lord Conway to Wentworth ; Strafford Letters, i. 363.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 229
Lord Dunluce did not end so agreeably for the former.
Dunluce, who was an Irishman, and a grandson of the
fiery Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone,1 had none of Hay's
sang-froid. Thinking himself insulted by Percy, he
publicly assailed the latter, and is even said to have struck
him. No encounter followed ; but the grave penalties in-
flicted for duelling may have prevented Sir Henry from
challenging Dunluce, as his more impetuous father, or his
grandfather, Essex, would certainly have done under like
circumstances. The affair caused a great deal of malicious
gossip at Court, and comment on Percy's behaviour was
by no means favourable, even among the coterie of gallants
which surrounded the Queen. Writing to Wentworth,
Lord Conway mentions the occurrence, and at the same
time sheds some light on Sir Henry's character : —
" Percy is a diligent Courtier ; his chief Patron being the
Duke of Lennox, his Addresses are most on the Queeris Side ;
but I cannot say that he gains much in Love anywhere. He
had a quarrel with my Lord Dunluce this last Summer, out
of which he came not so handsomely as did become Harry
Hotspur. I believe he will not make any great profit by the
Court, because he begins the ' PATER NOSTER ' with ' Give us
this Day our daily Bread! His wits did long ' COMBINARE '
upon projects in Ireland, and I believe they are not all yet at
an End ; there being little hope for him here, now that he hath
missed going Ambassador into France." 2
As soon as Northumberland was restored to health, he
resumed the interrupted duties of Lord Admiral. Many
sweeping reforms were introduced into the navy at his
instance, in spite of the dogged opposition of Secretary
1 Lord Dunluce (afterwards second Earl and first Marquis of Antrim) was
son of the first Earl of Antrim by a daughter of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of
Tyrone. His paternal grandmother was also an O'Neill, daughter of that Con
who had disgraced himself in Irish eyes by accepting the title of Earl. The
Antrim MacDonnells, a branch of the Hebridean clan, had been settled in
Ireland since before 1211. The Dunluce who attacked Sir H. Percy is now
represented (in the female line) by the Earl of Antrim.
2 Conway to Wentworth ; Slrafford Letters, i. 363.
230 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Windebank and the Commissioners ; nor is it too much
to say that his zeal and foresight made possible the great
Northumber- successes of the English fleet under Blake,
land at the during the days of the Commonwealth. He
head of both • « • e it
navy and was a vigorous champion of the common
army. sailor, and continually proposed schemes for
the betterment of his wretched lot. Good food and fair
treatment, he maintained, would do more to make the
navy efficient than any other means ; and the Govern-
ment saved nothing by paying exorbitant prices for
rotten ships and fraudulent supplies. To the credit
of Northumberland's head and heart must be set down
the first instance of provision made by the English
Admiralty for crippled sailors, and for the widows of
men slain in battle or otherwise lost. In his Report of
September 8, 1638, he describes a fund started at his
suggestion "for the relief of maimed Mariners ; and for
poor Women who have their Husbands killed, or else lost in
merchandising Voyages." * After a time he succeeded in
inducing the Admiralty to adopt this fund, which no
doubt formed the nucleus of our present pension system
in the navy.
Religious discontent in Scotland having assumed
threatening proportions, the King chose a committee
from the Privy Council to examine into his northern
subjects' grievances. Northumberland was one of the
eight councillors selected, and his voice, from the first,
was for cautious measures. He knew the wretched state
of the navy, and rightly guessed that the army was in
little better condition. He was also aware of the extreme
poverty of the Exchequer, and its inability to furnish
the "sinews of war." For these reasons he advised
Charles to concede the principal Scottish demands rather
than provoke a struggle fraught with peril to the Crown.
" God send us a good end of this troublesome Business," he
wrote to Wentworth (still his friend, although no longer
sharing his views), "for, to my apprehension, no foreign
1 Calendar of Suite Papers (Domestic}.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 231
Enemies could threaten so much danger to this Kingdom
as doth now this beggarly Nation." J His protests were
overruled at the time, but years afterwards the King
remembered them with self-reproach.
Northumberland grew more and more dissatisfied
with the policy of the Government, and the shiftless
manner in which public affairs were conducted. "At
the Council of War," he told Wentworth, " we meet often,
but dispatch little Business ; and yet are we come almost to
the Bottom of our Business, for there is no Money left in
the Exchequer.' '2 The extreme religious views of Laud
were, in the Earl's opinion, an additional source of
danger to the country ; and he favoured an alliance
with Richelieu and France, in place of the Spanish
entente supported by Cottington, Hamilton, and others.3
Although the King would not listen to his advice, he
recognised his value in other directions. On March 22,
1639, when Charles was preparing to take command of
the northern army, he appointed the Earl general-in-chief
of all forces south of Trent, and a member of the
Council of Regency,4 at the same time placing the
Queen under his special protection.5 These new duties
called for his continual presence at Court ; and the
management of the fleet was, for the time being, left in
Vice-Admiral Pennington's hands. Secretary Windebank
took advantage of this fact to interfere in a province
with which he had no concern. Pennington was com-
manded by this civilian official of the Admiralty not to
interfere in the sea-struggle between Spain and Holland,
even when fighting took place in English waters. In
obedience to these orders he remained idly at anchor
while Van Tromp chased Admiral Oquendo's fleet from
Land's End " into Dover Roads, and there captured, sunk,
1 Strafford Letters, vol. ii. 1 86, 266.
'* Northumberland to Wentworth, Jan, 2, 1639; Stratford Letttrs.
3 See his outspoken letters to the Karl of Leicester (Sidney l\ipcis} at lliisi
time.
4 Calendar of Slate Papers (Domestic}.
s Ceo. Garrard to Lord Conway ; State Papers.
232 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
or ran ashore over fifty warships" Northumberland was
justly enraged when the news of this shameful episode
reached him. Windebank he described as "the basest
and falsest Creature that lives " ; x and he told Pennington
that in thus permitting a friendly foreign fleet to be
destroyed in an English harbour, he had connived at an
insult to his King and Country. The unpopularity of
the Spaniards in England saved both Windebank and
Pennington from the punishment which they merited
for this shameful affair. Had the Dutch Admiral been
the victim, matters might not have gone so well with
the officious secretary and his dupe.
War with the insurgent Scots now seemed inevitable ;
and the King's demands for money grew daily more im-
portunate. Every nobleman attached to the Court was
expected to contribute sums in accordance with his rank
and resources, and Charles looked for an unusually large
" loan " from the Lord High Admiral. But Northumberland
disappointed these hopes, and loosened his purse-strings
in what the Queen's party considered a most grudging
manner. There is little doubt that his chief reasons for
giving so sparingly to the King were, firstly, a desire that
Parliament should be summoned and more constitutional
methods of money-raising adopted ; and secondly, chagrin
at the manner in which his advice against hostilities had
been received. To his brother-in-law, however, he offers
a third explanation : " Your Lordship was not mistaken in
the Captains z Figures where he writes to you that I lend the
King but .£5000. The reason why I do so is, that I believe
the King would not expect more from me (whos House hath
in these latter Ages receaved little or no Advantage from the
Crowne) the like Assistance than he may do from those
Persons that have raised Fortunes by his Favour, or hold bene-
ficiall Places under Aim."3 Some of the more advanced
partisans of the Court accused the Earl of a natural nig-
1 Northumberland to Leicester ; Sidney Papers, vol. ii. 655.
2 "The Captain" was Northumberland's nephew, Lord Lisle.
3 Northumberland to Leicester, Jan. 9, 1640; Sidney fafers, ii. 629.
SEAL AND AUTOC.RAPH OK AI.GKRNON, TKNTII KAKI,
OK NORTHUMBERLAND
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 233
gardliness ; but if he showed himself a miser upon this
occasion, it was for the first and last time in his life.
Wentworth had not yet abandoned all hope of attaching
Northumberland to the King's side in the coming strife
between Crown and People. At his request,1 Charles now
created the Earl " Captain General and Governor of the
Army" — a post which had been intended for Wentworth
himself, and the enjoyment of which placed Northumber-
land in the extraordinarily responsible position of being
at once chief of the land and sea forces. As he had already
done in the navy, the new Captain-General now attempted
to do in the army. He saw that war must come, and
within a little while. There was still some hope that the
royal troops might be rendered efficient by judicious re-
organisation, and a careful weeding out of undesirable
commanders. To this work the Earl at once set himself.
Among the first to suffer by his zeal was the Earl of
Holland, an unlucky nobleman whom Northumberland
seemed destined to cross (he had already forestalled him
in the Lord Admiralship). Holland held rank as a general
of horse, but was now superseded in favour of Lord Conway,
a tried soldier.2 It was the desire of the Captain-General
that the old system of purchasing commissions and pro-
motion, or of obtaining them by favouritism, should be
abolished. " No money" he informed Leicester, on February
13, 1640, "will here be given for places as was usual hereto-
fore" Numbers of gallant English soldiers, tired of inaction
and corrupt influences at home, were serving as volunteers
in the Low Countries. To these Northumberland proffered
commissions, in place of officers dismissed or degraded for
incompetency. His own nephews, Lord Lisle and Alger-
non Sidney, young as they were, had already earned high
reputations in Holland ; and he now asked them to accept
posts of trust under him. Algernon Sidney declined the
invitation, as his republican theories debarred him from
service in the royal army : Lisle returned to England, and
was made captain of his uncle's body-guard.
1 Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, ii. Soa. 2 Ibid.
234 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
The Earl did not spare himself in his uphill fight against
military conservatism and incompetency. The great mass
of carefully prepared MSS. which still survives over his
name bears witness to the pains which he took. He com-
piled exhaustive instructions for officers in every branch
of the army ; detailed schemes of pay, and commissariat ;
rules governing the distribution of ordnance and ammuni-
tion ; and a rather severe code of martial law — all in his
own handwriting. Lord Conway, whom he had sent to
command in the North, seconded him ably ; but in the
end the efforts which he made to reform both army and
navy proved too much for him and he sank under the
strain.
Meanwhile the Scots had continued to press obsti-
nately for a favourable answer to their conditions ; and
"The short on April 13, 1640, the "Short Parliament" met.
Parliament," Northumberland wrote to Conway that the
Scottish Commons seemed in " almost as great a heat as
invasion. _ > > jn ffie iafe £)uke of Buckingham's time"
(when he, himself, had been a member of the body) ;
and that the House of Lords was "apt to take fire at the
least sparkle."1 He had welcomed this appeal to consti-
tutional forms of government ; but the extreme vigour
with which the Lower House demanded the redress of
its grievances, drew from him an expression of regret.
" Had they been -well advised" he observed, " I am persuaded
they might in time have gained their desires'' Ci After a
fortnight spent in fruitless wrangling, a dissolution was
commanded by the King. Northumberland opposed this
arbitrary measure in the Council, supported only by Lord
Holland. After the Dissolution, Charles called a Cabinet
Council consisting of Archbishop Laud, the Bishop of
London, the Earls of Northumberland and Strafford,3
and Secretaries Vane and Windebank. It was in this
1 Northumberland to Conway, April 17, 1640; Stale Papers.
- Northumberland to Leicester ; Sidney Papers, ii. 623.
3 Wcntworth was now Eail of Straliord.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 235
council that Strafford was afterwards accused of having
threatened to bring over an Irish army to quell the turbu-
lent Commons ; and that he advocated a vigorous policy
in regard to discontent at home, and an immediate attack
upon the rebellious Scots. Against both of these pro-
posals Northumberland spoke. "How," he asked, "could
they ' make an offensive war,' if they had no better means
at their disposal than those which Strafford had just re-
cited ? They were in a difficulty ' whether to do nothing,
and to let them alone, or to go on with a vigorous
war.'"1 He voted against the latter alternative. Strafford
replied with an eloquent speech, strongly in favour of
war ; and Laud and Cottington holding like opinions,
the Council was committed to an invasion of Scotland.
As it happened, the Scots did not wait to be attacked ;
but crossed the Border, with Leslie at their head, before
the English had time to concentrate their forces at
Newcastle. Well-nigh despairing of the future, Northum-
berland wrote as follows to Conway : "It grieves my
Soul to be involved in these Counsails, and the Sense I have
of the Miseries that are likely to ensue is held by some a
Disaffection in me ; but I regard little what these Persons
say or think." 2 Eleven days later he wrote again : " The
Nature of most Men is not willingly to acknowledge an Error
until they needs must, which is one of our Conditions here
at this Time. We have engaged the King in an expensive
Occasion, without any certain way to maintain it. All those
that are proposed to ourselves have hitherto failed, and though
our Designs of raising this great Army are likely to fail,
yet are we loathe to publish that which cannot any longer be
concealed. In plain terms I have little Hopes to see you in
the North this Year, which I confess I am extremely sorry
for, conceiving it will be dishonourable to tlie King and in-
famous for us that have the honour to be his Ministers, when if
shall be known that we are obliged to give over this Danger" :i
1 Speech reconstructed by Gardiner from Secretary Vane's notes.
- Northumberland to Conway, May 7, 1640 ; Stale Papers.
:) Same to same, May 18 ; State Papers.
236 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Early in June, Lord Loudoun (who had been sent as
Commissioner to Charles by the Scots, and straightway
placed in the Tower at Laud's instigation) was suddenly
set at liberty by the vacillating Charles. Northumberland
again addressed his second in command : " The Enlarge-
ment of Lord London causes a belief that we shall come to
Terms with the Scots. But seriously I do not know that any
such thing is intended ; yet to you I must confess that our
Wants and Disorders are so great, I cannot devise how we
should go on with our Designs for this Year. Most of the
Ways we have relied upon for the Supplies of Money have
hitherto failed us, and for aught I know we are likely to become
the most despised nation in Europe. To the Regiments now
raising we have been able, for want of Money, to advance but
fourteen Days' Pay ; the rest must meet them upon their march
towards Selby ; and for both Horse and Foot already in the
North we can for the present send them but Seven Day's Pay.
We are gallant Men, for this does not at all discourage -us, and
we yet make full account of conquering Scotland, before many
weeks pass."1
In August, when on the point of starting for the
Scottish Border, the Earl was attacked by a serious
illness, which incapacitated him, for the time
The Scots , . , ,. . , ,.
invasion; being, from active service. Some of the more
and the trial prejudiced writers on the royalist side have
of Strafford. J J
broadly hinted that this seizure was little more
than a subterfuge, intended to cover secret sympathy
with the Scots and a disinclination to lead his troops
against them. Clarendon, for instance, asserts that North-
umberland failed to take command "by reason of his
indisposition, or some other reason.'"* Isaac D'Israeli3
comments sarcastically upon the fact that the Lieutenant-
General fell sick at the very time when duty called him
to a campaign for which he had little relish. But a
careful examination of the existing records on the subject
1 Northumberland to Conway, June 12 ; State Papers.
2 Hist, of the Rebellion. » Life of Charles I.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 237
tends to show that, however strongly the Earl had spoken
against a Scottish war, he did not, when that war became
inevitable, attempt to shirk the responsibilities of his
command. So far, indeed, was this from being the
case, that the very sickness which overtook him at what
D'Israeli regards as a suspicious juncture, seems to have
originated in the strenuous efforts which he made to
place the army on a serviceable footing. " Northum-
berland," says Gardiner, " had always been hopeless of
any good result, and his health had now broken down
under the strain. (It has been suspected that the ill-
ness was a feint to escape commanding ; but the letters
among the State Papers leave no doubt of its real-
ity. See especially Garrard to Conway, Oct. 6 ; S. P.,
Domestic."} 1 The letter quoted is an exhaustive account
of the Earl's sufferings, written by his friend the master
of the Charterhouse. There are other contemporary
papers, which are still more opposed to the Royalist
theory (not advanced until long afterwards) of the
Earl's having descended to this crafty and eminently
uncharacteristic trick. Not more than three days before
he fell ill, we find him making rapid preparations for
his departure, and sending instructions to his second
in command with regard to the quarters which were
to be prepared for him at Newcastle. " Tell me what
House you think fittest for me to lodge in at Newcastle"
he writes to Conway ; " and give notice to the Master
of it that I intend to be his Guest: but it must be a
furnished House, for I shall only bring such Stuff as is
useful in the Field" 2 These are hardly the words of
one who was scheming to avoid service in the campaign.
On August 15 Straff ord first heard of the Earl's malady.
" My Lord General," he informed Conway, "has had three
fits of a tertian Ague and been let blood, but I trust a few
days will set him right." 3 The hope was not fulfilled.
1 History of England, vol. viii.
" Northumberland to Conway, Aug. II, 1640; State lifers.
* Slraflbrcl to Conway, Aug. 15 ; Ibid.
238 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Two days later, Strafford wrote again : " On my return
from Windsor I called at Sion, but my Lord General was
then in a Sweat after a very long and violent fit." * The
intermittent attacks of the disease continued ; and it was
hastily decided that Strafford should assume chief command
against the Scots. " My Lord General will not possibly be
able to go this Journey" (thus the new leader to Conway, by
letter of August 18), "having had already divers great fits
of an Ague, which is no small unhappiness to his Majesty's
affairs. In this sudden Accident, His Majesty has appointed
me Lieutenant- General, and howbeit utterly unprovided of
all things, yet I suppose to be with you in all possible haste!"1
The result of this ill-advised campaign justified but too
fully Northumberland's forebodings. The Scottish army
having invaded England under Leslie, were well received
by the country-folk of the North. On August 28 they
met and defeated the English under Conway at New-
burn-on-Tyne. The evacuation of Newcastle, and the
surrender of that city to the victorious Scots, followed.
Northumberland, still confined to his bed by illness, wrote
in terms of foreboding to Leicester, prophesying serious
danger both to Strafford and the King from the popular
clamour which had arisen against them. Spies were every-
where, and the Earl found it necessary to conduct much
of his correspondence with his brother-in-law in cipher.
Fanciful names were applied to the principal men of the
various factions, the Earl of Bedford, for example, being
known as " Higgledy-Piggledy."3
The Long Parliament met on November 3, 1640 ; and
the animus of the Commons towards Strafford at once
became apparent. " / cannot forbear to mention the hastie
and violent Proceedings the other day," wrote Northumberland,
"against my Lord Lif tenant, and I fear he will be prosecuted
tvitk as muck Eagreness as euer Man was ; for a greater or
1 Strafford to Conway, Aug. 17 ; State Papers.
- Same to same, Aug. 18; Ibid.
3 See SiJucy Papers, vol. ii.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 239
•more universal hatred was never contracted by any person
than he hath drawn upon himselfe.
" The King is in such a straight that I do not know
how he will possiblie auoide (without indangering the whole
Kingdom) the giving Way to the Remoue of diuers Persons,
as ivell as other things that will be demanded by the
Parliament" l
Strafford was in retirement and comparative safety at
his Yorkshire seat, when on April 23, 1641, the weak King
was cozened into summoning him to Court, promising
that he "should not suffer in his person, honour, or fortune."
Alas for the royal word, and the ability of Charles to
maintain it ! Within a few weeks Strafford was a prisoner,
impeached by Parliament, and arraigned before the House
of Peers. Northumberland, as a member of the Council
of Eight, was one of the witnesses summoned to prove
that arbitrary and unconstitutional measures had been
advocated by the accused. He denied that Strafford had
threatened or advised the bringing over of the dreaded Irish
army to crush the Parliament ; but admitted, on the other
hand, that the King had been counselled by the majority
in the Council (of which Strafford was the leader) to
proclaim an absolute monarchy, after the Commons had
refused to grant supplies.2 Earnest efforts were made by
Charles to induce the Earl either to falsify his evidence,
or else remain silent. The latter he could not, the former
he would not do, although the viceroyalty of Ireland for
his brother-in-law, Leicester, was promised him by way of
a bribe. The King openly expressed himself as highly
displeased with this conduct, and the offer of the Irish
viceroyalty was at once withdrawn.
Although the division list for that memorable occasion
has been lost, it is practically certain that Northumberland
was one of the eleven peers who voted for Strafford's
1 Sidney Papers, vol. ii.
2 The Earl's evidence was to the effect that StralTord had declared Charles
" absolved from all rules of government, and . . . acquitted before God and man
for whatever measures he thought fit to adopt for the preservation of his crown and
people." — Gardiner ; History of England.
24o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
acquittal.1 Again and again we find reproaches hurled at
him by Henry Martyn and others of the violent party in
the Commons for having " interfered with Justice" and
attempted to stand between the enemies of the State and their
due." He is known to have laboured, in conjunction with
his sister, Lady Carlisle, to save Stafford's life, by urging
the King to exercise his prerogative of pardon. But the
impassioned pleadings of beautiful Lucy Percy, and the
Earl's earnest solicitations, were alike of no avail. On
May 10 Charles sacrificed his minister and friend, by
signing the warrant for his execution ; and two days later
Thomas Wentworth paid for the perversion of those great
talents (of which, in the words of Lord Digby, " God had
given him the use and the Devil the application ") by a
death upon the scaffold.
There was one person, at least, whom the desertion of
Strafford by his perjured King changed from an ardent
supporter °f royal prerogative into one of the
Lady ' Crown's bitterest enemies. This was Northum-
Cariisie- bcrland's sister, Lucy, Countess of Carlisle. We
otranoru s J
dearest have seen the younger and fairer daughter of the
"Wizard Earl" married under somewhat romantic
circumstances to her lover, Lord Hay, and subsequently
taking her place as the beauty par excellence of the Court.
It is not so much with Hay's name, however, as with that
of Wentworth that the memory of Lucy Percy is linked by
history. She is best known as "Stratford's mistress" —
not his "mistress," it is believed, in the sense that her
aunt was the mistress of Sir Philip Sidney and Mountjoy,
or her grandmother of Leicester ; but rather his warm per-
sona! friend, admirer, and confidante. None of Strafford's
opponents, not even the most virulent, went so far as to
assert that the bond between him and Lady Carlisle was
aught but platonic. They first met before Wentworth
went to Ireland in 1633, and the rapidity with which their
1 According to Clarendon, only forty-six votes were recorded in all upon the
Bill of Attainder.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 241
acquaintance ripened into regard may be judged from the
frequent allusions made by the Lord-Deputy to his new
friend, in the letters which he wrote during that corrupt
and tyrannical viceroyalty. His cousin and creature,
Wandesford (to whom he coolly presented the Leinster
coalfield, which he had stolen from its owners), frequently
rallies him upon his admiration for "my faire lady of
Carlisle, your most sweet Egeria" l
Lucy Percy was now over thirty years of age, yet
her beauty was but at the meridian of its splendour.
The Court gallants one and all were at her feet ; the
Court poets sang her praises. But to reign merely
as a "queen of hearts" fell far short of her ambition.
She had inherited much of the intriguing spirit of her
grandfather, the eighth Earl of Northumberland (with
perhaps not a few of that hapless nobleman's other
characteristics2), and it was her aim to make for herself
a position of great influence in public affairs. To some
extent she was successful. Isaac D'Israeli calls her "the
first of stateswomen " ; 3 and she was certainly the first
English lady to found and conduct what we now call a
salon. Lodge, in his " National Portraits," depicts her as a
beautiful, brilliant worldling, "at once admired, disliked,
and feared ; little understood by any, and perhaps least of
all by herself. . . . She turned her attention to politics,
despised the society of her own sex, studied systems
of government, intrigued in matters of State, actually
obtained considerable influence, and exercised it with
adroitness."4 She helped to fight the battles of her
husband and her father against Buckingham ; and it was
probably while supporting old Northumberland in his
advocacy of Parliament and its privileges that she came
to know Strafford — then Sir Thomas Wentworth, knight
1 See the Life of Sir Christopher Wandesford, by Comber.
8 His restless ambition, for instance, and (if we are to believe Clarendon and
other Royalist writers) some of the duplicity which distinguished his conduct
during the Northern Rising.
1 Life of Charles I.
4 National Portraits, vol. vii.
II. Q
242 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of the shire and staunch champion of constitutional govern-
ment. Lady Carlisle was attacked by small-pox in 1628 ;
but the dread disease left no mark upon her fair features,
and when she paid her first visit to Whitehall after the
illness had passed, and removed her face-mask at the
Queen's request, the gossips were amazed to find that her
very pallor lent a new charm to her countenance.1 Her
husband, Lord Carlisle, died in March 1636, leaving
^80,000 of debts, a sum of money to his wife, and " not a
house or acre of land." The widow had her own fortune,
however, left her by her father, and had also inherited
some of the Perrott property from her mother, so that she
was able to remain at Court without any diminution of
dignity. She had no children by Carlisle, who was
succeeded in his titles by the only son 2 of his first wife,
Honora Denny. The reappearance of the widow at Court,
after a few months of mourning, served as signal for the
wits and poets to shower their songs of welcome at her
feet. Sombre weeds were found to enhance still further
the clear complexion and graceful figure of the Countess,
and a galaxy of verses, as ingenious as artificial, survive to
show that Lucy Percy looked comely even in the garments
of sorrow. Herrick wrote in lyric rapture " Upon a black
Twist, rounding the Arm of the Countess of Carlisle;" the
Laureate Davenant was even more complimentary, although
far less skilful, in celebrating the young widow's "trailing
robes." "Incomparable Master Edmund Waller" ad-
dressed a long poem to the Countess, whom he then
regarded as the chief inspirer of his muse — her niece, the
future Saccharissa," being still a child at Penshurst.
Waller thus extravagantly apostrophises Lady Carlisle : —
"When from black clouds no part of sky is clear,
But just so much as lets the sun appear,
Heav'n then would seem thy image to reflect,
Those sable vestments and that bright aspect.
1 Garrard to Wentworth ; Straffurd Letters.
2 James Hay, second Earl of Carlisle.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 243
A spark of virtue by the deepest shade
Of sad adversity is fairer made ;
Nor less advantage doth thy beauty get,
A Venus rising from a sea of jet !
Such was th' appearance of new-formed light
While yet it struggled with eternal night.
Then mourn no more, lest thou admit increase
Of glory, by thy noble lord's decease ! "
After Carlisle's death, the relations between his relict
and Wentworth became more confidential than ever.
The Lord-Deputy left his Irish charge for several weeks
in the winter of 1636 ; and Lady Carlisle postponed a
visit to her sister at Penshurst in order to be near him.
Whereupon the gentle " country mouse " wrote some-
what complainingly to her husband, Leicester : " It is a
month since I expected my sister's company, but my lord
deputy is still thereabouts, and till he be gone back I must
not look for her."1 Indeed Lady Leicester looked upon
her sister's friendship for Wentworth with distrust (perhaps
on the score of propriety), and while she admitted that
Lucy had " more power over him ( Wentworth) than any
creature living" ^ she doubted whether the alliance would
in the end prove beneficial to either. Nor did she at
all approve of Lady Carlisle's political intrigues, believing
that women were but ill employed in such pursuits.
"Do not confide over much in Lucy" was her advice to
Leicester ; for Lucy's secrets were apt (so it appeared)
to be passed on to the male gossip, Lord Holland, and
"from thence . . . all over England."* It must be re-
membered, however, that the Countess Dorothy wrote
from the seclusion of her Kentish home, and took most
of her views at second-hand from her son Lisle, and
her neighbour Sir Harry Vane the younger.4
About this time there occurred between Stratford
1 Sidney Papers. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
4 The Vanes resided at Shipborne, some four miles from Penshurst ; and the
grounds of their seat, (Fairlawn) are said to be haunted by the ghost of the
younger Sir Harry carrying his severed head under his arm.
244 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
and his "mistress" certain financial transactions the
nature of which cannot be precisely determined. It
is evident, however, that Lady Carlisle had advanced
money either to the Royalist cause, or to Strafford him-
self for Royalist purposes. It is highly probable that the
money was lent shortly before the Scottish invasion,
when the Lieutenant-General was suddenly called upon
(through Northumberland's illness) to take command of
the Northern army, and found it sorely lacking in arms,
ammunition, and commissariat. Strafford, at all events,
held himself personally responsible for the repayment of
the loan ; and after the rout of his troops by Leslie,
we find him writing from his retreat of Wodehouse to
a confidential friend at Court in terms which show his
deep sense of Lucy's loyalty, as well as his fear that
she would be the loser by her generosity : " For the
love of Christ take order that all the money due to my
Lady Carlisle be paid before Christinas, for a nobler and
more intelligent friendship I never met -with in all my
life:' *
Like Strafford himself, Lady Carlisle relied implicitly
upon the King's plighted word, and believed that at
all hazards Charles would preserve his minister's life.
Clarendon relates that she was, "for her eminent and
constant affection for the Earl of Strafford, admitted to
all the consultations that were for his preservation " ; 2 and
in Browning's dramatic poem she is rightly represented as
taking part in all the secret measures taken by the friends
of the doomed Wentworth. The King's abject surrender
to Parliament, and the signing of her hero's death-warrant,
filled her with feelings of contempt and aversion for a
sovereign who could so soon forget his promises. From
the morning of Strafford's execution, she that had been
" the Muse of the Royalist party " became, as Bishop
Warburton tells us, its Erinnys. Towards the Queen
she still treasured some degree of personal affection, for
she believed that Henrietta Maria had laboured to save
1 Strafford Letters. - History of the Revolution.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 245
Strafford from the block ; but against Charles her enmity
was intense, and she set herself, with all the skill which
she possessed, to thwart his plans and strengthen the
hands of his foes. Her bitterness against the throne was
so open and undisguised that one wonders why she was
still permitted to frequent the Queen's apartments, and
thus penetrate many important State secrets, which were
through her made known to Pym and the Parliament.
The charge made by Clarendon, Warburton, and others
that she deliberately played the spy upon the King at this
period is doubtless well founded. Stafford's betrayal
had robbed her of all scruple in this direction ; but if she
conveyed information to the enemies of the Crown, she
asked no other reward than that of gratified revenge.
The dour, cold-blooded Pym was now her bosom friend —
some said (as had been said of Strafford) her " lover " ; but
this is highly improbable.1 " She had," says Sir Philip
Warwick, " changed her gallant from Strafford to Mr.
Pym, and was become such a she-saint, that she fre-
quented their sermons and took notes ! " The notes which
Lady Carlisle took at the gatherings of her new friends
were far more likely of a political than of a religious
character. In her early life she had been a professing
Catholic, and had attended mass in the Spanish ambas-
sador's chapel for many years, but if she had any religion
left at this later time, it was not manifest in anything that
she said or did. Clarendon avers that she informed Pym
and young Harry Vane of all the " sharp sayings " which
Charles and his courtiers exchanged concerning the
Commons, and that the leaders of the Parliamentary move-
ment noted down these loose remarks for use in their
debates. There is no question, however, that she rendered
to the party of the Commonwealth a service far more
important than the reporting of mere Court tittle-tattle
and cavalier japes. The escape of the " Five Members "
was due to a timely warning sent by her hand to West-
minster before Charles and his officers could reach the
1 Pym was now nearly sixty years of age, having been born in 1580,
246 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
House. There are several versions of the manner in which
she succeeded in divining the King's intentions. Madame
de Motteville's account is to the effect that the royal party
had already left to arrest the members, when Lady Carlisle
discovered what was afoot. The Queen, who was in the
secret, but had been cautioned to preserve a strict silence,
could not resist the temptation of taking somebody into
her confidence. Having waited impatiently until such
time as she deemed the culprits must have been secured,
she turned to the ladies with her, and exclaimed, " Rejoice
•with me, for by this time and " (mentioning two
of the members) u are doubtless in custody !" Whereupon
Lady Carlisle, guessing the purport of this speech, hastily
left the room upon some pretence or other, and despatched
an urgent note to her friends in the House of Commons,
just in time to save them from the Tower. Gardiner dis-
misses this story as unlikely upon the ground that, if the
King had already started from Whitehall, there would have
been no time to convey a warning note to the House.
He believes that Lady Carlisle's quick wit had discovered
the scheme before Charles set out, and that she was thus
enabled to give the intended victims ample time to escape
by barge. That " Strafford's mistress " was the real
marplot is generally admitted, and Clarendon accuses her
of having grossly betrayed the Queen's confidence. After
Pym's death in 1643, Lady Carlisle sided with the moderate
faction in Parliament, the recognised leader of which was
her brother, Northumberland.
Another member of the Percy family — the Earl's
brother, Sir Henry, whose somewhat inglorious quarrel
sir Henry with Lord Dunluce has been already alluded
Percy, the fo — was now to play for a brief space a pro-
•• The Army minent part in public affairs, as one of the
leading spirits in what came to be known as the
Army Plot.
After the Scottish invasion and the Treaty of Ripon,
grave dissatisfaction sprung up among the officers of the
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 247
Northern army, to which Sir Henry Percy had belonged
since 1639. Money which should have gone to pay the
English forces of the King, was devoted to the Scots
instead. The troops were in rags and well-nigh starving,
and even among the officers considerable distress pre-
vailed. Percy, with Ashburnham, Wilmot, and Pollard
(all members of Parliament), formed themselves into a
union, the avowed object of which was the betterment
of their condition. Secretly, however, they proposed to
attempt the reestablishment of the King's power by a
banding together of all holding commissions in the Nor-
thern army. A declaration pledging absolute loyalty to
the Crown and detestation of Parliamentary encroach-
ments was drawn up by the four instigators of the move-
ment, with the connivance (it is said) of the Queen. Percy,
who was in high favour at Court, was chosen to offer the
services of the army to Charles ; and with this end in view
he reached London on or about March 19, 1641. He
found, however, that another Royalist plot, upon far different
and more daring lines, had already been hatched by Henry
Jermyn and Sir John Suckling. This latter scheme included
measures so sweeping as an offer of emancipation to the
Catholics, and an immediate appeal to arms. It was pro-
posed to remove Northumberland from the Lord-General-
ship, and to place the Earl of Newcastle in his stead, with
Colonel George Goring, a ruffler of the Court and a man
of no good reputation, as Lieutenant-General. The more
moderate project of Percy and the Northern officers found
favour in the King's eyes from the first ; but, hoping to
secure unity among his supporters, he persuaded both
parties to meet in consultation, and if possible agree upon
some joint plan of action. The meeting took place on
March 29, in Percy's lodgings at Whitehall.1 On behalf
of the Northern army, Percy himself, Ashburnham, and
several others were present. They had declined to receive
Sir John Suckling, who was unpopular among military
1 These were the lodgings assigned to him in his capacity of Master of the
Horse to the Prince of Wales.
248 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
men ; but Henry Jermyn came to the conference, bringing
with him Colonel Goring. From the very outset it was
plain that no satisfactory agreement could be come to
between the opposing parties. Goring and Jermyn warmly
advocated the claims of Newcastle to the Lord-General-
ship ; Goring swearing that no Royalist peer in England
was so well fitted for the position. Percy, on the contrary,
championed his cousin, Lord Holland;1 while yet others
of the moderates suggested Essex. The mere mention
of Colonel Goring as Lieutenant-General was greeted by
the representatives of the army with derision ; and the
meeting terminated in the departure of Goring in a tempest
of rage, swearing that he would make Percy and his friends
pay dearly for the manner in which they had treated him.
From Whitehall he went straight to the residence of Lord
Newport, a supporter of the Parliament, to whom he
betrayed the plot. Newport hastened to lay the matter
before Pym, Mandeville, and Bedford, and, on the night
of May 5, Percy, Jermyn, and Suckling were summoned
before the Lords' Committee, charged with having intrigued
against the Government. The accused men were warned
by their friends, and attempted to escape. Percy fled to
Petworth, and thence to the Sussex coast, whence he
attempted to take ship for France. He was recognised,
however, and set upon by some yokels, anxious to gain
the reward offered for his capture. Drawing his sword,
he cut his way through the press, and rode back to London,
severely wounded and in a most sorry condition, being
covered with blood and mire. At the gates of Northumber-
land House he was lifted in a fainting condition from his
horse, and carried to a place of concealment. As soon
as his wound healed he wrote a letter to Parliament, admit-
ting his share in the recent plot. The accounts of how
this confession came to be written vary extensively ; but
the most plausible one seems to be to the effect that
Northumberland, believing his brother's life to be in
1 Holland was first cousin of Northumberland and Sir H. Percy, being a son
of the frail Penelope Devereux by Lord Rich.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 249
danger, and desirous of securing his escape,1 induced him
to make a full statement of what had occurred, and to
throw himself upon the mercy of his brother members
of the House of Commons. Clarendon, whose bias is
apparent, states that the Earl obtained the letter from his
brother by means of a trick, and that bad blood was
thereby caused between them. The latter statement is
wholly unfounded, as, however different their politics may
have been, Northumberland and Sir Henry Percy never
ceased to entertain for each other the warmest affection,
as is testified by their correspondence. The Earl probably
acted as he did from purely disinterested motives, and,
as he believed, for the best. Clarendon's version is as
follows : —
"The truth is that after his Brother being accused of
High Treason, and then upon his Hurt in Sussex, coming
directly to Northumberland House to shelter himself, the
Earl being in great Trouble how to send him away beyond
the Seas after his Wound was cured, advised with a con-
fident Friend whose Affection to him he doubted not,
and who, innocently enough, brought Mr. Pym into the
Council, who overwitted them both by frankly consenting
' that Mr. Piercy should escape into France,' which was
all the care the Earl had ; but then obliged him first to
draw such a Letter from him as might by the Party be
applied as an evidence of the reality of the Plot after he
was escaped. And in this manner the Letter was pro-
cured : which made a lasting quarrel between the two
Brothers, and made the Earl more at the Disposal of
those Persons, whom he had trusted so far, than he had
ever been before." 2
The sole punishment inflicted upon Sir Henry Percy
for his share in the " Army Plot " was expulsion from
the House of Commons. This measure was carried into
effect on December 9, i64i.3 No attempt was made to
1 It must be remembered that Sir Henry was now next male heir to the
earldom. 2 Clarendon ; History of the Rebellion, \. 474.
3 Evelyn's Diary, ed. Wheatley, iv. 75.
250 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
arrest Percy ; and, shortly before Christmas in the same
year, he left Northumberland House and retired to France,
where he became an active, if somewhat erratic, agent of
the Queen.
According to Clarendon, the Earl of Northumberland
was now generally regarded as an enemy to the royal
cause, and, like his sister Lady Carlisle, an ally and
confidant of Pym. In view of the principles which he
had upheld ever since his entrance into public life, and
to which he had continued to cleave even after Strafford's
conversion to the policy of absolute monarchy, it is
difficult to understand why the Court party should have
looked for his countenance and support. Yet it would
appear that they did so, and his so-called " disaffection "
was very keenly felt by them, not only on account of his
wealth, intellectual powers, and wide experience, but also
because of the effect which the attitude of one so highly
esteemed would be certain to produce upon the popular
mind. Clarendon freely admits this fact, at the same
time that he accuses the Earl of gross ingratitude towards
his sovereign. The historian of the Civil War writes as
follows : " The sending of that letter of Mr. Piercy's to
the House of Commons . . . was the first visible instance
of the defection of the Earl of Northumberland from
His Majesty's service, which wrought several ill effects
in the minds of many ; for as the Earl then had the
most esteemed and unblemished reputation, in Court and
Country, of any person of his rank throughout the King-
dom, so they who knew him well discerned that the
greatness of that reputation was but an effect of the
singular grace and favour showed him by His Majesty ;
who immediately upon the death of his father had taken
this Earl (being less than thirty years of age) into his
immediate and eminent care ; . . . and to the very minute
of which we speak, prosecuted him with all manner and
demonstration of respect and kindness, and (as I heard
His Majesty himself say) ' courted him as his mistress,
and conversed with him as his friend ' without the least
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 251
interruption or intermission of all possible favour or
kindness.
"And, therefore, many who observed this great Earl
purchase this opportunity of disserving the King . . .
concluded that he had some notable temptation in Con-
science, and that the Court was much worse than it was
believed to be." 1
It is surely absurd to argue that the Earl's " most
esteemed and unblemished reputation" was wholly due to
the King's "singular grace and favour." As regards the
two lofty posts which he held, if Northumberland owed his
advancement to any one's favour, it was to that of the be-
trayed Strafford (who had recognised in him the one man of
high rank fit to fill those offices) and not to that of Charles.
We also know that, finding his heroic efforts to reform the
navy thwarted by the King's vacillating policy, the Earl had
sought to resign his trust, and that he had only been per-
suaded to continue in command by the earnest suppli-
cations of the Court. In the Council his sound reasoning
passed unheeded, and his proposals were voted down ; so
that it is hard to see how Charles can be said to have
" courted him as his mistress, &c." And, apart from all
personal considerations, there was the bitter memory of
how his father had been treated by James I. to warn
Northumberland from that course of blind loyalty to the
King which Clarendon and others upbraid him for failing
to pursue.
The breach between Charles and the Earl grew rapidly
wider. In the second session of the Long Parliament,
Northumberland was recognised as the leader of
the Opposition in the House of Lords. His views
policy of however, were then (as they continued through-
out the entire struggle between King and Parlia-
ment) distinctly moderate ; and he sought, as long as
possible, to prevent bloodshed. The extremists among the
Parliamentary party, indeed, looked upon him with dislike
1 History of the Rebellion, i. 473.
252 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
and suspicion, because he professed neither puritanism in
religion, nor republicanism in matters of State, but pinned
his faith upon constitutional monarchy and absolute free-
dom of creed. His enemy Henry Martyn went so far as
to accuse him of " truckling to the Court " — and this at
the very time when Charles was meditating his dismissal
from the naval command. The Earl's moderation is
unjustly set down by D' Israeli as due to natural coldness
and lack of sympathy l ; but if he seemed cold to the out-
side world, in private letters to his friends he displayed a
warm and evidently sincere patriotism, as well as a shrewd
understanding of the real position of affairs. Perhaps the
best idea of his sentiments at this period may be obtained
from various letters addressed by him to Sir John Bankes.
These earnest epistles, in truth, admirably sum up the case
of the People against the King.
"Parliament," he wrote, "is arrayed against the King
because of the Peril of losing that Liberty which freeborn
Subjects should enjoy, and which the Laws of the Land do
allow ; and because those persons who are most powerful
with the King do endeavour to bring Parliament to such
a Condition that they shall only be made Instruments to
execute the Commands of the King.'"1 And again — " Let
us have but our Laws, Liberties, and Privileges secured
unto us, and let him perish that seeks to deprive the King
of any part of his just Prerogative, or that Authority which
is due to him. If our Fortunes be to fall into Troubles, I
am sure (few excepting the King himself) will suffer more
than I do ; therefore for my own private considerations, as
well as for the publick good, no man shall more earnestly
endeavour an agreement between the King and his people" 3
Northumberland kept his word, and in spite of Royalist
scurrility and Parliamentary fanaticism, continued to
labour in the cause of peace, as long as peace remained
within the bounds of possibility.
1 Life of Charles I.
2 State Papers. Bankes ; Story of Corft Castle.
3 Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 253
On February 22, 1642, he was nominated by Parlia-
ment Lord-Lieutenant of the four counties of Northumber-
land, Sussex, Pembroke, and Anglesey, apparently without
the King's sanction or approval. When Lunsford, a man
of notoriously bad character, was given the governorship
of the Tower, the Earl led the opposition in the Upper
House to this indiscreet appointment, and signed the
remonstrance subsequently drawn up by the joint com-
mittee. He also supported the Militia Bill, and protested
against the refusal of the Lords to pass this measure
(which transferred the control of the army from the
hands of the King to those of Parliament), averring that
" whosoever refused in this particular to join with the
House of Commons were, in his opinion, enemies to the
Commonwealth."1 When the Queen's French intrigues
were discovered, he was one of the first to denounce
them, albeit his brother, Sir Henry Percy, had played
a leading part in these efforts to secure armed assistance
from overseas. The unsparing vigour with which he
assailed Henrietta and her advisers for thus "seeking
to bring in the Sabine enemy" made him more than ever
obnoxious to the "Cavalier" party. Sir Thomas Smith
wrote to Admiral Pennington : " Sir Harry Vane Junior
is voted at Court to be put out ; and my Lord Northumber-
land would go the same way if the feminine Gender might
have their will" 2 Nor was it long before " the feminine
gender " were gratified by the Earl's dismissal from
his high command. Parliament having advised him to
appoint his cousin, Lord Warwick, Vice-Admiral of the
Fleet, he did accordingly, in the full belief that his own
commission as Lord Admiral entitled him to make such
appointments. Buckingham had certainly exercised this
high privilege when he presided over naval affairs ; but
Buckingham was a royal favourite, and the practical
ruler of England. When Warwick's nomination was
submitted to the King, the latter made haste to cancel
it, and to place one of the Court party over the fleet.
> Slate Papers. a Ibid.
254 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Northumberland, however, stood fast ; and as the sailors
had already accepted Warwick as their commander,
Charles found himself in a difficult and humiliating posi-
tion.1 The Queen and her friends clamoured loudly for
the punishment of the Lord Admiral, but Charles could
not for some time make up his mind to this step. Months
were allowed to slip by while affairs remained in this
unsettled condition ; and when at last Northumberland
was removed from office it was upon quite another pre-
text, and one for which little or no justification can be
advanced. A ship called the Providence, sailing under
the Dutch flag, had been secretly chartered by the
Queen, and was engaged in bringing cannon and gun-
powder to England, for Royalist purposes. This vessel
was intercepted by the British fleet, and chased into the
Humber, where she succeeded in eluding capture. During
the pursuit she had been repeatedly fired upon, but had
refused to state what cargo she carried, or whither she
was bound. Northumberland knew nothing of the affair
until afterwards ; but the King professed to hold him
directly responsible for what was termed an insult to
the Dutch flag (the Providence was nevertheless an English
ship sailing under false colours), and at once demanded
his resignation of the Lord Admiral's commission. The
royal letters, dated June 28, 1642, are still preserved at
Alnwick Castle. They remind Northumberland that the
Admiralship had been conferred "during the King's
pleasure " only, and order him instantly to lay down his
command.2
Both Houses of Parliament passed resolutions urging
Northumberland to defy the royal mandate, and the Com-
mons promised him their full support if he continued to
exercise the duties of Lord Admiral. There is no doubt
that he was strongly tempted to take them at their word,
as he had done in the case of Warwick, for he felt that
he was being unjustly dismissed after years of loyal labour
in the service of his country. But, on the other hand,
1 Gardiner, x. 176, 185, 208. '- Alnwick MSS.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 255
he realised that to resist the King at such a time would
be to precipitate that civil conflict which it was his dearest
hope to be able to avert. In the interests of peace, he
chose to sacrifice his pride, and leave the work of naval
reform to other hands. In reply to the addresses of
Parliament he declared "that it would ill become him,
who had received that Charge from the King ... to
continue the Possession thereof against his express
Pleasure." * Whereupon, according to Clarendon,2 " the
Commons forebore pressing or being angry with his Re-
fusal, which was a Respect they would have given to
no other Man, well knowing that it was much easier to
mislead than to convert him, and that they should still
have the Advantage of his Conscience in other things,
though not in this." But not even the Earl's well-meant
surrender to the King could stay the inevitable strife.
In August the royal standard was unfurled at Notting-
ham, and Charles declared war upon his discontented
subjects.
Before the opposing forces met in actual fight at Edge-
hill, and while men's minds were still on the rack of doubt,
Northumber- t'ie ^arl °* Northumberland brought to a
land's second happy conclusion a courtship in which he had
been for some time engaged. The lady whom
he chose for his second wife was a reigning beauty
and heiress, Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Theophilus,
second Earl of Suffolk, and grandniece of that Francis
Howard, Earl of Northampton, who in the days of James
I. had shown himself such a bitter foe to the House of
Percy. It is a singular fact that Northumberland's first
and second consorts should both have belonged to families
with which his father, the "Wizard Earl," had been at
deadly feud — the families of Cecil and of Howard. No
doubt the old " Wizard," were he living in 1642, would
have condemned his son's union to the grandniece of
i History of the Rebellion, iii. 113. 2 Ibid., iii. 588.
256 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Northampton as fiercely as he did the earlier alliance with
Salisbury's granddaughter.
By an article in the marriage settlements of Nor-
thumberland and Lady Elizabeth Howard, the mansion
at Charing Cross then known as "Northampton House"
was transferred to the bridegroom, upon his payment of
;£i 5,000 to his wife's family. The name of this princely
residence was then changed to " Northumberland House,"
and as such it continued to be known down to the year
1870, when it was destroyed to make room for Northum-
berland Avenue, and the great pile of buildings between
that thoroughfare and the river. The house was recon-
structed, under the new owner's supervision, by Inigo
Jones. Hitherto the principal apartments had looked
towards the Strand. The Earl preferred a riverward
prospect, and laid out spacious gardens stretching down
to what is now the Thames Embankment. The Percy
lion carved in stone, which he placed over the front of
the house, and which long remained a familiar object
to Londoners, was subsequently removed to Syon, where
it may still be seen. Perhaps the best known view
of old Northumberland House is that by Canaletto. The
tenth Earl's gardens were highly commended by Evelyn,
who complained, however, that when southerly winds
prevailed these tastefully arranged terraces and copses
were " wrapped in a horrid cloud of smoke, issuing
from a brewery or two, contiguous to that noble
palace." x
De Fonblanque, in his " Annals of the House of Percy,"
states (without quoting any authority) that the marriage
of Elizabeth Howard and Northumberland was the subject
of Suckling's " Ballad Upon a Wedding," so often quoted
for the " careless natural grace " of its imagery. The
scene of the festivities described by the poet was certainly
Northumberland House (or Northampton House, as it was
then) :—
1 Miscellaneous Works, p. 233 (Fiimifiigittm).
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 257
"At Charing Cross, hard by the Way
Where we (thou know'st) do sell our Hay,
There is a House with Stairs ;
And there did I see coining down
Such Folks as are not in our Town,
Vorty at least in Pairs " :
and the portrait of the happy bridegroom in some
respects resembles that of Northumberland : —
" Among the rest, one pest'lent fine,
— His Beard no bigger tho' than thine —
Walk'd on before 'the rest;
Our Landlord looks like nothing to him ;
The King (God bless him !) 'twould undo him,
Should he go still so drest."
However the Earl was hardly a " youth" l at the time
of his second nuptials ; nor was the Cavalier, Suckling,
likely to celebrate in pleasant verse the wedding of one
regarded as a leader of the Parliamentary cause. The
" Ballad " is more commonly supposed to deal with Lord
Broghill's marriage to Lady Margaret Howard,2 sister
of her who became the wife of Northumberland. The
date of the Earl's second marriage was October i, 1642.
Although the Earl had accepted a place on the Parlia-
mentary Committee of Safety (July 4, 1642), it was only
Northnmber- that he might the more vigorously pursue his
thedp"ita- policy of conciliation. Even the battle of
mentary Edgehill and the King's march upon London
Peace Party. d;d not shake hjs be,;ef that & peaceful settlement
might yet be effected. "In the city and in Parliament,"
1 " The Youth was going,
To make an end of all his wooing."
* Lady Margaret Howard, daughter of Theophilus, Earl of Suffolk, and
sister of the Countess of Northumberland, married Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill,
afterwards first Earl of Orrery, son of the notorious adventurer Boyle, who
founded the fortunes of that family in Ireland. Orrery died in 1679, and his
widow resided after his decease with her sister, Lady Northumberland, at Syon.
She died there in August 1689, and was buried in Isleworth parish church.
II. R
258 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
says Gardiner, "above all in the House of Lords a Peace
Party was quickly formed. Amongst the Peers, its most
respectable member was the kindly Earl of Northumber-
land, always anxious for a quiet life, and always distrustful
of enthusiasts." J Lords Bedford, Clare, Holland, and
Pembroke lent him active support in the Upper House
(although some of them favoured peace from motives less
praiseworthy than his own) ; and in the Commons such
men as Holies, Selden, Whitelocke, D'Ewes, and Maynard
were known to share his opinions. On November 10 he
was sent to meet Charles at Colnbrook with proposals for
an armistice, but nothing came of these overtures ; and
during the Parliamentary encampment on Turnham Green
both the Earl and his cousin, Holland, appeared in arms.2
Syon House suffered severely during the Royalist sack of
Brentford ; but Northumberland entertained no malice,
and after Charles had drawn off in the direction of Oxford,
he again proposed a conference, marching in company
with Lord Pembroke into Palace Yard, crying " Peace !
Peace !"3 Early in January 1643 he moved in the House
of Lords that " a Committee be appointed to consider how
there might be an accomodation between the King and
his People for the Good, Happiness, and Safety of both
King and Kingdom." 4
After much discussion, this was at length agreed to by
both Houses, and a Committee, consisting of Northumber-
land, Holland, Lord Salisbury, Edmund Waller, and nine
others, was chosen "to attend His Majesty at Oxford to
treat about the Proposals for Peace," and authorised " upon
any emergent Occasion to come up to the Parliament to
receive further advice." 5 Bulstrode Whitelocke, who was
one of the delegates, has left an account of the negotiations,
which were prolonged, with various intermissions, until
March. Safe-conducts were granted by the King, and the
Committee went to Oxford in great state, each coach drawn
1 Gardiner, i. 53. 2 IlnJ., So.
* Ibid. * Journals of the House of Lords,
6 Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 259
by six horses. "The Earl of Northumberland carried with
him his own Plate and Household stuff, and Accomodation
even to Wine and Provisions, which were brought from
London to us at Oxford, where we lived in as much
Height and Nobleness as the Earl of Northumberland used
to do, and that is scarce exceeded by any Subject.
"The King himself did us the Honour sometimes to
accept of Part of our Wine and Provisions, which the Earl
sent to him. The Earl . . . was full of Civility to the
other Commissioners ; and the Port we lived in at Oxford,
by the Earl's Direction, and managed by his Officers, was
full of State and Nobleness."
Some members of the Committee, moved by the early
successes of the Royalists, made use of their time at
Oxford to enter into secret compacts with the King.
Edmund Waller by his own confession was one of these,
and the eagerness which they showed to abandon the Par-
liamentary side had, no doubt, much to do with the manner
in which Northumberland's proposals were in the end re-
jected by Charles. Whitelocke has left an account of the
manner in which the negotiations were brought to a con-
clusion. When Northumberland began to read the terms
offered by Parliament, " with a sober and stout carriage,"
the King interrupted testily. " Will your Majesty give
me leave to proceed?" demanded the Earl, and Charles
with evident ill-will, nodded his head in consent. He
continued to interrupt, however, and the proceedings were
adjourned for a time. Finally the King promised to send
his reply (his " assent in writing" if we are to believe White-
locke) to the Commissioners by the hand of his secretary,
Heron. Next day a royal letter did indeed reach Northum-
berland, but " quite contrary to what was concluded the
night before." The Commissioners " pressed upon the
King his royal word," but Charles answered that "he had
altered his mind," and was no longer prepared to accept
the terms offered by his subjects.2 Northumberland at
once communicated this unhappy result to Parliament ;
1 Whitelocke ; Memorials. " Ibid,
26o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
and the Committee was ordered to break off negotiations
forthwith and return to London. Waller's intrigues with
the Royalists had not as yet come to light, but strong
suspicions of treachery prevailed among the advanced
section of the Commons, and Northumberland and others
''were looked upon with great jealousy as persons engaged
by the King, and disinclined to the Parliament."1 To
such an extent was this feeling carried that a letter, written
from Oxford by Northumberland to his wife, was seized
and deliberately opened by Henry Martyn " to see if it con-
tained treason to the Commonwealth." An action of this
kind would have been outrageous at any time ; but it was
rendered the more disgraceful by the fact that the letter
was addressed to the young Countess, then on the eve
of her first confinement. Furious at the insult, Northum-
berland hastened to Westminster, and sought out Henry
Martyn. He found the culprit conversing with his friends
in the Painted Chamber, and at once demanded an explana-
tion. Martyn's sole reply was that he felt " no whit sorry "
for what he had done ; whereupon Northumberland struck
him several times across the head and shoulders with his
cane. Swords were drawn, but Martyn's friends rushed
between the combatants and forced them apart. Martyn
does not appear to have been much the worse for the
thrashing which he had received, for he at once lodged
a complaint before the House of Commons ; while North-
umberland, on his side, made a personal explanation to
the Lords.
A joint conference of both Houses having been
summoned to discuss the affair, it was finally decided to
issue an injunction forbidding either Martyn or the Earl to
indulge in any further hostilities, under pain of prosecution
as enemies to the State. Northumberland expressed him-
self as willing to give Martyn satisfaction for the caning so
publicly administered ; but, whether from regard to the
order of Parliament or from other motives, the over-
zealous member sent no challenge, and the matter (which
1 Clarendon, iv. 17.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 261
had been the talk of London for weeks) was allowed to
drop.1
Late in May, Waller's secret negotiations with the King
were discovered ; and Waller, Tompkins, and Challoner
were arrested on the 3ist of the same month. The poet-
politician, fairly caught, and fearing for his life, offered to
give evidence implicating several members of the Peace
Party. Conway and Portland he accused of plotting
directly against Parliament, and Northumberland of being
favourable to their designs and refusing to take part in the
conspiracy only because he feared its result. Whatever
may have been the truth concerning the charges against
Conway and Portland, it is certain that Northumberland at
least was absolutely guiltless of any intrigue against the
cause which he professed. Waller's motives for thus
calumniating the Earl are variously stated. Some authori-
ties ascribe his action to mere cowardice, and the wish to
protect himself by involving more powerful persons in his
own ruin. Others attempt to lend an air of romance to
the affair, by hinting that the contemptuous rejection of his
addresses by the fair " Saccharissa " had inspired the poet
with feelings of revenge against that lady's distinguished
relative. Others again hold that Waller himself had been
misled by Sir Henry Percy into believing the Earl a
trimmer like Holland or Bedford ; and this is certainly the
most charitable view to take of the false evidence. As for
Northumberland, when informed of what had occurred, he
demanded an immediate investigation. The two men,
accuser and accused, were brought face to face in the
presence of a committee of both Houses, with the result
that Waller, after several times contradicting himself, broke
down completely, and the Earl was unanimously exonerated
from all blame.
The rejection of the Peace resolution in the Commons
on July 9, and the disinclination of Essex and the
Parliamentary leaders to consider further proposals, caused
Northumberland to become seriously discouraged for
1 D'Ewes's Diary. Harleian A/SS. 164, fol. 372(5.
262 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the first time since the war began. His wife had given
birth to a son and heir at Petworth on July 4, and a
few weeks later the Earl asked permission of Parliament
to pay a brief visit to his Sussex residence. In the society
of his family he hoped to be able to shake off the gloom
occasioned by recent disappointments ; but unfortunately
his motives for thus retiring for a time from public life
were misrepresented by the more fanatical members of
the war party, and there were whispers that he meditated
a surrender to the King. Lords Holland, Bedford, and
Clare had already gone to Oxford, without leave, for
the purpose of making their peace, and Northumberland
was suspected of a like design.1 Henry Martyn and others
of his kind were particularly busy in spreading these
reports ; but the Earl disappointed them by returning
faithfully to London at the end of the year, when both
Houses gave him a hearty welcome, and his enemies
were once more put to silence.2
The Civil War had now entered upon its second stage,
so disastrous to the hitherto successful Royalist arms.
Pym and Hampden were both dead, and the influence
of Oliver Cromwell had begun to make itself felt, alike
in Army and Parliament. In January 1644 a Scottish
army once more crossed the Tweed ; and on February
16 the Joint Committee of Both Kingdoms assumed
control of the Parliamentary cause. To this committee
Northumberland was appointed ; and among his colleagues
were his cousins Essex and Warwick, with Manchester,
Fairfax, Sir William Waller, St. John, Oliver Cromwell,
Haselrig, and the two Vanes, for England ; and Loudoun,
Maitland, Johnston of Warriston, and Barclay for the
sister realm. We find Northumberland giving umbrage
to the Commons and the Scottish Covenanters by his
persistent pleas for peace ; and in November 1644 he
was censured by the Lower House for having communi-
cated to the Lords an offer of mediation, personally made
to him by the Comte d'Harcourt3 on behalf of Louis
1 Clarendon. 3 Ibid, 3 The French Ambassador.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 263
XIV. and the Queen Regent of France.1 Charles and
his advisers seem to have appreciated the Earl's efforts
at conciliation as little as did the Parliamentary war-party,
for in December Northumberland, together with Pembroke
and Salisbury, were indicted at Shrewsbury for High
Treason. The principal charge against them was that
they had " furnished assistance to the Parliament then
in Rebellion." 2 Charles, however, failed to find a jury
of their peers to bring in a bill of attainder against the
accused lords, and the indictment was perforce allowed
to lapse.8
Northumberland took a prominent part in the final
attempt made by the Royalist and Parliamentary factions
The to come to an understanding and end the
"Treaty" of Civil War. On January 30, 1645, he was one of
uzbndge. ^ sjxteen Commissioners sent by the Parlia-
ment to meet sixteen of the King's party at Uxbridge,
in that " good House at the end of ye Town " which still
stands in fair preservation, and is locally known as "the
Treaty House."* The thirty-two Commissioners were
instructed "to take into consideration the grievances of
which each party complained, and to propose those
remedies that might be mutually agreeable." The King
himself attended this gathering, and held a species of
miniature Court in the "Treaty House."5
From the very first it became apparent that the
presence of the Scottish Covenanters was certain to prove
a cause of discord. They had come thither dourly
i Journals of the House of Commons.
3 Whitelocke ; Memorials, p. 78.
a Whitelocke.
4 The " Treaty House," which had been the residence of Sir John Bennet,
Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, afterwards became an inn under
the sign of the " Crown."
6 Charles received his visitors in the oak-panelled apartment which is
erroneously shown to visitors as the "Treaty Room," but which was really
the Presence Chamber. The actual meeting-place of the Commissioners was
a larger room (now divided into two) facing on the High Street of Uxbridge.
264 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
determined to advance their own interests at all hazards,
and to make no compromise either with the Royalists
or with the favourers of peace in the Parliament. Even
before the proceedings began, a dispute was caused by
Loudoun, the Chief Scottish Commissioner, who had the
effrontery to demand precedence over all the English
representatives. This claim occasioned intense anger
among the English of both parties, and might have ended
all further discussion had not Northumberland come
forward with a suggestion. "The Earl of Northumber-
land," writes Whitelocke, "smiled at this contest, and
seemed to contemn it ; — of whose great honour and
family and antiquity the Scots could not be ignorant ;
nor of the differences between that" (i.e. the Earl's
honourable descent) "and the family of the Earl of
Loudoun. . . . Yet Northumberland moved, for the satis-
faction of the Scots, that the Chancellor and one of the
Scots Commissioners might sit at the upper end of the
Table." l After some argument, the Earl's proposal was
accepted, and the English Lord Chancellor presided jointly
with Loudoun over the assembly.
It was agreed that the "Three Propositions" which
were to be laid before the King — i.e. the questions relating
to Religion, the Army, and Ireland — should be discussed
in rotation, three days being allotted to each proposition.
If, after nine days, no conclusion had been reached, a
further debate of three days' duration was to be allowed on
the subject of Religion, and so on with the other points.
If, at the end of twenty-one working days, no satis-
factory conclusion had been arrived at, the proceedings
were to be considered at an end.2 A week had hardly
passed by, before Northumberland realised that the
gathering was mere waste of time. Some few of the
Royalists, such as Hertford and Southampton, were sin-
cerely desirous of promoting peace, but Charles himself
was, as usual, obstinate at the wrong time ; and no amount
of argument could " reconcile the King's unbending de-
1 Memorials, p. 127. 3 Rushworth, v. 861.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 265
votion to Episcopacy, with the equally unbending Presby-
terianism of the Scots."1 The character of the "Three
Propositions" themselves show how little the spirit of
compromise appealed to the Scottish delegates or their
English allies of the advanced section. Charles was
asked : (i) to take the Covenant, to assent to the
abolition of Episcopacy and the Prayer-book, and the
establishment of Presbyterianism and the Directory ;
(2) to consent to the control of both Army and Navy
by a Commission nominated by Parliament ; and (3)
to authorise the passing of an Act making void the
Irish Cessation, and permitting Parliament to prose-
cute the war in Ireland without hindrance from the
Royalists.
In place of the first Proposition, the Oxford clergy
offered a broad scheme of religious toleration ; but the In-
dependents and Scots, suspicious of the King's good faith
would accept no alternative measures. The debates on the
other two Propositions ended as unsatisfactorily. To the
military Commission the King might well have agreed at
the time. He actually did so a twelvemonth later, when it
was too late. The list of Commissioners put forward by
Parliament was, on the whole, a moderate one. North-
umberland's name held first place among the nominees, a
fact which, as Lord Southampton pointed out, was in itself
"an earnest of fair play." But Charles, persuaded, it is
said, by Prince Rupert, refused to surrender even tempo-
rarily his claim of absolute control over the land and sea
forces. Day after day was squandered in " exhaustive dis-
cussions " ; and at length, on February 22, the negotiations
were broken off. Some of the Royalist delegates asked for
a further extension of time, but the other side answered
that " if the King had consented to any one of the Propo-
sitions, it might have been some Encouragement to move
the Parliament for longer Time ; but, as things were, it
could not be expected."2
1 Gardiner, v. 2 ; p. 121.
3 Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 133.
266 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
From Northumberland's letters to Leicester and others,
it is clear that the negative result of the Uxbridge deliber-
ations at once saddened and disgusted him. To quote
Clarendon : " The repulse he had formerly received at
Oxford upon his addresses thither, and the fair escape he
had made afterwards from the jealousy of the Parliament,
had wrought so far upon him that he resolved no more to
depend upon the one, or provoke the other."1 He was
still, however, regarded as the leader of the Independent
Party in Parliament ; and as such helped to secure the
passage of the " Self- Denying Ordinance," and took a
prominent part in the organisation of the new model
army.2
Few men in England had suffered more by the war
than Northumberland, and even his enemies in the House
of Commons could not but admit that he had
losses, and borne his enormous losses with noble disin-
partiai.com- terestedness. Soon after the Uxbridge Treaty
pensauon.
his financial affairs became well-nigh desperate,
owing to the devastation of his northern estates, and to
huge arrearages of rent. His friends urged him to claim
some compensation from Parliament in return for the
countless sacrifices which he had made for what he held to
be the rightful cause. For over two years, although on the
verge of bankruptcy, he refused to embarrass the Houses
with his personal troubles; but at last, early in 1647, he
was forced by necessity to present a memorial represent-
ing that " by those unhappy Wars (besides many Damages he
hath sustained in his Woods, Collieries, the loss of his office of
Lord High Admiral, &c.) he hath lost in clear Rents, above
^36,000." 3 Moreover, land was become of such small
value that no money could be raised by the sale of any
of his estates. A detailed statement of the Earl's losses
accompanies his petition. This latter document, a dupli-
1 Great Rebellion, viii. 244.
2 Gardiner, ii. 189.
; s Lords' and Commons Journals.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 267
cate of which is preserved in the Alnwick MSS.,1 ran as
follows : —
£ '. d
" Arrears of Rent in Yorkshire . . 14,739 I2 8
„ „ Northumberland . 13,500 8 n
„ ,, Cumberland . 981 13 10
„ „ elsewhere . . 5,468 8 i
Destruction of Wressill Castle . . 1,000 8 i
Damage to Tadcaster by Royalists . 300 o o
Spoiling of Northumbrian Woodes . 570 o o
Houses burnt, &c. &fc. . . • 1,200 o o
Arrears for Tynetnouth . . . 3,274 6 n
Paid in Ready Money to the Scots . 1,500 o o
Total . 42,554 ii o
The House of Lords cordially recommended the memo-
rial to the Commons " in regard to the Faithfulness of the
Earl of Northumberland in a Time wherein the services of
a Person of his Eminence were of great Use and Ad-
vantage to the Parliament and Cause."2 In the Lower
House, however, his bitter foes of the extreme party (or
" Levellers," as they were now beginning to be styled) saw
fit to oppose the granting of any compensation, and Henry
Martyn, who had never forgiven the thrashing which he
had received at Northumberland's hands, used all his
influence against the latter. Better feelings conquered,
nevertheless ; and the Commons, by a vote of 75 against
55, granted to the Earl "the sum of ^10,000, to be paid by
the Committee of Goldsmiths' Hall out of the Fines and
Compositions of Delinquents." 3
Wressill Castle, that venerable monument of the fifth
Earl's magnificence, had been partially dismantled by
Cromwell, under the pretext that the neighbourhood was a
Royalist one, and that the mansion, if left standing, might
1 " Return presented to Parliament of My Lord's Damages," Alnwick MSS:
quoted by De Fonblanque.
'•* Lords' Journals.
3 Commons' Journal!, Jan. 19, 1647.
268 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
fall into the hands of the King's Yorkshire supporters. As
Wressill was by no means a strongly fortified place, it is
probable that the destruction wrought there by Cromwell's
troops had its real origin in the dislike of the extremists for
the Earl. That this was indeed so, seems the more likely
from the fact that, during the year following the grant of
compensation to the Earl, a second and more determined
attack was made on the castle by the " Ironsides," and this
without any warning or other notification to the owner, and
apparently without any order from either Parliament or
the Committee of Safety. Northumberland's servants were
taken completely by surprise at this arbitrary act. William
Plaxton, the Earl's agent at Wressill, wrote in haste to
London : " / am very sorrye to see the spoyle that is already
made of his Lordshyp's Castle, with this forenoone's work :
there is fifteene men throwing down the out Batlement ; I
thinke by to-morrow noone they will have gone rounde the
Castell. The Stones are for the moste parte all Smashed to
pieces ; and if there be not some speedy course taken for to pre-
serve the Timber, Lead, Glass, and Wainscot, by taking tliem
doune at his Lordshyp's cost, they will be all spoyled and
broaken to peeces. I pray, see if you can get an Order from the
Committee to stay the proceedings till we can take course to
preserve these things for his Lordshyp's use. The workmen do
not looke to save any of the materiels, but take tke ready est
course to throwe domic the ivalls ; which they will doe inward,
upon the floores and sealing, as well as outward upon the
ground" J The ceilings at Wressill were, it will be re-
membered, handsomely painted and ornamented with
verses and quaint devices composed by Skelton and other
poets of the early days of Henry VIII. Before a stay of
proceedings could be invoked, most of these precious relics
of the past had been wantonly destroyed. Two days later,
on December 3oth, Robert Thompson, another of North-
umberland's servants, informed his master that "all the
Battlements to the roofe, on the fronte of the Castle (excepting
1 Abmnck MSS. ; Wm. Plaxton to Pritchett, the Earl's steward at Northum-
berland House, Dec. 28, 1648.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 269
the High Tower over the Gate) are bett doune. . . . / conceyve
^2000 will not repair the ruynes here." J
It was not the intention of the Earl's enemies in
Parliament that Wressill should be repaired. Some eight
months later, in August 1649, the Council of State wrote
to Northumberland in the following unmistakable terms :
"The Castle of Wressill was appointed ... to be
demolished, but it is not yet made untenable. Signify
to us whether you yourself will order its effectual de-
molishing, or whether we shall give order to some others
for the doing of it."2 To this the Earl answered that,
such was the condition of the castle, no danger remained
of its ever serving as shelter for a hostile garrison. Its
outer walls and other defences had been levelled with
the earth, and only a portion of the dwelling-house re-
mained. This, he trusted, the Council would not ask
him to destroy, as his race had always been deeply
attached to Wressill, which was their only place of resi-
dence in the neighbourhood, and he hoped, when peace
was restored, to be able to rebuild the old mansion.
Sentimental reasons were the last to which the then
governing body was likely to listen. The sole reply of
the Council was a warrant commanding the "complete
demolition " of the castle, with the exception of the
steward's quarters in the southern wing.3 Only ten days
were allowed for the carrying out of this harsh behest ;
and so, after hundreds of years, Wressill ceased to be the
Yorkshire home of the Percies.
When the King rode out of London in 1642, he was
accompanied by his two elder sons, the Prince of Wales
and the Duke of York ; while the younger
be°iandas children — Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and the
guardian of princess Elizabeth, were left at Whitehall in
the Princes.
the care of their governess, the Marchioness
of Dorset. Parliament treated them with consideration,
1 Aliiwick MSS,; Robert Thompson to the Earl's steward in London.
a Stale Papers. 3 Ibid., Warrant dated April 7, 1650.
270 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
merely taking care that they should not escape. After
the death of Lady Dorset in 1645, it was decided by both
Houses that no more suitable guardian could be chosen,
for the little prince and princess, than the Earl of North-
umberland. Northumberland undertook the duties of
the charge with pleasure. He may have remembered
that when misfortune brooded over his own house, —
when his father was a prisoner in the Tower, and when
himself, his brother, and sisters were frowned upon by
the world, they had found a true friend and protector
in the then Queen of England, mother of Charles I.
Certain it is that even the most captious follower of the
King could not deny that the royal children were treated
by their new governor with every kindness and respect.1
They were first placed under his charge on March 19,
1645^ with a salary of ^3000 per annum? the Houses of
Parliament taking "into consideration the great losses
of this noble Earl from his Affection to the Publick." *
On September n, 1645, for reasons presently to be dis-
covered, the annual allowance was increased, the House
of Commons voting "that ^5000 a year be paid to the
Earl of Northumberland for the keeping of the King's
younger children in an honourable way," and also "that
the Earl of Northumberland shall have the use of
Whitehall, St. James's House, Somerset House, or any
other of the King's Houses as he shall find Occasion . . .
with such Hangings, Bedding, Plate, Silver Vessels, or
other necessary and fitting Accomodation, as he shall
require."5 An additional grant of ^580 per annum for
medical attendance was also made, and several physicians,
surgeons, and apothecaries were appointed to wait upon
the Duke of Gloucester and his sister. In fact the value
of these children, and of the little Duke in particular, had
become suddenly and greatly enhanced in Parliamentary
1 Clarendon (no friend of the Earl) says that he "received and treated them
in all Respects as was Suitable to their Birth and Station, and his own Duty."
- Whitlocke ; Memorials, p. 137. 3 Gardiner, Lords' Journals.
4 Whitelocke. ° Commons' Journals.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 271
estimation. The failure of the Uxbridge negotiations and
the King's obstinate refusal to come to terms had inspired
the leaders of popular opinion with a new project — to
wit, the deposition of Charles, the proclamation of young
Gloucester as King Henry IX., and the elevation of
Northumberland to the post of Lord Protector.1 On
March 21, 1646,2 we find Salvetti writing to Cardinal de
Retz as if this scheme had been finally decided upon, and
dwelling at some length upon the good qualities which
Northumberland would bring to the Regency.3
The capture of the Duke of York by Fairfax, after
the fall of Oxford (June 20), put a sudden end to the
movement in favour of Gloucester's succession. It was
now determined by Parliament that, unless the King
came speedily to terms, he should be deposed in favour
of his second son. Northumberland, however, continued
to be the person most favoured for the office of Regent,
or Protector ; and York was sent to join his brother and
sister under the Earl's guardianship — a sum of ^7500
being voted for his maintenance, and, later on, an ad-
ditional £$oo a year "to expend upon his Recreations
and Field Sports." 4
Charles was surrendered by the Scots in January 1647 ;
and in June of the same year we find him a state prisoner
at Richmond. Plague having broken out in London,
Northumberland asked leave of Parliament to take the
royal children to Syon House, " where they might be
free of the infection." 5 It is probable that the Earl's
real motive was a humane desire to afford the fallen
monarch such consolation as renewed intercourse with
his family might bring. Certainly, while the plague had
infested London since the autumn of 1646, the guardian
of the children did not propose their removal to Syon
i Lords' Journals, vii. 277, 327.
5 The day of the defeat at Stow of Lord Astley's force — the last body of troops
in arms for the King.
3 Salvetti to Goudi ; AM. MSS., B.M., 27, 962, K., fol. 417.
4 Whitelocke, p. 228. ° Common/ Journals, July 26, 16.17.
272 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
until their father had taken up his residence at Richmond
hard by. Whether Parliament understood the Earl's
kindly intentions or not, the required leave was granted
after some demur ; l the Commons merely adding a
proviso that no Royalist spies, or " persons likely to give
the Duke of York evil counsel," should be allowed
access to Syon. Northumberland did not apparently
understand these instructions as excluding the visits of
the King himself. We read that, on August 23, 1647,
the royal captive was allowed to spend a day in the
company of his little ones — the two younger of whom
he had not seen since his departure from London, five
years before. In the Daily Post (a news-sheet preserved
in the British Museum) under date "August 20-27," the
following is recorded : —
" Syon House ; 23 August. His Majesty came hither to
see his Children, with one Troop of Horse, and the Com-
missioners ; and dined here." We have some account of
what took place on this occasion, from the pen of that
staunch Cavalier, Sir Thomas Herbert, the King's Groom
of the Chambers. " The Earl " (of Northumberland), writes
Herbert, "welcomed the King with a very noble Treat;
and his Followers had their Tables richly furnished : by
his Behaviour expressing extraordinary Contentment to see
the King and his Children together, after such various
Chances, and so long a Separation." 2
On the following day (August 24) Charles took up his
residence at Hampton Court, whence he continued at
frequent intervals to visit Syon. In the Daily Post, for
instance, under date of August 29, we are told that "The
Duke of York is at Syon ; and the King hunted at
Richmond Park, and afterwards dined with his Children at
Syon."3 For some time Northumberland assumed all the
responsibility for these visits, which were strongly con-
demned by the " Levellers " and fanatics in the Commons.
1 Lords' Journals, 330, 357.
1 Memoirs of the last two years of . . . King Charles the First,
3 Daily Post news-sheet, under Occurrences (British Museum).
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 273
But at length, more generous counsels prevailed, and in
October the Earl had the satisfaction of obtaining Parlia-
mentary sanction for what he had done,1 and permission
from the Council to allow Charles and his children free
access to each other. This result was most encouraging to
the King, who availed himself of the privilege to the full.
According to Clarendon (who, however, fails to give
Northumberland credit for the part which he had taken in
the matter) : " The King enjoyed himself much more to
his content at Hampton Court than he had of late ; but
that which pleased his Majesty most was that his Children
were permitted to come to him, in whom he took great
Delight. They were all at the Earl of Northumberland's
House at Syon, from the time the King came to Hampton
Court ; and had Liberty to attend his Majesty when he
pleased ; so that sometimes he sent for them to come to
Hampton Court ; and sometimes he went to them at Syon ;
which gave him great Satisfaction."2 After Charles had
left the less strict confinement of Hampton Court, North-
umberland brought York, Gloucester, and the Princess
Elizabeth to visit him, first to Caversham House,3 and
afterwards to Maidenhead.
Certain events which occurred in the following winter
and spring, however, had the effect of putting a stop to
Esca eof *^'s consoling between the King and his children,
the Duke of The project of placing James, Duke of York,
upon the throne had grown in favour with all
shades of opinion among the Parliamentarians ; and, as
time went on, it became more and more probable
that the Civil War would be brought to a bloodless con-
clusion by this means.* But the agents of the King and
the Prince of Wales were determined at all hazards to
resist the movement in favour of York's succession, and if
1 Journals of Lords and Commons.
2 Great Rebellion, vol. iii. Part I.
' Lord Craven's seat, near Reading.
4 Walker; History of Independence, vol. i, 107.
II. S
274 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
possible to prevent the Duke from accepting the crown at
the hands of Parliament. Charles ill repaid the latitude
which Northumberland allowed him in conversation with
his children, by using all his parental authority to persuade
York into attempting an escape from Syon. Relying upon
the royal word that no harm was intended against his
guardianship, Northumberland also permitted a certain
Colonel John Bamfield or Bamford1 to have frequent
access to the Duke ; and Bamfield, while ostensibly inter-
ested only in the lad's field-sports, laboured secretly to
further the plans for his flight. York was easily prevailed
upon to make the attempt ; but the first plot was betrayed
to Northumberland before it could be carried into effect.
The Earl, indignant at what he deemed the royal abuse
of his confidence, announced the discovery to Parliament,
and asked permission to resign the charge of the King's
second son. Both Houses united in pressing him to con-
tinue his guardianship for another year at least ; 2 and he
eventually agreed to do so, but only on condition that the
prince solemnly pledged himself to make no further effort at
breaking bounds "even at the instigation of His Majesty."
The parole was readily given. " On February 22, 1648, was
read a letter from the Duke of York, of the twentieth of this
instant February, whereby he engaged his honour and faith
never to engage himself any more in suc/i business." z Upon
this understanding York was allowed the same liberty as
before, save that his lodgings, together with those of his
brother and sister, were removed from Syon to St. James's
Palace.
A Stuart promise, however, was one thing, and its ful-
filment another, as none should have been better aware than
the head of the House of Percy. Colonel John Bamford
had shrewdly managed to keep his connection with the
abortive plot a secret ; and was thus enabled to continue
1 Clarendon states that his real name was Bamford, and that he was of Irish
birth. A family of the name was for some brief time settled in the county of
Kilkenny, where the estate of Castle Bamford still bears the name.
2 Commons' Journals. 3 Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 275
his work as intermediary between York and the King.
Charles, or his agents, at once set to work to overcome
the Duke's scruples against the breaking of vows ; and,
by fair means or foul, to snatch this dangerous, if un-
willing, rival of the vanquished monarch out of Parlia-
mentary keeping. There was little time to be lost, if the
proclamation of James as King was to be prevented.
Already the Council of War (including Cromwell and Ire-
ton) had formally approved of the deposition of Charles,
in favour of his second son,1 and the twenty-fourth of
April 1648 had been chosen as the date upon which a
motion to that effect was to be brought forward in the
House of Commons. It was decided that the Duke must
be either cajoled or bullied into breaking his parole;
and Colonel Bamford was the instrument chosen for this
delicate work. Bamford had his instructions from the
King directly. He was to enlarge upon the heinous sin
of filial disobedience, and to persuade Prince James that
"as he was under age,2 his word was not binding" without
the consent of his father. "This sophistry," says Gardiner,
" obtained ready credence." The young Duke agreed to
do as his father wished ; and Bamford at once set out to
prepare for this second, and more successful, enterprise.
The flight from St. James's Palace was to take place
on April 21 — three days before the dreaded motion could
be heard in Parliament, and just two months after York
had " engaged his honour and faith " to attempt escape
no more. The plans of Bamford and his associates were
carefully laid. " For some evenings before," says Gardiner
(whose account follows the Clarendon State Papers3 and
Lady Anne Halkett4), "the Duke amused himself by
playing hide and seek with his brother and sister in the
apartments which they occupied in St. James's, in order
1 Walker; History of Independence, vol. i. p. 107.
* Apolog it of Colonel Bamfield or Bamford (1685): Gardiner's Great Civil
War, vol. iv. p. 100.
3 Clarendon State Papers, ii. Appendix XLVII.
4 Autobiography of Lady Anne Halkett, p. 20.
276 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
to accustom his guardians to his absence from the room
where he had been usually found at that hour.
"In the meantime Anne Murray,1 a sister of the well-
known Will Murray, had ordered a tailor to make for the
boy a lady's dress. The order almost led to a discovery
of the plot, as the tailor was startled at the measurements
given to him. He had never, he said, made a dress in
which the size of the waist was so large in proportion
to the lady's height. The tailor, however, kept counsel,
and, on the evening of the 2ist, the Duke, saying that
he was going off to his game, went into the garden, and
opening the gate with a key with which he had been
supplied, stepped out into the Park, where Bamfield awaited
him with a cloak and wig. Thus partially disguised, the
Duke was taken in a coach to a house in which Anne
Murray completed the metamorphosis, clothing him in a
' mixed mohair of a light hair-colour and black,' and a
scarlet under petticoat.
" In this guise, making, as Anne Murray thought, a
very pretty girl, the boy, still accompanied by Bamfield,
who now assumed the character of a brother, took a
passage in a barge to Gravesend, where the pair found a
vessel awaiting them, and put to sea before orders had
been given to stop the ports. Two days later they landed
at Rammekens, safe from all pursuit. Yet the Duke
continued to keep up his disguise, after all necessity for
it was at an end. On the night after his arrival he shocked
the hostess of the inn in which he slept by rejecting the
services of her maids when he undressed, and by insisting
on occupying the same room as Bamfield." 2 The ex-
penses incurred by Bamfield, or Bamford, in the affair
amounted (according to his own statement) to ^19,559 ;
and he received, in all, from the Royalists ^2o,ooo.3
1 Afterwards Lady Anne Halkett.
2 Gardiner ; Great Civil War, vol. iv. 100, IOI (following the accounts
of the enlargement in Clarendon Stale Papers and Lady Anne Halkett's
Autobiography),
3 Clarendon State Papers ; Calendar i. entry 2982. Bamford eventually
forsook the Stuart cause, and served under Cromwell and William III.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 277
Naturally the flight of James, almost on the eve of his
proclamation as King, created a profound sensation in
Parliamentary ranks ; and there were not wanting those
who insinuated that Northumberland had connived at
the escape. But after a full inquiry into the affair the
Earl was exonerated from all blame. " On April 29,
1648, the two Houses concurred in the Declaration that
they are fully satisfied that the said Earl hath discharged
his Duty and Trust as far as could be expected from
Him."1 Parliament now turned its attention to the Duke
of Gloucester once again, and a considerable party ad-
vocated his elevation to the throne in the room of his
brother. But the time for such compromises and make-
shifts had gone by. The irreconcilables in the Commons
would hear no more of kings and princes, and the
victorious Northern army, with Cromwell at its head, was
already marching upon London.
Northumberland, like others of the moderate party,
at first looked upon the Parliamentary army and its
Last efforts nommal commander, Fairfax, as the best safe-
to save the guard of the country against the violence of
cingshfe. ^g LeveHers and Agitators in the Lower House.
In company with sixty-two other members of both
Houses, headed by the Lord Chancellor and Speaker,
he joined the troops encamped on Hounslow Heath
under Fairfax ; and it was at his invitation that the com-
manders met at Syon, where he joined in signing a
declaration pledging those of the Lords and Commons
present " to live and die with Sir Thomas Fairfax and
his Army." The Parliamentary delegates rode back to
Westminster protected by a military force. It soon
became apparent, however, that a general more powerful
than Fairfax had ranged himself on the side of the ex-
tremists, and in opposition to all compromise. The name
of Oliver Cromwell became, for the time, the rallying cry
of the King's deadly enemies. Colonel Lloyd, one of
1 Journals of the Lords and Commons.
278 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Cromwell's trusted officers, denounced the Earls of Nor-
thumberland and Pembroke as traitors to the Common-
wealth, and openly accused them of " holding treasonable
secret negotiations with the King." The Earls, while
admitting that they desired to reopen negotiations, ab-
solutely denied that they had done anything without the
consent of Parliament, and insisted upon a public inquiry.
Their innocence was fully established ; whereupon they
pleaded parliamentary privilege, and demanded the punish-
ment of Lloyd. The Commons, against all precedent,
refused to summon the offender to the bar of their House ;
and Northumberland and Pembroke were referred to the
Law Courts for their remedy. Soon after a resolution
was carried by the extremist members, prohibiting all
further conferences with the King.
Nevertheless, during Cromwell's absence in the North,
the Moderates and Presbyterians made another vigorous
effort ; and Parliament, acting upon a petition drawn up
by the City of London (and presented in the House of
Lords by Northumberland, and in the Commons by Holies
and Vane) resolved to give the King a final opportunity
of coming to terms with his subjects. Fifteen com-
missioners were chosen on behalf of both Houses ; among
the number being Northumberland, Say, Holies, Vane,
and Pierrepont. The proceedings opened on September
18, 1648, at Newport, Isle of Wight. Charles, who was
freed on parole from Carisbrooke Castle, occupied the
house of one William Hopkins in the little town, and
the commissioners sat in the Town Hall. In the New
Post, a news-sheet dated •September 22, 1648,' is the
following account of the opening speech of Northumber-
land, who presided, and the King's reply: — "The Earl
of Northumberland, as a Testimony of Loyalty and
Fidelity both to the King and Kingdom, declared to
His Majesty his Sense and Resolutions for Peace, which
followeth in these words; — 'That the memorable Houses
of Parliament, being deeply moved with the great Sufferings
1 Preserved in the British Museum.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 279
and Oppressions of this languishing Kingdom, occasioned
by the Commotions and Risings within several Parts
thereof, have commanded his Lordship, and the rest of the
Honourable Commissioners to attend his Royal Person,
and to treat with His Majesty and the Lords and Gentle-
men on his Part, for a safe and well-governed Peace ' ;
further declaring that none could desire Peace more than
his Lordship and that to his uttermost he would labour to
the Conclusion of Peace by the Treaty ; he wronged no
Man, but would labour to be a Friend to all in the
Common-Weal of this Kingdom. His Lordship having
thus declared himself, His Majesty the King replied that
nothing should be wanting in him for promoting so great
and good a Work, declaring a Blessing from Heaven upon
the present Treaty begun for the Establishment of a
Happy Peace."
These fair words seemed to augur well for the success
of the conference, but Charles showed much of his old
obstinacy, and negotiations were prolonged until the end
of November. This gave the opponents of royalty ample
time to rally their forces. In Parliament Ireton urged that
the King, like Strafford, had aimed at establishing an ab-
solute monarchy, and that, like Strafford, he should be
brought to trial. The " Levellers," with the army at their
back, proclaimed their absolute distrust of Charles and his
promises, and condemned the House of Lords for holding
that " His Majesty's Answers to the Propositions of Parlia-
ment are a Ground for the Settlement of Peace." In
November, the Council of the Army met in St. Albans
Abbey. Only officers were allowed representation, and
the " Levellers " being thus robbed of their chief strength,
Fairfax and other moderately inclined generals made a
stout effort in favour of peace and settlement. Charles,
however, rejected their overtures when laid before him at
Newport — and thereby practically signed his own death-
warrant. On November 27 the Parliamentary Commis-
sioners took leave of the King, and returned to London,
bringing with them his final answers. These were read
280 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
in both Houses on December i, and occasioned grave
disappointment to the Moderate Party. In the Commons
Sir Harry Vane bitterly assailed the King ; while Ireton,
Harrison, and the " Levellers" demanded the dissolution of
Parliament on the ground that the Commons had betrayed
their trust by holding parley with such a monarch. Mean-
while Charles had been seized by order of the Council of
Officers, and conveyed to a secure prison in Hurst Castle ;
and on December 2 Fairfax took up his quarters in White-
hall, and the army entered London.
" Pride's Purge," by which those members unfavourable
to the proposed trial of the King (201 in all) were forcibly
expelled from the House of Commons, occurred on
December 6. On the same night Cromwell, fresh from
his northern triumphs, joined the other commanders ;
and, while affecting to have been unprepared for Colonel
Pride's violent action, at once lent it his powerful support.
At the great soldier's heels, Harry Martyn and other
irreconcilables ventured back to Westminster, vowing
that their day had come at last, and that not only "Charles
Stuart," but the Earl of Northumberland and the other
advocates of peace, should feel the weight of their ven-
geance. Thereafter events fell out with ominous swiftness.
The "Rump" Parliament — that is to say, the Commons
section of that body — voted that the King should be
brought to trial "on the charge of levying war against
the people of England." When the Bill was brought to
the Upper House, however, on January 3, the few peers
who dared to be present unanimously refused it a second
reading, and declared its terms illegal and unconsti-
tutional.1 The names of the lords who thus voted were :
— the Earls of Northumberland, Mulgrave, Pembroke,
Rutland, Kent, Manchester, and Denbigh,2 and Lords
North, Hunsdon, Maynard, Dacre, and Berkeley.3
The Commons utterly ignored this protest ; and twelve
1 Lords1 Journals.
* Denbigh was Speaker of the Upper House.
1 Lords' Journals.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 281
days later the King was brought from Windsor to St.
James's. The story of the proceedings which followed is
sadly familiar to every reader of English history. On
January 27 Charles was found guilty and condemned by
the self-styled "High Court of Justice"; and on the
3oth he went to the block with the same simple heroism
which had characterised the death of his grandmother,
Mary Queen of Scots. Whatever may have been the
faults and shortcomings of the Stuarts in life, they did
not fear to die like princes.
On the eve of the execution Northumberland wrote
and despatched to both Houses of Parliament a letter of
final protest against the terrible step which the Commons,
against the vote of the Upper House, had unconstitu-
tionally sanctioned.1 The Earl was practically a prisoner
in London. Howling mobs of the Leveller faction sur-
rounded his gates night and day, crying out that, like his
brother and sister,2 he was " a traitor to the Common-
wealth," and in conspiracy to liberate the King. He did
not hesitate, however, to show himself openly in the
streets, or to boldly announce that he, at least, of those
that had striven against absolute monarchy, now sternly
condemned the sentence passed upon the King. In the
Commons his letter was destroyed unread. In the Lords
Denbigh announced from the Woolsack that such an
epistle had been received from the Earl, and it was
ordered to be sealed by the Speaker's seal.3 It would be
interesting to learn what eventually became of this
document. Probably it was made away with during the
days of the Commonwealth. Immediately after the tragedy
at Whitehall, Northumberland left London "without per-
mission of the Council," betaking himself to Syon House.
Thence he sent word to the " Rump " Parliament, that
he intended to take no further part in the government of
1 Lords' Journals.
2 Lady Carlisle, when she perceived (after the failure of the Newport negotia-
tions) that the King's life was in danger, had forsaken the Parliamentary party,
and was presently to suffer for her change of views. 3 Lords' Journals.
282 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the realm, and asking to be relieved of the custody of the
Duke of Gloucester and Princess Elizabeth. Lest these
fatherless children should fall into ill hands, however, he
suggested that their guardianship should be given to Lady
Leicester, to whose motherly care he knew that it was safe
to confide them.1 Parliament, or rather the Council,
consented after some haggling to this proposition, and
the little Duke and his sister were on June n transferred
from Syon to peaceful Penshurst.2 But to Northumber-
land's announcement of his withdrawal from public life,
those of the " Rump " affected to turn a deaf ear. His
name and influence, it was felt, were too powerful to be
lost ; and there existed in many quarters a conviction that
he might, in emergency, prove the one man capable of
balancing the scale between the army and the Parliament.
Accordingly, on February 5 while he still resided at Syon,
his name was added by the Commons to the Committee
chosen "to consider the settlement of the Government
of England and Ireland."3 Northumberland was not to
be drawn from his fixed resolution, and refused to attend
the sittings of the Committee, or to recognise it in any
way. As soon as he had safely escorted the royal children
to Penshurst, he himself withdrew to Petworth, there to
reside in retirement until the dawn of better days.
We will now revert for a space to the Earl's only
brother, Sir Henry Percy. When he was expelled from
Parliament for connection with the Army Plot
and permitted to withdraw overseas, he became
his further (as j^s been related) an active Royalist agent
in Paris. Possessed of much shrewdness and
a notable talent for intrigue, he was doubtless of great
use to his party at that period. His influence, moreover,
was considerable, for not only was he the Queen's especial
favourite, but he also occupied the position of heir pre-
i
Collins' Peerage (ed. Brydges) ii. 350.
2 As will be seen, they were not long to enjoy the tranquillity of Lady
Leicester's home. 3 Commons' Journals.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 283
sumptive to the earldom and estates of Northumberland —
the Earl being then (1641-42) a widower without male issue.
Shortly before his connection with the Army Plot he had
been granted through the Queen's influence a pension of
.£1000 a year for life ; and this money continued to be paid
until 1646, when Percy fell into disgrace with his royal
patroness. Northumberland also gave his heir a liberal
allowance,1 so that Sir Henry was enabled to cut a good
figure abroad. When the Civil War broke out, he took
ship for England, and succeeded in joining the King at
Oxford early in December, 1642. As an officer of cavalry
he showed both courage and skill and in 1643 Charles
created him Baron Percy of Alnwick, advancing him at the
same time to the rank of Master-General of Ordnance.
For this important and difficult post he proved entirely
unfitted. Even Stephen Fox2 (who was his friend and
deputy, and had been for years employed in the
Northumberland household) admits with regret that
Percy had no skill as an ordnance officer, and had, in
truth, "contracted the ill-will of the King and the
whole Court by his Neglect."8 Whether he resigned,
or was removed from the Master-Generalship, we find
him once more in command of cavalry at the beginning of
1644. Here he soon redeemed his character as a soldier.
At the battle of Cropredy Bridge (June 29, 1644), when
the Parliamentary troops were defeated, it was Percy
who led the daring cavalry charge which practically
decided the day. Even Clarendon (who was no friend
to this or any other member of the House of Northumber-
land) admits that at Cropredy, and again at Lostwithiel
and the second battle of Newbury, Lord Percy of Alnwick
showed himself as splendid a general of cavalry as he had
been a poor director of ordnance. Near Andover,
however, he was surprised by the same Waller whom
he had helped to rout at Cropredy, defeated by greatly
1 Syon Household Books.
1 Afterwards Sir Stephen Fox, ancestor of Charles James Fox, and of the
Holland and Ilchester families. '* Memoirs of Sir Stephen Fox.
284 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
superior numbers, wounded and taken prisoner. His
exchange was not effected until Naseby had been fought
and lost, and the war was practically at an end. According
to De Fonblanque,1 he did not leave England until after
the death of the King. This, however, seems to be merely
a conjecture, in support of which no authority of any
kind is quoted. Indeed, a statement in the Clarendon
Papers points rather to the conclusion that Lord Percy
was actually in Paris or thereabouts during the winter
of 1646-47. Hyde, writing from Paris to Secretary Nicholas
under date of " February, 1646-47," states that " Lord
Percy is hated by the Queen and Lord Jermyn."2 The
Queen was certainly in the French capital at that time,
and Jermyn was the Royalist agent there. Had Percy
been still lying perdu in England he could scarcely have
given them active cause for this sudden change of feeling
towards him. The chances are, that having joined the
Queen's party on the Continent, he fell foul of Jermyn's
plans, and was overruled by that nobleman (between
whom and himself there existed an old rivalry, dating
from the time of the Army Plot). If Jermyn had obtained
an ascendancy over the Queen, it is easy to understand
how the once-favoured Percy came to fall into disgrace.
Of course the latter may have again visited England before
the King's death ; but if he did, it is strange that no
mention of the fact is made by Clarendon or any other
contemporary authority. Loss of the Queen's friendship
(and perhaps also loss of his pension) must have soured
him, for there is no mention of his having accompanied
the Prince of Wales to Scotland and England during the
ill-fated expedition of 1650-51. Soon after the Prince's
return to France he sent for Percy, and, despite maternal
objections, made him his Lord Chamberlain — a position
the duties and salary of which were for the most part
nominal.
Indeed Percy had now fallen upon evil clays. The
1 Annals of the House of Percy.
1 Clarendon State Paters.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 285
birth of a son and heir to the re-married Earl of Northum-
berland had shattered his hopes in that quarter ; while the
Queen's enmity and the stoppage of his pension reduced
him to practical poverty. Back to England he would not
or could not go ; so there remained for him no other
course but to share the wandering fortunes of his master,
waiting patiently for that "good wind" that was yet "to
blow the exiles home." But when the " good wind " came
at last, there was, as we shall see, no Henry Percy to
hoist before it his swelling sail.
The Earl of Northumberland's obstinate refusal to
have aught to do with a Government guilty of the King's
ber- blood, or one founded upon unconstitutional
land defies methods, proved in the last degree exasperating
and disownj to the " Rump " Parliament, and the voices of
Cromweii j^y enemies jn that body grew louder and more
persistent than ever. The abolition of the House of Lords
proclaimed by the new Committee was aimed chiefly at
the Earl and his immediate following. Early in March
1649 the arrest of his sister, Lady Carlisle, was ordered
"on suspicion of treason." This still beautiful woman,
whom the King's trial and death had converted from a
Parliamentarian into a Royalist, was lodged in the Tower
and threatened with a fate similar to that which had be-
fallen Hamilton, Holland, and Capel. It was at first hoped
that Northumberland's desire to save her from the block
might bring him to terms with her gaolers ; but the Earl
remained sternly aloof, probably realising that even the
" Levellers " would hardly venture to behead a woman who
had been the friend and counsellor of John Pym. Lady
Carlisle was then brought before the Council and ques-
tioned with the utmost rigour, every endeavour being made
to force from her a "confession" implicating Northumber-
land in one or other of the Royalist plots. She remained
staunch — not only to her brother, but to those who had
been really associated with her in intrigue. It is not
known to what lengths her judges actually proceeded in
286 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
their ignoble efforts ; but there is good reason for believ-
ing that she was threatened at the last with the torture
of the rack.1 Everything failed, however, to draw a word
from her, and the baffled Council sent her to close im-
prisonment in the Tower, where she remained for three
years.
Various attempts followed to injure Northumberland
in his own person, or in the persons of his friends. One
James Tempest of Leicester, a member of the " Rump,"
conspired with others to secure the sequestration of the
Percy estates ; and, with that end in view, made charges
of treason against the Earl in the House of Commons.
Northumberland's first intention was to treat these accusa-
tions with contempt ; but his friends (including Leicester
and Lord Lisle) having represented to him that he might
be impeached and his lands confiscated should he fail
to answer Tempest, he was induced to apply for an
inquiry. After nearly a year's delay, a commission was
appointed to investigate the matter, with the result that
all Tempest's assertions were disproved. As in the previous
case of Colonel Lloyd, however, the House refused to
punish Tempest.2 Another case of spite was the removal
of the Duke of Gloucester and Princess Elizabeth from
the kindly guardianship of the Earl's sister, Lady Leicester,
and their imprisonment in Carisbrooke Castle. At this
latter place the treatment accorded to the hapless children
was so harsh that the young Princess pined and died
within a few months after she had been taken from
Penshurst.3 The dismantling of Wressill Castle as a
fortress (which had been carried out with thoroughness
by Cromwell's soldiers) was no longer sufficient in the
eyes of the Council, who, simply from motives of revenge,
now commanded that this historic pile should be destroyed
even as a place of residence for the Earl and his heirs.
1 See State Papers, May 5, 1649. 2 Common? Journals,
3 She died "of grief and suffering," September, 8, 1650, in her fifteenth year.
The health of Gloucester was also shattered by this confinement, and he died
before he was twenty.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 287
The vandal manner in which the work of ruin was done
has been already described. From being one of the
finest houses in the North, Wressill became little more
than a heap of ruins. So virulent, indeed, had the Earl's
enemies in Parliament and Council become, that they
permitted the Sheriff of Northumberland to make arbitrary
seizure of a considerable portion of the Percy estates
in that shire. There was neither rhyme nor reason for
the seizure, and the Earl confidently demanded that the
property should be restored. The sheriff, rendered bold
by the support which he knew was behind him, refused
either explanation or restitution ; and when Northumber-
land laid his case before Parliament he could obtain no
redress.1 Indeed it was not until the Restoration that the
Earl's turn came, and the rapacious sheriff and his asso-
ciates were forced to disgorge.2 Such were only a few
of the many ways by which those in control of affairs
sought to humiliate this great nobleman, and to bend him
to their will. But their labour was all in vain ; and
in a little while Northumberland's worst enemies, the
extremists and fanatics of the "Rump" and "Barebones"
Parliaments, were themselves overthrown and set at naught
by the general in whom they had trusted so blindly, that
" foe of princes," Oliver Cromwell.
To our Earl, the new-made Lord Protector was no
more acceptable than the old Parliament. Both, in his
eyes, were equally guilty of " the needless and unconstitu-
tional slaying of his late Majesty" ; and if he had refused
to belong to the one, he was now determined to accept no
favours from the other. Cromwell, who appears to have
admired his lofty character, offered him the foremost seat
in his "House of Lords"; but the offer was at once
refused, as was a similar one made by Richard Cromwell
some years later.3
The Earl continued constant to his resolution, and
occupied himself with family concerns and the manage-
1 Commonf Journals ; Proceedings in Council. - See later.
2 Diet. Nat. Biography, under " Percy." Clarendon State Puffis, ii. 432.
288 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
ment of his estates, during the nine years that intervened
between the execution of Charles I. and the death of
Cromwell.
In August 1659 died Northumberland's favourite sister,
Dorothy, Countess of Leicester, a woman notable as much
for the charm of her own nature as for the ex-
traordinary genius and beauty of the children
s™tereroTcdn- wh°m she brought into the world.1 Noithumber-
pations of land felt her death keenly. They were nearly of an
age, and had spent their early childhood together
at Syon, during the dark days when their father stood in the
very shadow of the scaffold. Earl Algernon had risked
that father's displeasure in helping to bring about his
sister's marriage, for her husband Leicester was then, and
to the end continued, his warmest friend. Severe illness
(for he was still, as in the days of his Lord-Generalship,
subject to recurrent forms of malady) prevented him from
making the long journey to attend his sister's obsequies ;
but he wrote to Leicester in the following terms : —
" / account the Losse f quail allmost to any that could befall
me, and it would be much increased if it should remoue me
further from your Lordship' s kindnesse and Favour." z
Leicester answered in language stilted perhaps, as was
the custom of the time, but evidently heartfelt : —
" In the greatest Sorrowe that I ever suffered, your Lord-
ship hath given me the greatest Consolation that I could receive
from anybody in this World. For, having lost that which
1 loved best, your Lordship secureth me from losing that which
I loveth next, that is your Favour ; to which, having no Right
or Claime by any Worthynes in myself, but only by that
1 She was mother of Algernon Sidney ; of the famous general, Lord Lisle ;
of Henry, Earl of Romney, perhaps the handsomest, certainly one of the most
clear-sighted statesmen of his day ; of Colonel Robert Sidney ; of the fair and
witty Lady Lucy Pelham (from whom sprang the parliamentary dynasty of the
I'elhams) ; and of Dorothy, Countess of Sunderland, whom the world knows
best as Edmund Waller's " peerless Sacharissa." From Lady Leicester descend
many of the greatest houses in England.
2 Sidney Papers, vol. ii. 681.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 289
Alliance of which my moste deare Wife was the Mediation,
I might justly feare the Losse of that also, if your Lordship's
Charity towards me did not prevent it" J
While the gentle Countess Dorothy was dying at
Penshurst, another member of the family — her younger
brother, Henry Percy — lay mortally ill overseas, at the
Court of the exiled Prince of Wales. Sister and brother,
indeed, passed away within a few weeks of each other ;
but how strange a contrast was presented in the manner
of their dying ! The last gaze of Lady Leicester rested
upon the sorrowful faces of those she loved. Husband,
tall sons, and comely daughters knelt weeping around her
death-bed ; and even her sister — the once gay woman of
the world, saddened now and perhaps softened by long
imprisonment — even Lucy of Carlisle was there to give
her the kiss of parting. In the anterooms were friends
a-many, who had come with heavy hearts to bid her
farewell ; the great hall of Penshurst was thronged with
tenants and servants, mourning as if for one of their own
kin ; and without, under the ancient oaks were couriers
by the score, waiting silently for the news which ere
morning would sadden many a distant home. Thus died, as
a good woman should die, Dorothy, Countess of Leicester.
Far otherwise the last hours of Henry, Lord Percy. In
his life he had been loved by few ; few came to bid him
" go in peace " to the world beyond. The ruffling, out-at-
elbows followers of the banished Prince were too busy
with their dicing and wenching to care very much
whether another of their number lived or died — except in
so far as his departure meant some more crown-pieces to
be shared among them. With but a younger brother's
portion, he had never married ; so there was no wife to
weep for Harry Percy either at home or abroad. There
may have been, perhaps — (is it wrong to hope that there
was ?) — some woman of another sort, with good-nature
enough to smooth his death-bed pillow, and to leave his
pockets unrifled till he died. No doubt the Prince of
1 Sidney Papers, vol. ii. 682.
II. T
290 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Wales, politest of men, came at least once to visit this
faithful servant ; but the life of even an exiled monarch is
precious, and must not be exposed to the contagion of a
sick-room. Besides, great things were brewing, or said to
be brewing, in England ; and every moment which Charles
could spare from his amusements was given to the serious
business of political intrigue. It is hardly likely, therefore,
that Percy saw much of his patron ; and when the great
man comes seldom, the lesser ones follow his example.
While Percy counted the dreary hours in his garret
lodgings at Breda, the " flying Court," ever led on by new
hopes, was now at Bruges, now at Antwerp, now at
Flushing. So that the dying man was probably left in his
loneliness to await the end. Even the exact date of his
death is uncertain ; but we know that it occurred only a
few weeks after that of Lady Leicester. The sister had been
borne to her rest in state, her bier followed by hundreds
who held her memory dear. The brother's remains, on
the contrary, were laid with scant ceremony in what was
then the English cemetery at Breda. Charles and his
Court were, at the time, many leagues away, watching
eagerly for news from England, but perhaps one or two
old Cavalier comrades found time to act as mourners,
when all that remained of Henry, Lord Percy of Alnwick,
was left to mingle with foreign clay.
The death of Cromwell on September 3, 1658, was
the signal for Northumberland's return to public life.
Richard Cromwell's succession to the vacant Pro-
tion: mde- tectorate inspired the Earl with gloomy forebod-
attitudeof mSs- He knew the weak, irresolute character
the Eari. of the new Chief of State, and dreaded lest the
warring ambitions of the military leaders (in
whose hands the real power now lay) should plunge Eng-
land into anarchy. Actuated, as he always was, by a strong
sense of public duty, he at once left his retirement, and once
more took up his residence in London, so as to be ready
at any moment to exert himself in the cause of peace.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 291
There is no doubt that he had already begun to look to
a restoration of the monarchy as the best possible settle-
ment of affairs. He was still the recognised leader of
the Moderate Parliamentarians, a body which, as Hume
points out, shared the Royalist detestation of the " Rump,"
and was now prepared to join issue with the supporters
of the Prince of Wales in overthrowing that unconsti-
tutional council. Accordingly Northumberland House be-
came the scene of daily conferences, and the objective
point of secret emissaries from overseas. The Earl exerted
himself to the utmost to keep the eager spirits of the
Cavalier party in subjection, rightly maintaining that,
under the circumstances, caution and silent vigilance were
the surest means to success. Richard Cromwell offered
him a seat in the so-called " House of Lords," as Oliver
had previously done ; but Northumberland curtly declined
the proffered distinction.1 Shortly afterwards the second
Protector had no longer power to bestow his doubtful
honours, since by the dissolution of the Rump Parliament
(April 22, 1659) he practically betrayed himself to the
council of officers, and so brought about his own re-
signation. The stormy events of the six months which
followed bound the Moderates and Royalists still more
closely together. In spite of isolated instances, such as the
rising of Booth in Cheshire, the latter party followed Nor-
thumberland's counsels and waited in patience through the
reassembling of the Long Parliament, its expulsion by
Lambert, and its second restoration and final dissolution
at the instance of General Monk. From the time that
Monk entered London at the head of his troops (February
3, 1660) Northumberland was in constant communication
with him. Between the close of the Long and the opening
of the New or Convention Parliament, " a council of
state was established, consisting of men of character and
moderation." 2 The Earl accepted the commission of
Lord-Advocate, and urged his friends and adherents to
acquiesce in the policy of Monk, however tortuous and
1 Gardiner ; Commonwealth. 2 Hume.
292 THE HOUSE OK PERCY
uncertain it might appear to them at the time. The fact
that Lord Southampton and he were known to be in
negotiation regarding the proposed alliance between the
young Lord Percy and Lady Audrey Wriothesley, afforded
him an adequate excuse for remaining constantly at Nor-
thumberland House or Syon. On April 13, 1660, we find
him writing to his brother-in-law : —
" The Meeteing of my Lord of Southampton in Pursuance
of some Overtures that have beene made for a Marriage
betweene his Daughter and my Sonne,1 was the principall
Occasion that brought me to this Towne, where I find most
People very busie, or, att least, seemeing so, and the Publick
Affairs in a Posture that needes the Aduyce of better Heads
than myne. All Persons here show strong Inclinations to
bring in the King and re-establish the Government vpon the
old Foundation. Some there are that would have him restored
to all without any Condition, only an Acte of Obliuion and
Generall Pardon to be graunted ; but the soberer People will,
I believe, expect Termes of more Securitie for themselues and
Aduantage for the Nation ; and unlesse a full Satisfaction is
giuen in suche Pointes as shall be judged necessary to those
Ends, it is thought that the Army will not be pleased'' ^
The Earl's consistency will be recognised in this epistle.
Anxious as he was to see the affairs of the country settled by
the only available method — i.e. the re-establishment of the
monarchy — he was resolved that the constitutional privileges
for which the Long Parliament had struggled should not
be swallowed up and lost in the new wave of loyalty.
When the Convention Parliament met on April 25th,
Leicester, slower than his brother-in-law to accept Monk's
guidance, had not yet put in an appearance at the town-
house of the Sidneys in Swan Close.3 Accordingly
1 Josceline, Lord Percy, the Earl's only son, was now sixteen years of age,
having been born in 1644.
'* Sidney Papers, ii. 685 ; Northumberland to the Earl of Leicester, April
13, 1660.
3 Leicester House was in Swan Close, Leicester Fields. Behind the mansion
was the famous riding-school kept by Major Fou!>ert, of which more under the
account of the murder of Thomas Thynnc (consort of Elizabeth Percy) in 1682.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 293
Northumberland again appealed to him, urging his im-
mediate presence in Parliament as "both desired and ex-
pected by the Peers" " Indeede," continued the letter,
" our House stands in great Neede of some wise Men to guide
it." 1 The House of Lords, however, had but little to
do with the events leading up to the Restoration. The
elections had everywhere proved favourable to the King's
party, and from the moment of the assembling of the
new House of Commons, the recall of Charles II. was
a foregone conclusion. Numerous meetings between
Royalists and Presbyterians took place at Northumberland
House ; and, on May 8th, the Earl had the satisfaction
of attending with the members of both Houses,2 when
the exiled sovereign was " proclaimed with great solemnity "
in Palace Yard, at Whitehall, and at Temple Bar. His
increasing infirmities prevented him from making one
of the committee of Lords and Commons sent to invite
Charles to take possession of the government, but he
was one of the first to greet the King when he entered
London on May agth. It is clear from his letters at
the time that he expected no preferment under the new
rule ; and he made ready to retire into the country as
soon as his Majesty should be securely settled upon
the throne. But Charles, mindful of the unvarying
moderation of the Earl, and of the widespread influence
which he exercised, was determined to retain him as
a counsellor, and to overlook the fact that he had taken
the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. Northumberland
and Leicester were both called to the Privy Council.
Writing under date of May 31, 1660, the latter nobleman
says : " A message came to my house, and warned me to
come to Whitehall ; the like he (Charles) did to the Earl of
Northumberland. We went together, not knowing for what,
and having stayed awhyle in the King's Withdrawing
1 Sidney Papers, ii, 686.
2 The peers, says Hume, " found the doors of their House open ; and all were
admitted ; even such as had formerly been excluded on account of their pretended
delinquency."
294 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Chamber, we were called into the Councell Chamber, and
there, contrary to his or my expectation, we were sworn Privy
Councillors'' * But Charles was disposed to be more
generous still towards the Moderate Lords. Northumber-
land was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of the counties of
Northumberland and Sussex ; and that portion of his
possessions in the former county which had been illegally
appropriated by the Cromwellian sheriff,2 was at once
restored to him, the arrogant official being condemned
to make good all arrears of rent. Moreover, " as a mark
of personal favour and frendship," the King granted to
the Earl a commission to act as Lord High Constable
of England at the forthcoming coronation. The tenure
of this service was to last for three days only ; but at
the last moment Northumberland was compelled, on
account of one of his recurrent attacks, to decline this
honour. Curiously enough, Pepys, in his Diary, mentions
having seen the Royal Champion 3 introduced into the
banqueting-hall at Westminister by the Earl of North-
umberland in his capacity of High Constable, at the
coronation of Charles. This is certainly an error, as
there still exists a royal sign-manual dated April 5, 1661,
exempting the Earl from attendance at the ceremony " on
account of his infirmities."4
Naturally the extreme Republicans were loud in their
condemnation of Northumberland for thus, as they put it,
" surrendering his principles." The truth of the matter
seems to have been that while the Earl accepted at the
King's hands such dignities as he deemed proper, and even
necessary to his hereditary rank and position as a great
landowner, he never assumed any office, or advocated any
measure inconsistent with his livelong advocacy of con-
stitutional government. Forster, in his Arrest of the Five
Members, lays stress upon this fact : " As a contrast (to
1 Sidney Papers, i. 135. - Vide ante, p. 287.
1 Sir Edward Dymoke, Knight, of Scrivelsby, Lines., ancestor of the present
Champion Royal, officiated in this capacity at the coronation of Charles II.
4 The document is preserved at Alnvvick.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 295
the new-born loyalty of some ex-Parliamentarians) let me
mention in justice to the Earl of Northumberland. . . .
that when, upon the Restoration, he consented like Lenthall
to receive favours from the Government, it was by no
such base betrayal of acts and proceedings in which he
himself had been a participator." Leicester was similarly
blamed, and with equal injustice, for his acquiescence in
the new order of things. Both Earls, indeed, adopted
an independent tone which could not but be distaste-
ful to the King's Cavalier friends. The rush for gifts and
preferment vastly disgusted them ; and Northumberland
wrote to his brother-in-law : " If all that pretend to Favors
or Aduantages from the Court should be successfull in their
Designes the King would soon be made foore, and the
Kingdom be muck burthened." x He was vigorously op-
posed to the punishment of the regicides, and held that
the general pardon and indemnity should be made to
extend even to them. Speaking in the Convention Parlia-
ment, he boldly declared that " although he had taken
no part in the death of the King, he was against question-
ing those that had been concerned in that affair ; that
the example might be more useful to posterity and profit-
able to future Kings, by delivering them from the like
exorbitances." 2 This speech was held to be a direct
menace to the King ; but Charles and his ministers dis-
creetly ignored it, nor was Northumberland's influence at
Court apparently affected by the attitude which he had
adopted. A few months later he once more raised his
voice in protest against the shameful exhumation of
Cromwell's remains, and the barbarous revenge wrought
upon the defenceless corpse of that great statesman, by
those that had feared and fled from him in his lifetime.
To wreak indignities upon a dead enemy, he declared, was
the act of a coward, and could not fail to excite a feeling
of sympathy in every generous breast for the late Protector
and the other Parliamentarians whose graves were thus
1 Sidney Papers ; Northumberland to Leicester, December 8, 1660.
3 Ludlow's Memoirs, iii. 10
296 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
desecrated.1 So repugnant to his feelings was the foul
scene at Tyburn, that he withdrew almost entirely from
Court, nor did he attend Parliament again save on rare
occasions.2 His brief reappearance upon the stage of
public affairs was followed by a return to the quiet pur-
suits with which he had occupied himself during the
Protectorate. The improvement of the gardens at Syon
and Northumberland House proved a congenial occupation
(for he had inherited much of his father's love for horti-
culture), and he added largely to the collection of pictures
at his town residence by purchasing works of art scattered
during the Revolution.3 At the outbreak of the Great
Plague, Charles held a council at Syon, and Evelyn had
an opportunity of inspecting the improvements at that
place. "And so to Syon," writes the diarist, "where his
Majesty sat at Council during the Contagion. When
business was over, I viewed that Seat belonging to the Earl
of Northumberland, builte out of an old Nunnerie of stone,
and faire enough ; but more celebrated for the garden than
it deserves ; yet there is excellent wall fruit, and a pretty
fountaine ; yet nothing extraordinarie."4 In the Earl's last
recorded letter to Leicester he speaks lovingly of these
gardens, and regrets the lack of melon seeds, "being
disappointed of some that were promised me from Tours,
and Languedoc, which are much better than those we get from
Paris" *" He also went in for horse-breeding upon an
extensive scale at Petworth ; and, like Charles himself, im-
ported Arabians, his agent abroad being his nephew
Algernon Sidney, who had refused to accept public em-
ployment after the Restoration. Numerous warrants are
to be found among the State Papers of the time authorising
1 The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and Pride were disinterred,
hanged on the gallows at Tyburn, then decapitated, and the heads fixed on
Westminster Hall.
2 Sidtuy Papers ; Northumberland to Leicester, Dec. 8, 1660.
* See Evelyn's Diary (ed. Bray), i. 313. 4 Ibid., ii. 379.
5 Sidney Papers ; Northumberland to Leicester, Feb. 25, 1662. Other letters
were probably exchanged between the two Earls, as Leicester did not die until
1677.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 297
the Earl to import barbs free of duty. He was an excep-
tionally fine horseman until age and increasing weakness
obliged him to forego the saddle.
Another pleasing task to which he devoted himself was
the education of his only son, Josceline, Lord Percy.
Evelyn, while satirising the class of ignorant parasites
usually sent abroad as "tutors "to young noblemen, or
kept to flatter them into a so-called " education " at home,
accords high praise to Northumberland for taking Lord
Percy's training almost entirely into his own hands, and
choosing for him only masters of proved ability.1 The Earl's
hopes of a union between his heir and the eldest daughter
of Southampton (now Lord Treasurer) were disappointed
by the premature death of Lady Audrey Wriothesley in
the winter of 1660 ; and in a letter to Leicester he expresses
himself as much distressed by this event,2 for although the
Cavalier Southampton and he differed widely in political
views, they had always been warm friends in private. So
anxious indeed was the Earl to secure one of the " loyal
Wriothesleys " as a wife for Lord Percy, that in the follow-
ing year he made overtures for the hand of Lady Elizabeth,
sister of the deceased, and succeeded in bringing about
the match — the bridegroom being only seventeen years
of age, while the bride was considerably younger. The
wedding festivities, which were unusually splendid (the
King and most of the Court attending), took place in old
Southampton House,3 Holborn.
Northumberland's life was now rapidly approaching its
close. Between 1660 and 1668 the Archbishop of Canter-
bury issued in his favour repeated licenses for the eating of
flesh meat "on fast days" and "in Lent," such nourish-
ment being held necessary to his health.4 The fact that
he applied for these licenses shows that the Earl had
remained an upholder of prelacy and of the Anglican
1 Diary (ed. Bray), ii. 125, 3 SiJnty Papers, ii. 700.
3 Afterwards Southampton Buildings. Part of the old mansion became the
King's Head Tavern. — Pennant.
4 These licenses are preserved in the Alnu-ick MSS.
298 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Church although some writers would have us regard him
as a presbyterian, and he is so styled by most historians.
In 1668, on the birth of his grandson, Henry Percy,1 he
made a new will ; and a few weeks afterwards, on October
13 (his birthday), he died at Syon, aged sixty-six years.
The body was carried to Petworth, and there laid beside
that of his first wife, Ann Cecil. His second wife, Elizabeth
Howard, survived him many years, and as the guardian
of her granddaughter, the Duchess of Somerset, eventual
heiress of the Northumberland estates, displayed more
pride than principle. As to the character of the tenth
Earl, much has already been said in the course of this
narrative. Among friends and enemies alike his name
was respected. His chief fault, a certain proud reserve,
had its origin rather in the early humiliations to which
he had been subjected, and the cruel injustice of his
father's imprisonment, than in any natural vainglory or
coldness of heart. He had, it is true, few close friends ;
but these were deeply and sincerely attached to him.
High abilities he undoubtedly possessed, but they were of
the speculative rather than of the practical nature ; although
his various essays in statesmanship were marked by sound
sense and foresight. As the first to attempt the reform of
the English navy, and to indicate the means thereto, he
deserves much credit which is usually bestowed elsewhere ;
and whatever be the opinion as to his political views, there
can be no doubt that he acted up to them with absolute
sincerity and disinterestedness.
Only three of the tenth Earl's children — two daughters
and one son — arrived at years of maturity. With the son
we shall deal presently. Of the daughters, the
The children J
of the tenth elder, Lady Ann Percy, married Philip, Lord
Stanhope ; while the younger, Lady Elizabeth,
became the wife of Arthur, Lord Capel, afterwards created
Earl of Essex. The Stanhope alliance was an interesting
one for many reasons, and deserves more than passing
1 This child died at the age of eight months.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 299
notice. Philip Stanhope (afterwards second Earl of
Chesterfield) was a young man of great intelligence,
but unfortunately of a profligate nature. His fame has
been overshadowed by that of his son, Philip Dormer,
third Earl of Chesterfield ; but he, like the latter, has left
published correspondence 1 in which the students of the
period may find much to occupy their attention. He was
married to Lady Ann Percy in 1650, being then barely
seventeen ; and having quarrelled with his grandfather (the
first Earl of Chesterfield), was fain to take refuge with his
wife at Petworth, where he resided for several years. As
the fate of the Northumberland succession hung at this
time upon one precarious life (that of Josceline, Lord Percy,
a delicate child), Stanhope's father-in-law regarded the
young couple as next in line, and executed in their favour
a will, which was afterwards set aside on the birth of the
infant Henry Percy in 1668. Lady Stanhope was of a
mystical nature, and succeeded in imbuing her husband
with some of her own belief in omens, apparitions, and
the like ; and this gave rise to two curious incidents
mentioned in his " Letters." He was in London, he tells
us, on some legal business, when, at eight o'clock in the
morning, as he was about to rise, he "plainly saw, within
a yard of my bedside, a thing all in white like a standing
sheet, with a knot at the top of it, about four or five feet
high, which I considered a good while, and did raise
myself up in my bed to view it the better. At last I thrust
out both my hands to catch hold of it, but in a moment,
like a shadow, it slid to the foot of the bed, out of the
which I leaping could see it no more." Although he
protests that he had " little belief in things of this nature,"
it immediately occurred to him that the vision portended
evil to his wife. Ordering horses, he rode at once to
Petworth, leaving his law affairs unfinished. On his arrival
he met one of Northumberland's running footmen, who
told him that he was coming to him with a packet of
letters. These he took, and then went to his wife's
1 Letters of Philip, Sccotul Earl of CAtstcr/ieM (Londun, 1729).
300 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
apartments, where he found her with her sister, Elizabeth,
and another lady, in good health. They asked him why
he had returned so quickly ; upon which he mentioned
what had happened to him that morning. His wife uttered
a cry of astonishment, and bade him open one of the
letters which he had taken from the footman. " This," he
continues, in his account of the affair, " I immediately did,
and read my wife's letter to me aloud, wherein she desired
my speedy return, as fearing that some ill would happen
to me, because that morning she had seen a thing all in
white with a black face, standing by her bedside, which
had frightened her so much as to make her scrike (sic)
out so loud that her weemen came running into the
room." The strange coincidence naturally amazed Stan-
hope ; " for by examining all particulars we found that
the same day, the same hour, and (as near as could be
computed) the same minute, all that had happened to me
had befallen her, being forty miles asunder. The Lady
Essex and Mrs. Ramsay were witnesses to both our rela-
tions, and acquainted the Lord of Northumberland with
it, who thought it a very extraordinary thing." l
The second occurrence of a supernatural character was
in 1653, and is thus described by Lord Stanhope : " Being
at Tunbridge, a thing of almost as odd a nature as the
former befell me ; for being abroad one afternoon with a
setting dog in a very bright day, with a gentleman named
Mr. Pirs, and five or six other horsemen, as we were beat-
ing a great stubble field that was above a mile about, and
the which had no bushes or trees in it, but only a little
hedge in the middle of it, which was not above ten or
twelve yards long, on a sudden we all heard a terrible
groan, and after that another much louder, and so a third,
which made us all to conclude that somebody was a-dying
near that little hedge, from whence the noise seemed to
come, which was within forty yards of us. And thereupon
we all went towards the hedge ; but, when we came almost
to it, all our horses began to start, and fell a-plunging, and
1 Litters of Second Earl of Cliestcrfttld.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 301
did run a good way with us before we could stop them ;
and afterwards when we tried to make them go near the
hedge, we found it impossible ; wherefore, Mr. Pirs and I
alighting, went round the hedge and viewed every place
about it, without finding or seeing anything that could
make that noise. But as soon as a servant of mine heard
the groans, he cried out, ' God bless my lady,' who was
then big with child, and died three months after of the
small-pox ; giving just three such groans when she died ;
insomuch that I, being in another room and hearing her,
said I was sure she was a-dying, for that those were the
same dismal groans we heard at Tunbridge. She lived
eight days after her being brought to bed of a son, who
only survived his mother three weeks." l
This was the only child of the union. After Lady
Stanhope's death, her husband betook himself once more
to the roving, reckless life which he had followed before
his marriage. He went abroad, was captured by Major-
can pirates in the Mediterranean, almost drowned in the
Tiber, and threatened with imprisonment for debt at
Rome. While endeavouring to make his way back on
foot to England, he fell ill of a violent fever near Lyons,
and having spent all his money, was forced to beg from
door to door. At last a good Samaritan, in the person
of a travelling Jesuit, found him on the roadside, gave
him food and drink, and paid for his journey to Paris. At
Paris good news awaited him. His grandfather was dead,
and he had inherited the estates and title of Chesterfield.
His first letter, "on returning to civilisation," was ad-
dressed to his wife's sister, Lady Capel, for whom he
had the greatest regard, and to whom he sent a "neck-
lace of pearl worth sixteen hundred pounds." Lady Capel,
afterwards Countess of Essex, appears to have been the
only person who exercised any controlling influence over
this headstrong young man. She was, writes Evelyn, "a
wise, yet somewhat melancholy woman," 2 and on more
than one occasion we find her remonstrating with her
1 Litters of Second Earl of Chesterfield. " Diary.
302 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
brother-in-law upon the career of debauchery which he
pursued after his return to England.1 His name became
intimately connected with that of Barbara Villiers (better
known by her later title of Duchess of Cleveland),2 as well
as with those of Lady Anne Hamilton and Lady Elizabeth
Howard. Thanks to the kind offices of his sister-in-law, he
was at length induced to marry Lady Elizabeth Butler, one
of the daughters of the Duke of Ormonde ; but this second
matrimonial venture ended tragically, and Chesterfield is
even accused of having murdered Countess Elizabeth by
means of poisoned sacrificial wine, which he compelled her
to take in proof of her innocence of an intrigue with the
Duke of York.3 In 1669 Lord Chesterfield married, for the
third time, Lady Elizabeth Dormer,4 by whom he had, with
other children, his successor, the third Earl (Philip Dormer
Stanhope), whose "Letters" have won for him a meretricious
fame, and who inherited not a few of his father's baser
characteristics.
The second daughter of Northumberland was Lady
Elizabeth Percy, already alluded to, who on May 19,
1653, married Arthur, second Lord Capel, son of that
Lord Capel who had been beheaded in Old Palace Yard
on March 9, 1648-9, for his exertions in the Cavalier
cause. The Capels were by no means an old or a very
noble family, descending as they did from William Capel,
an honest draper, who had been Lord Mayor of London in
1503. Lady Elizabeth Percy's husband inherited through
his mother the fine estate of Cashiobury Park in Hertford-
shire. In 1661 he was elevated to the Viscountcy of Mai-
den and Earldom of Essex ; and from 1672 to 1677 he
served as Viceroy of Ireland, in which capacity he some-
what disappointed the Protestant party by what was termed
1 Letters of Second Earl of Chesterfield.
2 He left a natural daughter by this woman.
3 Jesse's Courts of the Stuarts, vol. iv. p. 205. There seems no proof that
Elizabeth Butler had yielded to the Duke of York's advances ; and Pepys, for
one, absolves her from all guilt.
* Daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 303
his " undue lenity " towards the Papists. As a result, he
was recalled in favour of the more compliant Ormonde.
After the fall of Danby, two years later, Essex was made
treasurer in his room, and, with Shaftesbury, Sunderland,
Halifax, and Sir William Temple, directed for a time the
government of the nation. Following the dangerous lead
of Shaftesbury, he became one of the bitterest opponents
of the Court, and of the Duke of York's succession,
taking part with Monmouth, Lord William Russell, and
his kinsman Algernon Sidney, in the Rye House or
"Fanatical" Plot. In the councils of the conspirators,
Essex and Sidney favoured the establishment of a common-
wealth. After the betrayal of the plot both were promptly
arrested, together with Russell and others of the mal-
contents. On the same day that Russell was convicted of
high treason (July 13, 1683), Lord Essex, dreading -a like
fate, put an end to his existence in one of the cells of the
Tower.1 As Pennant points out,2 he had publicly upheld
the morality of suicide, and he was known to be subject to
fits of deep melancholy ; 3 yet there were not wanting those
of the extreme anti-Papist party who claimed that his death
was due to the King and the Duke of York, "who happened
that morning to pay a visit to the Tower." * The evidence
laid before the coroner's jury contained no suspicious facts
such as were connected with the murder or suicide of
Henry Percy, eighth Earl of Northumberland, a century
before ; and a verdict otfelo de se was returned.5
Elizabeth, Lady Essex, survived her husband nearly
thirty-four years, dying on February 5, 1717. Their only
daughter, Ann Capel, married Charles, second Earl of
Carlisle ; while their son, Algernon, second Earl of Essex
(born December 28, 1670) afterwards became Constable
of the Tower wherein his ill-fated father had breathed
his last.6
1 lie cul his throat with a razor. 2 London, p. 292, 293.
3 Hume; History of England. 4 llrid, 5 Pennant's London.
6 The present Earl of Essex is a descendant of Elizabeth Percy and Arthur
Capel, first Earl.
JOSCELINE PERCY, who succeeded as eleventh Earl of
Northumberland, was now in his twenty-fifth year ; and
of constitution so frail that the quidnuncs had
already begun to speculate upon the probable
life and extinction of the direct male line of Louvain.
The young Earl's prevailing ill-health debarred
him from taking any save a nominal part in public life,
while at the same time it kept him uninfected by the moral
leprosy of court life under the second Charles. Any excess
must indeed have proved fatal to this " thin-spun life," and
the old Earl acted with his usual common-sense in choosing
as his son's tutor one who was not only a ripe scholar but
also a physician of skill. This person was Dr. John Mapletoft,
fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and M.D. of the same
university. Mapletoft subsequently took holy orders, and
died vicar of St. Lawrence Jewry, November 10, 1721, in
his ninety-first year.1 Thanks to the vigilance of Mapletoft,
Lord Percy was delivered from the regimen of quackery
and old wives' nostrums to which his mother, Lady North-
umberland, had subjected him ; and under his new
mentor's care the young man made rapid strides towards
health and strength. Mapletoft had no love for the
Countess ; nor did that descendant of the house of Suffolk
look with favour upon the Cambridge doctor. Earl
i John Mapletoft, b. 1631, of a good family in Northamptonshire, left
Cambridge to undertake the education of Josceline Percy. In later years he
practised with great success as a physician in London. Being offered the living
of Braybrooke in Northants, he took orders 1682, and became D.D. of Cambridge
in 1689-90. Subsequently he was transferred to the vicariate of St. Lawrence
Jewry, where he continued to preach until over eighty. He died, full of years and
honours, at Westminster, on the date given above. To the last, he appears to
have practised medicine.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 305
Algernon, however, saw the beneficial effects of Mapletoft's
training, and imperious as Lady Northumberland was by
nature, she did not dare to cross her husband's will.
Josceline was sent abroad with his tutor, and spent many
happy months in travel. At Rome he was much courted
by the English Catholics, who hoped, as in the case of
the Duke of York, to bring him to their way of thinking,
especially as his father was known to hold views widely
opposed to Puritanism. For Rome itself young Percy
acquired an extraordinary affection, and it was while
hastening over-eagerly to return to the Eternal City that
he subsequently met his death at Turin. From the
allurements, religious and otherwise, of the Papal States
Mapletoft prudently withdrew his pupil, and the remainder
of their sojourn on the Continent was spent at Paris and
the Hague.
Percy, on his return to England, surprised his friends
by the great improvement which had taken place in his
health and intellect. The exacting Evelyn found the young
heir of Northumberland entirely to his taste, and held
him up as an example to his order. " It is not enough,"
wrote the diarist, "that persons of my Lord Percy's
quality be taught to dance and to ride ; to speak languages
and weare his cloathes with a good grace l (which are the
verie shells of travail) ; but besides all these that he know
men, customs, courts, and disciplines, and whatsoever
superior excellencies the places afford, befitting a person
of birth and noble impressions. This is the fruite of
travail ; thus our incomparable Sidney was bred, and this,
tamquam Minerva Philidia, sets the crown upon his per-
fections. . . . Unless we thus cultivate our Youth, and
noblemen make wiser provisions for their educations
abroad above the vanity of Talk, Feather, and Ribbon. . .
1 The mode of educating a young nobleman had changed indeed since the
days when Percy's ancestor, Hotspur, had been trained
" To dance and singi, and speak ofgeatitnesse,"
to manage his war-horse, and look askance at letters But then, the Percy blood
had changed also.
II. U
306 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
I despayre of ever seeing a man truly noble indeede. He
may be called ' My Lord,' — titles and sounds are inferior
trifles ; but when virtue and blood are coincidents, they
both add lustre and mutual excellencies : this is what my
Lord (Northumberland) takes care to secure to his son,
and which I foresee and augur of my noble Lord Percy." l
Northumberland now believed that his heir might safely
make his entry into public life. Early in 1660, Josceline
was appointed colonel of the Westminster Regiment of
Militia. " The young Lord," wrote Henry Champion, the
Earl's agent at Syon, " has now his Commission of the
Westminster Regiment, notwithstanding he refused to take
the Engagement alias Declaration, because the war was
begun before his time ; which reason was allowed by the
Council, and so granted him his Commission." 2 Eighteen
months later Percy was associated with his father in the
Lord-Lieutenancy of Northumberland. Meanwhile Dr.
Mapletoft, deeming his task at an end, took leave of the
Percy family and returned to the Continent, where he
spent two years studying medicine at Paris. Master and
pupil parted with the warmest expressions of mutual re-
gret ; and the correspondence which was kept up between
them from 1660 to 1663 shows clearly enough the esteem
which Percy felt for the absent scholar. Northumber-
land had, as we have seen, chosen the beautiful Audrey
Wriothesley as a fitting mate for his son, and the sudden
death of this lady was a grave disappointment to the Earl.
" The death of my Lady Audrey," he wrote to his brother-
in-law, " did as nearly touch me as most accidents that
could have happened ; not for the Conveniency of her
Fortune, nor the hopes of her bringing an Heir unto my
family, as soon as it had been fit for her and my Son to
have come together ; but because I judged her to be of a
Nature, Temper, and Humour likely to have made him an
excellent wife, which would have brought me much Com-
1 Evelyn to Edward Thurland, Nov. 1658, Diary (ed. Bray), vol. ii. 125.
1 Champion to Hugh Potter, April 28, 1660; AlnwickMSS. Of Champion we
shall hear more in connection with James I'ercy, the Claimant.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 307
fort in the latter Part of my Life ; but since our uncertain
Condition exposes us daily to these Troubles, I shall en-
deavour with all Patience to submit to them." l The Earl's
motives in selecting a consort for his heir were certainly
more commendable than those which afterwards guided
his widow in her selfish matchmaking schemes for Lady
Elizabeth Percy. A year later we find him again in treaty
with Lord Southampton — on this occasion for the hand
of Lady Audrey's younger sister, Elizabeth Wriothesley.
This match came to fruition, but not before Lord Percy
had been attacked by a violent illness, which postponed
for a time his marital happiness, while it gave him an
opportunity of becoming better acquainted with the good
qualities of his future wife. Early in December 1662 he
wrote to Dr. Mapletoft from Petworth in the following
terms : —
" I met with your letter of yth October att London,
comming with an intention only to have stayed there three
or four days to make my Lady Betty a visit, but the night
on which I came to toun I went to bed not well, and the
next day fell into a very high feaver, which afterwards
proved to be the Scarlet feaver. My mother had not the
patience to be absent from me when I was soe ill, but came
from Petworth and stayed with me till she saw me out of
danger, and then returned again, leaving me to gett up and
recover strength, which I did in fourteen hours ; so that,
I thank God, I am now well at Petworth again.
"We are going within two days to London to stay there
all this winter, and before Christmass to make an end of
that work in which I assure myself that I have very heartily
your good wishes and prayer for a good successe, which
indeed I have no reason to doubt of ; for my mistress
hath in both my sicknesses, and upon all other occasions,
showed herself (not complimentally as a courtesy, but
friendly and sincerely, and as far as was fitting and decent
for her) soe kindly concerned for me, that I cannot but be
extreamly sensible of it.
1 Northumberland to Earl of Leicester, 2nd Nov. 1660 ; Sidney Papers, ii. 700.
308 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
" After that you have wearied yourself, and seen all that
you desire to see abroad, you may assure yourself that you
will be very welcome to us att Petworth, where, if you
return the next summer, you will find my wife and me, an
old married couple, that doe extreamly desire to see you,
though not sooner than it stands with your conveniences.
" I am and will ever be,
" Your affectionate and loving friend,
" J. PERCY." 1
The pleasant " work " alluded to — i.e. the writer's
marriage — was duly " made an end of " at Southampton
House on December 23, 1662 — the bridegroom being then
in his nineteenth year, and the bride at least two years
younger. Lady Betty Wriothesley was " the comeliest
maid wedded in the year," according to Sir Orlando Gee ;
although he, as Northumberland's principal man of busi-
ness, may have been prejudiced in her favour. Fair she
undoubtedly was, with a healthful, girlish beauty which
contrasted agreeably enough with the rather delicate good
looks of Josceline Percy. Soon after the wedding, the in-
valuable Pepys (who had a shrewd eye for feminine loveli-
ness) caught a glimpse of her at Southampton House, and
thus records his impressions; "To my Lord Treasurer's;
there I saw my Lady Northumberland, and her daughter-
in-law, my Lady Percy — a beautiful lady indeed!"2 A
little later we shall find her appearance very unfavourably
criticised by certain of her own sex ; but the consensus of
masculine opinion was all on the side of Pepys, and the
gallants of London, from the King downwards, hailed her
as a beauty. To her husband she brought the double in-
heritance of a great fortune and an honoured name.
She was the youngest daughter and co-heir of Thomas
Wriothesley, fourth Earl of Southampton (the fellow-exile
of Charles II., and his first Lord Treasurer), by his second
wife, the daughter and co-heir of Francis, Earl of Chichester.
1 Almvick MSS. 2 Diary, vol. ii. p. 34.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 309
Her half-sister was the famous Lady Rachel Russell, wife
of the Lord Russell who suffered for his share in the
"Fanatical" Plot. In addition to the property settled
upon her by her father, Lady Percy succeeded to nearly
£6000 per annum, left by her uncle, the Earl of Chi-
chester.
Such were the pleasant auspices under which Josceline
Percy married. The honeymoon was spent at Titchfield
in Hampshire,1 after which the young couple betook
themselves to Northumberland House ; from which latter
place Percy wrote on February 5, 1663, in answer to a
congratulatory note from his old tutor Mapletoft (whose
medical studies abroad were now finished, and who medi-
tated practising in London under the powerful protection
of the Percies and Wriothesleys) : —
" I cannot but extreamly much accuse myself of
not giving you the satisfaction of hearing from me soe
often as you desire, for since the 23rd of December, which
was the day that I was married, I have writ but once.
" I thank you for the little Greek note you sent me,
and I desire you would, both by letters now, and by
word of mouth when I see you, continue to use that
freedom which hath been between us, for I heare so
little of truth from anybody, that I am the last man that
learns of anything amiss concerning myself ; and therefore
I desire you not to stick to write anything of admonition
to me which will be, as your discourses have always been,
to my advantage." 2
On the death of his father-in-law, the " Cavalier Earl"
of Southampton, in 1667, Lord Percy was nominated
in his room Lord-Lieutenant of Southamptonshire, and
about the same time his father had surrendered to him
the practically hereditary post of Constable and Keeper
1 The estate of Titchfielil belonged to Lord Southampton, and passed after
his death to another of his daughters, Lady Noel.
" Alnwick .VSS.
3io THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of Tynemouth Castle.1 When more than three years
passed, however, without any .sign of offspring to the
young couple, the Earl of Northumberland became very
fearful as to the succession. The next male heir of the
House of Percy was probably unknown, although James
Percy of Dublin subsequently claimed that he had been
recognised by Earl Algernon as such. James Percy's
pretensions were certainly known to the latter, who
realised that, in case of failure of issue to his son, a
contest must ensue between the ambitious Dublin trunk-
maker and the heirs in the female line. The Earl's
elder daughter, Lady Chesterfield, had died childless ;
his other daughter, the wife of Essex, had at the time
no surviving issue ; 2 and the heirs general appeared to
be the descendants of Northumberland's sister, the Countess
of Leicester. Under the circumstances, the Earl's anxiety
as to the non-appearance of children in Lord Percy's
household was not astonishing. At last, in 1666, after a
very great pother, a daughter was born. Northumberland
made no disguise of his disappointment, and sent a letter
of "very grudging congratulation."3 Another daughter
followed in 1667 ; and it was not until 1668 that a son and
heir came to gladden the old Earl's last hours with illusory
happiness.
The death of the tenth Earl brought to his successor
innumerable letters of condolence.4 The grave Sir William
A brief, ill- Temple, with whom Earl Algernon had much
fated reign. m common, sent a long and carefully worded
epistle, replete with stilted platitudes upon the loss which
the nation had sustained, and concluding with much sage
advice as to the new Earl's conduct in public life.
From Dr. Mapletoft there was a kindly little note, which
1 This office passed, after the eleventh Earl's decease, to Mr. Edward
Villiers.— State Papers (Domestic), Charles II., Addenda.
2 Algernon Capel, Essex's eventual heir, was not born until 1670, seventeen
years after the marriage of his mother and father.
3 De Fonblanque, vol. ii.
4 These letters are preserved in the Alnwick HISS.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 311
encouraged while it sympathised. But perhaps the most
interesting of these communications, in regard to the
source from which it emanated, was one from James,
Duke of York. The old Earl had never forgiven James
for the manner in which he had broken his parole and
escaped from the friendly custody of St. James's Palace
some years before.1 The Duke, on the contrary, enter-
tained for his former guardian a regard as warm as his
cold nature could experience, and had never missed an
opportunity of thanking Earl Algernon for the consider-
ation shown to himself, his brother, and his sister, the
Princess Elizabeth, during that period of storm and stress.
There are numerous examples of former letters from York
to Northumberland, and of the latter's replies, worded
with a curt dignity which showed that, whatever might be
his respect for the heir to the throne, the old sore still
rankled. On the present occasion, the Duke wrote from
the same palace of St. James, whence, with Colonel
Bamford's assistance, he had broken bounds so shamefully.
The letter is as follows : —
"Sx. JAMES, Otto&eriteS.
"MY LORD OF NORTHUMBERLAND,— It will not be
necessary for me to use many words to persuade you how
sensibly I am touched with the loss you have made of your
father, since you know so well the kindness that I have for
your whole family. And as I have received many civilities
and obligations from him, ever since I first knew him,
so I do assure you, you shall find the continuance of my
kindness to you upon all occasions ; and as I lost in him
a very good friend, so I hope I shall find you as much so
as he was, since you will always find me,
" Your most affectionate friend,
" JAMES." -
Immediately after his succession, the new Earl was
appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Northumberland and Sussex ;
but his health, which had improved under the loving care
1 See ante, p. 274. 3 Alnwiik JlfSS.
312 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of Mapletoft, grew steadily worse from the day of his
marriage ; and a double sorrow which befell him in the
winter of 1669-70 served to fill his own mind and that of
his young wife with dread forebodings. The little Lord
Percy, whose coming into the world had seemed so pro-
pitious, and upon whose future such high hopes had been
built, inherited after all, not the honours and estates of the
Percies, but only that physical weakness which had marred
the lives of the two last Earls of the race.1 A few months
after his birth, and splendid baptism, the child died from
sheer poverty of blood ; the weak, flickering light was
quenched, and with it expired the direct male line of the
House of Percy. Only a few weeks later, and the Earl
and Countess of Northumberland lost their elder daughter.'-'
One child alone remained to them — Elizabeth Percy, after-
wards heiress of her name.
The deaths of his children inspired Earl Josceline with
a desire for foreign travel. This is usually ascribed by his
biographers merely to reasons of health ; and it is likely that
Dr. Mapletoft counselled, and the Earl himself believed in
the efficacy of change of scene, as a cure which he had tried
with success on a former occasion. But various circum-
stances surrounding Northumberland's sudden departure
from England, and in particular a certain letter preserved
in the Domestic State Papers, make it more than probable
that he was guided in this step by motives which his
family have sought to suppress, or at least ignore. There
is, in fact, good reason for believing that the Earl left
England with a half-formed resolution of embracing the
Roman Catholic religion, from which his grandfather had
disassociated himself ; and that, after a brief stay in Paris,
he actually set out for the Papal See, in the firm intention
of renouncing his Anglican tenets at the feet of Clement X.
That he should do so is by no means surprising. During
1 A heritage, it is suggested, of the riotous life lived by the " Magnificent
Earl," far back in the wanton days of Henry VIII. The Percy stock, trans-
planted from the Border to the life of courts and cities, never throve physically.
a Lady Henrietta Percy died early in 1670.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 313
his former visit to Rome he had been so greatly impressed
that Dr. Mapletoft deemed it wise to remove him without
delay from the sphere of Papist influence. Circiniani's
picture of his relative, the seventh Earl of Northumberland,
on the walls of the English Church of the Trinity,1 had
reminded him of how recently and how grievously his
predecessors had suffered for the Roman Creed; and,
needless to say, the dignitaries of the Holy See, from the
Pope and Cardinal Paluzzi down, spared no pains to win
over so influential a convert. Many trials had of late
afflicted him ; and he may have hoped to find consola-
tion under the wing of the ancient Church. Among his
English friends, several in the very highest places had re-
cently abandoned Anglicanism. The Duke of York was a
Romanist ; and at the very time that Northumberland set
out on his pilgrimage, the King himself was in treaty with
France as to the terms which would induce him to make
open profession of the same religion.2 Mapletoft's duties
prevented him from attending his patron, and no less a
personage than the philosopher, John Locke, was engaged
to act as the Earl's physician and principal secretary
on the Continent. Locke, when he undertook the office
in question, knew nothing of Northumberland's religious
views ; and the fact that he did not accompany his em-
ployer to Italy, but " came back to England sooner than
was at first designed,"3 possibly indicated his disapproval
of the meditated change of faith. About the middle
of April 1670, the Earl left Paris "en route for Rome," his
wife (who was once more pregnant) remaining in the care
of friends at the former city. On April 23 Charles Perrott
1 This picture of " The Blessed Thomas Percy," as the eighth Earl is culled
by Catholics, was an object of pilgrimage to Englishmen of that faith.
2 The treaty of Dover, by which Charles pledged himself to become a Roman
Catholic, was signed at Dover on May 22, 1670. Both Clifford (himself a Catholic)
and Arlington were privy to this agreement and to the negotiations which led
up to it. — Hume.
3 Life and Writings of John Locke, i. xxiii. Locke's recognised patron was
Lord Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftcsbury), who gave his consent to the
philosopher's engagement.
314 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
wrote in the following terms to Williamson (then in Paris),
who had duly communicated the secret of Northumber-
land's mission to the Government : —
" Whitehall. — The packets having come in so late, I had
much difficulty in making extracts for Lords Berkeley and
Arlington. ... I have taken a copy of the account of
Lord Northumberland's business in Rome ; and intend
showing it to my Lord (Arlington) to-morrow. / believe
Lord Northumberland's relatives would rather that it went
no further "i-
What was the Earl's mysterious "business in Rome,"
the news of which his relatives were so anxious to conceal
from the public ? 2 The circumstances surely seem to
point to a threatened avowal on his part of the papal
supremacy. The hint conveyed by Perrott was apparently
taken ; and, fate tragically conspiring with the relatives
to keep the matter secret, it so remained until the publi-
cation of the tell-tale State Paper. De Fonblanque, in
his authorised "Annals of the House of Percy," makes
no mention of the Earl's true object in visiting Rome.
Perhaps he was not aware of the letter quoted above ;
perhaps he chose to overlook it, out of deference to the
Earl's descendants. The accounts, which have been allowed
to escape, of the journey to Italy and of the untimely
death of Northumberland, are meagre in the extreme ; and
it is even uncertain in what religion the noble pilgrim
passed away.
For death overtook Josceline Percy in the flower of
his youth, while less than a third of the road to Rome
remained for him to traverse. The generally accepted
statement, published by Collins, is that the Earl, in his
eagerness to reach the Holy City, " overheated himself
with travelling post for many days," and, on his arrival
1 Domestic State Papers, Charles II., April 23, 1670.
2 Presumably this is the meaning to be attached to the phrase " would
rather that it went no further," unless indeed it signifies the relatives' wish
that the Earl's business, whatever it may have been, should not be further
carried out.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 315
at Turin, fell into a fever and died.1 The claimant,
James Percy, afterwards maintained that the dying Earl
asked for him in his last moments, and wished that he might
be present •; 2 but the witness upon whose testimony Percy
put forward this statement was never publicly examined,
and it may have been only an idle tale told to the credulous
" Trunkmaker." The house or hostelry in which North-
umberland's death occurred is unknown ; but he certainly
expired at Turin on May 21, 1670, in the twenty-sixth year
of his age. The grievous news, carried with undue haste
to Lady Northumberland, wrought still more disaster ; and
in consequence of the shock which she had received, the
young widow gave birth to a dead child. How cruelly it
reads, this catalogue of mortality — this grim list of deaths
by which a single unhappy family was afflicted within
the short space of a few months ! Little wonder that the
Countess Elizabeth, thus bereft of husband and children,
turned so pitiful a face to the world that the envious court
beauties of France flattered themselves with stories of her
faded loveliness.
The body of the deceased Earl of Northumberland was
embalmed at Turin, and brought by slow stages to
England. In Muddiman's News-Letter of June 9, 1670, is
the entry: "The body of Lord Northumberland at Turin
of fever caused by travelling in great heat was on the way
from Blois, accompanied by his disconsolate lady : it is
thought that the French King will seize his horses and
most of what he has left in France ' par droit cfaubaine.'3
The body is waited for at Dover by coaches and
attendants."4 In a letter of July 2 it is reported that "the
young Countess of Northumberland landed at Dover on
the 25th on her way to London, but having to go to Pet-
worth to attend her deceased husband's funeral, she made
1 Collins" Peerage, art. " Percy." His death occurred on May 21, 1670.
3 See page 310.
3 " By right of escheat."
4 Domestic State Papers, Charles II., Addenda ; News-Letter of II. Muddiman
to Thomas Bond, haberdasher, Market Cross, Hereford.
316 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
but a short stay."1 On July 12 Hugh Salisbury, writing
from Portsmouth, informs Williamson that "the Henrietta
yacht has arrived from Havre de Grace, with the body of
the late Earl of Northumberland, who is to be buried at
Petworth with his ancestors."2 Immediately after the
eleventh Earl had been laid to rest, the so-called "Trunk-
maker," James Percy, came forward with a formal claim to
the dormant honours of Northumberland. But of this
man and of the stubborn but unsuccessful fight which he
made for what he considered his rights, a full account
will presently be given. His infant rival, the Lady Eliza-
beth Percy, and her mother first claim our attention for
a space.
Rightly or wrongly, the Lady Elizabeth Percy was now
held to be sole heir of all her father's possessions save only
such lands as reverted to the Crown in conse-
countlsses quence of the supposed failure of heirs male.3
ofNorthum- The will of Earl Josceline left to his widow the
second mar- guardianship of their child, until such time as
nageofthe sjie /fag widow) should see fit to marry again : in
younger. v ' -' ° '
which case Lady Elizabeth was to pass from her
mother's care into that of her grandmother, the Dowager
Countess of Northumberland. Earl Josceline no doubt in-
tended this provision byway of safeguard for his daughter's
vast fortune, and not by any means as a slur upon his wife's
capabilities or good sense. He realised that the younger
Lady Northumberland would have many suitors after his
death, and that, since the grief of the young and beautiful
is soon healed, she would probably remarry before many
years had elapsed. It was not his wish that the adminis-
tration of the Percy estates and the government of the
heiress should devolve upon his future successor in Lady
1 H. Muddiman (A/'eu'S- Letter) to Wm. Coward, Wells, July 2 ; Domestic
State Papers, Charles II., Addenda.
2 Domestic State Papers, Charles II., Addenda.
" These lands were conferred by Charles II. upon his supposed natural son, ihe
DuUe of Monmouth, and others.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 317
Northumberland's affections. Accordingly he named his
mother guardian, in case of a second marriage ; and the
senior Countess, with the ill-nature for which she was
notorious, gave her daughter-in-law clearly to understand
that this portion of the will should be carried out to the
letter.
For a short time after her husband's death, the young
Countess continued to live in England with her child ;
but a combination of unpleasant circumstances eventually
drove her back to France. To begin with, the Dowager
Lady Northumberland (although as yet not legally en-
titled to do so) could not abstain from interfering in the
management of the estate, and the education of Lady
Elizabeth. In point of fact, this elderly descendant of the
Howards was one of the most imperious and intriguing
personages of her time. Kept in control by the some-
what austere temper of her husband, Earl Algernon, it
was not until after his death that she found herself at
liberty to gratify what De Fonblanque terms her " pas-
sion for social power, for money, and for matchmaking."
Her extreme pride of birth seems all the less justifi-
able when it is remembered that the branch of the
noble family to which she belonged \vas one of scant
repute, and that both her mother and father had been
convicted of gross frauds upon Charles I., and heavily
fined for their dishonesty,1 while her aunt was the
infamous Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset.2 The
Dowager Countess of Northumberland, in spite of these
antecedents, chose to flaunt her magnificence as publicly
as possible. After her husband's death she removed from
Northumberland House to a mansion upon the site of
1 She was the daughter of Theophilus Howard, second Earl of Suffolk, who
died in 1640 after the punishment mentioned above, by Elizabeth, daughter
and heir of George, Earl of Dunbar. Suffolk inherited most of his properly
(including Northumberland House) from his uncle, the treacherous Earl of
Northampton.
" The poisoner and adulterous wife, first of the third Earl of Essex, and after-
wards of the favourite, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset. She it was who pro-
cured the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.
3i8 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
which White's Club House afterwards stood, and which
she called Suffolk House. Here she maintained semi-
royal state, and never went abroad without "a footman
walking bareheaded on either side of her coach, and others
(coaches) following with her attendant women."1 It is
even stated that she never allowed the wife of her son
Josceline (herself the daughter of an Earl) to be seated in
her presence without first asking permission ; and when
the female members of her household misbehaved them-
selves she administered corporal punishment to them
after the fashion of Catherine de Medicis with her maids
of honour. She was, in truth, a notable termagant and
tyrant, ill-bred in her ostentation, and by no means nice
in the way she managed her grandchild's estates and
turned their profits to her own use and benefit. There is
more than a suspicion that in after years she absolutely
sold this same grandchild's hand to one undesirable
husband after another.2 Her daughter-in-law, Josceline's
handsome widow, she cordially disliked ; and she never
missed an opportunity of trying to bully or browbeat
this unhappy lady, even when the latter was still in the
state of ill-health which succeeded her bereavement. The
young Countess could not endure the Dowager's per-
sistent persecutions, and this was perhaps the principal
reason which induced her to leave England. It is also
stated that the amorous King plagued her with his
advances, and made more than one attempt to add her to
his seraglio. De Fonblanque adopts this story ; but as the
Countess was in mourning at the time, went little to Court,
and had suffered severely in her good looks in conse-
quence of illness, some doubt must be allowed to rest
upon the subject. But Lady Northumberland's fortune
and reputation for beauty made her a constant subject of
town gossip, and scores of tales were told of the gallants,
young and old, who were at her feet. Not only the King,
but the widower Duke of York, was said to be enamoured
1 State Papers (Domestic), Chailes II.
• See Brantome's Mimoires des Dames Galantes.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 319
of her ; and the diarists and news-letters even declared that
one nobleman of the highest rank had died of a broken
heart in consequence of her rejection of his suit. This
was William Seymour, third Duke of Somerset, a near rela-
tive of her late husband,1 and a nephew of her brother-
in-law, Lord Essex. The Duke was so eager in his
wooing that his cousin, Josceline Percy, had not been a
twelvemonth dead before he renewed what is described
as an "old courtship," but which cannot have been so
old after all, since the suitor was still a minor. Lady
Northumberland was at this time twenty-four, and may
have thought her ducal spark too young, or his addresses
ill-timed. At any rate she rejected them ; and it is given
as a historical fact in Segar's Baronage that the love-lorn
Duke William died on December 12, 1671, in his twenty-
first year, " at grief for the unkindness of Elizabeth, widow
of Jocelyn Percy, Earl of Northumberland, whom he had long
courted in vain" 2
Whether the King pursued her too assiduously, or
whether young Somerset's death preyed upon her nerves,
and, in conjunction with the tyranny of her mother-in-
law, filled her with distaste for England, we know that the
Countess sailed from England in a royal yacht placed at
her disposal early in 1673, and very soon afterwards made
her second appearance in the fashionable world of Paris.
At Paris, as in London, she at once became a reigning
toast, and the fame of her charms (as well as of her fortune)
was trumpeted abroad. She refused more than one offer
of marriage, and it began to be whispered that she was
holding herself in reserve for the Duke of York.3 One
lover, however, proved more persistent than the rest. Ralph
Montagu, the British Ambassador at the Court of France,
was determined to win, if possible, this great matrimonial
prize; and as Montagu (or "Montaigu" as they called
1 Somerset, as great-grandson of Elizabeth's favourite, Robert, Earl of Essex,
was a second cousin of the late Earl of Northumberland.
5 Segar, Baronage of England, p. 989,
3 jlJatton Correspondence, \. 68 ; Savilt Correspondence, pp. 32-38.
320 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
him) was looked upon by the French grandes dames as a
most desirable conquest, these ladies were violently jealous
of the new-comer who had thus succeeded in bringing him
to her feet apparently without effort. Montagu was only
a younger son at this time ; l but his talents, ambition,
and skill as a diplomatist had already marked him out as
a man to be reckoned with in the future. At this time
his features were remarkably handsome ; although in later
years he is described as " of a middle stature, inclining to
fat ; of a coarse, dark complexion." He was about thirty-
five years of age, 2 and, save for his salary as ambassador,
had little or no resources. Lady Northumberland he may
have loved for herself alone, but it cannot have failed to
occur to him that, with the aid of her money, he could
rise the more speedily to those heights upon which he
had already set his eyes.
The Countess was, no doubt, still suffering from the
effects of her illness and recent sorrows, but this does
not explain why the French ladies found, or professed to
find, no trace of that beauty for which she was famous.
Madame de la Fayette (who had long been an admirer of
" le beau Montaigu ") was the most severe of these feminine
critics, for she refused to allow to the English Countess
any remains of comeliness whatever, and described her
as ill-dressed, plain of face, ungraceful, and old- look-
ing beyond her years ! The words of Madame de la
Fayette (written to Madame de Sevigne, and published
in the immortal Lettres of the latter) may be thus
translated : —
" Madame de Northumberland came to call upon me
to-day. I had been to pay her a visit with Madame de
Coulanges. She seemed to me to be a woman who had
once been handsome enough, but who has not one solitary
trace of beauty left ; nor are there any signs of youth
remaining in her appearance or manner. I was quite
astonished. Add to this that she dresses vilely, and is
1 He was the second son of Edward, second Lord Montagu of Boughion.
• Having been born about 1638; Nat. Diet, of Biography.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 321
quite desttttite of grace ; and you will understand that I was
by no means dazzled." J
The fair gossip must have viewed her visitor with pre-
judiced eyes. Male Paris raved about the " English
beauty," her eyes, her complexion, and her " taille superbe " ;
and it is strange that if in 1673 she had lost her charms
and grown elderly before her time (she was barely twenty-
five), a close observer, the candid Evelyn, should be found
full ten years later to write her down "ye most beautifull
Couniesse of Northumberland" 2 The equally flattering com-
ment of the other chronicler of the period, Pepys, has
already been quoted.3 Madame de la Fayette continues : —
"She seemed to understand the purport of everything
that was said to her — or rather, that / said to her ; for
M. de la Rochefoucauld and Madame de Thianges, who
had a great desire to meet her, did not come in till she
was going. Montaigu sent me word he would be with
us : I have talked a great deal to him about her, and he
has declared himself her devoted slave without the least
reserve." 4
But Montagu had to exert all his fascinations, and
to humble himself in many ways, before he succeeded in
gaining the hand of Lady Northumberland. His devo-
tion, and the readiness with which he subordinated his
own convenience and pleasure to those of the Countess,
made him the object of much raillery at the hands of
Madame de la Fayette and her friends. Underneath some
of the jests written at his expense by these ladies, there
is to be discerned not a little of envious rancour. He is
made mock of for his servility ; and it seems that much
as he would like to pay a visit to the charming Madame
de Brissac, he does not dare to do so, lest by any
chance Miladi of Northumberland should take offence.5
1 Letlres de Madame de Sevignf ; Madame de la Fayette to Madame de Sevigne',
Paris, April 15, 1673.
- Evelyn's Diary (ed. Bray), Oct. 10, 1683, vol. i. p. 564.
3 The Countess was one of Lely's " Windsor Beauties."
4 Lettres de Madame de Seville. » Ibid.
II. X
322 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Perhaps the Countess was deterred from a second marriage
by a genuine love and respect for the memory of her
husband ; perhaps she dreaded lest her mother-in-law
should take advantage of Earl Josceline's will, and claim the
guardianship of Lady Elizabeth Percy in case Montagu's
suit were accepted. At all events the diplomatic cunning
and courtier-craft which Ralph Montagu was forced to
exercise in his ambassadorial capacity paled beside the
similar qualities which his pursuit of Lady Northumber-
land called into play. On more than one occasion his
hopes seemed so slender that the Sevigne" coterie fancied
he must abandon them altogether, and hinted that the
Countess must be mentally affected to refuse such a man.
" Montaigu has gone away," wrote Madame de la Fayette ;
" they say that his hopes have been dashed to the ground.
I verily believe that there is something wrong with the
nymph's mind." l It may have been only a coincidence,
but the date on which Montagu was thus reported to have
received his conge1, lacked but two days of being the
anniversary of Josceline Percy's death at Turin.
The English Ambassador at Paris was too experienced
in women, however, to lose heart because his mistress,
through sentiment or caprice, had administered a temporary
rebuff. He had none of that faint-heartedness which was
said to have brought about the death of young Somerset,
and Lady Northumberland's temporary "unkindness" did
not daunt him. During the summer he returned to the
attack with vigour anew, and pleaded his cause so well
that the " cruel fair " at last capitulated. It is now known
that Charles II. took an active interest in the affair,2 and
forwarded Montagu's interests with the Countess to the
best of his ability, whether from disinterested benevolence
or a desire to draw the runaway beauty back to England
and the Court, it is impossible to say. The lady's family
connections, on the contrary, were opposed to the match ;
and the Dowager Countess in particular inveighed against
1 Letlrts de Madame de Sevigiid ; Paris, May 19, 1673.
- Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson ; Camdcn Society Publications, vol. i.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 323
it in the bitterest terms, although she realised that by its
means her cherished plan of gaining possession of little
Lady Elizabeth and the Percy estates might be brought
to pass. When the young Countess left Paris for Eng-
land on August 5, 1673, she brought Lady Elizabeth with
her, and left the child in the care of their tried friend,
Dr. Mapletoft, who was still practising his profession in
London. The Countess then proceeded to Titchfield in
Hampshire, where she had been born,1 and where her
sister, Lady Noel, now resided. There at the parish church,
on August 24, 1673, she was married to Ralph Montagu,
who had followed her from Paris.
It is unpleasant to have to record that, less than two
months after their marriage, Montagu and his wife were
reported as being at variance. Some busybody (not improb-
ably the old Countess of Northumberland) taunted the bride
with having been "tricked" into a wedding, and Mon-
tagu was accused of having " bought her of her maid for
.£500 per annum" 2 Angry quarrels ensued between the
pair, and a separation was freely talked of ; 3 indeed for
some time they appeared to have actually lived apart.
The birth of a son 4 in the following year healed their
differences ; and whether Lady Northumberland was really
the victim of Montagu's bribery or not, she continued
to live tranquilly with her husband until her death. By
the death of his elder brother, Edward, the Ambassador
succeeded to the Barony of Montagu of Bough ton. His
town house in Bloomsbury having been destroyed by
fire in 1686, he set to work, with the aid of Countess
Elizabeth, to rebuild it upon the most magnificent French
models. The staircase and ceilings were painted by Rosseau
and La Fosse. This structure was purchased by the
Government in 1753, and became the British Museum.
The present buildings of the Museum succeeded it about
1840. Montagu's promising diplomatic career was brought
to a conclusion in consequence of a quarrel with the
1 Titchfield was the old seat of the Wriothesleys, Earls of Southampton.
" Letters to Sir James Williamson ; Caniden Society, vol. ii. 35, 63, 71.
3 Ibid. * This was Ralph, Lord Monthermer, who d.vf. 1702.
324 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Duchess of Cleveland, the King's mistress, who, while she
was yet Barbara Villiers, had been very intimate with him.
The Duchess's daughter, Lady Sussex, having been placed
for safe-keeping in a Parisian convent, Montagu visited
her there, and coolly brought her to live under his own
roof, with what intentions we are not informed. Duchess
Barbara was furious, and vowed that he should pay dearly
for meddling with her daughter. During the connection
which had existed between them, Montagu had foolishly
permitted himself to express many unfavourable opinions
of the King and the Duke of York, and had even placed
some of these strictures in writing. The angry Duchess
now laid these incautious letters before her protector,
careless as to what he might think of her own relations
with the Ambassador, and seeking only the latter's dis-
grace.1 Montagu's treachery was too gross for even the
good-natured Charles to forgive. He was at once recalled,
and his name struck out of the Privy Council. Nor indeed
did he recover from the effects of his disgrace until the
advent of William III., whose standard he was one of the
first to join. This sovereign created him, in 1689, Viscount
Monthermer and Earl of Montagu. His wife, Countess
Elizabeth, died in September 1690, at the family seat
of Boughton, Northants, at the age of forty-two, leaving
three children — (i) Ralph, who predeceased his father
in 1702 ; (2) John, second Duke of Montagu (1687-1749),
whose chief titles to fame were his marriage with Lady
Mary Churchill, youngest daughter of the great Marl-
borough, and his reputation for eccentricity and practical
joking ; and (3) Anne, who married Alexander Popham
of Littlecote, co. Wilts. The Duke of Buccleuch is now
the representative of Montagu's marriage with Lady North-
umberland. Two years after the death of his first Countess,
Montagu was shamefully united to the mad Duchess of
Albemarle. 2 This poor demented creature was a great
1 Harris's Lives (ed. 1814), v. 372, &c.
3 Her first husband was Christopher Monk, second Duke of Albemarle, son
of him who placed Charles II. on the throne.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 325
heiress, and the only surviving child of Henry Cavendish,
second Duke of Newcastle. Her weak-minded brother, Lord
Ogle, became the first husband of Montagu's stepdaughter,
Elizabeth Percy, heiress of Northumberland — an alliance
almost as criminal as that which now took place. Montagu
wooed his victim under the farcical guise of " the Emperor
of China" 1 (she had declared that none but a great poten-
tate should obtain her hand), a circumstance " which gave
rise to a scene in Gibber's play of the ' Sick Lady Cured.' " *
The unhappy Duchess was far from being cured, however.
She was kept a close prisoner in the ground floor of
Montagu House during her husband's life, served on
bended knee, and addressed as "Your Imperial Majesty"
by attendants dressed in Chinese costume. Montagu en-
joyed the income from her large estates until his death.
In 1705 he was created Marquis of Monthermer and Duke
of Montagu by Queen Anne, through the influence of
Marlborough. He died in 1709 ; and Swift sums up his
character with a severity not wholly deserved as that of
"as arrant a knave as any in his time."4 The terrible
Doctor was merciless to his political opponents.
Immediately after the death of the eleventh Earl, and
the reported extinction of the male line of the House of
Percy, a claimant to the vacant honours presented
TheCIaunant ,.,,.,. c
of Northum- himself in the person of one James Percy, already
jamesPercy a^uded to, a reputable and well-to-do citizen of
"the Trunk-' Dublin. In early life Percy had been a trunk-
maker, but he had long since abandoned this trade,
and was now the head of a thriving firm of merchants in
Dublin, the management of which he left to his eldest son
(afterwards Sir Anthony Percy), while he himself came to
England to prosecute what he fondly believed must prove
1 Walpole's Letters (ed. 1880), viii. 514; Granger's Biog. Hist., iv. 158.
2 Pennant's London, p. 177.
3 The mad Duchess lived until the age of ninety-six, dying at Newcastle House,
Clerkenwell, in 1734. Fortunately she left no children by either husband.
4 Swift's Works (ed. 1824), xii. 237.
326 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
a successful suit. He landed in England from the
Continent — whither he had gone either upon a merchan-
dising expedition, or else for the purpose of paying his
respects to the dead body of Earl Josceline — on October n,
I67O.1 At this time he was fifty-one years of age, and had
been for some time a widower. To the old retainers of the
Percy family, at least, he was apparently well known ; for
he had already visited Petworth in 1654 (immediately after
the death of his uncle James left him male representative
of the Irish Percies),2 and had seen and conversed with
most of those about Earl Algernon, and in particular with
Mr. Orlando Gee (now grown to be a very great man
in his way, and general agent of all the Northumberland
estates3). Indeed he asserted, without being contradicted,
that Gee had been present when he was "recognised"
by the old Earl as a near relative, if not as the next
male heir after the reigning branch of the family. But
whatever Earl Algernon may have known as to the
exact connection of James Percy with the parent stem,
the ideas of the latter on the subject were of the very
1 Craik ; Romance of the Peerage, iv. 288. Craik gives the best summary yet
published of James Percy's legal struggles, and does not, like Collins, suppress
any point distasteful to the winning side.
2 James Percy, uncle of the Claimant, baptized at Pavenham in 1581 (see
Genealogy, Plate III., and Genealogy of the Irish Percies), died in Dublin in the
spring of 1654.
3 Sir Orlando Gee, knight (1619-1705) was a younger son of the Rev. John
Gee, incumbent of Uunsford in Devon, and brother of the Rev. John Gee, M.A.,
who was first an Anglican divine, then a Catholic, and lastly a Protestant of the
Puritan Sect (see Diet, of Nat. Eiog.). Orlando Gee became one of the agents to
Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland, and rose steadily until he became his
principal factor. In this capacity he continued to serve under Earl Josceline, the
Dowager Countess, and the Duchess of Somerset. Through the influence of Earl
Algernon, he was in 1660 appointed Registrar to the Court of Admiralty. His
efforts in opposing James Percy won him the favour of the Duke of Somerset,
and in 1682 he received a knighthood. He appears to have been married three
times ; firstly to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Maxey ; secondly (by license,
1662) to Eliza Barker ; and thirdly to Ann, daughter of Robert Chilcot of
Isleworth, who figures in the so-called " Peace of Syon " made between Earl
Algernon and his tenants. Gee died in his house at Isleworth, and lies
buried in the church there, where a handsome mural monument records his
virtues.
1
ERLAND
PERCY ;
levies in
nd.
of Norwich,
nan.
ARMS OK PERCY OF IRELAND.
(Confirmed by Sir William Betham,
Ulster King-of-Arms. )
AMES PERCY
ELIZABETH PE
toun, Co. Kilkenny ;
baptized 169:
iptized 1688.
died at Nichols
1716.
c SHEE, Esq.,
JAMES PERCY
I
ELIZABETH
itlemarket,
n's County
[male representa-
tive of this line
. PKRCY ;
m. WILLIAM
ded from the
in 1766].
MAKER, Esq.,
of Shee of
of Nicholstoun,
o. Kilkenny].
V
Co. Kilkenny.
JOHN PIERCK
MAKER
of Nicholstoun,
Co. Kilkenny ;
#. 1726-7 ;
d. 1784.
ELIZABETH ;
m. JAMES BYRNK
of Ballyspellan,
Co. Kilkenny.
\
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 327
vaguest description. He was indeed, as he quaintly puts
it, " wildernised " when he came to trace his descent with
the exactitude which the law of succession demands.
When he came to London to prosecute his claim, he
seems to have thought that there would be little or no
difficulty in doing so. He believed in the existence of
family documents which would establish his descent beyond
cavil, and trusted in the good faith of the widowed Coun-
tesses of Northumberland, of Orlando Gee, and of Henry
Champion (the last-named being custodian of the late
Earl's papers) to place these supposed evidences at his
disposal. His own line he could not trace back with
certainty beyond his grandfather, Henry Percy of Paven-
ham ; and when he was called upon by the counsel for
Lady Northumberland to name the father of this Henry
Percy, he was unable to do so, and could only venture
two guesses — one absurd, the other highly improbable.
To the modern genealogist this may, at first sight, put the
Claimant's case out of court at once. Indeed Collins,
Lodge, Burke, and other authorities upon the English
peerage have seized upon Percy's inability to prove his
grandfather's descent as the best evidence that he was an
impostor. But before accepting the dicta of these writers,
it is only fair to remember the extreme difficulties under
which the Claimant laboured. His branch of the family
had become impoverished ; whatever documents they pos-
sessed had been lost, or else left in the safe-keeping of
the chiefs of the house. While the ninth Earl of Nor-
thumberland and his seven brothers lived there seemed
little probability of the senior line dying out ; so that
James Percy, the Claimant's uncle, living as he did in
the remote districts of Ireland and finding himself fully
occupied in maintaining life and property amid the suc-
cessive political upheavals of that country, may be excused
for not having paid much attention to the preserva-
tion of family records. The Claimant's father, Henry
Percy, having been in the household of Lord Bacon, was
seriously compromised by the disgrace of the great philo-
328 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
sopher. Thomas Bushell,1 another of Bacon's retainers,
was, we are told, obliged to fly to the Isle of Wight after
his master's fall, and to live there disguised as a fisherman in
order to escape rack and thumbscrew.2 Even after Bacon's
death, Bushell did not dare to show himself abroad, but
resided in a wretched hut 470 feet above the sea level, "in
the desolated island called the Calf of Man," by way of
penance for his former associations.3 Henry Percy was
under a similar ban, nor did he possess any of those talents
which subsequently secured Bushell pardon and place.
Indeed any chances which he had of being readmitted to
society, through the influence of Earl Henry of Northum-
berland, were utterly ruined by the heartless manner in
which he deserted his wife and children. In 1626 (the
year following Bacon's decease) he took his family — the
Claimant James Percy among the number — to " Dunnington
in Lincoln," and left them there in great destitution ; after
which he came to London in company with his mis-
tress, a serving-wench named Mary Varnum, "at which old
Henrie, the Nineth Earle, was Angry."4 The wrath of the
old Earl proved fatal to Henry Percy's prospects, and
he died in abject poverty. It was probably his mistress,
Mary Varnum, and not his wife, who was reported by the
agents of the Dowager Countess to have lived as a pauper
in an outhouse belonging to Mr. Montagu at Horton in
Northamptonshire.
When deserted by his father, James Percy was only
eight years of age. How he passed his youth we do not
know, but he tells us in one of his Petitions to the King
1 Thomas Bushell (1594-1674), after Bacon's fall, was obliged to hide him-
self (as described in the text) for many years. He devoted his enforced
seclusion to chemical studies, and his knowledge in this direction eventually
brought him to the notice of Charles I., who took him into favour. lie became
chief Farmer of the Royal Mines, held Lundy Island for the King during the
Civil War, and continued in high favour under Charles II. We shall meet him
later as one of the witnesses called by the Claimant, James 1'ercy. Me is buried
in Westminster Abbey.
a See Diet, of Nat. Biography, article "Bushell."
» Ibid. * The Case of James Percy.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 329
that he was compelled to fly the kingdom on account of
his Royalist sympathies. Of education he can have re-
ceived little — they were times when the sword usurped
the place of the book ; but he probably went to Ireland,
where his uncle, James Percy, was eking out a scanty
livelihood with the help of occasional remittances from
the Earls of Northumberland.1 From that time onward
his life was one of hard, honest toil, until we find him
coming to London, with a comfortable fortune at his back,
to lay claim to what he believed to be his inheritance.
But alas for the simple-minded Dublin merchant ! He
was soon to learn that earldoms and estates are not so
easily acquired. His first step was to call upon the
"Senior Countesse," as he called her, with a request
which, in his innocence, he deemed she could not refuse.
In other words he asked leave to examine the family
records, then in Henry Champion's care at Syon, for the
purpose of making out a detailed statement of the descent
of his grandfather, Henry Percy of Pavenham. The
Dowager Lady Northumberland referred him to her
daughter-in-law, Earl Josceline's widow ; but as Percy
learned that the latter was enceinte and might yet give birth
to a male heir, he decided to wait. A few months later,
when this prospect was at an end, he visited Syon, where
the "Junior Countesse" was residing, and repeated his
request, adding a statement (true or false ; but whether
true or false, undoubtedly believed in by the man that
made it) to the effect that Earl Josceline had upon his
deathbed recognised the head of the Irish Percies as his
heir male. Now whatever the Dowager Countess knew
about his claims, young Lady Northumberland had never
heard of James Percy, and believing her infant daughter
to be the sole heir of the house, she declined to see the
visitor or to enter into any discussion with him in regard
to the papers guarded by Champion. Disgusted by what
1 This, of course, is Percy's own statement, but it was admitted by Sir Orlando
Gee, who sought to explain these gifts to the Irish Percies, by hinting at an
illegitimate connection.
330 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
he considered wanton spite, Percy went back to his
lodgings, where he wrote the following specimen of
doggerel verse in condemnation of the young widow's
discourtesy : —
" Wealth is a giant grown so high
That can a Percy now defy ;
Though, like David with slings and stones
Shows great champion's blood and bones.
Saul seeking asses, kingdom met ;
James seeks his right — finds foes too great.
Pray God give me a zealous heart,
That I may seek the better part :
Then shall I sing his praises clear ;
Scorn to peep through a window here.
This is done, that it shall be said
A Percy lives, tho' Josceline's dead.
Resolved am I to spend my all,
Before a Percy's name shall fall."
These rhymes were despatched by special messenger to
Lady Northumberland ; who, used no doubt to the grace-
ful and complimentary couplets of the Montagus and
Somersets, who called themselves her devoted slaves, was
naturally very angry, and denounced the poor merchant
as "an impostor." Feeling perhaps that he had gone too
far, our poetaster again took counsel of his muse, and
ventured upon a second address, which was an appeal,
rather than a defiance : —
" An impostor is a base name ;
By doing Justice clears the shame,
And blows away the clouds so high,
Makes truth shine clear as sun in sky.
I trust in God, that can restore
If not on earth, to Heaven's shore."
But if by "doing justice" Percy meant the placing of
the Northumberland records at his disposal, the Countess
had no intention of acceding to his wishes ; and she left
England a week later without answering his letters. Her
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 331
marriage to Montagu followed, and the Claimant now
found himself opposed by an adversary even more deter-
mined— the unscrupulous Dowager Countess. Not only
did the latter refuse to see him, but she forbade Henry
Champion to give him any information. Though sadly dis-
appointed, as he informs us in his " Case of James Percy," :
by the discovery that human nature was not so obliging
or so honourable as he had anticipated, he did not feel
cast down by these rebuffs, looking upon them as obstacles
thrown in his way by interested persons, -who sought "to
keep him out of his rights." Prevented from examining
the private documents at Syon and Petworth, he decided
upon applying to the Heralds' College, among the archives
of which he had no doubt but that he should be able to
find the proofs which he sought.
The heralds, however, did almost as little to help Percy
as the Countesses of Northumberland had done ; but it
must be admitted that the inaction of Garter
of'tL ' King of Arms and his subordinates arose from
inability rather than from ill-will. The Claimant
states that when he first approached Sir Edward
Walker, the then Garter King, he found the latter "very
rough " ; but that after a time Walker became more com-
pliant, and consented to aid him as far as possible.2 A
book dealing with the Earls of Northumberland was pro-
duced, but upon examination it was found that " a leaf
had been torn out," which leaf "must have contained the
very information " required — i.e. a full account of the cadet
branches of the House of Percy from the time of the
fourth Earl. This, of course, is the Claimant's own story,
unsupported by any positive admission on the part of the
Heralds' College ; and to those acquainted with the careful
1 Various editions of the Case of James Percy were printed, and are to be
found in the British Museum Library. Their gist is given in the text ; to quote
them at length (they are extremely prolix) would be impossible.
2 Sir Edward Walker died in February 1677, just after he had helped Percy
to draw up a new pedigree tracing his descent from Sir Ingelgram, instead of
from Sir Richard 1'ercy.
332 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
manner in which modern heraldic records are kept, it may
seem strange that so important a document should have
been thus mutilated. On the other hand, it must be re-
membered that the old building of the Heralds' College
had been destroyed in the Great Fire of I666,1 and that
some of the manuscript treasures may have suffered in
the flames ; also that the portion of the genealogy sought
dealt with the descent of Thomas Percy of the Gunpowder
Treason, the obliteration of whose name probably seemed
a commendable action to the ultra-loyal heralds of the
Jacobean era. The Claimant's assertion that the record
had been mutilated, and mutilated in a particular way,
is borne out by a curious bit of circumstantial evidence
unconsciously afforded by Walker's successor as Garter
King of Arms, Sir William Dugclale. According to the
version of James Percy there was a hiatus in the MS.,
where the page had been torn out or otherwise de-
stroyed ; after which the account was resumed something
as follows : —
" . . . . ard Percy, who married and had issue."
Who was the mysterious personage here referred to,
and what was the missing syllable of the name " . . . . ard
Percy " ? Naturally he turned, by Sir Edward Walker's
advice, to other and unofficial chronicles, seeking for a
Percy as nearly allied to the main stock as possible, whose
Christian name ended in the syllable "ard." Unluckily for
himself he selected Sir Richard Percy, fifth son of the eighth
Earl, and for some time directed his endeavours towards
tracing his descent from that impossible ancestor. We
shall learn how ill he fared, and how, when forced to admit
that he could not be Sir Richard's great-grandson, he laid
the blame upon the Heralds' College, and accused Walker
of wilfully misleading him. But a little later, when Sir
William Dugdale was desirous of furthering the claims of
Francis Percy of Cambridge to the earldom, it is evident
1 The heralds occupied a house on Bennet Hill, near St. Paul's, which stood
upon the site of a former mansion of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby. It was
rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 333
that he too perused the mutilated volume, and, in his turn,
founded a theory upon the identity of " .... ard Percy"
Dugdale was a practical genealogist, and not likely to fall
into James Percy's blunder of choosing a name too near
his own time to allow of a certain number of known
descents. Accordingly he decided that Guiscard Percy,
youngest brother of the seventh and eighth Earls, was the
individual thus set down as having left legitimate issue ;
and even drew up a pedigree for his prottge", Francis of
Cambridge, deriving the latter's descent from the same
Guiscard (whom we now know to have died in early
youth, and unmarried). The fact that James Percy and Sir
William Dugdale were both at pains to fill in a similar
gap in the MS., practically proves that such a gap existed,
and enhances the probability that the Claimant's story of
a mutilated leaf in the heraldic records was correct. In
the light of subsequent researches, it appears most likely
that " . . . . ard Percy " stood for Edward Percy, born
about the same time as Guiscard, and son of Josceline
Percy of Newlands, fourth son of the fourth Earl.1 From
this Edward the so-called " Trunkmaker " may well have
sprung, as we shall take occasion to point out presently.
But he had no idea of Edward's existence, and so, by
the advice of his lawyer, boldly claimed Sir Richard
Percy,2 brother of the "Wizard" Earl, as his ancestor.
The claim was, upon the face of it, absurd. Sir Richard,
a gallant soldier, had died at Angers within the memory
of living men,3 and, so far as was known, a bachelor.
To have been the great-grandfather of James Percy,
according to the pedigree now put forward, he must
have become a grandfather at the age of sixteen!4 The
Claimant afterwards explained that he had "fixed on an
ancestor for himself in the first instance, merely upon a
tentative principle, or on the calculation that the discussion,
1 See Genealogy of the House of Percy, Table III.
2 Jbid. 3 In 1647, at the age of seventy-two.
4 The elder James Percy (here reputed to be his grandson) having been born
at Pavenham on Feb. 12, 1581.
334 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
or even confutation of the pedigree . . . might throw light
enough upon the subject to enable him to make out
his true descent."1 In other words, he was feeling in the
dark ; and hoped, by forcing the hands of the Dowager
Countess, to compel her to give him a clue as to the
identity of his great-grandparents. His legal adviser
was one Thomas Swayne, an attorney "of Pimbourne
(Pimpern?), Dorset." On February 3, 1672, Swayne
lodged at the Signet Office, Whitehall, a formal claim
on his client's behalf to the heritable honours and estates
of the House of Northumberland. The case came before
the Lords during the next session, which began on
February 4, 1673. In the meantime Percy had presented
a petition (the first of a long series) to the King, who
"was Graciously pleased to return the Answer, 'God forbid
he should hinder an Heir, but that he should have the
Benefit of the Law.' " 2 The Dowager Countess of North-
umberland had also moved in the matter, her opposition
taking the form of an address to the Upper House on
behalf of her grandchild, Lady Elizabeth Percy, and herself,
in which she complained "that one calling himself James
Percy (by profession a trunk maker in Dublin, Ireland) had
assumed to himself the titles of Earl of Northumberland,
and Lord Percy, to the dishonour of the family." 3 This
address was referred by the Lords to Committee upon
Privilege. Two days later a counter-petition from the
Claimant was, as soon as read, ordered to be "dismissed
the House," perhaps (as Craik suggests) on account of some
technical error in the drafting. On February 27 the Com-
mittee on Privilege took up the Countess's plea, with the
result that James Percy was ordered to make an immediate
answer in writing. No time was lost in obeying this
mandate, the optimistic " Trunkmaker " no doubt believing
that his affairs had begun to move in the swiftest and most
satisfactory manner, and that the ancient dame in North-
1 Craik ; Romance oflhe Peerage.
1 Case of James Percy ; Percy's Petition to the King, 1679, &c.
3 Journals of the House of Lords.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 335
umberland House was fighting his battle for him, just as
his attorney had anticipated. He was not content with a
mere written answer, but sent in also a second petition
composed in much the same vein as his doggerel missive
to Earl Algernon's widow. The Committee, after some
consideration, found that the case could not with decency
be dismissed in the summary fashion demanded by the
Dowager Countess. Both parties were given a month to
prepare their arguments. Lady Northumberland (who
knew more about the Claimant than she chose to admit)
at once sent agents to all the places in which the immediate
ancestors of her opponent had resided during their years
of wandering. We find her Yorkshire agent, Nathaniel
Whalley,1 reporting that the Percies were looked upon as
"of small account" while they made the parish of Horton
their home ; and that a woman whom he pretends was the
Claimant's mother (but who was probably Mary Varnum,
the mistress of his father) had died not many years
before in a hut, or outhouse, near the residence of Mr.
Montagu,2 in that place. The agent also reported that he
could find no entry respecting the Claimant's birth either
at Horton or at Pavenham Bury in Bedfordshire, which
was not surprising, seeing that James Percy had been
born at Harrowden, Northants, as afterwards appeared
from the certificate which he produced. On his side
Percy also visited these places, examined the registers
there, and induced as many of his father's and grand-
father's friends as he could to come to London as witnesses.
On March 28 the Committee heard both sides briefly,
and appeared impressed by Percy's evidence, since they
1 Whalley to H. Champion ; Alnwick MSS.
2 George Montagu of Horton was son of the Earl of Manchester, and father
of Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax. The Copes (to whom Percy's mother
belonged) were for centuries persons of consequence in the neighbourhood,
having held the manor of Denshnnger, which, like Horton, is in the Hundred of
Cleyley. John Cope, Esq., of Denshanger Manor, died 2 Hen. V.; his son
Stephen Cope, of Denshanger, was aged twenty years in 13 Hen. VI.; and his
grandson, Edward Cope, of Denshanger, died 2 Hen. VIII., leaving a daughter
and heir, Anne Cope, then aged nine years. "Dame Cope," the Claimant's
mother-in-law, was probably the widow of a descendant of this family.
336 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
came to the following resolution : " It is ordered that the
House be informed of the difficulties of the case ; and
that the Committee are of opinon that the House should
direct that His Majesty may be moved to hear his (James
Percy's) title." : On the same day the Earl of Carlisle
informed his brother peers that he had duly approached
the King, in company with the Earl of Suffolk,2 and that
his Majesty had given the House leave to hear James
Percy in due form.
The Claimant's answer and petition were then read ;
after which he appeared in company with his counsel at the
bar of the House, the counsel of the Dowager Countess
being likewise present. Percy was represented by Sergeant
Francis Pemberton. This man, who rose to be Chief Justice
of the Common Pleas, yet finished his days as a private
lawyer, afterwards earned unenviable notoriety in con-
nection with another case intimately connected with the
fortunes of the House of Percy.3 Lady Northumberland's
counsel was allowed first speech, and he apparently con-
fined his efforts to showing that Sir Richard Percy could
not possibly have been great-grandfather of the plaintiff.
None of the information for which the Claimant hoped
was forthcoming. Sergeant Pemberton then asked for a
further allowance of time, setting forth that his client had
not been permitted access to the family records, and that
therefore he would be compelled to build up his claim from
parish records, and evidence gathered from persons in
many parts of the kingdom. To this the Lords replied that
they were willing enough to allow Percy further time, if he
could " make appear any probability towards his claim " —
i.e. towards his claim of descent from Sir Richard, which
of course was out of the question. Pemberton answered
that his client now waived this claim altogether ; but that
1 Quoted from the original minute-book in the " Kef art of the Select Committee
of the Lords, appointed to Search for Precedents ; 1842."
- Brother of the Dowager Countess.
3 i.e. the trial of Koningsmarck for the murder of Thomas Thynn, when he
summed up in favour of Koningsmarcl; and in apparent opposition to the evidence.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 337
he still maintained his right to the Earldom of North-
umberland, and that he had above forty witnesses already
sworn at the bar of the House, and waiting to give evidence
in his favour. Among these witnesses were Thomas
Bushell, Farmer-General of the Royal Mines, and Thomas
Fleetwood, both of whom had been with Henry Percy,
father of James, in the service of Lord Bacon. These
worthies, together with many others, were, according to the
Claimant, prepared to swear that his father had again and
again been recognised as a near relative by " Josceline
Percy, the seventh son of the eighth Earl, and by the rest
of those eight brethren." All that he asked for, there-
fore, was a little time in which to prove the exact degree
of relationship which existed between his father and the
brothers of the "Wizard" Earl. The Lords, however, re-
fused to allow him a postponement of the case ; and, on
the motion of Lord Suffolk, brother of his chief opponent,
voted to dismiss his claim without delay. One voice alone
was raised in Percy's favour — that of the Earl of Anglesey,1
an Irish nobleman, who held that the petitioner was being
treated unfairly, and that the time he asked should be
granted. It is possible that Anglesey was personally ac-
quainted with the man whom he championed.
Thus disastrously ended the first effort of James Percy
to establish his claim. Nothing daunted, he issued a
printed address to the public, in which he attacked Orlando
Gee and Henry Champion by name, alleging that they,
" who could have set him right, wilfully took advantage of
his ignorance."2 He had met these agents of Lady Nor-
thumberland, he declared, at the residence of Dr. Lamplugh
1 James Annesley, first Earl of Anglesey and Viscount Valentia (son of the
Lord Mountmorris of Strafford's time) was born in Dublin in 1614. This was
not the only occasion upon which he took up an independent attitude in the
I louse of Lords. During the " Popish Terror" he was the only peer who dissented
from the vote declaring the existence of a Catholic Plot. He also interceded
manfully in favour of Archbishop Plunket. He was a man of enlightened mind,
and one of the first peers in England "who devoted time and money to the for-
mation of a great library." — Diet, of Nat. lying.
'* Case of James Percy.
11. Y
338 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
by special appointment, and Mr. Henry Champion had
gone so far as to own "that Henry Percy that lived with
my Lord Bacon was the right Heir, had he lived." l Yet
he could not induce them to speak publicly in his favour.
In conclusion he asked his readers to be patient with him,
as he proposed before long to bring forward a second case,
which could not be set aside as the first had been.
Percy's researches in the registers of Pavenham Bury,
Harrowden, and Horton had proved his clear and legiti-
mate descent for three generations. He was
himself born at Harrowden in 1619, the second
James but eldest surviving son of Henry Percy (some-
juYuce Hales time servant to Lord Bacon) and Lydia Cope,
pronounces hjs wife, "daughter of Dame Cope of Horton,
Lady Pem- Northants."2 His father, Henry, was the third son
brake's long Qf another Henry Percy, by his wife, the daughter
of James Tibbot of Pavenham Bury, co. Bedford.3
The eldest son of this last-mentioned Henry was the James
Percy, uncle of the Claimant, who died in Ireland with-
out male issue in 1654.* The second son, William, had
already died in childhood ; so that the representation of
1 Case ofjaincs Percy.
a According to the "Register Booke" of Horton, Henry Percy and Lydia
Cope were married by licence in 1614. Two children, Henry and Eliza, were
born to them before James, but both died in early youth. The birth of William,
illegitimate son of Henry Percy by Mary Varnum, may also be seen in this
register.
3 In his History of the Hundred of Willey (Bedfordshire), Mr. William Marsh
Harvey gives the following extracts from the Pavenham Registers: —
"James Pearcye fil, llcnriii Percye, bapthat. fnit xij" nie februarij, A", ciitj.
1581.
"Baptized IVillm. Pearcey,fiHiii'i Henrici Pearcy, 15 Decembris, 1583.
" Baptiz. Maria. Pearcye filia Henrici Percys, 27 Sepletnbris, 1590.
" Baptiz. Alicia Pearcye filia Henrici Pearci Januarij 18, Ao. q. dni. 1593.
" Septilti fuere duo ( IVillin.) filii Henrici Pearci partus 20 die /anuarij Anno
dni. 1592."
The baptism of a Francis, son of "Laurnnce Percy," and the marriage of a
"Thomas Pearcye "and Elizabeth Seamer are also quoted. In the register of
the neighbouring parish of Carlton, Bedfordshire, under date of January 30, 1596,'
is recorded the baptism of a "John, son of Laurence Percy."
4 He left two daughters, both married.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 339
the family devolved upon the " Trunkmaker." Beyond
his paternal grandfather Percy could not trace by the
evidence of any documents at his disposal. He had, how-
ever, inherited a family tradition that this first Henry,
together with three other children, brothers and sisters,
were of near kin to the Earls of Northumberland, and
that they had been brought from the North by stealth
immediately after the re-establishment of Protestantism in
1559. Of one of these brothers, his grand-uncle Robert
Percy, the Claimant had personal knowledge ; and he
claimed to be able to produce numerous witnesses from
the districts about Pavenham, Harrowden, and Horton,
who would swear to the coming of the four from the
North, and their settlement in that part of the country.
The story may seem too romantic to be true, but the
period was one which produced many stranger romances ;
and there is not wanting a very similar case which occurred
almost at the same time, and which rests upon a historical
basis. Several children of the ancient Catholic family of
Tempest of Holmside in Durham were smuggled out of
their own home by friends during the Elizabethan perse-
cutions, and sent to fosterage with respectable families in
Oxford and Kent, where they grew up as peasants, or at
least in stations far beneath the rank of their ancestors.1
Whether the Claimant's ancestors were actually brought
to Northamptonshire in this manner or not, seems past
positive proof or refutation ; but it is worth observing that
James Percy found at least one believer in his published
account of the tradition who, from her intimate knowledge
of the Northumberland family ties, deserves at least to be
heard with attention. This was Anne, Countess of Pem-
broke and Montgomery,2 a descendant of Henry Clifford,
1 Surtecs ; History of Durham (Chester Ward).
2 She was the sole daughter and heir of George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland ;
and had married, firstly, Richard Sncville, third Earl of Dorset (by whom she had
issue two daughters and co-heirs, Margaret, wife of John Tufton, Earl of
Thanet, and Isabel, wife of James Compton, Earl of Northampton) ; and secondly,
as his second wife, Philip Herbert, fourth Earl of Pembroke and first Earl of
Montgomery (by whom she had no issue).
34o THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Earl of Cumberland, by his marriage with Lady Margaret
Percy, sister of the " unlucky Earl." l It will be remem-
bered that the Earl of Cumberland was a practical
sympathiser with his luckless brother-in-law during the
latter's marital troubles, and indeed acted for a time as
guardian of the Percy estates. Lady Pembroke openly
stated at Court and elsewhere that "if the Trunkmaker
really came from Pavcnham? he must be one of those four
Percy children that in the time of the troubles in 1559 were
sent out of the North in Hampiers* to old Dame Vaux at
Harraden 4 in Northamptonshire?
The appearance of this unexpected ally upon Percy s
side startled Lady Northumberland and her agents as
much as it encouraged the Claimant. The former now
decided upon an entirely new move, with a view of dis-
concerting their adversary. Mention has been made of a
William Percy, illegitimate son of the Trunkmuker's father.
This person had been brought to London by Orlando Gee,
and was established as a glover under the patronage of
the Dowager Countess. He was persuaded without much
difficulty to put forward in his turn a claim to the Earldom,
alleging that "James Percy was either not the son of
Henry Percy of Horton, or else but a bastard." In the
Gazette was printed "a Pedigree of William Percy, set forth
to undeceive the people"', and the same publication an-
nounced that the former Claimant must be an impostor,
since the said William, and not he, was the son of Henry
Percy of Horton, late servant to Lord Bacon.
The Claimant was then lodging at the house of a I
1 See Genealogy, Table II.
» Pavenham was held te,,,p. Henry VII. by Sir Thomas Cheyne, lent , from
whom it passed to his daughter and heir Elizabeth, wife of Thomas, second Lore
Vaux of Harrowden.
' Hampers or panniers. The spelling of the word apparently puzzled Craik.
* This was the Elizabeth Cheyne, heir of Pavenham, mentioned in the above
note Lady Vaux and all l.er generation were Romanists. Her son William,
third Lord Vaux, married firstly a Beaumont of Grace Dieu, and secondly Mary
Tresham, aunt of Francis Tresham of the Gunpowder Plot.
" Case of James Percy.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 341
Chamberlaine1 ; and this gentleman, together with Colonel
William Ayres and others, accompanied James to the shop
in which his half-brother had been recently established.
At first William Percy stuck stoutly to the tale which
he had been taught ; but being a man of little intelligence
he soon became confused, and made several extraordinary
and impossible assertions, among others that his father
" was the Earl's brother." Eventually he owned that he
spoke " as the Agents told him ; for he knew nothing but
what they told him."2 To this James Percy replied that he
himself was the only surviving legitimate son of Henry
Percy of Horton, who was not an Earl's brother, but
merely the son of Henry Percy of Pavenham. William
Percy, as he fully proved by a certificated extract from the
Parish Register of Horton, was the base-born child of his
said father, by Mary Varnum, a servant of Madam Cope.
The said Henry Percy, after the downfall of Lord Bacon,
"took his wife and children and left them at Dunington in
Lincoln, and then cohabited with Mary Varnum, servant
of his wife's mother, at which old Henry the Nineth Earl
was angry." His published account of the interview, from
which the above extracts are taken, closes thus : " I
should never have uncovered my Father's Nakedness, had
not my Brother (and wicked Agents and Men hard of
Belief) forced me to it. Now suppose they had proved
Mary Varnum married, yet I was seven years elder. But
to put up a poor, ignorant man, a journeyman Glover, and
christen his Children to deceive the World,3 and to slight
the true Heir, because I was a Trunkmaker ! The Trade is
good, and by God's Blessing it hath given me bread in the
extremity of my Travaills, till I obtained the merchandiz-
ing Trade, and can make my three Sons Freemen and
Merchants of London, and Dublin in Ireland, and of
1 Perhaps, as Craik suggests, the author of The Present State of England.
2 Case of James Percy,
3 The offspring of William Percy were christened by family names such as
" Algernon," "Josceline," and " Henry " ; but there is nothing to show that this
was done by counsel of Gee, Champion, and the others.
342 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Norwich in Norfolk, and have likewise trained them up
in Handicrafts, so that if they fail in the Mystery of
Merchandizing, they may, with God's Blessing, live upon
their Ingenuity."1
This composition, evidently from his own pen, is a
specimen of the incoherent, tingrammatical manner in
which the Claimant's petitions and statements were
written ; but the allusion to his father, and the manliness
with which he avows his former position as a tradesman,
show us that he was a person of strong natural feeling,
and rugged honesty of character. The claim of William
Percy that his father " was brother to the Earl " is ex-
plained by the pretended line of descent which Gee and
Champion drew up for him. Their first intention was to
make him out a son of that William Percy of Oxford (third
son of the eighth Earl) whose strange secluded life ended
in 1648 ; but they subsequently changed their minds, and
in the descent claimed for him in the Gazette, he is alleged
to have been a son of Henry, Lord Percy of Alnwick,
(brother of the tenth Earl), begotten, it was suggested,
while the latter was masquerading as plain Henry Percy
at Horton in Northamptonshire.2 But in truth one story
was well-nigh as good as another in the eyes of Gee and
his confederates ; their sole intention being to embarrass
the Claimant, James Percy, by vexatious cross-suits, and
to drive him from the field, after which it would be easy
enough to get rid of the journeyman glover by proving
that his father and mother had never been married. The
unlooked-for breakdown of William Percy's evidence in
the presence of several reputable witnesses, and the irre-
futable proofs that he was an illegitimate brother of James,
upset these plans altogether. Indeed the failure of the
clumsy scheme, together with the declaration of Lady
Pembroke, had the etlect of placing the Claimant in a
far better position than before, and of vastly increasing the
number of his sympathisers.
In Trinity Term 1674, James Percy brought an action
1 Case of James Percy. 2 Craik.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 343
for slander in the Court of King's Bench, against John
Clarke, one of Lady Northumberland's agents. Clarke
had called him an impostor. The case was tried by Sir
Edward Hales ; and although several of the plaintiff's wit-
nesses failed to appear, Hales declared in open court that
the plaintiff had proved himself "a true Percy, legitimate
for three generations, of the blood of the Percies of North-
umberland." The judge further expressed it as his belief,
from the evidence, that Percy " was cousin and next heir
of Josceline, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, only he was
afraid that he had taken his descent a little too low.1 He
then advised the plaintiff to come better prepared next
time. For the present he must submit to a non-suit. We
have no means of discovering the nature of the evidence
produced which led Hales to make this remarkable state-
ment, except it be that Percy brought forward witnesses
to prove the statements alluded to in his comments upon
a subsequent trial : —
" Had Justice Scroggs2 suffered the Witnesses to speak
at the Tryal, it would have been sufficiently prov'd that
James Percy and Henry Percy were brothers, and the
sons of Henry Percy that was sent out of the North ....
and were so owned by Henry the ninth Earl and his
seven brethren, and did oft visit each other.
"Algernoon the tenth Earl did own James the Unkle
in Ireland to be the next Heir, if the Brother, Henry
Lord Percy, died without Issue Male of his Body ; and
sent James Percy, the Unkle of James the Clay men t £100
into Ireland ; and likewise did often own James Percy
the Trunkmaker, and give him Money, and acknowledged
that he was the next Heir Male if his Son should dye
and leave no Heire-males of his Body.
"Henry Lord Percy (brother of Algernoon) did de-
clare on his Deathbed that James Percy a Trunkmaker
was the next Heir, if his Brother's Son should die.
" Joscelin the eleventh Earl, beyond Sea, did declare
upon his death-bed, 'That James Percy the Trunk-Maker
1 i.e. from Sir Richard Percy (d. 1647). • Who tried the later case.
344 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
in Ireland was the next Heir-Male, if he were living;' and
Cryed out ' Oh that he were here now.' " 1
If indeed the Claimant was able to produce witnesses
to prove that he had been recognised as next heir of
the blood by three successive Earls of Northumberland,
and by Henry, Lord Percy, Sir Edward Hales would
have been justified, in spite of the absurd claim of de-
scent from Sir Richard Percy, in expressing a favourable
opinion of the plaintiff's case. If no such evidence was
laid before him, this public pronouncement appears in the
last degree unwarrantable. But it is hard to believe that
Hales could so commit himself without good and suffi-
cient reason.
But the Claimant was as far as ever from obtaining
that which he sought most earnestly, viz. a search warrant
Nwiin f *° examme the family papers in Henry Cham-
descent pion's care. In the absence of such authority,
•'•'privilege " ne se* himself to follow Justice Hales' advice,
bars the and to seek out a likelier great-grandfather
with such help as the hints of Lady Pembroke
and hearsay evidence of friends could give him. This
time he chose as his ancestor Sir Ingelgram Percy, third
son of the lifth Earl — that same Sir Ingelgram who,
after being associated with his brother Sir Henry in the
" Pilgrimage of Grace," suffered imprisonment in the Tower,
and there scrawled the pathetic legend, " INGGRAM PERCY.
Saro fidcli.'"* An action was instituted against Sir John
Coplestone, "trustee for Lady Clifford," for the recovery
of certain lands in the county Somerset,3 which the
Trunkmaker claimed as belonging of right to the heir
male of the House of Percy, but which, after the death
of Josceline, had been granted to Lady Clifford 4 by the
Crown. Other extensive landed estates held by the
1 Caseofjamts Percy.
2 See ante, under the sixth Earl. See also Genealogy, Table II.
3 The estate of Cannington, Somerset.
• Wife of Thomas, Lord Clifford, of the "Cabal" Ministry.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 345
eleventh Earl and his predecessors had also lapsed to
the Crown at the former's death, and had, in a similar
way, been bestowed upon Court favourites, such as the
Duke of Monmouth, so that in this suit Percy found
himself opposed, openly or in secret, by a number of
wealthy and influential persons. Sir John Coplestone
(declares the Claimant) sheltered himself for as long a
time as he could under a plea of Privilege, based upon
his being the representative of a peeress ; but the case
was at length brought up for trial, when Justice Scroggs
refused to admit the evidence of many of Percy's wit-
nesses, and a verdict was therefore returned in favour of
Coplestone, with .£80 costs, which the plaintiff was ordered
to pay into Court without delay.
The Claimant, according to his custom, published a
manifesto after this defeat, in which he abandoned the
pretended descent from Sir Richard Percy altogether, and
asserted that the four children sent " in hampiers from the
North " to Lady Vaux of Harrowden, were the offspring of
Sir Ingelgram Percy. To accept this pedigree, as Craik
points out, is to admit that the Claimant's grandfather
Henry (as a son of Sir Ingelgram) was at least seventy-five
or seventy-six years of age before his son's marriage, and
ninety before the birth of his illegitimate grandson, William
the glover. "Intervals," remarks this author, "by no
means impossible, but yet considerably beyond what are
usual." l There existed, however, another piece of circum-
stantial evidence (probably unknown at the time, certainly
not alluded to either by James Percy or his opponents)
which tends to prove that Sir Ingelgram was not the father
of the " Four Percies of Pavenham." This was Sir Ingel-
gram's will, made shortly before his death, in which no
mention is made of any offspring save a daughter,2 who,
from the wording of the document in question, may be
1 Romance of the Peerage.
2 She married Tempest of Broughton. The will, dated June 7, 1538, was
probated March 21, 1539. Sir Ingelgram left £20 to his daughter Isabell till
of lawful age, and a sum of twenty marks for her mother (name not given).
346 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
assumed to have been illegitimate. It is possible, of course,
that Sir Ingelgram may, for reasons of his own, have
omitted the names of his legitimate children from his will.
His uncle, Josceline Percy, for instance, in a will presently
to be quoted, did not make any mention of his undoubted
son, Edward Percy. But, on the other hand, it can be
readily shown that Edward was son of Josceline ; whereas
no known evidence of any sort exists to indicate that Sir
Ingelgram was even married. Moreover the latter died in
1540 — nineteen years before the date upon which the
" Four Percies " were said to have been brought from the
North, so that these young persons, if they were indeed
children of Sir Ingelgram, must have long passed the age
at which they could be concealed in hampers or panniers.
Altogether the assumed descent of James Percy from
Sir Ingelgram (in the third degree at least) appears highly
improbable ; and the Claimant would have been well advised
had he abandoned it in its turn and directed his attention
to the progeny of Josceline of Newlands, brother of the
fifth Earl, among whom he might well have found the
great-grandfather that he looked for. But his advisers
evidently believed (and their opinion was shared by so
skilled a genealogist as Sir William Dugdale) that the
Newlands branch was too remote for their purpose.
While he laboured to discover evidence of Sir Ingelgram
Percy's marriage, valuable time was slipping by, and im-
portant witnesses (like Thomas Bushell, his father's friend) 1
were dying. At last, in 1676, he returned to London
without having found anything new in support of his
claim.
On June 13 in that year he began an action "against
John Blackeston, Esquire,2 for slander and defamation.
The case was removed from the Guildhall to the King's
Bench, Westminster, and was thus delayed for eleven
months. It eventually came up for trial on May 7, 1677.
The plaintiff, with the aid of two of his sons, had engaged
1 Bushell died in 1674.
- Another agent of the Dowager Countess of Northumberland.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 347
" no fewer than fourteen counsel," and had subpoenaed
sixty-five witnesses. The sum of the distances travelled by
these witnesses, he informs us, amounted to " full four
thousand miles." Under the circumstances it is not sur-
prising to learn that Percy's preliminary expenses were
very large. It must have been a cruel blow to the un-
fortunate man, when, after all his preparations, disburse-
ments, and delays, he was after all dismissed without a
hearing! Once more the hateful question of Privilege
barred the way. Blackeston, through his counsel, protested
against the case being even entered upon, inasmuch as he
was the servant or agent of the Countess Dowager and of
the young Elizabeth, Baroness Percy, being steward of their
courts and receiver of their rents. As he was actually in
their employment when the alleged slanders were uttered,
he claimed to be protected by " Privilege of Peerage."
"Whereupon," says Percy in his subsequent Memorial to
the House of Commons,1 " all your Petitioner's Counsell
refused to plead, altho' the Court would have heard them,
and proceeded to trial upon the Cause : but the Counsell
replied 'they had no mind to goto the Tower, some of
them having been there before.' And thus the Trial was
put off. Whereupon Mr. Justice Wilde, hearing these
things, stood up and said in open Court : ' Fye, fye,
Gentlemen; is this -a time to insist upon Privilege, when
you forced the plaintiff to the Trial, and have put him to
so great Expense, Travel, and Labour ? you do but cast
cold Water upon your Cause. It is not the first time this
Cause hath been before this Court.' " Blackeston, on being
questioned, avowed that "in any event the Countess was to
bear him harmless." In spite of Justice Wilde's remon-
strance the lawyers were afraid to plead, and the trial was
practically still-born. Percy's sixty-five witnesses jour-
neyed back the "full four thousand miles" which they had
traversed to give evidence in his favour, and, worse than
all, the poor Claimant was condemned in costs, because his
own lawyers had refused to face the bugbear of Privilege.
1 Percy's Memorial to the House of Commons. Also the Case cf James Percy.
348 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
As long as his money held out, however, the Trunk-
maker was determined to continue the contest even while
such unfair weapons were used against him. On May 14
of the same year he actually succeeded in winning a case
(although a very small one). The names of the defendants
have not been preserved, but they were sued in the Court
of King's Bench, Westminster (probably before the same
Justice Wilde), and a verdict obtained against them for
^300 damages on the charge of "scandalizing the Claim-
ant's right and title." It is doubtful whether these damages
were ever collected. At any rate we find Percy in the
following year (1678) petitioning the House of Commons
in these terms : —
" Your Petitioner hath been all along perplexed and
troubled by many suits at law, unjustly commenced against
him by the agents of the defendants, or some of them, on
purpose to tire him out and ruin him by chargeable de-
fences ; and it is now almost eight years since he began
his claim ... all of which time he hath vigourously and
industriously pursued his right though against so great and
unequal force and opposition that he hath not been able
to prevail ; and therefore humbly craves leave to bring
the state of his case and the narrative of his proceedings
before this honourable House, imploring their assistance
to appear, mediate, and interpose in his behalf."
Parliament had other and more serious things to think
of, however, than petitions from peerage claimants. Gates
and Bedloe had just " revealed " what they called the
Popish Plot, the Test Act had passed both Houses, and
the country was in a ferment. Percy's memorial was
accordingly still unread, when Parliament was prorogued
and dissolved by the King in January 1679. A few weeks
later, on February 6, the case against Blackeston came
up for the second and last time. The defendant once
more pleaded "Peerage Privilege" as a protection, and
Percy was non-suited. His counsel now told him that
his only hope of relief lay in a special Act of Parliament.
Deeply dejected, he resolved to pay a visit to Ireland
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 349
(whither he had not been for eight years), in order to
" Inform, Incourage, and Direct his eldest son Anthony
Percy," together with the latter's brothers, Henry and
John.1 It is likely that he also wished -to raise money, for
his once well-filled purse had been sadly depleted by the
heavy losses which he had undergone.
When the Claimant returned to England in the autumn
of 1679, he found that yet another Parliament had met,
and been in turn dissolved,2 without giving any
attention to his case. One of his first actions was,
cruel jest of on October 21, to address a petition to James,
MonnTou^h: Duke of York. Why he should have looked for
-Privilege" ajcj or rei;ef {o thjs quarter is hard to say.
again.
James had been deprived by the Test Act of
all his offices and dignities ; and Monmouth, Shaftesbury,
and the Protestant party were clamouring for the passage
of an Exclusion Act, whereby the "royal papist" might
even be prevented from inheriting the Crown. Percy him-
self may have been a Catholic ; or he may have merely
addressed James from a feeling of pique against the
House of Commons, which had left his memorial un-
answered. The Duke advised him to address the King ;
and this he did in two petitions, one dated November 25,
and another December 18, 1679. The old ground is gone
over once more, and bitter complaint is made that "the
True Heir, looking after his birth-right, should be put in
the Gazet for an impostor. ... It is very sad when a
Lost Dog shall find Entrance and a Just man be kept
Out." The " lost dog " referred to is apparently the weak-
minded Lord Ogle, who had been married early in the
same year to Lady Elizabeth Percy, and who had there-
upon assumed the name and arms of Percy. On that
occasion the Claimant had sent from Dublin to the office
1 Petition to the King (1679). From this it will be seen that the Claimant's
sons were all three now in Ireland, and that the two younger had left or lost
their "merchandizing" businesses in Norwich and London.
2 This was the Habeas Corpus Parliament, dissolved May 27, 1679, after a
session of less than three months.
350 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of the Gazette, for publication, the following characteristic
advertisement : —
" Whereas the Lord Ogle is published in Print to have
changed his name from Cavendish to Percy upon his
marriage with the Lady Elizabeth Percy. James Percy,
Esquire, the true Heir-Male of the Blood of the House of
Northumberland, that hath stood to Justify his claim about
Ten Years, and hath proved himself a Legitimate Percy in
the King's Bench, doth likewise Publish to the World that
he will Justify his Right durante vita, and hopes the Publick
will not be deceived by any Artifice ; for he desires no
more but a free, legal, and final determination of his said
Claim. Fiat Justicia & mat Calum ! J. P."
This announcement he now quotes in full to the King.
He is also bold enough to object because George Fitz-Roy,
natural son of Charles, had been created Earl of Northum-
berland. In this petition also he refers to a relationship
which will call for notice presently — that which he claims
as existing between himself and Francis Percy of Cam-
bridge, who afterwards came forward with the endorse-
ment of Sir William Dugdale to assert his own alleged
rights to the Earldom. James Percy, speaking of those
who, after himself and his posterity, stand next in the
order of succession, says : " Now for Alexander Percy,
gentleman, of Ireland, that rides in the Life Guards ; and
Mr. Roger Percy, shoemaker at Charing Cross ; and Mr
Francis Percy, stone-cutter of Cambridge, and his brother a
tailor ; I acknowledge them to be cousins and descended
from the sons of Robert Percy, my great-uncle. And by
reason I know not which is the eldest and nearest of kin
of that collateral line, therefore I humbly pray that the
Heralds may take notice, and help them to find out the
truth seriously. For my cordial endeavours are to preserve
the moon * from being misted or eclipsed any more." -
1 i.e. the crescent moon, badge of the House of Percy.
2 In a species of postscript to his petition, the Claimant mentions as among
his cousins "Captain Percy of Beverley, a descendant of the fourth Earl," and
"Sir Thomas Percy, a descendant of the second Earl." In the first of these
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 351
This long petition (which, if it ever really reached the
King's eyes, probably amused his Majesty vastly) was
drawn up and signed at the Claimant's new lodgings "at
Mr. Curtis his house in Windsor Court, Mugwell Street,
near Cripplegate " ; after which Percy presented it in person
" at the office of Sir William Glasco, Master in Waiting,"
where he was told to call for an answer on December 22.
This he did, but Glasco could not or would not see him.
He returned on the following day, when " Sir William
returned this answer by his Maid-Servant that he was
busie with some friends, and that the King would hear
nothing until after the Christmas Hollidays." So that no
more satisfaction was obtainable from the King than from
the Parliament or the Law Courts.
Windsor Court, Mugwell Street, wherein James Percy
on his part spent the Christmas of 1679 anything but
delectably, was a small byway once the approach to
Nevill's Inn, wherein the Nevills, Earls of Westmoreland,
had formerly resided.1 In Mugwell, otherwise Monkwell
Street, stood Barber Surgeons' Hall ; and hardly was Grub
Street more " celebrated for the (supposed) residence of
authors of the less fortunate tribe, and the trite and illiterate
jests of the more favoured." Of the Mr. Curtis in whose
house Percy lodged, nothing is known. The " Christmas
Hollidays" of 1679-80 found the Claimant in the thick of a
lawsuit with his former attorney, Thomas Swayne, who
had now turned against him, and whom he terms "a greate
scoundrel." 2 On one occasion while walking with Henry
Champion, Lady Northumberland's agent,3 in Temple
Gardens, the latter asked him who had helped him to
one recognises Alan Percy of Beverley, who died 1687 [see Genealogy, Table III.] ;
while the second was probably Captain Thomas Percy of Dormer's regiment,
who was of Bishop Percy's kin, and who died in Spain 1709-10.
1 In the fourth of Henry IV., Ralph, Earl of Westmoreland, died possessed of
this mansion. It afterwards passed to the Lords Windsor, from whom the court
took its name.
1 Case of James Percy. Petition to the House of Lords.
3 Curiously enough he appears to have continued on terms of intimacy with
Champion, Gee, and others of the Dowager's chief advisers.
352 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
his attorney. " I believe yourself or the devil sent him to
me," answered Percy. At last he could support Swayne's
exactions and mismanagement no longer, and accordingly
dismissed him. The lawyer had fattened upon his client
for so long that he could not bring himself to let Percy go
so easily. Accordingly he got up three successive suits
against him, the litigation lasting in all three years. But
Percy clearly had the rights of it, for Swayne was "cast in
all three cases." He eluded every attempt to lay hands
upon him, however, and the Claimant never recovered the
costs allowed him in the three suits. It is possible that
Swayne had something to do with stirring up James Percy's
cousin, Francis of Cambridge, to claim the earldom ; at
least it is an odd coincidence that Swayne's dismissal
was almost immediately followed by Francis Percy's
claim.
The suit by dint of which the attorney harassed his
former client during the winter of 1679-80 dealt with a
sum of money which he asserted had been promised to
him for opening up negotiations for a marriage between
Anthony Percy of Dublin, eldest son of the Claimant, and
one of the daughters of Viscount Newport (afterwards
Earl of Bradford). Careful examination into this strange
affair leads to the conclusion that it was nothing more
than a hoax or practical joke, conceived in very bad taste,
and aimed equally at Lord Newport and James Percy.
Furthermore, it would appear that the young Duke of
Monmouth was at the bottom of the affair. Newport was
a man of rank and property,1 Lord-Lieutenant of Shrop-
shire, and for some time Treasurer of the Household. He
had married Lady Diana Russell, daughter of Francis,
fourth Earl of Bedford. It is scarcely possible that a man
of such position and connections should be willing to
bestow the hand of his daughter upon a Dublin merchant
1 Francis Newport, Viscount Newport, created Earl of Bradford in 1694, was
born in 1620 and died in 1708. His grandchild and the eventual representative
of the family married Sir Orlando Bridgman, from whom descends the present
Karl of Bradford.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 353
of moderate fortune, the son of the poor "Trunkmaker"
who did not even possess enough credit to procure the
reading of his petition at Court. Yet the attorney, Swayne,
persuaded Percy that Newport was willing to enter into
such an alliance, adding "that a marriage between Anthony
and one of the Ladies Newport would go far to set matters
to rights," since the Viscount was hand-in-glove with
Monmouth, "the Protestant Prince," and owned a joint
share in a sum of .£12,000 for which the Duke had sold
some of the lapsed Percy estates which he had been
granted. However Swayne (or his probable prompter,
Monmouth) managed things, "a preliminary interview"
actually took place between the " Trunkmaker " and Lord
Newport. Subsequently Swayne took his dupe to visit
Monmouth, who assured Percy that he would aid the
proposed Newport alliance to the best of his ability. Duke
Absalom also "told the Complainant (Percy) that he should
have a fair trial at law, and if the Claimant proved himself
heir male, God forbid he should hinder him. Upon which
the Complainant returned with great joy ; posted away
into Northumberland, and delivered declarations in eject-
ment upon those lands the Duke had recovered of the
Countess upon pretence that there was no heir male of the
Percies living."
Monmouth took care to drop Lady Northumberland
a hint of what was afoot (he was deeply interested in
the wooing of Lady Elizabeth Percy by his friend, Mr.
Thomas Thynn), with the result that the Dowager Coun-
tess endeavoured with all her might to make the Claimant's
northern journey an unpleasant one. At York the latter
was arrested on two trumped up charges of fraud, and he
even asserts that when he reached Newcastle an attempt
was made upon his life. The declarations in ejectment
having been duly served, however, the trial came on,
Percy fully expecting the fair play promised him. To his
utter surprise, a plea of Privilege was set up by Mon-
mouth's counsel, which, of course, stopped the proceedings ;
"whereupon the Claimant went to Mr. Rosse, the Duke's
II. Z
354 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
secretary, to know why it was so, when the Duke did
promise he would not stand upon Privilege, but a fair
trial should be had. Mr. Rosse replied that the Duke
could not set aside his privilege." Percy found that the
prospect of an alliance between his son Anthony and
Lord Newport's daughter was equally illusory, for New-
port, when called upon, denied all knowledge of the affair,
which we therefore take to be a cruel jest perpetrated at
the Claimant's expense by Monmouth, with Swayne for
accessory. The double disappointment dazed Percy for
a time, and he disappeared from his old haunts in White-
hall and Westminster, being quite " wildernised " (as he
expresses it) by the wanton trick played upon him by
" that great and good prince, King Monmouth." At this his
enemies went about boasting that " the ten years' Claimant
was run away " ; which speedily drew him forth from his
retirement, and caused him to issue a new manifesto.
" By God's Providence," he wrote, " I remain at Mr. Ralph
Carter's house, a trunkmaker's in Fleet Street, over against
Sergeant's Inn, where the messenger may find James
Percy to serve the King's royal Writ of Summons."
A few weeks after the opening of the new, or fourth,
Parliament of Charles II., a petition was presented in the
House of Lords, on behalf of the Claimant, desiring that
a day might be appointed for him to be heard to make out
his title. The " Popish Plot," and the coming impeach-
ment of the unfortunate Viscount Stafford, occupied the
minds of the Peers, but they found time to briefly de-
bate Percy's plea. Eventually it was rejected by a large
majority. The Earl of Anglesey spoke stoutly in favour
of the Claimant, as he had done on a former occasion ;
and protested against the decision arrived at on the
grounds — (i) that the claim was one which could be
examined nowhere but in that House ; (2) that it was
unjust to reject any claim without a hearing; (3) that
'the course taken was contrary to precedent and con-
stant usage ; and (4) that the dismissal of the claim
by a former Parliament was no sufficient reason in the
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 355
circumstances why it should not be reconsidered by the
present.
It was certainly a new case, and involved new evi-
dence. " A claim of succession," says Craik, " whether to
honours or property, has its essence or entire substance
and meaning in the line of descent along which it is traced,
and its having been disproved when traced by one line,
can have no effect or bearing whatever upon its validity
when traced by another."
One of the witnesses whom James Percy had sum-
moned to give evidence in his behalf was a worthy trades-
man of Cambridge, Francis Percy by name.
cuiTant: As we have seen, the "Trunkmaker" called this
the "stone- man his cousin, the grandson of his uncle
lowsthe Robert; but it is uncertain whether Francis
"Trunk- ever admitted the relationship, or whether he
maker.
was one of the sixty-five witnesses who came to
London in 1677 to attend the suit against Blackeston.
Four years afterwards, however, when Parliament rejected
the plea of James Percy for the second time, Francis of
Cambridge resolved to try his own luck as a claimant to
the Earldom of Northumberland. At this time he was
only thirty-two years of age,1 and a stonecutter by trade ;
but, like his kinsman the " Trunkmaker," he afterwards
rose by force of industry to " the mystery of merchan-
dizing," and became Alderman and eventually (in 1709)
Mayor of Cambridge. The characters of the two claimants,
indeed, showed a strong family likeness ; and their fates
might have been similar, but the younger man was de-
terred by the disastrous example of the elder from wasting
his life and fortune in a profitless war against the power
and privileges of those " in possession."
In 1681, therefore, Francis Percy came to London
to consult the officials of the Heralds' College as to the
possibilities of his being the true heir of Northumberland.
He too could only trace as far as his grandfather, one
Robert Percy (whom the "Trunkmaker" claimed to have
1 Having been born at Bicklcy, county Devon, in 1649.
356 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
been his great-uncle). The tradition that this grandfather
had been carried out of Northumberland during the troubles
of a former reign was known to him ; but he also inherited
a second tradition (which the "Trunkmaker " either did not
know, or else chose to suppress), viz. that Robert Percy
was a very near relative of Thomas Percy, one of the chief
conspirators in the Gunpowder Treason. Sir William Dug-
dale received the new Claimant civilly, and finding that
Thomas Percy had actually left children, one of whom
was said to have been a Robert, advised Francis of
Cambridge to claim the conspirator as his great-grand-
father. But in examining the MS. books at his disposal
for a clue to Thomas Percy's parentage, Dugdale was
misled (doubtless by the same mutilated page which had
puzzled his predecessor Walker) into making the fanatical
constable of Alnwick the son of one who could not, in the
nature of things, have left issue. In other words he set
down Guiscard Percy, brother of the seventh and eighth
Earls, as father of Thomas ; although Guiscard had actu-
ally died in early childhood.1 We know to-day that the
conspirator was son of Edward Percy of Beverley, and
grandson of Josceline Percy of Newlands. Had either
Francis or James Percy been able to discover as much,
they might have saved themselves a world of trouble, and
perhaps even succeeded in establishing a male heir of
the old house in the place of his ancestors. At Dugdale's
direction, Francis of Cambridge did as the "Trunkmaker"
had done before him, journeying to most of the places
where his forebears, real or imaginary, had resided, and
collecting certificates from the parish registers, as well
as statements from persons who had known them. This
mass of evidence he deposited with Dugdale, who expressed
himself as well pleased, and even confident of success. The
" Stonecutter Claimant " returned to his shop in Cambridge,
and waited, somewhat impatiently, while Garter King of
Arms sifted the various proofs of descent. Several letters
passed between him and Dugdale, but he heard nothing
1 He was certainly not alive in 1537, when his father, Sir Thomas, was
executed.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 357
of any positive claim to the Earldom of Northumberland
being put forward in his behalf. At length he wrote to the
Garter King urging him to take immediate steps in this
direction, and (sly stonecutter !) sending at the same time
a present of some plump fowl from the famous Stourbridge
Fair (where he had just set up a trading booth) : — his first
step in " merchandizing."
The reply of Sir William Dugdale is thus quoted by
Banks : 2—
" SIR, — This is to let you know that this day I receaved
your kinde present of fowle; for wch I return you my hearty
thanks, but am not pleased that you have put yourself
to the charge and trouble thereof, assuring you of my
willingness to do you any service I can wthout expectance
of any such thing from you ; it being both just and reason-
able that all generous minds should readily serve you in
this business to their utmost.
" But as affairs stand at present in that noble family,
I must tell you it will not be seasonable to move for you,
the distractions and perplexities wherein all of them are,3
being so exceeding great. When I finde a proper oppor-
tunity, be confident I will not forget you. Should I move
in it now, it would be the near way to spoyle it utterly.
You must therefore expect wth patience, and be confident
that you have not any acquaintance that will more
cordially endeavour to serve you than
" Your very affectionate friend,
"WM DUGDALE.
" LONDON, Nov. 28"-, 1681.
"For Mr- frauds Percy, stone-cutter,
at his house in Cambridge."
In this letter Dugdale, however, enclosed a written
opinion upon the various certificates submitted, as well
1 See his Will, p. 364.
2 Dormant and Extinct Baronage; Appendix to vol. ii. (printed in the
Supplement), p. 29.
3 Elizabeth, Baroness Percy, had just been married, against her will, and
through the evil influence of her grandmother, to Thomas Thynn. Humours
358 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
as a pedigree which he had drafted of the stonecutter's
supposed line. The opinion (also given by Banks) is as
follows : —
" Upon the sight of the certificates, whence I have made
these brief abstracts, I am of opinion that Mr. Francis
Percy, now living and residing in Cambridge, is lineally
descended from Thomas Percy who was one of the Con-
spirators in the Gunpowder treason in the third year of
King James. (Signed) " WILLIAM DUGDALE,
" Garter Principal I King of Arms.
"JVov.g, 1681."
Banks adds a note excusing himself from printing copies
of the certificates alluded to, on the ground that the registers
from which they are mainly taken are of "a pervertible
nature," and that such evidence might be "suppressed or
removed by interested parties." Later antiquaries, how-
ever, have shown themselves more trustful of the honour
of those who succeeded to the ancient Percy heritage ;
and in Collectanea Genealogica et Heraldica, vol. ii., * may be
found the full abstract made by Sir William Dugclale from
the evidence gathered by Francis Percy. The abstract
shows the hand of a practised genealogist, and the facts
•are marshalled .with an order and a plausibility in striking
contrast to the ill-arranged and rambling statements of the
less fortunate "Trunkmaker." The three distinguished
authorities who are responsible for the authenticity of the
published version 2 explain that the original abstract passed
from the descendants of Francis Percy to the Rev. William
were afloat that Thynn had committed bigamy, and his wife had fled from him
almost at the altar steps, and taken refuge in Holland. She was supported by
her mother, and by her aunt and uncle the Earl and Countess of Essex ; while
the old Dowager Countess still continued to receive and encourage Thynn, who
was presently to meet a bloody death at the instigation of one of his wife's
admirers. The persistency of the "Trunkmaker" also added to the "noble
family's " perplexities.
1 Pages 57-63.
2 These are "Robert Surtees, F.S.A., the historian of Durham; Charles
George Young, F.S.A., York Herald ; and the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A., the
historian of South Yorkshire." — Colled. Gen. et Her,
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 359
Cole, the Cambridge archaeologist,1 in whose MSS. Collec-
tions2 it was found. It runs as follows : —
"Abstract drawn up by Sir W" Dugdale, proving Mr.
Francis Percy, now of Cambridge, to be of the line
and family of the Percys, Earls of Northumberland.
"Sept. 6, 1680. — Roger England of Taunton in Somer-
setshire, aged 80 years, cerrifieth that he married Anne
daughter of Robert, son of Thomas the Powder Traytor,
and has heard the said Robert, his wife's father, say that
he was son to Thomas Percy, who was employed in the
Powder Plot.
"Oct. n, 1680. — John Swinton, clerk of ye parish
Church of Anwick in Northumberland, aged above 80
years, affirmeth that he heard his father say that Mr
Thomas Percy and his wife lived in the Castle at Anwick
and had children, and yl after the Powder Plot for whch ye
said Thomas lost his life, his wife went to London and
lived privately there.3
" Oct. 14, 1680. — Matthew Scott of Gateshead in the
Bishoprick of Durham, aged 99 years, certifieth that he
knew Thomas Percy, who was afterwards in the Powder
Plot, Constable of Anwick Castle, and that he had a son
called Robert and two daughters, and that the said Robert
was a schoolboy at Anwick.
"Feb. 12, 1680. — Richard (sic) widow of Francis Percy,
son of Robert aforesaid, aged 76 years, sayeth that she
knew the said Robert Percy, her late husband's father, and
has often heard him say that he was the son of Thomas
Percy who was in the Powder Plot : and that, above 16
years since, ye said Francis, her late husband, purposing
1 Cole observes that he had the MS. from " Mr. Percy, a clergyman near
Peterborough." This was the Rev. Josceline Percy, grandson of Francis Percy the
" stone-cutter." With the MS. Mr. Percy gave Cole an old account of the Earls
of Northumberland from York's Mirror of Honour, bearing the autograph of the
"stone-cutter."
a Vol. iv. p. 79.
3 It is a known fact that she kepi a dame's school in High Holbom for
many years.
360 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
to make himself known to Algernon, Earl of Northum-
berland, went from Bickley in Devonshire, where he then
lived, towards London for that end, but, on his way
falling sick at Oxford, returned home, where he shortly
after died.
" From the Register Book of Anwick, it appeareth
that Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Percy of Anwick
Castle, was buried February 2nd, 1602, which was the
year preceding the Powder Plot.
" By a certificate of the 17 September 1680, taken out
of the Church Register of Wiveliscomb, Somerset, it ap-
peareth that Robert Percy did marry Emma Meade
22 Oct. 1615.
"By a certificate of ye 10 May 1680, taken out of ye
Church Register of Taunton in Somerset, it appeareth
that Francis ye son of Robert Percy was there baptized
15 April 1616.
"Out of ye register of the parish church of Bickley
in Devonshire it appeareth that Francis son of Francis
Percy was baptized 15 May 1649.
" It is apparently known in Taunton that Thomas and
James, two brothers of Francis Percy, and sons of Robert
Percy, being in arms for King Charles I. in ye time of ye
late Rebellion, were slain in those wars.
" Divers aged persons living in Anwick declare that
Thomas Percy, who was in the Powder Plot, was son of
Guiscard Percy, and that Guiscard Percy was brother to
Henry, eighth Earl of Northumberland.
" Guiscard Percy, a younger brother of Henry, 8 Earl
of Northumberland ;
" Thomas Percy, one of ye conspirators in the Powder
Plot, his son ;
" Robert Percy, of Taunton in Somerset, his son ;
" Francis Percy, of Bickley in Devon, his son ;
" Francis Percy, of Cambridge, his son, 1681.
" Upon sight of these certificates whence I have made
these brief abstracts, I am of opinion that Mr. Francis
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 361
Percy, now living in Cambridge, is lineally descended
from Thomas Percy who was one of ye Conspirators in
ye Gunpowder Treason in ye third year of King James.
(Signed) "WILLIAM DUGDALE,
" Carter Principal King of Arms.
"Nov. 9, 1 68 1."
The veracity of the Alnwick witnesses seems to be
decidedly impugned by the fact that they claimed Thomas
Percy, the conspirator, to have been a son of Guiscard
Percy. This he certainly was not, for ;
1. Guiscard Percy died in childhood.
2. Thomas Percy is admitted to have been uncle of
Josceline Percy, son of Alan Percy of Beverley, which
Alan was found by Inquisition to have been son and heir
of Edward Percy, esquire, of Beverley, who died in 1590.
The proof that Thomas was uncle of Josceline is found
in the latter's own evidence, given before the Council in
1603, when it was to his own interest to disavow the
relationship.1
The reader's attention is also directed to the fact that if
Robert Percy of Taunton were indeed the son of the con-
spirator, and a schoolboy at Alnwick just before the Gun-
powder Plot, he must have married and had children at an
unusually early age — his eldest son, Robert, having been
baptized in April 1616. It is also strange that he retained
his own name, his alleged mother (Thomas Percy's widow)
having changed hers after her husband's death,2 when she
brought her young family to London.
In the face of Francis Percy's claim of descent from the
conspirator, it must be remembered that the other claimant,
the " Trunkmaker," had first brought Francis into notice
some years before, by describing him as his cousin. Soon
after it became known that the " Stonecutter " intended to
1 Josceline Percy admitted that he was playing at primcro with other pages of
the Earl at Essex House on the night preceding the momentous 5th of November
1603, when his uncle Thomas the conspirator called upon him (Singer ; Treatise
on Cards ; quoting an Orig. Slate Paper in the Record Office).
2 Diet, of Nat. Biography.
362 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
make a claim on his own account, James Percy wrote to
his kinsman in terms which have in them so much of quiet
certainty, and which mention the names of so many rela-
tives in the male line (some of them living, and able to bear
witness at the time), that one is led to doubt the hearsay
evidence of Roger England and the others to the effect
that Robert Percy of Taunton was son of Thomas the
conspirator. The letter, quoted by Banks, is here
reproduced : —
" LONDON, A prill 3, 1688.
" COZEN FRANCIS PERCY, — As myne adversaries would
have owned thee, and have endeavoured with ye heralds to
deny mee, even so my endeavoures are yl Gods truth should
bee manifest and made knoune to the world, y' property
and right might bee preserved amongst men. My Ffather
was Henry Percy of Horton in Northamptonshire, who was
second son of Henry Percy of Pavenham in Bedfordshire,
who was first son of Sir Ingelgram Percy, third son of
Henry Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland : and your
Ffather was Ffrancis Percy the sonne of Thomas Percy,
who was sonne of Robert Percy, second son of Sir Ingel-
gram Percy.
" Notwithstanding Sir William Dugdale, principall king
at Armes, in his letter to you to clayme under Guiscard
Percy, ye sonne of Sir Thomas, who was found S.P. in
those books of Heraldry in Caijus College, Cambridge ; but
there is one Roger Percy, who was ye sonne of Henry
Percy, who was the sonne of Richard Percy, who was the
sonne of Robert Percy, second sonne of Sir Ingelgram
Percy, who sent those two sonnes and two daughters in
Hampires : Anne1 married Eson a miller inCooknoo2 in
1 Evidently one of the four children brought from the North, and sister of
Henry and Robert.
2 Cucknoe, rede Cogenhoe, is a parish in Wymmersley Hundred, in the south
of Northants. It includes a district known as Cogenhoe Urace, seven miles away,
and adjoining the parish of Horton, in which the Trunkmaker's father married
and resided for a time. The register of Cogenhoe begins in 1558. The Kev.
Peter Whalley (perhaps a relative of Nathaniel Whalley, Lady Northumber-
land's Yorkshire agent) was incumbent and patron from 1656 to 1700.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 363
Northamptonshire ; and Elenor married and had a daughter
Mary, grand-daughter of Sir Ingelgram, who is yet living
aged 85 : but whether Thomas your grandfather, or Richard
his grandfather was the eldest, I cannot tell. I believe the
Register of Cooknoo in Northamptonshire will inform you ;
Sir Robert Percy l with your grandfather lived in ye toune,
as I have been informed. I have given you this reall
account that, as I have been owned by Henry 9th Earl,
Algernoone ioth Earl, Henry Lord Percy his brother, and
Joceline nth Earl, even so I owne you two2 to bee ye next
heire-males to ye Percy, if it should please God my issue
males should dye ; therefore my desire is that you would
both bee at my tryall and enter yourselves in the Heralds
office before I dye, to prevent those troubles I have
undergone.
" I remaine,
" Your Ffaithful Kinsman,
" JAMES PERCY.
" These to Mr. Francis Percy
in Cambridge, f. sent."
In commenting upon this letter (which, be it remem-
bered, was the composition of a man of almost seventy,
worn out by a long succession of trials and disappoint-
ments), Banks justly observes : " Under these representa-
tions there is some ground to believe that James Percy was
not so exactly an impostor as has been asserted by Mr.
Collins ; but that through the hand of power he failed, like
many others who are friendless and penniless, from having
justice done to his pretensions." 3
It is worth noting that, whether the letter of James
Percy had any influence upon his actions, or whether
Dugdale advised him that his case was hopeless, Francis
Percy ceased during the following year (1689) to further
1 Meaning his own grand-uncle, Robert Percy.
2 i.e. Francis of Cambridge, and the Roger Percy his cousin mentioned above,
who was a shoemaker at Charing Cross, and probably well known to the "Trunk-
maker."
3 Extinct Baronage ; Appendix to vol. ii. p. 32.
364 THE HOUSE OP PERCY
agitate his claim to the Earldom of Northumberland. In
the city of Cambridge he increased in wealth and dignity,
becoming Alderman and Mayor of that place. He died on
May 6, 1717; and his will (dated March 26, 1716, proved
June 20, 1717) was summarised as follows: "The Will
of Francis Percy of Cambridge, esquire. He bequeathes to
his son Charles, and to his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of
Dr. Perkins, all his freehold estate in the town of Cam-
bridge, in equal shares. To his said daughter, Elizabeth,
with remainder to his son Charles, the first of his three
booths in Sturbridge Fair. To his daughter Margaret
Trevor with remainder to his son Charles, the second of his
said booths. To his son Charles, the third booth unre-
servedly. To his daughter Margaret Trevor £200. To his
daughter Anne, wife of Mr. Henry Crispe, clerk, ^6 yearly.
Small bequests to his niece, Mary Percy ; 1 to his son,
Francis Percy ; and to his daughter Burge. The residue
to Charles Percy." 2 The testator's eldest son, Charles, was
a Common Councillor of Cambridge, and died in 1743,
leaving a son, the Rev. Josceline Percy, M.A., Rector of
Marham in Northamptonshire, who died without male
issue. For the rest of Francis Percy's known descendants
(now believed to be extinct in the male line) the reader is
referred to the Genealogy of the House of Percy, Table III.,
in this work.
Meanwhile James Percy, the " Trunkmaker," had lin-
gered on in London, enduring the direst poverty, and
The last of unable for that reason to take any further legal
james Percy steps to regain what he obstinately and honestly
'Un' held to be his rights. His sons in Ireland sent
him only enough to live upon in the most sparing
manner, confident that any further efforts of his to
claim the Earldom would be useless. But if they hoped in
this manner to induce him to abandon his vain hopes and
return home, they were disappointed. In spite of his
1 Probably daughter of that tailor brother of whom James Percy spoke.
2 Prob. C. Cat/id. , 124 Fox.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 365
weight of years and sorrows, the "Trunkmaker" was
resolved to fight the battle to the last. The next important
stroke, however, was destined to come from his opponents.
Elizabeth, Baroness Percy, had married, as her third
husband, the Duke of Somerset, a man of whom it was
truly said that his pride of rank was so great that it partook
of the nature of a mania. To one of Somerset's character,
the very thought that the " Trunkmaker " still asserted his
claims in public places, and even dared to call himself the
"true heir of Northumberland," proved galling beyond en-
durance. He resolved to put an end to what seemed to him
almost lese majeste. Accordingly, when the first Parliament
of James II assembled,1 a memorial was presented to the
House of Lords from Charles Duke of Somerset and
Elizabeth his wife, complaining that James Percy "con-
tinued falsely to assume the title of Earl of Northumber-
land," and praying for interference. This document was
duly read on Monday, June i, and referred to the
Committee on Privileges. Percy heard of the matter, and
lost little time in replying, "for as a Percy, he held himself
as good as any Seymour whose ancestors, these less than
two hundred years past, had jumped into place and honour
by the help of a King's chance love." On June 12, a
packet of papers was found upon the table of the House of
Lords thus superscribed —
" Percy's Petition of Complaint ; and the two Petitions
that were wanting are annexed, humbly praying that they
may be read ; and he shall ever pray. Equal Justice do,
or tell the Reason Why."
The packet was not opened ; but, its nature being
understood, was despatched forthwith to the Committee on
Privileges with instructions to examine and report upon the
contents at the same time as upon the Duke of Somerset's
memorial. Within a week Parliament adjourned, and only
sat for a few days during the following November. There
is no record that the Committee on Privileges made any
report, and the matter was apparently neglected. To the
1 On May 25, 1685.
366 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Parliament which met (or rather which reorganised itself) l
immediately after the Revolution, Percy again applied ;
addressing a second " Petition of Complaint" to the House
of Lords. As in the former case, his appeal was referred
to the Committee on Privileges. On May 28 this Com-
mittee sent back its report through the Earl of Bridge-
water. It proved to be of a most hostile character, and
recommended that no countenance whatsoever should be
given to the petitioner ; but that, on the contrary, a day
should be appointed to consult as to the propriety of taking
proceedings against him. The Committee also held that
Percy's " presumption in styling himself right and lawful
Earl of Northumberland" was "insolent and injurious" to
the House. "Besides," continued Bridgewater, "there are
several scandalous reflections therein on the Duke and
Duchess of Somerset, which their lordships leave to the
censure of the House." On this the Lords appointed
Tuesday, June n, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, for the
hearing of counsel on the part of the Duke of Somerset,
and of James Percy. The hearing probably took place,
but as it was over before noon on the same day, Percy
could not have had much opportunity to plead his cause,
and it is certain that no witnesses were examined on either
side. There was no Anglesey to demand a fair hearing for
the aged and friendless "Trunkmaker" ; and the House of
Lords resolved without debate that his pretentions were
"groundless, false, and scandalous." His Petition of Com-
plaint was therefore dismissed ; and it was ordered that he
himself " should be brought before the Four Courts in
Westminster Hall, wearing upon his breast a paper having
writ on it "The False and Impudent Pretender to the
Earldom of Northumberland," for which punishment the
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod was "authorised to
attach his person forthwith."2
1 This Parliament had originally been only a Convention, but was converted
into a Parliament (as many thought illegally) by a Bill passed through both
Houses, and assented to by William and Mary on February 23, 1689.
- Journals of the House of Lords.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 367
It is probable that Percy succeeded in escaping before
he could be seized, or else that on account of his age
— he was now threescore and ten — the sentence was
subsequently remitted. There is no record, at least, that
his punishment ever took place. He disappeared from
London, his stubborn spirit utterly crushed by the collapse
of all his hopes. Perhaps Dublin was his place of refuge ;
but the very time and place of his death remain un-
certain. It will always remain a blot upon the fame
of the Dowager Countess of Northumberland and her
agents, that he was not allowed a fair hearing during
the first ten years of his struggle. Indeed the very facts
that he was so evidently hampered and harassed by the
Countess, and that it was thought necessary to appeal
to Privilege in order to prevent his cases from coming
to trial, must necessarily continue to afford a suspicion
that there was something in the claims of James Percy
after all. To quote the verdict of Craik upon the
subject : " His case can hardly be said to be satisfac-
torily disposed of, so long as his true descent remains
unascertained." x
His eldest son, Sir Anthony Percy, became Lord
Mayor of Dublin in 1699, and was knighted at the close
of his term of office. A grandson, Henry Percy of Seskin,
co. Wicklow, at one time published a pamphlet, now very
rare, in which he reviewed and renewed James Percy's
claim to the Earldom. This branch is now supposed to
be extinct in the male line. But the Claimant's two
younger sons also left descendants. One of them, John
Percy of Ballintemple, King's County, was granted by
Sir William Betham, Ulster King of Arms, the following
armorial bearings in evident recognition of Percy's
claimed descent from the House of Northumberland : —
" Quarterly, Ist and 4"', or a lion rampant azure between
3 trefoils slipped vert ; 2nd and 3"', azure 5 fusils in fesse
or between 2 trefoils slipped argent; all within a border
1 Romance of the Peerage,
368 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
gobony gules and argent" 1 Among the descendants of the
"Trunkmaker" in the female line may be counted the
Right Hon. Lord Oranmore and Browne, and Sir Thomas
Pierce Butler, tenth Bart., of Garryhundon, co. Carlow.
While James Percy, the "Trunkmaker," and Francis
of Cambridge were waging an unequal warfare against
The most tne Dowager Countess, confident of the jus-
probabie tice of their claims, yet unable to prove their
heir male of V.
Northumber- ancestry beyond the second generation, there
land dwelt in England a certain country gentleman
who could show a clear and undeniable descent from the
House of Percy, and who, in the minds of such careful
antiquaries as Surtees, Hunter, and Young, was entitled,
after the decease of Earl Josceline, to call himself twelfth
EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND. This was Alan Percy of
Beverley, whom the "Trunkmaker" quite correctly de-
scribed as " a descendant of the fourth Earl."
There was no question of a missing great-grandfather
in Alan Percy's case, nor did any portion of his family
history rest upon the uncertain basis of mere tradition.
Every step in his line of descent can be proved with
minute accuracy. Why he did not assert his claims,
or why the heralds (of whom Dugdale, at least, was as
disinterested as he was zealous) did not call attention
to them, can only be explained upon the alternative
suppositions (i) that Percy and the heralds were alike
ignorant of the true value of the former's admitted relation-
ship to the senior stock of Northumberland, or (2) that
the vague assertions of James Percy were secretly known
to be correct. In any case, the claims of the "Trunk-
maker" and his branch having been set aside, no apparent
obstacle stood between Mr. Percy of Beverley and the
1 From this John Percy claim descent George Percy of Ballylonan, near
Frankford, King's County, and John Percy of Clononeen, Borris-in-Ossory,
Queen's County, either of whom may be the male representative of old James
Percy, the "Trunkmaker," and his claims. A Henry Percy also resides at
Laikfield, near Athlone, and claims to l>e a descendant of James Percy.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 369
Earldom. For not even the brazen Dowager Countess,
or her agents Gee and Champion, could deny that the
Yorkshire squire was a legitimate male relative of Earl
Josceline. Add to this that his blood was unaffected by
the attainder of 1537, and it will be seen that, had
he actually succeeded, it would have been to the ancient
Earldom of 1377, and not to that created anew in the
reign of Queen Mary.
Alan Percy of Beverley, apparently twelfth Earl of
Northumberland, sprang from Josceline Percy, fourth
and youngest son of the fourth Earl. This Josceline in-
herited an estate called Newland or Newlands, as well as
property in the town of Beverley. Earlier in this work1
will be found an account of his having been poisoned
by three of his servants, and of the fruitless endeavours
of his brother Sir William Percy, K.B., to bring these
miscreants to justice. Josceline had married Margaret
Frost, daughter and heir of Walter Frost of Beverley.2
At the time of his death, he was again contracted in
marriage to Cecily Boynton. His will, which was never
proved (owing to the fact that his guilty domestics
had stolen all his money and movable goods), is as
follows : —
" Josselyn Percy of Newland, Esquier, 7 Sept. 1532 : to be
buried when God shall dispose? To Jennet my chief hous-
wife at Newland, and other my women servants there, to
praye for me, Xs. ; to A mor Banastre, servant to my dearly
beloved brother Sir William Percy, taking paynes with me,
one horse ; to Katherin Retcliff, gentlewoman to my sister-in-
law, one cowe ; to Ann Cotton, my wives gentlewoman,
6s. %d. ; to my dearly beloved sister Dame Margaret Percy,
wife of my brother, Sir Wm. Percy, to pray for me,
6s. &d. ; My brother Sir W'" Percy, and my dearly beloved
contracted wife Cecily Boynton, tlie late wife of Thomas
Boynton, Esquier, my Executors. Witnesses: — Stephen Con-
i i.e. at pp. 217, 218, vol. i. 2 Whose will bears date 1528.
3 He was actually interred in the Church of Great Sandal, where a tomb
stands to his memory.
II. 2 A
370 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
stable, Esquier ; Robert Pemmerton, servant to Sir Wm
Ayscough. — (Nulla probatus inseritur.)" The expression
"taking pains with me" may allude to efforts made to
resuscitate the testator after he had been poisoned and
left for dead. No mention is made here of Josceline's
children by his deceased wife ; yet we know that he had
at least one — Surtees says two1 — sons by her. In the will
of her father, Walter Frost, mention is made of his grand-
son and future heir Edward Percy. At the period of his
father's death, September 8, 1532, Edward Percy was nine
years of age. He had no doubt been carried off, with
his father's money and movable gear, by the poisoners
Snawdell and West, when they fled from Newlands to
Walton Hall, and took refuge with Sir Thomas Waterton.2
We have seen that, young as he was, Edward Percy was
already "married" to Elizabeth Waterton.3 This lady
was probably as youthful as he. Her father, Sir Thomas
of Walton, had but recently succeeded to the ancient
patrimony of the family — now unhappily alienated ; * and
Elizabeth was his youngest child. It is unknown whether
Sir William Percy succeeded in securing the wardship of
his nephew, or whether the latter grew up at Walton Hall.
An Edward Percy, probably the same, was admitted at
Gray's Inn in 1544. He eventually succeeded to his
mother's and to a remnant of his father's property, and
died September 22, 1590. According to an Inquisition
taken after his decease, his " son and successor, Alan
Percy, Esquire, of Beverley," was "aged thirty years and
unmarried" in 1590. The facts that Alan is described as
" son and successor," not as " son and heir," and that
his birth did not occur until 1560 — i.e. fifteen years after
his father and mother might reasonably be supposed to have
1 Surtees gives Josceline Percy another son, William by name, of whom he
furnishes no further particulars (Pedigree in Collectanea Top. tt Her,, vol. ii.).
'2 See ante, vol. i. p. 21 7.
3 "A sorry bargain, his blood considered," wrote his uncle Sir William, to
Cromwell (see ante, as above).
4 Walton Hall was sold by the late Edmund Waterton, Esq., to the Simpson
family. His son resides at Deeping Waterton, county Lincoln.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 371
consummated their early marriage — lend possibility to the
theory that Edward and Elizabeth Percy had children
born before Alan, and that these children were the
traditional "Four Percies" sent south in 1559 to Lady
Vaux of Harrowden.
Be this as it may, Edward Percy died without a will,
and Alan, one of his sons, succeeded. He left another
son, viz. Thomas Percy, the Gunpowder Plot conspirator ;
as well as two daughters.1 Alan of Beverley married
Mary, daughter of Robert Moore of Beswicke in Holder-
nesse, and was Member of Parliament for Beverley from
1599 until 1603, when he retired in consequence of the
evil notoriety brought upon him by his brother's mis-
deeds. The remainder of his life was spent in seclusion,
and he died June 24, 1632^ leaving two surviving sons,3
and one daughter, Frances, married to James Ellerker,
son of John Ellerker, Esquire, of Risby in Yorkshire. The
second surviving son, Edward Percy, was in the em-
ployment of his cousin, the Earl of Northumberland,
and died at Petworth, August 20, 1630, at the age of thirty-
two, presumably unmarried (although this is by no means
certain). Josceline Percy, the elder surviving son, was a
page in the same Earl's service at the period of the
Gunpowder Treason ; and we read that he was playing
primero with other pages at Essex House on Nov. 4,
1603, when his uncle, Thomas Percy, called upon him.4
He succeeded to the estate at Beverley, and married
Elizabeth, daughter of William Fitz-William of Maple-
thorpe ; but towards the close of his life he resided in
London, and it was as an inhabitant of the parish of
St. Paul's, Covent Garden, that he executed his last
will, September 30, i6$2.5 He left issue two surviving
1 See Genealogy, Table III.
3 Both Alan Percy, M.P., and his father Edward are buried in St. Mary's
Church, Beverley.
•'' According to the registers of St. Mary's, Alan Percy had four other sons
and two daughters, all of whom died young (see Genealogy, Table III.).
4 Original State Papers, quoted by Singer in his Treatise on Cards.
5 Probate June 4, 1653.
372 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
sons ' and one daughter, Eleanor, married to William Ferrand
of Westhall, county York. The elder son was Alan Percy
of Beverley, probable male heir of his cousin Josceline,
eleventh Earl of Northumberland. The second was Charles
Percy, a beneficiary under his father's will in 1652. Of
this individual nothing further has as yet been dis-
covered. He is hot mentioned in his brother's will, and
it is therefore assumed by Messrs. Surtees, Hunter, and
Young that he died before 1652, without issue. But too
much importance must not be attached to the fact of the
omission of his name from the document in question.
His own great-grandfather, Edward Percy, was not even
alluded to in the will of the latter's father; and some
unknown reasons may have similarly induced Alan Percy
to overlook his brother Charles. As to Alan of Beverley
(or, as some term him, Alan, twelfth Earl of Northum-
berland), he never married, and died at Lincoln about
midsummer 1687. In his last will, dated 1686 but not
proved until November 23, 1692, he bequeathed his
estate to his sister, Mrs. Ferrand (who died s.p.}, and after
her to his friend John Thorpe. With his death the heir-
ship of Northumberland fell once more into doubt ; nor
was there any known person then living who could, like
Alan Percy of Beverley, show an indisputable descent in
the male line from the ancient Earls of the House of Percy.
But now that parish registers, wills, deeds, and the like are
being searched with a thoroughness and a disinterested-
ness unknown to the antiquaries of past generations, it is
by no means impossible that a male heir of Northumber-
land may, even at this late day, succeed in proving his
claim to the dormant Earldom of 1377.
1 A third son, John Percy, was buried 1634 at Beverley. In the register of
St. James's, Clerkenwell, under date of July I, 1664, is recorded the marriage of a
Josceline Percy to Mary Phillips. This Josceline, however, may be one of the
sons (so christened, as we are told) of \Yilliam Percy, half-brother of the
" Trunkmaker."
VI
No sooner had the marriage of the younger Lady Northum-
berland to Mr. Montagu been made public than the Dowager
The Countess (who hated and despised her beautiful
heiress of daughter-in-law) set about putting the provisions
and of Earl Josceline's will into force.1 She went
m state> w'tn her bodyguard of footmen, to Nor-
the Dowager thumberland House,2 of which she took formal
Countess. possession in the name of her grandchild ; and
the agents at Syon, Petworth, and the northern estates were
at once notified that henceforward they must look to their
late master's mother, and not to his widow, for their orders.
But the Dowager, covetous and fond of power as she
was, really cared less for the management of the great
Northumberland estates than she did for the opportunity,
given to her under the Earl's will, of supplanting the young
Countess as sole guardian of Lady Elizabeth Percy. In
this cruel separation of mother and child she saw, not only
an exquisite chance to vent her spite against the former,
but also a prospect of profitable match-making by-and-by,
when the latter should reach what was then deemed a
suitable age for matrimonial contracts. Had Earl Josceline
been able to foresee how his mother would carry out the
trust which he imposed on her, he might well have chosen
to leave his infant heiress to the care of Montagu's wife
(her natural protectress) rather than to that of the " hard,
1 The will provided that in case the testator's widow should marry again, the
guardianship of their daughter and the control of the Percy estates were to pass to
the Dowager Countess, Lady Northumberland only retaining her own fortune
and dower.
2 Northumberland House, in a sense, came into the Percy family through the
Dowager Countess, but it must not be forgotten that Earl Algernon paid a large
sum to his wife's relatives for the transfer.
373
374 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
grasping, and, if we may believe contemporary accounts,
unscrupulous " l Dowager. Young Lady Northumberland
pleaded that her daughter might at least be left to her for
another twelvemonth — the child was now only in her
seventh year 2 ; but the Dowager refused even to concede
this small mercy, and demanded by letter that Lady
Elizabeth Percy should be sent immediately to Suffolk
House.3 Again the younger Countess wrote, asking for an
interview, or a family council, at which Lord Essex and
his wife might be present. This was also declined in
peremptory terms ; for the Dowager guessed — probably
correctly — that her stepdaughter and the latter's husband
would side against her in the matter.4 She threatened,
in case her demands were not complied with, to appeal
to the law, which was of course in her favour. But the
younger Countess resolved not to give up Lady Elizabeth
without a struggle, and accordingly left this innocent
cause of so much heart-burning to her old friend Dr.
Mapletoft, with instructions that she should be carefully
guarded. Mapletoft fulfilled his trust well, and sent weekly
bulletins concerning the child's health to her mother.
In reply to one of his letters, we find Lady Northumber-
land writing : " / am very glad the deare child is soe well.
. . . I leave her wholly to your care to remove her when you
thinkefitt, and I desire that you would stay to come with her ;
for I shall not be at ease if you are not with her. A nd pray
take care to defend her from her grandmother, who has not so
much civilitie left as to come andspeaketo me her self e ; but by a
letter has lett me know that she does expect to have her delivered
up ; if not she must use force. Poore childe ! Pray God send her
1 Thus De Fonblanque, who may almost be regarded as the official chronicler
of the Dowager's descendants.
2 Lady Elizabeth Percy, now Baroness Percy (by writ of 1625) had been born
on Jan. 26, 1667.
8 Although the Dowager had seized upon Northumberland House, she con-
tinued for some time longer to live at Suffolk House.
4 Lord and Lady Essex were, as a matter of fact, no friends of the
old Countess; and bitterly resented the manner in which she reared their
niece.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 375
health, and protect her from all the designes that are upon her
at this time ! "
It is not known if the Dowager Countess was actually
compelled to " use force " to gain her ends. Perhaps the
prudent Mapletoft, seeing her so determined, advised his
patroness to surrender in the interests of little Lady
Elizabeth ; perhaps Montagu took this course out of a
desire to avoid scandal and legal strife. At all events the
Dowager carried the day, and the heiress of the Percies
was eventually placed under her control in accordance
with the will of Earl Josceline. When mother and
daughter met again, it was almost as strangers. Lady
Northumberland had lived much abroad, and other off-
spring, Montagu's children, had come to wean her affec-
tions from the once dearly loved Elizabeth. The latter,
on her side, was fresh from the cynical, selfish school of
her grandmother, the Dowager, wherein, during many
years, she had only heard her surviving parent spoken of
with aversion and contempt. So that when my Lord
Montagu's wife met my Lady Northumberland's daughter,
they probably exchanged curtseys (great dames rarely
embraced, lest the armour of Venus should suffer by the
contact) and wished each other well in the politest but
least natural fashion imaginable.
The social education of Lady Elizabeth was undertaken
wholly by the Dowager Countess, who laboured, happily
with but slight success, to make her ward a youthful copy
of herself. As to her literary training, our information
is confined to the knowledge that she spoke French collo-
quially, and spelt English as well as most women of her
rank and time. She had little leisure for scholarship,
in fact, for before she had reached her twelfth year the
Dowager Countess was already in treaty to find her a
husband. This sort of intrigue was dear to the heart of
Earl Algernon's widow. She "had a passion for social
power, for money, and for match-making." J Moreover
her keen eyes detected in Lady Elizabeth's nature a certain
1 De Fonblanque.
376 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
growing wilfulness, inherited from her paternal ancestors,
which might develop into obstinacy and rebellion, unless
promptly subjugated. The Dowager felt that if she was to
choose a husband for her grandchild, she must choose
without delay. In the winter of 1678, therefore, she com-
missioned her brother, Lord Suffolk1 to open negotiations
with the Marquis of Winchester2 "in regard to an alliance
between the Houses of Percy and Powlett." Lord Win-
chester may have had other plans for the settlement of his
son and heir-; or he may not have cared to entertain the
conditions offered, which included the sinking of the name
of Paulet in that of Percy, and the continuation of the
Dowager Countess as comptroller of the Northumberland
estates until Lady Elizabeth reached the age of eighteen.
He certainly declined the proffered honour on his son's
behalf, and the negotiations fell through. Less than a
month passed by, however, before another match presented
itself, and a suitor appeared whose origin has been quaintly
described as "basely illustrious." In this case there need
be no difficulty as to the question of surname, for, truth to
tell, the proposed bridegroom had no proper patronymic
of his own. In short, his Majesty King Charles II. for-
mally proposed for the hand of Lady Elizabeth Percy, on
behalf of his natural son George Fitz-Roy, recently created
Earl of Northumberland.3 This sprig of Royalty was the
third son of Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, and
there seems to have been less doubt regarding his paternity
than existed in the cases of his elder brothers.4 It was
an ingenious and economical plan on the King's part to
obtain for his illegitimate offspring the hands of great
heiresses, thereby obviating the necessity of large grants
1 This was James, third Earl of Suffolk, K.B., who died in 1688.
a Charles Paulet or Powlett, sixth Marquis of Winchester, afterwards first
Duke of Bolton. His son, to whom Lady Northumberland desired to marry her
ward, was Charles, second Duke, K.G., and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
3 He was so created on October I, 1674, his other titles being Viscount
Falmouth and Baron of Pontefract.
4 The Dukes of Southampton and Grafton, the latter ancestor of the present
Duke.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 377
from the Crown to these numerous princes a la main gauche.
The Duke of Monmouth, for instance, had been married
to the female representative of the great House of
Buccleugh, and it had long been a project of Charles to
see George Fitz-Roy the husband of Lady Elizabeth Percy.
It was, indeed, with an eye to this result that he had raised
Fitz-Roy to the Earldom of Northumberland, scarcely a
courteous proceeding under the circumstances. It must
be owned that, in regard to personal characteristics, the
young Earl was perhaps the most deserving of all those
whose names were at one time or another mentioned as
possible consorts of Lady Elizabeth. "Of all His Majesty's
children," wrote Evelyn, "this seemed the most accom-
plished and worth the owning. He is extraordinarily
handsome and well-shaped."1
Charles himself wrote to the Dowager Countess in the
following terms : —
"WHIT HALL, 10 Feb. 1679.
" Madame,
"As long as your grandchilde, my Lady Percy, was
under age, or yourself e engaged in a treaty for her, I refrained
from any application to you, for my son George, both to assure
you that I neither desired to precipitate a concern of so greate
consequence to you, and to confirme you in my beleafe that I
intend not to insiste upon unequal propositions ; I understand
that the treaty that was on foote for the Marquis of Win-
chesters son (when you writ to my Ld. Suffolke) is at an end,
I hope that my modesty in staying to see the issue of that will
now engage you not to treate with any other, till first you
know what I shall offer ; my earnestnesse for this, is, that
(besides my inclination to oblige your family) your civilite to me
in this affair, will give me more frequent opportunity par-
ticularly to serve you, which I assure you is the real desire of,
" Madame,
" Your affectionate friend,
"CHARLES R."2
1 Diary ; July 24, 1684.
2 Holograph letter in the possesiion of Lord Leconfield.
378 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
In spite of this royal appeal, the Dowager Countess
could not be brought to accept George Fitz-Roy as the
husband of her ward. No question of birth entered the
negotiations ; but the settlements which the King proposed
to make upon his son were considered quite inadequate
by Lady Northumberland. Charles was greatly in need
of money at the time, and as the New Parliament had not
yet assembled he could look for no help from that quarter.
The Dowager, finding matters in this condition, promptly
refused to pursue the affair further, and resumed her
search for a suitor at once wealthy, well-connected, and
not likely to interfere with her management of the Percy
estates. Such a one she found in Henry, Earl of Ogle,
son and heir of the Duke of Newcastle, to whom Lady
Elizabeth Percy was duly married less than a month after
Fitz-Roy's rejection — the bridegroom being fifteen years
of age, and the bride barely twelve.
The King was naturally offended by the insulting
manner in which his son's pretensions had been treated
by the Dowager ; but he could only avenge himself by
bestowing the lapsed Percy estates upon Monmouth and
others, and by making Fitz-Roy Duke of Northumber-
land,1 a superior dignity which had been withheld from the
Percy family.
In all England, the Dowager Countess could have
found few persons of title less suitable to match with her
grandchild, or more likely to prove amenable
to ner own selfish designs, than the poor creature
one husband who now went through the mockery of a marriage
and fifes in with Lady Elizabeth Percy. That she procured
disgust from sucn an alliance at all shows plainly enough the
character of the woman, and the little regard
which she entertained for the honour or dignity of the
house into which she had married. Henry Cavendish,
1 On April 6, 1683, the Duke married Katherine, daughter of Thomas
Wheatley of Brecknock, co. Bedford, and widow of Thomas Lucy of Charlecote.
He died s.f. in 1716.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 379
Lord Ogle, was a sickly boy of appalling ugliness, certainly
weak-minded, if not, indeed, an absolute idiot. His sister
was the hapless lunatic, Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, who
was permitted by the lax laws of the time to marry the
Duke of Montagu, though she fortunately bore him no
children. The other relatives of Elizabeth Percy were
astonished by the choice which her reckless guardian
had made for the child, and did not hesitate to express
their opinions on the subject. The still beautiful "Sac-
charissa" (now herself a Dowager Countess1), wrote to
her brother, Algernon Sidney, in the following emphatic
terms : —
"My Lord Ogle does prove the saddest Creature of all
kindes that could have been found fit to be named for my Lady
Percy ; as ugly as anything young could be" 2
In accordance with the marriage agreement drawn up
by the tyrannical Lady Northumberland, Ogle abandoned
absolutely his patronymic of Cavendish, and took instead
that of Percy; his father, the second Duke of Newcastle,
settling at the same time a considerable jointure upon Lady
Ogle. It was well for the latter that her tender years
prevented this disgraceful marriage from being more than
nominal. As a matter of fact she never saw her husband
save at the altar. It was arranged that they should part for
two years, and the bridegroom was sent upon his travels.
He died abroad about six months later,3 leaving Elizabeth
Percy a widow in her thirteenth year.
To the Dowager of Northumberland, the death of this
poor lad meant a large addition to the fortune under her
control, and the chance of still further increasing the same
by a second wealthy match. Through the influence of the
Duke of Monmouth she was led to accept as husband for
her grandchild a commoner of very large fortune, Mr.
Thomas Thynn, of Longleat in Wiltshire. Thynn, better
1 Of Sunderland.
'- State Papers ; March 12, 1679.
3 On November 17, 1679. His death is ascribed to "premature decay."
380 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
known by his nickname of " Tom of Ten Thousand," was
closely associated with Monmouth ; and has been im-
mortalised by Dryden as " wise Issachar," the " wealthy
Western Friend " of the Protestant prince.1 As to his
wisdom little is known ; but he was certainly one of the
handsomest, as well as one of the richest men of his day.
His family name, which is supposed to have been anciently
Boteville, was (we are told) changed to "Th' Inn," and
eventually corrupted to " Thinn " or " Thynn," because one
of his ancestors, a certain "John o' th' Inn," either kept a
hostelry or belonged to one of the Inns of Court.2 What-
ever credence may be attached to this derivation, it is
certain that the Thynns had, for some generations, enjoyed
knightly rank and large possessions in the West Country.3
Rightly or wrongly, " Tom of Ten Thousand " was accused
of a profligacy remarkable even in that age of libertines :
but the character which he bore by no means prevented
the Dowager Countess from giving him her grandchild in
marriage. The wedding was secret, and attended by many
strange circumstances. As we shall see, its legality was
disputed ; and there were not wanting those who asserted
that it had never taken place at all. But there is proof that
a ceremony of a binding nature was actually performed,
in the fact that Thynn's heir, Lord Weymouth, continued to
pay Elizabeth Percy an annual sum, by way of dower, even
after she became Duchess of Somerset, and acknowledged
over his own signature that she owned a life interest in the
Thynn estates.4 Moreover, there is a case upon record
which establishes the marriage, while at the same time it
sheds a curious light upon the system of bribery by which
1 See Absalom and Achitophcl.
1 Kotfield ; Slemmata Bottevilliana, 1858.
3 Thomas Thynn himself was grandson of Sir Thomas Thynn, knt., of
Longleat, and son of another Sir Thomas Thynn by Stuart, daughter and co-heir
of Dr. Walter Balquanquill, Dean of Durham. After his death, Longleat passed
to his cousin, Sir Thomas Thynn, who became first Viscount Weymouth, and
was ancestor of the present Marquis of Bath.
* Letters of Sir T. Thynn from Longleat, Sept. 23, 1682 (quoted by De
Fonblanque from Alnwick MSS.)
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 381
it was brought about. In 1687 a certain Potter took an
action against the executors of Thomas Thynn. Thynn, it
seemed, had given Potter's wife and the plaintiff himself a
written undertaking, "under penalty of ^1000, to pay
them ^500 within ten days after his marriage " with Lady
Ogle ; " the said £500 being a reward for the part which
Mistress Potter had taken in forwarding the match." After
Thynn's death, however, his representatives attempted to
evade the contract. The plaintiff, "having proved the
marriage" obtained a verdict for the sum claimed. There
was an appeal to the court of the Master of the Rolls, and the
bond was set aside on the ground that it had been given
for " an immoral consideration." This decree was in turn
reversed on an appeal to the Lord Keeper, but finally
confirmed by the House of Lords. The precise part
which Mistress Potter played in the negotiations for the
marriage is not described. Elizabeth Percy's mother
accused her waiting-woman of having " sold " her to
Montagu ; perhaps Potter held a similar position and was
equally venal. Or perhaps the Dowager Countess herself
had an interest in the promised ^500 ; her own kindred
openly accused her of having accepted bribes from Thynn.
Lord Essex was one of the leaders of the Protestant
party, and so presumably favourable to Monmouth and
Monmouth's friends. But Essex was also uncle by marriage
of Elizabeth Percy, and a trustee under the will of his
brother-in-law, Earl Josceline. However he might regard
Thomas Thynn politically, he felt bound in his private
capacity to resent and oppose an alliance between his niece
and that gentleman. He could not prevent the Dowager
Countess from carrying out her design, but he has left us
his opinion of the affair very freely expressed through the
trustworthy medium of Evelyn. The diarist, under date
of November 15, 1681, writes : —
" I dined with the Earl of Essex, who, after dinner in
his study, where we were alone, related to me how much
he had been scandalised and injured in the report of his
being privy to the marriage of his Lady's niece, the rich
382 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
young widow of the late Lord Ogle, sole daughter of the
Earl of Northumberland ; showing me a letter of Mr.
Thynn's excusing himself for not communicating his
marriage to his Lordship. He acquainted me also with
the whole story of that unfortunate lady being betrayed
by her grandmother, the Countess of Northumberland and
Colonel Bret * for money ; and that though, upon the
importunity of the Duke of Monmouth, he had delivered
to the grandmother a particular of the jointure which
Mr. Thynn pretended he could settle on the lady, yet
he totally discouraged the proceeding, as by no means a
competent match for one that, both by birth and fortune,
might have pretended to the greatest Prince in Chris-
tendom. That he also proposed the Earl of Kingston •
or the Lord Cranbourn,8 but was by no means for Mr.
Thynn."
While Lord Essex might only protest unavailingly,
there was one person who took a decided and successful
stand against the consummation of these ill-starred nuptials.
This was the bride herself. Up to the day of her marriage
Lady Ogle had never seen Thynn ; and her awe of the
Dowager Countess was sufficient to induce her to go
through the form of marriage with the person chosen for
her. But whatever happened to spur her into sudden
rebellion, whatever mysterious occurrence turned her
placid indifference towards her husband into a lively
hatred, this much is certain, that, almost immediately after
the ceremony had concluded, Lady Ogle fled from London,
and even from England — nor did she venture upon these
shores again until Thomas Thynn was dead.
1 This Colonel Bret is described by the Rev. E. Jackson, in his History oj
I.ongleat, as a "coadjutor" of Lady Northumberland.
1 This was Robert Pierrepont, the newly succeeded third Earl of Kingston-
upon-Hull (a cousin of Evelyn, by the way), who died a year later at Dieppe,
sine proll.
3 James Cecil, Viscount Cranbourne, afterwards fourth Earl of Salisbury. He
was a Roman Catholic, and was presented by the Grand Jury of Middlesex as a
" Popish Recusant." The present Marquis of Salisbury is his descendant ; the
family having reverted to the Church of England.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 383
The particulars of that wild flight overseas are as
uncertain as the causes which led up to it. Naturally
London soon rang with the news, and a hundred pretended
explanations of the affair were afloat. Many thought that
Lady Ogle, discovering at the last moment that she had
been literally sold to her husband by Lady Northumber-
land, Bret, and Mistress Potter, had refused to abide by
the marriage contract, and had escaped in order to sue
for divorce. Others ascribed her strange conduct to the
influence of Essex and other relatives, opposed to the
Dowager Countess ; and there can be little doubt but that
she received assistance from some of these, or else she
could hardly have made her elopement. Yet others de-
clared that " a disgraceful event " in Thynn's past life
had been revealed to her on her wedding day, and that
the disgust which she felt for the man had impelled her
to the desperate course which she took. There are good
grounds for supposing this last to have been the correct
solution of the mystery ; the " disgraceful event " alluded
to having been the betrayal through a mock marriage of
a young lady of good family, and her subsequent aban-
donment to disease and poverty. This lady is said to
have risen from a bed of suffering in order to interpose
between her seducer and Lady Ogle ; and after the latter's
flight she, or some other interested person, certainly took
steps to have the last ceremony annulled. In the
" Memoirs of Sir John Reresby " l may be found the fol-
lowing entry : —
"2nd Jan. 1682. — I dined that day with my Lord
Halifax and my Lord Conway . . . and acquainted the
King with an affidavit made before me as a Justice of
the Peace, the same day, concerning a pre-contract be-
tween Mr. Thynne and Mrs. Trevor, before his marriage
with my Lady Northumberland (sic), for there were en-
deavours to null the said marriage, it not having been
consummated, and my Lady Northumberland having fled
from Mr. Thynne into Holland."
1 Edition of 1875, p. 230.
384 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
In a note to Evelyn's Diary,1 it is stated that Lady Ogle
left her husband because she discovered that he had pre-
viously seduced, under a promise of marriage, a young
lady who is said to have been in some way instrumental to
his murder. Hence the burlesque epitaph : —
" Here lies Tom Thynn of Longleat Hall,
Who never would have miscarried,
Had he married the woman he lay withal,
Or laid with the woman he married."
For Lady Ogle was also suspected by Thynn's friends of
being privy to his assassination.
De Fonblanque states that the heiress of the House
of Percy took refuge in Holland with Sir William Temple,
" the friend of her father and grandfather," who " was now
English Ambassador" at the Hague.2 That she sought
Temple's protection in the first instance is probably
correct, but it was not in Holland, from which country
Sir William had long been recalled. It is likely that the
account given by another historian (who had access to the
Longleat MSS.)3 is the true one, and that Lady Ogle went
abroad in the care of Lady Temple. Thynn made no
effort to follow her, contenting himself with successfully
resisting the attempts to annul the marriage, and probably
relying upon time and the influence of his powerful friends
to make his peace with her. The Dowager Countess let
it be known that she sympathised with him in the dispute,
but she too thought it best to let affairs take their course
for the time being. Truth to tell, it mattered little to her
whether Lady Ogle were at home or abroad for the three
years yet to run of her guardianship. She had duly ful-
filled her contract with Thynn, and had nothing more to
gain by compelling her grandchild's return. The position
of all parties to the recent marriage is amusingly, if
1 Bray's Edition, vol. ii. p. 586.
2 Annals of the House of Percy, vol. ii.
3 Rev. E. Jackson ; History of Longleat, in the Wills Historical .Magazine,
1856.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 385
coarsely, summed up in a letter written during the New
Year festivities of 1682 by "a lady of the Brunswick
family" to Lord and Lady Hatton, and preserved in the
Hatton MSS. :—
" Mr. Thinn has proved his marriage with Lady Ogle,
but she will not live with him for fear of being ' rotten
before she is ripe.' Lord Suffolk, since he lost his wife
and daughter, lives with his sister Northumberland. They
have strange ambassadors — one from the King of Fez, the
other from Muscovet. All the town has seen the last ; he
goes to the play, and stinks so that the ladies are not able
to take their muffs from their noses all the playtime." l
Her brother, Lord Suffolk, was not the, only member
of her own family who lived free with the Dowager
Countess at the expense of Lady Ogle, during this period.
Her brother-in-law and sister, the Earl and Countess of
Orrery, resided in Syon House, and the latter died there,
as we learn from the register of the parish church of
Isleworth.
While Lady Northumberland and Mr. Thynn rested
secure in the belief that the recent marriage could not
Konings- legally be set aside, there arrived in London a
marc*. man whose desperate mind was filled with the
determination of setting Elizabeth Percy free even at the
cost of a terrible crime. This man was Charles John, Count
von Koningsmarck, and, before we enter upon a descrip-
tion of the bloody deed for which his name is notorious, it
may be well to give a brief account of his strange career.
Charles John von Koningsmarck sprang from a family
originally German, but led by an inherited love of adven-
ture and intrigue to spread itself through many lands.
The name in fact was famous all Europe over, as much
for the warlike as for the amorous exploits of those who
had held it. The father of Charles John von Koningsmarck,
a general in the Swedish service, fell in battle in 1673 ;
1 Published in the First Report on Historical MSS,, Royal Commission
(Hatton MSS.).
II. 2 B
386 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
his uncle, Count Otho William, was, at the period of which
we write, commander of the Venetian forces. He had a
brother and a sister both renowned for their beauty, and
both implicated in amours of world-wide celebrity. The
brother, Count Philip von Koningsmarck, was the luckless
lover of Sophia Dorothea of Zell, consort of George I.,
and was assassinated with the connivance of that monarch,1
then Electoral Prince of Hanover. The sister, Aurora von
Koningsmarck, became the mistress of Augustus, Elector of
Saxony (afterwards King), and was by him the mother of
the illustrious general, Marshal Saxe.
As for Charles John von Koningsmarck, he was born
in Sweden in 1659, and from his youth onward followed a
life of roving and adventure. The courage which he dis-
played on many occasions of danger renders all the more
amazing his dastardly conduct in regard to Thomas Thynn.
When only seventeen he was severely wounded while
boarding a Turkish vessel in the Mediterranean, being then
in the service of the Knights of Malta. One of the most
remarkable examples of his prowess occurred in May 1679,
while he was attending the fetes given at Madrid in honour
of the marriage of the King of Spain. Madame d'Aulnoy,
who was in the Queen's suite, saw him engage a bull in
honour " of a young lady of her acquaintance." He was
(she writes) one of six cavaliers, all handsomely mounted
and dressed in black with white plumes in their hats,
" their hatbands glittering with diamonds, and wearing
crimson, blue, or yellow scarves, which some of them
carried round their waists or over their shoulders, others
wrapped about the arm." Twenty bulls were baited by
them on the first day. One very furious animal attacked
Koningsmarck and wounded him dangerously in the thigh.
The young Count leaped from his horse, "and though he
is no Spaniard, yet he would not be excused from any of
the laws . . . and in spite of the fact that he had lost a
great deal of blood and was forced to lean upon one of
1 His assassination took place at Hanover in August 1694. Sophia Dorothea
remained a prisoner until her death.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 387
his footmen who held him up ; yet with great courage he
advanced sword in hand, and succeeded in giving the bull
a very great wound in the head ; and then presently turn-
ing himself towards that side where this young lady for
whom he fought was, he kissed his sword, and suffered
himself to be carried away by his people half dead." l
Koningsmarck visited England for the second time in
1681, and, being the bearer of special letters of recom-
mendation from the King of Sweden, was very well
received. Among the houses which he visited was that of
Lady Northumberland, where he met the youthful widow,
Lady Ogle, and at once conceived for her a violent passion.
Contemporary gossip differs as to whether his love was or
was not returned. During the summer of the same year
he is said to have followed the object of his attachment
from London to the Continent (whither she went in charge
of a person chosen by her grandmother, while the latter
was negotiating for the marriage with Thynn), and to
have obtained interviews with her at various places in
France and Holland. He had been chosen, however, to
command a small expedition sent against the rebellious
Moors of Tangiers, and was therefore obliged to give
up for the time his designs upon the heart of Lady
Elizabeth, in order to embark for Africa. He seems to
have carried out the task allotted to him bravely and
successfully ; but on his return from the Mediterranean,
he found that the heiress of the Percies had been forced
into a loveless union, and had taken refuge from her
husband in Holland. The detractors of Lady Ogle
asserted freely that Koningsmarck again met her at the
Hague after her hurried departure from England, and
that she showed him a degree of favour which completely
turned the head of the young soldier of fortune. It was
even suggested at the time, and long afterwards repeated
in unmistakable terms by Dean Swift,2 that Elizabeth
1 Translated from Madame la Comtesse d'Aulnoy's Voyages, vol. ii.
2 In the rancorous Windsor Prophecy, which may be found quoted at p. 412
of this volume.
388 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Percy directly prompted Count Charles to rid her of Mr.
Thynn, either in fair fight or by other means. To speak
plainly, she was accused of having inspired the love-sick
Swede with the idea of assassinating her husband. That
such should be the case, appears in the last degree im-
probable. Her age alone — she was not yet fifteen — must
surely be accepted as an argument in her favour ; and,
while she was admittedly headstrong and quick-tempered,
there is nothing in her character, as known to us, to
suggest that she inherited any of the homicidal traits of
her collateral ancestress, the Countess of Somerset.1 That
she may have betrayed a girlish affection for the hand-
some Koningsmarck is quite possible ; but the charge of
having instigated her husband's murder cannot be sus-
tained against her. For that black deed, the Swede and
his agents must bear the blame.
Fired with the determination of avenging his mistress,
Koningsmarck betook himself to Havre, and thence sent
a challenge to Thynn.2 The person who carried this
cartel into England was a remarkable character — a Swedish
captain of horse, Christopher Vratz by name. Vratz had
won upon many battlefields a reputation for absolute fear-
lessness. At the siege of Mons he had been one of three
survivors out of a " forlorn hope " consisting of fifty men,
and, although severely wounded, had succeeded in cutting
his way back to the forces of the Prince of Orange with
a standard w^hich he had captured. For this exploit he
was ennobled, and given a place on the Prince's body-
guard. In consequence of benefits received from the House
of Koningsmarck, Vratz was devoted to the young Count
Charles, whose instructor in arms he had been. His devo-
tion, in fact, was of the sort that sticks at nothing, as may
be judged by the sequel of this strange story. Courage
was by no means a prominent attribute of " Tom of Ten
Thousand," and the challenge sent by Vratz was returned
1 Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset, the poisoner of Sir Thomas Overbury,
was great-grandaunt of Elizabeth Percy.
a Echard; Hist, of England, pp. 865, 987, 1019.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 389
unanswered. The Swedish captain hurried back into
France to consult with his principal, the result being that
Koningsmarck sent a second and more imperative defiance,
accusing Thynn of having basely tricked Lady Ogle into
a marriage, and threatening to brand him everywhere as
a coward, unless he fixed time and place for a hostile
meeting.1 At the subsequent trial, Koningsmarck and
Vratz swore that Thynn's reply to this was to send six
hired bravos to France, for the express purpose of assassi-
nating both the Count and his messenger, lest they might
succeed in forcing him into a duel.2 This statement,
although not denied by Thynn's party, is unsupported by
any other published evidence, and may be an invention.
But assassinations and attempted assassinations of this kind
by the band of rakes and " Hectors," to which Thynn and
Monmouth belonged, are actually known to have taken
place ; and there is on record a case of brutal murder
committed by Monmouth and a roystering party of his
friends (the Dukes of Somerset3 and Albemarle,4 and
" Tom of Ten Thousand " himself, being among the
number) upon the person of an unfortunate citizen, one
Peter Bruell, who had been so unlucky as to offend them.5
There were men to be met with in London at the time,
dare-devils of the Blood kind, who would readily undertake
to assassinate any one, no matter how great, for money or
even favour. It is quite within the bounds of possibility
1 Echard.
3 Ibid. See also English Causes Ctlebrcs, pp. 81-85.
3 Francis, fifth Duke of Somerset, who was himself to fall a victim to an
assassin. See note, p. 400.
4 Christopher Monk, second Duke of Albemarle, son of the great Monk of
Restoration fame. He was the first husband of the mad Elizabeth Cavendish.
5 The circumstances of this crime are as follows : — Monmouth, with Somerset,
Albemarle, Tom Thynn, and others had been engaged in an orgie at Whetstone
Park, a notorious haunt, the name of which still survives in a narrow alley north
of Lincoln's Inn Fields. Peter Bruell, an honest resident of the parish, had in
some way incurred the displeasure of the " Hectors." His evil star led him to
cross their path at Whetstone, when they fell upon him with one accord, and held
him while Monmouth passed his ruffian sword through the defenceless victim's
body.— Dom, State Papers, Charles II.
390 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
that Thynn sent some of his "hangers on" to remove
such inconvenient enemies as Koningsmarck and Vratz.
If so, he did not succeed in his object. The two Swedes,
finding it impossible at that distance to taunt him into
fighting, and (according to their own tale) furious at his
attempt upon their lives, crossed over to England, bringing
with them Koningsmarck's younger brother, the ill-fated
Count Philip Christopher. The party reached London
about the middle of January 1682. There existed at this
period, behind Leicester House,1 a celebrated riding-school
kept by a French exile, Major Foubert. Foubert added
to his income by taking in resident pupils, and foreign
lodgers of distinction. The elder Koningsmarck had re-
sided in the school during his former visit to England, and
he now, in company with his brother and Captain Vratz,
again took up his quarters there. There too Vratz en-
countered two former comrades in arms, Lieutenant John
Stern, a Swede, and George Borosky or Boratzi, of Polish
birth. These latter were admitted to the confidence of
Koningsmarck ; and the four men (Count Philip Christo-
pher being esteemed too young to take part in their
councils) walked together in Leicester Fields while matur-
ing a plan of revenge against Thynn. The first step taken
was to challenge the Wilts knight of the shire2 for the
third time. This Vratz did in person, impugning Thynn's
courage to his face in the presence of several persons, and
volunteering to take Koningsmarck's quarrel upon himself.
Still Lady Ogle's husband would not fight.3
Koningsmarck and his zealous adherent declared at their
trial that, after this last public affront to Thynn, their lives
1 Leicester House was in Swan Close, Leicester Fields (hard by what is now
Leicester Square). Foubert's riding-school had been formerly the military yard
founded by Henry, Prince of Wales, elder brother of Charles I. The place re-
mained " an academy for riding and other gentleman-like " exercises down to
Pennant's time (1790) at least.
2 Thynn represented the county of Wilts in Parliament from 1670 to the day
of his death.
3 It was proved at the trial that even after this Koningsmarck consulted a
member of the Swedish Legation as to the possibility of compelling Thynn to
meet him ; but that nothing could be done in this direction.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 391
were no longer safe from the assassins of the Monmouth
faction, and that they were driven to take the initiative
"in self defence."1 However true this explanation may
have been, and however strongly it may have appealed
to the distorted minds of these soldiers of fortune, it
cannot, of course, be held to excuse in any way the
atrocious crime which they now deliberately set out to
commit.
On Sunday, February 12, 1682, the Duke of Monmouth
and his bosom friend, Mr. Thynn, visited the Dowager
Murder of Countess of Northumberland "at her house by
TomThynn charing Cross," and remained there until late
and fate b
of his in the afternoon. They drove thence in a coach
assassins. j.Q Monmouth's residence, where the Duke was
set down, Mr. Thynn continuing his journey alone. Dusk
was drawing in as the vehicle turned into Pall Mall.
Suddenly, opposite St. Albans Street,2 the clatter of
horses' hoofs was heard, and a voice called upon the
driver in broken English to stop "or he was a dead
man." The voice was that of Major Vratz, who, with
Lieutenant Stern and the Pole Borosky, all on horseback,
had apparently been waiting for Thynn at that point.
Stern pointed a brace of pistols at the heads of the
servants ; while Vratz and Borosky rode up close to the
coach, the one being at the north, the other at the south
window. Vratz said something to Thynn, probably renew-
ing the former challenge, or else taunting him with
cowardice ; while Borosky kept the doomed man covered
with a blunderbuss. Suddenly, and without any possi-
bility of an exchange of signals between Vratz and the
Pole (who were separated by the great, high-roofed coach),
the latter's blunderbuss went off, all four bullets with
which it had been loaded entering the body of Mr. Thynn.
At the trial, it was alleged by the defence that Borosky
had discharged his piece accidentally and on account of
1 Evidence at trial ; English Causes Ctlcbres.
'* Near the site of the present United Service Club.
392 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
nervousness, the real object of the three men being to
force Thynn to leave his coach and cross swords with
Vratz. However this may be, the assailants, realising
what had happened, turned their horses' heads and fled.
Koningsmarck had not appeared in the affair at all; but
he must have received speedy news of what had happened,
for he too left London before nightfall, and fled in the
direction of Gravesend.
The right arm of the civil power at this time in London
was Sir John Reresby ; yet so paralysed were Thynn's
friends by the catastrophe, that although it had occurred
no later than five o'clock in the afternoon, application
was not made to Reresby for a "hue and cry" after the
assassins until an hour before midnight. In Sir John's
Memoirs is the following note : —
" 1.2th Feb. 1682. — At eleven o'clock as I was going to
bed Mr. Thynn's gentleman came to me to grant a Hue
and Cry ; and soon after, the Duke of Monmouth's page
to desire me to come to his master at Mr. Thynn's lodgings,
sending his coach to fetch me. I found him surrounded
with several gentlemen and lords, and Mr. Thynn mortally
wounded by five bullets which had entered his belly and
side, shot from a blunderbuss." l
Although Reresby misses no opportunity for self-com-
mendation in his Memoirs, it must be owned that he was
an active and skilful officer ; and the speed with which he
tracked down and captured the assassins was remarkable,
considering the tardiness of his notice, and the meagre
resources at his command. Before noon next day, Vratz,
Stern, and Borosky had all been laid by the heels, and a
reward of ^200 offered for the capture of Koningsmarck,
against whom Monmouth swore out a special information.
Thynn died at six o'clock on Monday morning, some
thirteen hours after he had been shot. The news set
London in a ferment. It was at first reported that the
murder was " a Popish outrage," the dead man having been
a leader of the extreme Protestant faction. Then a rumour
1 Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, p. 235.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 393
spread that Thynn had been slain by the Catholics in mistake
for the Duke of Monmouth ; and ballads and broadsides by
the dozen came fluttering out of Grub Street in support of
these wild theories. The capture of the three criminals
and the mention of Koningsmarck's name in connection
with the affair had the effect of turning the tide of ribald
literature in quite another direction. " Popish plots " had
become common enough of late, but here was something
new for the public to gape at — a tragedy of love, jealousy,
and revenge. Grub Street poured forth its ballads and
broadsides in a faster and fouler stream than ever. It was
darkly hinted that Tom Thynn had killed himself for love
of his runaway wife ; that the Mrs. Trevor whom he had
betrayed was his murderess ; that Lady Ogle had hired
foreign bravos to assassinate the consort she detested.
This last proved to be the most popular version ; and as
the identity of Koningsmarck was gradually unveiled, and
the fact made certain that he had been one of Elizabeth
Percy's warmest admirers, the printed attacks upon the
latter grew bolder, and the great mass of the public
believed that this mere slip of a girl had really procured
the crime.
Meanwhile the King and Council (knowing that any
laxity on their part would be seized upon as evidence
of their hatred of Thynn and sympathy with his slayers)
showed themselves exceptionally eager in bringing the
accused to justice. Early on Monday afternoon, Vratz
and his associates were examined before Charles at White-
hall. Reresby complains that they were treated with too
great consideration, but there is no precise account of
what took place. A few days later Koningsmarck was
arrested at Gravesend, while waiting to embark on a
Swedish vessel. Carried to London, he too was examined
by the King (again, thinks Reresby, with excessive polite-
ness), and then passed over to Chief-Justice Pemberton,
who committed him to Newgate to await trial.
The trial began at the Old Bailey on February 27 ;
Vratz, Stern, and Borosky being charged with the murder of
394 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Thynn, and Koningsmarck with being an accessory before
the fact. Circumstantial evidence alone was produced
against the last-named. It was shown that he had been
a suitor for Lady Ogle's hand, and he had been heard
to declare that he would "have her husband's life." He
had arrived in England only ten days before the murder,
and during that time had been in constant communication
with the assassins. Vratz tried to exculpate his friend
and former pupil by bringing forward evidence to the
effect that he (Vratz) had challenged Thynn to an affair
of honour ; and alleging that, so far from there having
been any plot to assassinate Thynn, their sole intention in
waylaying him in Pall Mall was to make him "measure
swords like a gentleman." The blunderbuss, it was pre-
tended, had been discharged by the nervous shaking of
Borosky's hand ; and the whole affair was therefore " an
accident." Vratz, Stern, and Borosky all three made oath
that Koningsmarck had not been cognisant of their
designs ; and Count Philip Christopher Koningsmarck
swore to an alibi in favour of his brother. In spite of the
strong circumstantial evidence, Chief-Justice Pemberton
summed up in Koningsmarck's favour, and the jury ac-
quitted him. Vratz, Stern, and Borosky, on the contrary,
were all convicted of murder, and condemned to death.
Reresby declares that "the King was not displeased at
the result of the trial." The faction of Monmouth, on
the contrary, were furious at Koningsmarck's acquittal.
It was alleged that there had been collusion, and that the
jury was a "packed" one, consisting largely of foreigners.1
Koningsmarck lost no time in shaking the dust of England
from his feet. A few weeks after his departure, William,
Lord Cavendish (afterwards first Duke of Devonshire),2
issued a formal challenge to the Count to undergo with
1 This assertion is repeated by Luttrell (Brief Historical Kdation, vol. i. 163,
&c.), but as no particulars are given its truth cannot be determined.
2 Son and heir of William, third Earl of Devonshire, by Lady Elizabeth
Cecil. Bom in 1640-1, he married a daughter of the Duke of Ormonde, was
created Duke by William III., and died 1707.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 395
him the ancient ordeal of battle by single combat. It is
a question whether Koningsmarck ever received this
challenge ; at any rate the proposed combat never took
place.
The three convicted assassins were hanged in Pall Mall
on the spot where the crime had been committed. To
the last Captain Vratz maintained a reckless courage
which excited the admiration even of those who most
execrated the murder. He went to the gallows much as he
had gone with the " forlorn hope " at the siege of Mons ;
and if he experienced any feelings of shame he concealed
them from the world. Evelyn writes : —
" iot/1 March 1682. — This day was executed Colonel
Vrats and some of his accomplices for the execrable
murder of Mr. Thynn, set on by the principal, Konings-
marck ; he (Vrats) went to execution like an undaunted
hero, as one who has done a friendly office for that
base coward, Count Koningsmarck, who had hopes to
marry his (Thynn's) widow, the rich Lady Ogle, and was
acquitted by a corrupt jury, and so got away. Vrats
told a friend of mine who accompanied him to the
gallows and gave him some good advice, that he did
not value dying of a rush, and hoped and believed God
would deal with him like a gentleman.
" Never man went so unconcerned to his sad fate." 1
As for Koningsmarck, he died the death that would
have better fitted Vratz — sword in hand, with his face to
the foe. To call Koningsmarck a coward is, in spite of
his connection with Thynn's murder, to find oneself con-
tradicted by a hundred brave episodes of his youth and
manhood. When acquitted in England, he was barely
twenty-three years of age. He hurried to Venice, where
his uncle Count Otho William von Koningsmarck com-
manded the forces of the republic ;2 and immediately took
service under that distinguished captain. At Navarino,
and again at Modon, he displayed courage and capacity
1 Diary.
2 Otho William v. Koningsmarck died generalissimo of Venice in i6S8.
396 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of a high order ; and when he was slain in battle against
the Turks at Argos, in August 1686, it was felt that Europe
had lost one of her most promising soldiers, and Venice a
future generalissimo.1
If Mr. Thomas Thynn had been looked upon in life as
" a battered rake " whose sole claims to note were his
TomThynn's great wealth and friendship with Monmouth, the
wtter world came to regard him in death as a hero and
almost as a martyr.2 He was buried in West-
minster Abbey, where the fine monument erected
jects of the ...
Dowager to his memory may yet be seen. The original
countess. epitaph placed over him by his friends has, how-
ever, disappeared.3 It was wisely removed by Dean Spratt,
who deemed it not only undeserved but also libellous to
the Government, and to Thynn's widow, Lady Ogle.4 The
portion supposed to refer to this lady and her family is
certainly bitterly suggestive. It ran thus : —
" Uxorem duxit Elizabethan, Comitissam de Ogle,
" Antiquissimce ut et Illustrissima families de Percy,
" Northumbria Comitum filiam et hceedam
" Unicuin.
"HlNC iLLJE LACHRYM.'E!"
A few weeks after her husband's burial, Lady Ogle
returned to England and took up her residence at North-
1 Pennant falls into a curious error for one of his accuracy when he speaks
of Koningsmarck. Having dwelt upon the murder of Thynn, and the Count's
acquittal, he says of the latter: " He afterwards met with a fate suited to his
actions : he attempted an intrigue in 1686, in Germany, with a lady of distin-
guished rank : he was one night waylayed, by order of the jealous husband ; and
was literally cut to pieces." This, of course, relates to Charles von Koningsmarck's
younger brother, Philip Christopher, who was put to death by order of the Elector
of Hanover (afterwards George I. of England) for an alleged intrigue with Queen
Sophia Dorothea of Zell. See Love of An Uncrowned Queen, by W. H. Wilkins.
2 Diet, of National Biography.
3 It may be seen in the engraving of the tomb in Dart's Westminster Abbey,
vol. ii.
4 Antiquities of Westminster (Neole and Brayley).
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 397
umberland House. In the Daily Intelligencer news-letter *
of March 23, 1682, is a somewhat naive declaration, pur-
porting to come from the young heiress herself, on the
subject of Thynn's murder : —
" Since the Lady Ogle's arrival many persons of quality
have been to visit her ; she seeming very much dejected in
the unfortunate death of Esquire Thynn, declaring that she
was altogether surprised upon the news she read of that un-
happy accident, as not imagining that such barbarity could
be enacted by man, much more in England, and we hear
she will not appear publick until the Court comes from
Newmarket."
Three weeks later, the Dowager Countess, who was at
Petworth, sent her grandchild an imperative summons to
join her there ; and having now no Tom Thynn to dread,
Lady Ogle went to pay her respects to the guardian whom
she had not seen since her flight to Holland. Old Lady
Northumberland's object in thus resuming her sway over
the girl-widow was soon brought to light. Hardly three
years of her prized and profitable guardianship remained,
and she could not resist the opportunity of attempting to
shape for the third time Elizabeth Percy's matrimonial
affairs. It would appear as though she had begun to cast
about for a suitable successor to Tom Thynn before the
latter was well in his grave. On this last occasion, the
choice which she made was certainly more commendable
than had been the case either in 1679 or in 1681. There is
likelihood, however, that it was the new suitor himself, and
not Lady Northumberland, who took the first steps in the
matter. The third Duke of Somerset is said to have died
for love of Elizabeth Percy's mother. His cousin, the
sixth Duke, now appeared as a candidate for the hand of
Elizabeth Percy herself.
Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, was in his
twentieth year, one of the great noblemen of England, and
the chief of a name which, in the male line, could claim
no very ancient or illustrious descent, but which had been
1 Preserved in the British Museum Library.
398 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
raised to great dignity through the marriage of Jane
Seymour to Henry VIII., and subsequently endowed with
royal blood through the union of Edward, Earl of Hert-
ford, and Lady Catherine Grey. The descendants of this
alliance indeed were accounted, after the royal family,
next in the line of succession to the English throne. But
a glance at the genealogy opposite will convey, in the
briefest and most accurate manner, the lofty position which
this head of a family, so obscure as scarcely to be heard of
two centuries before, now occupied in the nobility of the
kingdom.
Charles, Duke of Somerset, as Lord Dartmouth observes
in a note to Burnet,1 was born to neither title nor estate.
The early years of his life were spent as the younger son
of a cadet branch of the House of Seymour. Even after
the third and fourth Dukes of Somerset died without issue,
and the superior title passed to his elder brother Francis,
Lord Trowbridge, the prospects of " Mr. Charles Seymour "
seemed but little brighter ; for it was believed that Duke
Francis would certainly marry and have a family. The
education of the heir presumptive was, in consequence,
greatly neglected, and though he was entered at Trinity
College, Cambridge, he never took a degree. There are
evidences that his brother and he were on the worst of
terms ; their natures, indeed, differed as widely as their
habits and resources. Charles Seymour was practically
a pensioner upon the bounty of his uncle, Lord Alington,2
and the latter's sister-in-law, the Countess of Northampton.3
Lady Northampton took a fancy to the handsome lad, and
(although she was no blood relation) he was accustomed
to call her his "aunt." This period of comparative priva-
tion, far from softening Seymour's nature, seems rather
to have rendered him irritable and unsympathetic ; while
1 History of His Own Times, vol. iv. p. 13.
2 This was William, third Lord Alington, brother of Elizabeth, Lady
Seymour, of Trowbridge. He died 1684.
3 Mary Noel, daughter of Baptist, third Viscount Campden, and wife of
James Compton, third Earl of Northampton, was sister of Lady Alington,
Seymour's aunt by marriage.
ISABELL, = JOHN SEYMOUR, Esq.,
dau. and heir
of William
Mac Williams
of co. Glo'ster.
Sheriff of Wills
10 Hen. VI.
MARY
WENTWORTH
JOHN SEYMOUR, Esq.,
Sheriff of Wilts
36 Hen. VI.
JOHN SEYMOUR, Esq.
= Sir JOHN SEYMOUR,
I K..B ; d. 1536.
1
1
1
1
(istai.) Sir EDWARD (2nda>.) JANE = HENRY MARGARET MARY,
CATHERINE, = SEYMOUR. Kt.: = ANN, SEYMOUR,
VIII.
m.
m.
dau. and
crea. ist Visct.
dau. of Sir d. 1537.
rtH James IV. (as 2nd
heir of Sir
William
Fillol, Kt.
Beauchamp (1536)
(the year of his sister's
marriage) ; crea. ist
Edward
Stanhope,
Kt.
EDWARC
i™ of husband)
Scotland. Charles
VI. | Brandon,
[divorced
'5351
Earl of Hertford
(1537), (on the birth of
g^Va a quo \ Hike of
W the House Suffolk.
Edw. VI.), and Lord
of
Great Chamberlain
Stuart.
(for life). Lord
Protector of England ;
and crea. Duke of
Somerset (with
remainder first to
FRANCES,
youngest, afterwards to
fft. Henry Gray, Marq.
elder sons (1546-47)
of Dorset and Duke of
Beheaded on Tower
Suffolk.
Hill, 1552.
1 1
JOHN, Sir EDWARD
d.s.p. SEYMOUR, EDWARD SEYMOUR,
= LADY
LADY
Kt., of Berry crea. 1st Earl of Hertfon
I CATHERINE
JANE
Pomeroy, co Devon. and Baron Beauchamp
GREY.
GREY ;
i (lEliz.);
d. 1621.
beheaded
V
1554-
a quo
i
the present HONORA,
, Duke of Somerset. dau. of Hir Richarc
= EDWARD SEYMOUR,
1 Lord Beauchamp ; b. i t;6i ;
Sir WILLIAM SEYMOUR,
rest, as 2nd DUKE OK SOMERSET ; t. 1588 ;
m. Lady Frances Devereux, dau. of Robert,
Earl of Essex. [His first wife had been
Arabella Stuart.]
I
HENRY SEYMOUR, JOHN SEYMOUR,
Lord Beauchamp ; b. 1626 ; m. 4th DUKE OF
Mary, dau. of Lord Capel ;
d. vita patris 1654.
Rogers, Kt. d. vita patns.
Sir FRANCIS SEYMOUR,
crea. ist BARON SEYMOUR OF TKOWBRIDGR
(1641) ; m. Frances, dau. and co-heir of Sir
Gilbert Prinne, Kt. , of Alington, co. Wilts.
SOMERSET ;
d. 1675 s-P-
WILLIAM SEYMOUR,
3rd Duke of Somerset ; £. 1651 ;
died unm. " for love of Lady
Northumberland," Dec, 12,
1671, s.p.
CHARLES SEYMOUR,
2nd BARON SEYMOUR OF TROVVBRIDGE
b. 1621 ; m. Elizabeth, daughter of
William, Lord Alington ; d. 1665.
FRANCIS SEYMOUR,
3rd Baron Seymour, succeeded
(1675) as 5th DUKE OF
SOMERSET ; assassinated at
Lerice, in Italy, Ap. 20, 1678
(unmar.).
CHARLES SEYMOUR,
6th DUKE OF SOMERSET,
K.G. ; [who married LADY
ELIZABETH PERCY, heiress
of NORTHUMBERLAND].
400 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the unreasonable pride which long afterwards made his
name a byword, may be traced as much to the humiliations
of his boyhood as to the unexpected manner in which
capricious fortune showered her favours upon him. That
careless "Hector,"1 the fifth Duke of Somerset, was
suddenly and disgracefully cut off before he had time to
marry. While travelling with some French friends through
the town of Lerice in Italy, he had insulted two ladies, the
sisters of Signer Horatio Botti. This latter gentleman
pursued Somerset to the door of his inn, and shot him
dead.2 The murder brought about international complica-
tions, England demanding that Botti should suffer for his
crime. But Italian sympathy was all with the culprit, who,
although sentenced to death, was permitted to escape, while
his Judges hanged him in effigy. Meanwhile Charles
Seymour succeeded to the Dukedom of Somerset, being
then in his seventeenth year,3 and the penniless younger
brother of yesterday became one of the richest and most
powerful nobles in Great Britain. Four years later he
came forward as a suitor for the hand and great inherit-
ance of Lady Ogle. He probably anticipated an easy
triumph ; but in this he was disappointed. The young
widow showed herself indifferent alike to his rank and
good looks. Evil tongues whispered that she was still
dreaming of Koningsmarck ; it were more charitable to
suppose that the tragic end of Thynn had for the time
unnerved her and given her a natural disinclination for
society. His Grace of Somerset came all in the bravery
of twenty years, with friends, lackeys, postillions, and out-
riders, to pay his respects at Petworth. But he only saw
the Dowager Countess of Northumberland, Lady Ogle
positively refusing to appear ; so that the miry roads of
Sussex and Hants had been crossed for nought, and the
gay party drove despondently away. A few weeks later,
1 He belonged to the riotous brotherhood who went by that name, and had
been concerned in the shameful murder of Bruell by Monmouth and others of
the " Hector " persuasion.
2 On April 20, 1678. a He was born in 1662.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 401
Somerset made the pilgrimage to Petworth again ; this
time unostentatiously and attended by a single servant.
We may read the result in a letter written by him to "the
Dowager Duchess of Somerset" (whom De Fonblanque
curiously enough describes as the Duke's "grandmother,"
though she was actually widow of John, fourth Duke, and
consequently not a blood relation):1 —
" / differed (deferred) troubling you with a letter till I
could give you a full accompt of my journey. The first time
I was there I could have no opportunity to speak with my
Lady : but the second time I went alone and got an opportunity,
but no answer but that she was resolved not to alter her
condition ; and desired I should think no more of it, which
was a thing I told my Lady was impossible for me to do,
let the obstacles be never so great. My Lady made my Aunt
Northampton the same answer she made me, who I find is
much startled at it, more a great deal than I think needes
to be ; for I hope if yr Grace be pleased to lay yr commands on
both my Aunts 2 to pursue, while they are there, I may have
some favorable answer to that which is so passionately the
concern of him who subscribes himself, may it please Your
Grace,
" Your most Dutiful and
" Obedient Servant,
"SOMERSET."3
But old Lady Northumberland proved a more in-
fluential ally than any of the Duke's own relatives ; and
to her he was at last forced to appeal. The Dowager
Countess, as might be expected, made her own terms, and
they were by no means light ones. Her personal dower
1 One of Somerset's grandmothers was Lady Alington, the other was Frances,
Lady Seymour of Trowbridge. The Dowager Duchess to whom he wrote, as
above, was Sarah, daughter of Sir Edward Alston, M.D., President of the College
of Physicians, who married John, fourth Duke of Somerset, and after his death
Henry Hare, second Lord Coleraine. She died 1692.
2 Lady Northampton and Lady Berkeley.
3 Almi'ick MSS. ; quoted by De Fonblanque.
II. 2 C
402 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
was to be largely increased, and Somerset was to sign an
undertaking to abandon his family name in favour of that
of Percy. To the former proviso the Duke consented
readily enough ; he had understood that he must follow
the example of Mr. Thynn and the relatives of Lord Ogle,
in purchasing Lady Northumberland's acquiescence. But
the change of name was another matter altogether ; and
it was only with the gravest reluctance (and a determi-
nation to evade the fulfilment of his promise if possible) l
that he finally surrendered upon this head. The Dowager
then set herself to persuade Lady Ogle into a third
marriage ; and here, by dint of alternate threats and
reasoning, this indomitable woman once more attained
her object. The Duke was again invited to Pet worth,
where the wedding took place on August 30, 1682.
Before proceeding with the story of their careers, a
few words on the personal appearance and characters of
character- tne voung couple may not be amiss. Elizabeth,
s, and Baroness Percy and Duchess of Somerset, had
inherited a considerable share of the good looks
Duke and which distinguished both her parents, but she
was never regarded as a " beauty," as her mother
had been. Her hair, as Swift with persistent venom took
care to inform the world, was red — a trait inherited
from the " Wizard Earl," her great-grandfather ; and
she was foolishly sensitive upon that score. In person
she was of good height, inclining towards the end of
her life to stoutness. The best picture of her, when
young, is supposed to be the unfinished one by Sir Peter
Lely,2 painted just after her marriage to Lord Ogle.
1 He did in the end compel his wife to free him from the agreement by a
special deed.
2 One of Lely's earliest English portraits had been that of Josceline, eleventh
Earl of Northumberland, as a little boy. His last effort was the picture, above
alluded to, of Josceline's daughter. It is said that while engaged upon this work
" the pencil dropped from his hand, and a fit of apoplexy closed the career of the
great painter for ever. He died the same day." Lady Ogle's enemies numbered
Lely among the many victims of that "ill luck " which was supposed to fall upon
all connected with her.
<&flu?cnc/s or n
c__.X(_y«^»s
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 403
Her mental powers were admitted, by friends and foes
alike, to be far above the average. Lord Dartmouth
called her "the best bred, as well as the best born woman
in England ; " l and Lady Strafford was of opinion that
"if her Duke had thought her what all the world would
think, capable of advising him, matters would not be as
they are." 2
As for Somerset, his amazing pride was as yet kept
within limits, and had not attained (as it afterwards did)
the proportions of a disease. Lord Stanhope, in his
History of England, sums up the Duke's character at
this period as that of " a well-meaning man, but of shy
and proud habits, and slender understanding." 8 Dart-
mouth goes much further, when he declares that Somerset
"always acted more by humour than by reason. He
was a man of vast pride, and, having a very low educa-
tion, showed it in a very indecent manner. His high
title came to him by one man's misfortune,4 and his
great estate by another's ; s for he was born to neither,
but elated both to a ridiculousness."6 Mackey's descrip-
tion, written in 1702, is more flattering: "The Duke of
Somerset was of a middle stature, well shaped, a very
black complexion ; a lover of music and poetry ; of
good judgment" (to this Swift appended the sweeping
comment "not a grain!"), "but by reason of a great
hesitation in his speech, wants expression." All these,
with the exception of Swift's interpolation, are the
opinions of the Duke's friends and associates. What his
opponents, the followers of Bolingbroke and Ormonde,
said of him need not be quoted here.
When, for the third time, Elizabeth Percy stripped
the lacs d'amour from about her escutcheon, she had
the good sense to remain for some time in the seclusion
Burnet ; History of His Own Times.
Strafford Papers, 2nd series, June 1714.
Stanhope, vol. i. p. 84.
The assassination of his brother by Botti.
The murder of Tom Thynn.
Lord Dartmouth, in Burnet's History, vol. iv. p. 13.
404 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of Petworth, before taking her place at Court. Her first
child, Algernon, was born in 1683, when she was little
over sixteen, and only lived a few months. Next year
she gave birth to twins, one of whom (a daughter) died
in infancy, while the other was Algernon, Earl of Hert-
ford, afterwards heir to the united honours of Percy
and Seymour. It is curious to note, from the baptis-
mal entries of these children in the Petworth registers,
how Somerset endeavoured to evade the condition which
bound him to use, on behalf of himself and his offspring,
the name of Percy. His wife was not yet legally of age,
and could not therefore absolve him from his pledge ;
while, if he allowed his sons and daughters to be
christened under their paternal surname, the Dowager
Countess had it in her power to set aside the marriage
settlements. As he had a wholesome fear of Earl Alger-
non's widow, he adopted the expedient of entering no
surname at all ; so that the children born prior to 1688
were described in the register as " the Lord Algernon,"
"the Lady Catherine," and so forth. The Duchess
attained her majority on January 26, 1688, and exactly
four days afterwards she executed the deed which "re-
leased him from the obligation to assume her family
name." Thereafter all his children were baptized as
Seymours ; and whereas the baptismal register of 1687
makes mention of " the Lord Edward " simply, we read
that on May 27, 1689, " Lord Edward Seymour " was
"buried in linen."1
The Duke himself did not come of age until the year
after his marriage ; when he at once accepted the post
of Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles II. As a
reward for having taken no part in the Rye House Con-
spiracy (which caused the deaths of no less than three
of his wife's kindred2) he was, on April 8, 1684, installed
1 Registers of Pet-MOrth.
5 Algernon Sidney, first cousin of the Duchess, was beheaded ; as was Lord
William Russell, her uncle by marriage. Another uncle, the Earl of Essex, com-
mitted suicide in the Tower ; and even the traitorous Lord Howard of Escrick,
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 405
-a knight of the Garter. At the funeral of Charles II.
he acted as second mourner, walking immediately after
the new king. It is observed that such solemn pageants
were greatly to his taste. His vanity was flattered by
the all but royal position assigned to him (for, the Duke
of Norfolk being a Roman Catholic, and therefore de-
barred from sitting in Parliament, Somerset took his
place as premier peer of the realm) ; while the pomp
and circumstance of the state ceremonial appealed
strongly to a taste naturally florid. He took part in
the funerals of Mary II., William III., Anne, and
George I., and carried the orb at no less than four
coronations. Swift said of him "that had he not been
a Duke, he would have made an admirable master of
ceremonies, or keeper of the puppets." When the
Archduke Charles was named King of Spain by the
Allies, Somerset was sent to welcome him at Ports-
mouth ; l and the patience of the future Emperor is
said to have been sorely tried by the elaborate manner
in which every petty detail of the prescribed form of
reception was carried out.
Somerset was at first in high favour with James II.,
who on August 2, 1685, appointed him to the command
of the 3rd or Queen's Regiment of Dragoons,2 a body of
troops which had been originally raised for the suppression
of Monmouth's Rebellion. But the Duke's sympathies
were secretly with Monmouth and the Protestant cause.
When ordered to arrest certain fugitives from Sedgemoor,
he temporised, and sent to demand " a reason " ; to which
the Duke of Beaufort replied in a vigorous letter of re-
monstrance, pointing out that Somerset was the King's
servant and lieutenant, and therefore bound to pursue
those in arms against the throne, or else renounce his
who turned informer against his fellow-conspirators, was a relative — being of
the same blood (and of much the same disposition) as the Dowager Countess of
Northumberland.
1 In 1703.
2 Now the 3rd Hussars.
406 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
oath of allegiance altogether.1 While this correspondence
lasted, the rebels in question made good their escape.
Somerset, however, continued to hold office for two years
longer, when his action in regard to the Papal Nuncio,
Monsignor d'Adda, brought about his dismissal. There is
more than one version of this affair, but that given by
Burnet is the most circumstantial. When the Roman
envoy arrived at Windsor, James determined to give him
a public reception. Somerset consulted his lawyers, and
learned that such recognition of the Catholic faith was
illegal in the then state of English law. Queen Mary,
bigoted Catholic though she was, had compelled Cardinal
Pole (the Nuncio of her day) to wait in Holland until the
existing statutes were repealed. But James II. did not
possess equal discretion. Regarding himself as above the
law, he invited D'Adda and his suite to Windsor. Burnet
quotes as follows from an unpublished memoir of Lord
Lonsdale : "That the Nuntio might have all the honour
done him that was possible, it was resolved that a Duke
should introduce him. The matter was therefore proposed
to the Duke of Somerset. The Duke humbly desired of
the King to be excused ; the King asked him his reason ;
the Duke told him he conceived it to be against law ; to
which the King said he would pardon him. The Duke
replied, he was no very good lawyer, but he thought he
had heard it said, that a pardon granted a person offending
under assurance of obtaining it, was void. This offended
the King extremlie ; he said publicklie, he wondered at his
insolence ; and told the Duke he would make him fear
him as well as the laws. To which the Duke answered
that, as he was his soveraign, he should ever have all the
dutie and reverence for his person that was due from a
subject to his prince, but whilst he was no traitor or
criminal, he was so secure in his justice, that he could not
fear him as offenders do. Notwithstanding the extreme
offence this matter gave his majestic, yet out of his good-
1 Alitmick MSS., vol. xx. ; Beaufort to Somerset, July 5, 1686.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 407
ness he was pleased to tell the Duke that he would
excuse him. And yet, within two days after, he was
told positively that the King would be obeyed. He
urged the King's promise to excuse him, but in vain." l
The result was that the Papal Nuncio was introduced
by the Duke of Grafton ; while Somerset was soon after-
wards removed from his position in the royal house-
hold, as well as from the command of the Queen's
Dragoons.
After this dismissal, Somerset naturally became more
disaffected than ever ; and he was one of those who
received Dykveldt, the secret agent sent over by the Prince
of Orange in 1688. But whether from a sense of past
favours, or (as many supposed) from jealousy of the
leading part played by his cousin, Sir Edward Seymour,
the legitimate head of the family,2 the Duke remained
inactive during the events leading up to the flight of James,
and the declaration that the throne was vacant. In the
Convention Parliament he at first voted, with Ormonde,
Clarendon, Nottingham, and Archbishop Bancroft, against
the bestowal of the crown upon William and Mary, and in
favour of the alternative proposition of a regency.3 He
held that, in view of the declaration made by the nation
eight years before,4 Parliament had no power to depose the
1 Burnet ; History of His Oivn Times, vol. iii. p. 178.
2 Sir Edward Seymour, fourth Bart., of Berry Pomeroy, co. Devon, was the
fifth in direct descent from the Protector Somerset by \\isfirsl marriage (see
Seymour Genealogy, p. 399). He had been Speaker of the Parliament dissolved
in January 1679, and was re-elected in opposition to the Court candidate in the
new Parliament which assembled on March of the same year, only to be set aside
by a compromise. There is an old story to the effect that when the Prince of
Orange landed at Torquay, he asked Seymour (by way of a compliment) if he did
not "belong to the family of the Duke of Somerset." "No, sir," replied Sir
Edward, wilh perfect justice, " the Duke of Somerset belongs to my family."
The senior line of the Seymours inherited the honours which had been diverted
from their ancestor, in the person of Sir Edward Seymour, sixth Bart., grandson
of William III.'s adherent.
3 Thirty-five peers, two archbishops, and twelve bishops supported the motion
for a regency in the House of Lords. They were defeated by a majority of only
two votes.
4 On the defeat of the Exclusion Bill.
408 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
King, or to alter the lineal course of succession. But
after the conference which took place between the two
Houses, he was induced, by the arguments of Halifax
and Danby, to abandon these views, and side with the
majority. The new King, who had a good memory, never
forgave this reluctance to join his cause, and to the end
of his reign treated Somerset with great coldness. For
some months the Duke frequented Court regularly ; but
encountering little favour from William or his ministers,
he retired to the country in disgust, giving as his reason
"the undue amount of honours and rewards bestowed
upon the monarch's Dutch followers, to the exclusion
of the native English." In spite of his lack of educa-
tion, he was in 1689 elected Chancellor of Cambridge
University ; and when the new Parliament met in March
1690, he succeeded Halifax as Speaker of the House
of Lords. Rumours were now current that he had
again changed his politics, and he was suspected by
the Court party of being in correspondence with St.
Germains.
The friendship entertained by Queen Anne for the
Duke and Duchess of Somerset originated in April 1692,
Friendship of when Anne, having fallen into disgrace with
QueenAnne: her sister and brother-in-law, was ejected from
savage her lodgings in the Cockpit, and all friends of
attack. the Court were forbidden to give her shelter
or assistance. Somerset, braving the royal displeasure,
invited the Princess to Syon, where she continued to reside
for some time. It is likely that the moving spirit in this
clever piece of intrigue was really Duchess Elizabeth.
Somerset himself had neither the foresight nor the strength
of character to take the initiative in so dangerous an affair.
Anne was very grateful for the kindness shown to her in
the time of adversity, and even when her court was domi-
nated by Tory influence she continued to regard the Whig
Duchess of Somerset with friendship, and to keep her in
her service. No sooner, indeed, was William III. dead
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 409
and the new Queen upon the throne, than Somerset and
his wife began to enjoy the rewards of their generous
conduct. The Duke was at once appointed Master of the
Horse, and became an active member of the Privy Council.
In 1703 he was sent as Anne's representative to escort
the Archduke Charles to London, and in 1706 sat upon the
Commission appointed to effect the Union with Scotland.
During the crisis of February 1708, when Marlborough and
Godolphin succeeded in driving Harley and St. John out
of the ministry, Somerset ranged himself upon the side of
the great Duke, apparently under the impression that he
would be offered one of the vacant offices. The Whig
leaders, however, had a poor opinion of his capacity, and
the all-powerful "Junto "* vetoed his appointment. Marl-
borough's wife also expostulated with her lord upon his
alleged intention to promote Somerset ; to which the
Captain-General indignantly replied that he had never
dreamed of employing a person of such slender abilities
" in anything that is of any consequence." 2 This cruel
and rather ungrateful remark was maliciously repeated by
Duchess Sarah, and had the effect of driving Somerset into
opposition. Harley received him effusively, and flattered
him to the top of his bent, even going so far as to hold out
hopes that in case of the failure of the House of Brunswick,
the succession to the throne might be settled upon that of
Seymour.3 On the other hand, St. John took no pains to
conceal his dislike for the Duke, and the Jacobite party
refused to believe in the latter's good faith. He was, in
truth, but a half-hearted Tory at best, and would not have
retained office so long as he did but for Harley's flatteries
and the private encouragement of Queen Anne. His
absurd pride, which found an insult in every contrary
argument, his peevish temper, and his variable disposition
made him a most undesirable colleague, and it is not
1 The Whig "Junto," as it was called, consisted of Lords Halifax, Wharton,
Sunderland, Somers, and Orford.
2 Marlborough's Works, vol. x. p. 300.
3 See Swift's Last Years of the A'eign of Queen Anne, vol. v. p. 182.
4io THE HOUSE OF PERCY
surprising that the majority of the Council sympathised
with St. John in that minister's attempts to get rid of one
who, in the words of Lord Hardwicke, "was so humour-
some, proud, and capricious that he was a ministry spoiler
rather than a ministry maker." Up to 1710, Somerset was
still powerful enough to secure the nomination of Parker
to the Chief Justiceship.1 He imagined, according to Lord
Dartmouth, that he could make Parker his tool ; but the
new Chief Justice speedily disabused him of this idea, and
went over to St. John. The Sacheverell agitation, and the
Jacobite intrigues of his fellow-councillors, were renewed
sources of discontent to Somerset. Bitter recriminations
were of daily occurrence between St. John and himself,
and at length he even fell foul of the complaisant Harley.
The dissolution of Parliament in 1710 was the signal for
his final desertion of the Tories. He broke off the con-
nection in a towering rage, which so blinded him to all
sense of propriety that he treated the Queen, to whom he
owed nothing but gratitude, with grave discourtesy. The
occurrence is thus described by Lady Strafford in a letter
to her sister : " The Duke of Somerset has left the Court
in a pet, and it is concluded that he'll ne'er return as
Master of the Horse more. The day the Parliament is
dissolved, he came out of Council in such a passion that
he cursed and swore at all his servants, and ordered
them to put up all things at Kingseton (Kensington),2 and
though his supper was ready he would not stay to
eat it. ...
"The Saturday morning he went out of Town, the
Queen herself gave orders that the leading coach only
should go out with her .... so the Duke of S. might be
at liberty to take the best of the horse chariots and horses
to travel with ; but he continued to the last in a huff, and
went out of Town in his own coach, and not through
St. James Park, which as Master of the Horse he might do.
They say he has been deceived by Mr. Harley. . . . He
1 In succession to Chief Justice Holt.
2 Where he had apartments in his official capacity.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 411
has met the Junto, and they received him very cordially,
and declared he will give all the interest he has in any
place he has influence in to the Whigs." 1
The "Junto" was doubtless glad to welcome back its
old adherent, even though he came not as a penitent but
as a disappointed man. The Whigs in 1711 needed all the
help they could obtain, to combat Harley and St. John —
the latter now in direct communication with St. Germains,
the former amazingly popular by reason of the murder-
ous attack made upon him by Guiscard. In Parliament
the Tories had a decided majority ; Mrs. Masham had
succeeded in ousting the Duchess of Marlborough from
the post of Queen's favourite ; and the prospects of the
Hanoverian succession looked darker than at any time
since the passing of the Act of Settlement. Thus Somerset's
return to the Whig fold was a subject for jubilation. But,
truth to tell, it was not so much for the Duke's own merits
or influence as for those of his wife, that Sunderland,
Somers, and Halifax gave him such cordial greeting. Of
Somerset they could not be certain for any length of time ;
he might leave them in the lurch to-morrow, as he had
done before. But the Duchess was a powerful and, above
all, a loyal and disinterested ally. For her sake they were
willing to forgive and forget, nay even to admit the Duke
to all but their most intimate councils. At the accession
of Queen Anne, the heiress of the Percies had been ap-
pointed first Lady of the Bedchamber. In this capacity
she had greatly strengthened that friendship with the
Queen which began at Syon in 1682. It was part of
Anne's policy to keep about her two sets of favourites, the
one to be used as a foil against the other. While the
Duchess of Marlborough ostentatiously exercised her sway
over Court affairs, she of Somerset was the repository of
the Queen's continual complaints on the score of "Mrs.
Freeman's arbitrary conduct " ; and the quiet sympathy of
one who had, apparently, little or nothing to gain in the
1 Slrafford fafen, 1710.
412 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
royal service, proved grateful to Anne's weak nature.
When Marlborough's wife was forced into retirement by
the intrigues of Harley's tool, Mrs. Masham, the latter
discovered for the first time the great, though passive,
influence exercised by the Duchess of Somerset. Here
was a woman who asked no benefits for her husband or
herself, but who patiently, and almost insensibly, undid the
work of Harley and St. John and inspired the Queen with
Hanoverian sympathies. "She was," writes Noble,1 "the
determined enemy of the Tory party, and her attachment
to the Whigs (afterwards) brought her into great estimation
in the reign of George I." It was not long before Mrs.
Masham and her friends realised that the success of their
schemes depended in no small degree upon the removal
of this dangerous obstacle. But at first the Queen would
not hear of dismissing her friend in this manner. The
Duchess of Somerset was promoted to the joint offices of
Groom of the Stole and Mistress of the Robes, in succes-
sion to the Duchess of Marlborough,2 and she held them in
spite of backstairs' cabals, evil reports, and cruel lampoons,
for over three years. The Queen's personal goodwill she
retained to the very last. Anne, when dying, told Lord
Dartmouth that she proposed to leave a few of her jewels
to the Queen of Sicily, " who was the only relation I ever
heard her speak of with much tenderness ; and the rest
to the Duchess of Somerset, as the fittest person to wear
them after her." 3
Amongst those who reviled the Duchess most bitterly
was Swift, who was then St. John's chief henchman and
adviser. He wrote of her to Stella as "that damned
Duchess of Somerset," and on one occasion he permitted
himself to attack her good fame in a rhymed libel of an
exceptionally provoking character. This was the famous
"Windsor Prophecy," a parody on those vague predic-
tions which were hawked about the streets in broadsides
and almanacs. No one at all familiar with Court matters
1 Siog. History, vol. iii. p. 437. " In January 1711.
3 Burnet, vol. iv. p. 31.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 413
could fail to grasp the allusions in this precious piece of
blackguardism, which ran as follows : —
"J^e Minufior J9ropt)fde.
" And, dear England, if ought I understand,
Beware of Carrots from Northumberland I
Carrots soon Thynn, a deeper root may get
If so be they are in Soiner set.
Their Conyngs mark thou ; for I have been told
They assasine when young, and poison when old.
Root out these Carrots, O thou whose name
Is, backwards and forwards, always the same ; J
And keep close to thee always that name
Which backwards and forwards is almost the same ; 2
And England, would1 st thou be happy still,
Bury those Carrots under a Hill." 3
Thirty years had passed since the murder of Thomas
Thynn by the agents of Count Koningsmarck ; and the
world had almost forgotten those scandalous and impro-
bable tales which held Elizabeth Percy responsible for
the crime. From 1681 to 1711, her life had been such
as to merit the respect of all men, even of her political
enemies ; nor had one tittle of evidence been brought
forward in support of the foul charge which Thynn's
friends had levelled against her in the first heat of their
anger. Yet, after the lapse of all these years, when the
cruel story seemed buried in oblivion, the Duchess found
herself suddenly confronted with it anew. Swift, searching
among the graves of the past for some weapon with which
to wound her, had unearthed this poisoned shaft, steeped
it in venom anew, and savagely driven it home. His keen
insight into human nature inspired him with the sneer
at his victim's personal appearance. He knew that the
phrase " Carrots from Northumberland" would sting deeply
and lastingly, whereas the terrible accusation of murder
might perhaps miss of its full effect in the opinion of
1 Anne. " Masham. 3 Mrs. Masham's maiden name was Abigail Hill.
414 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the new generation. The mock prophecy written, he was
so pleased with its malignity that he had it printed for
distribution among his associates of the "Brothers' Club"
— hard-drinking Tories all, who toasted Abigail Masham,
and damned " Northumberland Carrots " as vigorously
as the Dean himself. He brought a copy of the verses
with great pride to Mrs. Masham herself, imagining that
that lady would be delighted with them. But the Queen's
favourite was a shrewder politician than the great satirist.
She foresaw that the very strength of the poison would
prove its own antidote ; and that Anne's womanly sym-
pathies were almost certain to be enlisted on the side of
the very person they sought to injure. Rather sulkily
Swift admitted the justice of this reasoning, and hastened
to stop the issue of his "Prophecy." He was too late.
The printer, mistaking his orders, had already struck off a
number of copies, and sent them to the members of the
" Brothers' Club." l Before nightfall the spiteful doggerel
was the talk of all the coffee-houses. Some one sent the
Duchess of Somerset a copy, and she hastened with it
to the Queen's apartments, where (so the story goes) she
threw herself upon her knees before Anne, her eyes
streaming with tears, and prayed for vengeance upon her
traducer. Up to that time, Swift had been looked upon
as almost certain to succeed to the Bishopric of Hereford.
The impassioned pleading of the Duchess is said to have
deprived him of this dignity. A few days after the pre-
mature publication of the first lampoon - he wrote a sequel,
in which he tells how
" angry Somerset her vengeance vows,
On Swiff s reproaches for her spouse /3
From her red locks, her mouth with venom fills,
And thence into the royal ear instils."
Swift complaining of " venom " is as " Satan reproving
sin."
1 Swift's Journal to Stella, in which the whole affair is described.
- It was published in December 1711.
3 The hiatus was supposed to be filled with the word " slaug/ttei'd."
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 415
Learning a lesson from the failure of the "Windsor
Prophecy," the Tories abandoned lampoons, and used more
insidious means to discredit the Duchess of
The Duchess
dismissed Somerset with the Queen. Since his retirement
somerset* = from °ffice» Somerset had maintained a secret
sides with correspondence with Hanover, and it was largely
the Elector. to his jndiscreet advice that the Elector sent
over his envoy, Schutz, to demand for Prince George a seat
in the British House of Lords, under the recently conferred
title of Duke of Cambridge. Anne was furiously indig-
nant at this proposal, banished Schutz from her Court,
and informed the Elector and his son that any further
attempt to gain a foothold in England, during her lifetime,
would seriously endanger the Hanoverian succession.1
Harley and Mrs. Masham assured the Queen that the
Duchess of Somerset had been as much involved in this
intrigue as her husband, and a serious estrangement took
place between Anne and her Mistress of the Robes.
Naturally the Tories were delighted ; and Swift wrote to
Stella that "the damned Duchess of Somerset " was about
to follow her Grace of Marlborough into obscurity. At
Court, among those who gave less thought to politics
than to the private virtues, a good deal of regret was
experienced ; and Lady Strafford wrote to her brother,
" If the Duchess must out, she will leave Court with
a very good grace, for everybody is pleased with her
good breeding and civility." 2 She resigned her offices
only a few weeks before the crisis which resulted in
Har ley's downfall, and the brief supremacy of St. John
and the Jacobites. The pain of this separation from one
whom she looked upon as a genuine friend, unquestion-
ably preyed upon the Queen's health, and went far to
hasten the end of her life. She never saw the Duchess
of Somerset again ; but we know that she remembered
her with tenderness upon her deathbed.
The chances of the Hanoverian succession now trembled
1 Hume.
a Strafford Papers, 2nd series; Lady Strafford to her brother, June 1714.
4i6 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
in the balance. It was believed that the Chevalier de St.
George had reached London in disguise, and stood ready
at a moment's notice to take the crown from the hands
of his dying sister. Marlborough had effected an alliance
with Bolingbroke, and hurried home to share in the
triumph of a new Restoration. In this emergency, the
Duchess of Somerset showed herself to the full the
"bold, imperious woman" described by Stanhope.1 Her
extraordinary energy in the Hanoverian cause nerved even
her irresolute, capricious lord to action. The Elector
was warned of what was meditated against him ; and a
plan was concerted between the Dukes of Shrewsbury,
Argyll, and Somerset to set Bolingbroke's deep-laid
schemes at naught. On July 30 Somerset and Argyll
forced their way, unsummoned and unannounced, into
the Council Chamber at Kensington, and insisted on
" offering their advice " to the assembled ministers. Their
confederate, Shrewsbury, welcomed them ; the Jacobites
were apparently paralysed by the unlocked for attack,
and — the Queen's lethargy having left her for a brief
interval — Shrewsbury received the Treasurer's staff, and
with it the practical control of the nation. Anne expired
a few hours later ; and no sooner had the breath left her
body than the Hanoverian envoy " produced an instru-
ment, in the handwriting of the Elector, nominating
eighteen peers, who, according to the Regency Bill, were
to act as Lords Justices till his arrival." 2 The Duke of
Somerset was naturally one of these, the remainder being
nearly all Whigs of known fidelity to the new sovereign.
Thus peaceably was contrived the defeat of the legitimist
party. Bolingbroke had been fairly beaten at his own
game ; and it is not too much to assert that the Duchess
of Somerset had laboured as stoutly and as successfully
to further the Elector's succession, as her ancestor, the
" Wizard Earl," had done to place James of Scotland upon
1 Hume.
2 They included the Dukes of Shrewsbury and Argyll, with Lords Halifax,
Cowper, and Townshend. Neither Marlborough nor Somers was among them.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 417
the throne. In the sequel, the House of Brunswick cer-
tainly showed itself more grateful than the House of
Stuart.
After his arrival in England, George I. reinstated the
Duke of Somerset in his old office of Master of the Horse.
The Duchess was also offered a place at Court,
Duchess: but she declined it, ostensibly on the ground of
Somerset's ^ad health, but really because she could not
insane pride. •*
bring herself to associate with the Duchess of
Kendal and others of the King's German favourites. In
this respect she showed herself more squeamish than
her grand-daughter, the Duchess of Northumberland, who
afterwards paid court to Lady Yarmouth, the mistress of
George II. She lived, during the remainder of her life,
either at Northumberland House or Petworth ; not caring
for Syon, which she termed "a hobble-de-hoy place,
neither town nor country." Unlike her daughter-in-law,
the wife of Lord Hertford,1 she was far from being a
" blue-stocking," although early in her life many books
had been dedicated to her.2 Her union with Somerset
had been one of convenience rather than of affection ; but
she made him a patient and devoted consort, while he, on
the other hand, is said to have treated her "with little
gratitude or affection." After seeing all her surviving
children happily settled, this great lady died at Petworth
on November 23, 1722, in the fifty-sixth year of her age.
She had borne her husband thirteen children in all, but of
these only four reached maturity. Her son and successor,
Algernon, Earl of Hertford, demands an extended notice,
as the recognised heir of the House of Percy. Of her three
1 Afterwards seventh Duke of Somerset.
1 One of these dedications demands mention, from the extraordinarily fulsome
nature of the compliments bestowed upon her. It was that placed by Banks
before the first edition of his tragedy, "Anna Bullen." Addressing the Duchess
as "Illustrious Princess," the playwright continues: "You have submitted to
take a noble partner, as angels have delighted to converse with men. . . . There
is so much of divinity and wisdom in your choice, that none but the Almighty
ever did the like, with the world and Eden for a dower."
II. 2 D
4i8 THE HOUSE OP PERCY
daughters, one married Sir William Wyndham,1 afterwards
Secretary for War, and Chancellor of the Exchequer ;
another, Henry O'Brien, who subsequently succeeded to
the Earldom of Thomond,2 in Ireland ; and a third,
Peregrine Osborne, third Duke of Leeds. After the death
of his first Duchess, Somerset married (1725-6) Lady
Charlotte Finch, daughter of the Tory leader, Daniel
Finch, second Earl of Nottingham, by whom he had two
daughters. When the subtle, restraining influence of
Duchess Elizabeth was removed, his extravagant vanity
began at once to overrun the bounds of decency and
reason. A hundred stories are told of his arrogance, and
of the ridiculous situations into which it frequently be-
trayed him. When his second wife ventured to attract
his attention by tapping him with her fan, he rebuked her
with the absurd remark : " Madam, my first Duchess was
a Percy, and she never took such a liberty." He never
permitted any of his children to remain seated in his
presence, and while dozing, in somewhat undignified
fashion, after dinner, the two daughters of Lady Charlotte
Finch were compelled to stand patiently beside the
paternal chair. On one occasion the elder of these young
ladies, overcome by weariness, was daring enough to sit
down ; whereupon the Duke, waking up suddenly, told the
culprit that "her undutiful conduct and lack of respect
would cost her a fortune." That very day he added a
codicil to his will, by which he mulcted her of the sum of
^2o,ooo.3 His servants were forbidden to open their lips
in his presence, save by special permission, and his orders
were, for the most part, conveyed by signs. When he
1 This was Pope's
" Wyndham, just to freedom and the throne,
The master of our passions, and his own."
He was the third Baronet of Orchard Wyndham, co. Somerset, and father, by
I^ady Katherine Seymour, of the first Earl of Egrerriont, as well as of Percy
Wyndham O'Brien, created first Earl of Thomond.
2 He was grandson and heir of the seventh Earl of Thomond.
3 Horace Walpole ; Correspondence, vols. i. and ii. The victim of this piece
of tyranny was Lady Charlotte Seymour, who afterwards married the third Earl
of Aylesford.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 419
travelled, the roads for leagues ahead were "scoured by
outriders to protect him from the vulgar gaze." His pride,
far from producing the impression he imagined, was gener-
ally looked upon as a form of lunacy. Horace Walpole
never tired of ridiculing the pompous caprices in which he
indulged ; and Anthony Henley stung him almost to fury
by waggishly addressing a letter " To the Duke of Somerset,
over against the Trunk- Shop in Charing Cross" — a jest
which "set the Town laughing for many a day." With
the King, Somerset was soon at loggerheads. The coarse
pleasures in which George I. delighted, and the vulgar
persons with whom he chose to surround himself, dis-
gusted the Duke; and there were frequent quarrels between
the monarch and his Master of the Horse. Sir William
Wyndham, Somerset's favourite son-in-law, having been
committed to the Tower on a charge of corresponding
with the exiled Stuarts, the Duke asked permission to bail
him out. This George refused ; upon which Somerset ex-
pressed his indignation in no measured terms. Furious at
such conduct upon the part of a subject, the King ordered
him from his presence ; and next day, before the Duke
could save his dignity by resigning, he found himself
ignominiously dismissed from his post at Court. During
the remainder of the reign he strove to repay himself for
this humiliation by encouraging the Prince of Wales in all
his disputes with the King.
As the end of his life drew near, Somerset's egotism
and ill-temper became almost unbearable. His estates
were grossly mismanaged (especially those situated in the
North), because he could induce no self-respecting agents
to enter his service ; and he had even succeeded in making
an enemy of his own son and heir by a long series of
tyrannical acts, culminating in a peculiarly wanton piece
of cruelty. He died, little regretted, at Petworth on
December 2, 1748 ; and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral,
where a statue by Rysbrack has been erected to his
memory. Perhaps the most charitable view to take of the
latter part of his life, is that his mind had become slightly
420 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
deranged, and that at times he was not responsible for his
actions. It is asserted by one of his biographers l that he
was a lover of the arts ; but beyond the facts that he once
attempted to patronise Joseph Addison, that his portrait
was painted by Kneller, and that he was an honorary
member of the Kit-Kat Club, there seems nothing to sub-
stantiate this statement.
Algernon Seymour, third Baron Percy2 and seventh
Duke of Somerset, was born at Pet worth on November n,
Seymour and I^4- He inherited much of his mother's sound
Percyunited: common-sense ; and with it a certain easy good-
"°Lady nature and a lack of ambition, which made
Betty." h;m one of thg most popular noblemen of his
day, while, at the same time, preventing him from
taking any important part in public affairs. His dis-
position, in fact, was as likeable as that of his father had
been the reverse ; and beyond an occasional fondness for
the bottle, which was the besetting sin of his generation,
he seems to have been practically free from vicious traits.
At one time it seemed probable that he would have for
tutor a famous man addicted to similar indulgences. The
Duke of Somerset, learning that Mr. Joseph Addison was a
discreet and deserving scholar, sent in his loftiest manner
to inform that young gentleman that he " had been
selected " to act as instructor and travelling companion to
his Grace's son and heir. Addison, instead of being at all
impressed by this honour, requested the Duke to state
what salary he was prepared to pay for his services ; and
on learning the amount proposed, declared it quite in-
sufficient, and broke off negotiations forthwith. Somerset
was so amazed by this quiet snub, that he endured it in
angry silence ; and he is said to have hated literary men
ever afterwards.
In May 1708 the Earl of Hertford (such was the title
by which he was known) joined the army at Brussels,
serving in the capacity of aide-de-camp to the Duke of
1 Mackey. * Of the writ of 1625.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 421
Marlborongh. He fought at Oudenarde (where the
Electoral Prince, afterwards George II., also won his first
laurels), and was selected by Marlborough to carry home
the news of that decisive victory. Later in the year,
he was again the bearer of welcome tidings from the
Commander-in-Chief. " This afternoon," says the Royal
Gazette of November 26, * the Right Honble the Earl of
Hartford arrived here express from his Grace the Duke
of Marlborough to Her Majesty, with an account that his
Grace had passed the Scheldt and relieved the town of
Brussels, which was besieged by the late Elector of Bavaria.
His Lordship was received by the Queen with great
distinction."
Early in 1709, Hertford was promoted to the command
of the isth Regiment of Foot, and in June he took part in
the great but costly triumph of Malplaquet. His active
military career ended in 1713 with the Peace of Utrecht ;
but he continued to hold rank in the regular army until
1742. With the accession of George I. he shared in the
favour bestowed by that monarch upon the great Whig
families, and was appointed captain and lieutenant-colonel
of the and troop of Horse Guards.2 In the same year he
married Frances Thynn, daughter and co-heir of the Hon.
Henry Thynn, and grandchild and co-heir of Thomas,
first Viscount Weymouth.8 This match was fostered by
the Duchess of Somerset (who desired to see her only son
married) but opposed by the Duke. What reasons the latter
had for disliking his daughter-in-law do not appear. He
may have been capricious enough to object to the name of
1 4492 (British Museum Library).
2 In 1715- He was promoted to the full colonelcy of the regiment in 1740.
3 This lady was a cousin of the unfortunate " Tom of Ten Thousand," whose
property her grandfather had inherited. With her sister Mary, wife of William
Greville, Lord Brooke, she was co-heir of the first Viscount Weymouth (died
1714), and of his only son Henry (died 1708). Her mother was Grace, daughter
and heir of Sir George Strode, Knt., Sergeant-at-Law, by Anne Wyndham
(one of the interminable Wyndham family which at this time succeeded in mixing
itself up so profitably in the family affairs of the Percies, Seymours, Thynns, and
O'Briens).
422 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Thynn, in consequence of the old scandal recently revived
by Dean Swift ; or Lady Hertford may have offended him
by her independent disposition, and the pleasure which she
took in the society of artists and men of letters. Hertford
manfully took his wife's side in the family quarrels which
followed his marriage, and for years the Duke was barely
upon speaking terms with his heir. As for the young
couple, they lived together very happily in spite of the
striking contrast presented by their characters and pursuits.
The Countess was a typical " blue-stocking," as one may
judge from her published correspondence.1 These letters,
written in the affected style of the day, yet evincing not a
little talent and power of expression, were addressed chiefly
to Lady Pomfret J and Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, the dramatist.
She also published a small volume of verse, in which the
rhymes were correct and the sentiments beyond reproach.
Thomson dedicated to her the first of his four " Seasons,"
the opening lines of which are : —
" Oh Hertford, fitted for to shine in Courts,
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain
With innocence and meditation joined
In soft assemblage, listen to my song."
Arising out of this address, Dr. Johnson tells an amusing
anecdote in his " Lives of the Poets." " ' Spring ' was published
next year," he says, " with a dedication to the Countess of
Hertford, whose practice it was to invite every summer
some poet into the country to hear her verses and assist
her studies. This honour was one summer conferred upon
Thomson, who took more delight in carousing with Lord
Hertford and his friends than in assisting her ladyship's
poetical operations, and therefore never received another
summons." 3 These country visits were paid to Alnwick
Castle, a small portion of which the Duke of Somerset had
1 The Letters of Frances, Duchess of Somerset, were edited in 1805 by William
Bingley.
8 Henrietta Louisa Fermor, Countess of Pomfret, a famous "blue."
3 Life of Thomson.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 423
grudgingly made habitable for his son. Among the other
poets who were invited to enact the delicate part of mentor
to Lady Hertford, were Shenstone and Richard Savage.
Despite his strange, wayward nature, Savage seems to have
been successful in winning the regard of his patroness ;
and when he was under sentence of death for homicide
committed during a drunken brawl in March 1728, it was
through the intercession of Lady Hertford with the Queen
that he obtained a pardon. The Countess was appointed a
Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline soon after her
husband became a peer. This event occurred in 1722, on
the death of the Duchess of Somerset, when he inherited
the Percy Barony of 1624, but was permitted, through
ignorance on the part of the authorities, to take his seat
according to the precedency of the ancient Barony by writ
of 27 Edward I. (1299). It was also falsely claimed that he
had inherited the dormant Baronies of Poynings, Fitz-Payn,
and Bryan ; and this claim was repeated in the case of
his daughter, the first Duchess of Northumberland. Hert-
ford had been appointed Lord- Lieutenant of Sussex and
Wiltshire in 1715 ; to these he subsequently added the
lieutenancy of Northumberland, in which county he was
deservedly popular, as the first of the old Percy blood to
reside at Alnwick Castle for over one hundred years. In a
North-Country poem of the time, he is thus flatteringly
described : —
" Now Percy's name no more doth fill the North ;
Hartford succeeds in honour, fame, and worth,
Seymour and Percy both in him unite,
He a good patriot, and a hardy Knight." l
Notwithstanding the frequent attempts of the Duke
of Somerset to embitter their relations, the Hertfords and
their children formed a particularly happy and united
family. The only son of the marriage, George, Lord
1 Cheviot; a poetical fragment, lemf. 1722-29; edited by John Adamson,
Esq., of Newcastle, 1817.
424 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Beauchamp, was born in 1725 ; while the only daughter,
Lady Elizabeth Seymour, had first seen the light in 1716.
There was thus a difference of nine years between brother
and sister ; a difference which was in itself an added
bond of tenderness, for Lady Betty1 made a playmate
and companion of her brother from his infancy upwards,
whereas, had they been more nearly of an age, their
ways must soon have parted. A manuscript account of
the pleasant, almost idyllic life led by parents and
children, and of the confidence and affection which pre-
vailed amongst them, was compiled by William Comslade,
a member of the household at this period. Lady Betty
Seymour spent a great part of her youth in the North
Country or in Wiltshire, far from the distractions of
London ; which may account for the fact that her first
(and last) serious love-affair did not occur until she
was twenty -two. At this age her grandmother had
already been married for over five years, and was the
mother of four children ; but it must be remembered
that Lady Betty Seymour was not (at this period) a
great heiress like Elizabeth Percy. Indeed she could not
properly be described as an heiress at all. Her brother
was alive and in robust health. Her own fortune was
not more than ^10,000 ; and this did not come to her,
except by special arrangement, until after her grandfather's
death. Moreover the terms of the Seymour-Percy marriage
settlements were unknown, save to the old Duke and his
lawyers ; and it was believed that a great portion of the
family property would pass away from the direct line
into the hands of the Wyndhams, for whom Somerset
evinced a decided predilection. These considerations pre-
vented Lady Betty from being eagerly sought after by
the fortune-hunters of her day; while, at the same
time, they inspired a young Yorkshire baronet, Sir Hugh
Smithson by name, with the hope of winning her for a
wife.
1 By this diminutive she was known to her friends, even after her succession to
the Earldom in 1750.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 425
It was at the old manor-house of Swillington,1 near
Leeds, that Hugh Smithson's courtship began. Lady Betty
Hugh was staying at this place with the wife of Sir
Smithson's William Lowther,2 who being herself without
courtship of , ., .. . . . , . .
-Lady children, found great pleasure in the society of
Betty." young people. Swillington, indeed, was known
throughout the West and North Ridings as a famous house
for match-making, and one in which the prevalent country
pursuits of fox-hunting, coursing, and cock-fighting were
but secondary considerations. The honest Yorkshire
squires were not a little afraid of Lady Lowther, who had
the reputation of being a " blue," and belonged to the
clever Countess of Pomfret's coterie when she went up to
London with Sir William for the parliamentary season.
Whether Sir Hugh Smithson had been purposely invited
to Swillington by this gentle contriver of other people's
happiness, or whether he came thither in the ordinary way,
it is certain that he speedily fell in love with the charming
Betty Seymour, and that he found no difficulty in enlisting
Lady Lowther's good offices in his behalf. Nor was the
object of this sudden attachment irresponsive. In spite
of her maidenly reserve and faint protestations of indiffer-
ence, it is not difficult to read between the lines of Lady
Betty's correspondence with her mother, that she fully
reciprocated the feelings of her lover. She saw in him one
of the handsomest men of his generation, tall, well-made,
and far superior in natural intelligence as well as in educa-
tion to any of the opposite sex whom she had hitherto
met. The fact that he was universally popular, alike with
rough country gentlemen and with men of letters, must
also have impressed her in his favour. He was as far
1 Swillington was at this time a picturesque, rambling mansion. It has since
been rebuilt, and greatly enlarged.
* She was Sir William's second wife, and the daughter of Sir William Ramsden,
second Bart., of Byrom and Longley, co. York. Her husband belonged to a branch
of the Lowthers of Cumberland, and was M.P. for Pontefract. At his death
s.p. in 1763, Swillington was bequeathed to the Lowthers, afterwards Lords
Ixmsdale, from whom it descended in the cadet line to the present Sir Charles
liingham Lowther, Bart.
426 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
from being a coxcomb or a prude, as he was from the
opposite extremes of debauchery or boorishness. In fine,
he appealed to both sides of Lady Betty's nature ; to her
keen intelligence, as well as to her womanly admiration for
physical strength and beauty. After a brief courtship,
Smithson boldly asked her hand in marriage. Contrary to
the custom of the time, he approached the young lady
herself, rather than her relatives. It was his plan of action
through life to attack the difficulties in his way as directly
and with as little loss of time as possible ; and it will be
seen that these tactics were in the main successful. Lady
Betty was taken completely by surprise, and faltered out a
half-hearted refusal, which probably encouraged Smithson
more than it daunted him, for he told her that he would
not accept it as her final answer. In a flutter of varying
emotions, the young lady hastened to confide in her
hostess (who probably knew more about the affair than she
did herself) ; after which we find her writing to her mother
the following dutiful, but perhaps not altogether frank
epistle :—
" SWILLINGTON, ist October 1739.
" My dear Mamma,
" Since I have been capable of corresponding with
you at all, I never felt so awkwardly about writing to you
as I do at present ; nor indeed had I ever before so odd a
subject to write about. However, as I think it necessary to
do it, I shall proceed to tell you that Sir Hugh Smithson the
other day asked me to let him speak to me, which was to
inform me that he designed proposing himself to my Pappa,
and would beg Lady Lowther to do it for him.
" You will easily guess how much I was surprised and
confounded at so extraordinary a compliment. However, I
mustered up my courage, and told him that I could not give
my consent to his doing it. He answered that his resolution
was taken and he would pursue it. I then said that since
that was the case, I was astonished why he mentioned it to me.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 427
After this he spoke to Lady Low (her, who with her usual
goodness and friendship for me, said she could not think of
doing it without my consent, which I absolutely refused, and
again desired him to drop the whole affair ; but all I could
prevail upon him was to promise me to defer mentioning it till
I came to London.
" I thought it my duty (though Lady Lowther is so
obliging as also to write to you) to inform you of this myself,
on several accounts, and amongst others because people already
talk of it, and I feared, if you should hear it, it might make
you and my Pappa uneasy, and perhaps imagine that I might
give him some encouragement, ivhich I do assure you I have
not ; for, besides what I have already reported to you, I told
him that, even if it should meet with your approbation and
my Pappa' s, I should still reserve to myself the power of
refusing him. I own I have been not a little uneasy, for fear
I should do anything that might be displeasing to either of
vou ; but I hope your answer will tell me the contrary, for I
have honestly told you the whole affair, and upon recollection,
I cannot find what I could have said different from ivhat I
have done.
" I am, dear Mamma,
" Your most obedient and dutiful Daughter,
"E. SEYMOUR." 1
A day or two later, Lady Betty despatched a sort of
postscript to her mother, in which she announced that her
"head was in such a puzzleation," when she had penned
the above letter, that she feared she had " talked nonsense."
No doubt these signs of confusion gave Lady Hertford an
inkling of the real state of affairs, which the letter of Lady
Lowther presently confirmed. She wrote to her daughter,
plainly suggesting that she had not told her the whole
truth, and begging her to state freely the nature of her
feelings towards Sir Hugh Smithson. The letter concluded
with doubts as to whether that gentleman's birth and
1 Almoick MSS.
428 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
estate entitled him to seek such an alliance. Seeing that
her secret was discovered, Lady Betty made no further
attempt at concealment, but admitted that Sir Hugh was
the man of her choice. She was also at pains to display
his prospects and character in as favourable a light as
possible. "/ must" she wrote (speaking of the proposal
of marriage), " honestly confess to you that, had it met with
my Pappa's approbation and yours, I should very willingly
have consented to it. Nay, I shall not scruple to own that I
have a partiality for him. His estate, I have been told, will
be greater than wliat I believe you apprehend ; and he has an
extreme good character. But all this is nothing, and I only
mention it to convince you that I would not conceal one thought
of my heart from you and my Pappa. To all the rest of the
world I hope it will always be so, for I have never opened my
lips about it to a mortal. As for Sir Hugh, I am sure he is far
from suspecting it. I am therefore still in the same -way of
thinking that I was before. . . . I would readily sacrifice my
ozun inclinations to your commands." 1
It is likely that Sir Hugh was not quite so dull of com-
prehension in affairs of the heart as his mistress professed
to believe him. At any rate he increased, instead of re-
laxing, his efforts to win her. There were entertainments
at Stanwick, his home in the North Riding, to which Lady
Betty came under the wing of her hostess, and of which
she wrote in terms of subdued rapture. Meanwhile Lord
and Lady .Hertford had been making inquiries regarding
Sir Hugh Smithson, and, on the whole, learning little but
good of him. Even their captious friend, Horace Walpole,
owned that he possessed "an advantageous manner," and
was "extremely popular." As to his estate, he possessed
over ^4000 a year, practically unencumbered, and was
heir to another property worth annually about another
.£3000. His paternal descent was admittedly plebeian, but
through the female line he sprang from the old Catholic
aristocracy of the North. Had Lady Betty been at this
time the heiress of her family, it is probable that the affair
1 Almuick MSS.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 429
would have been promptly nipped in the bud ; but since
such was not the case, her indulgent parents did not wish
to show themselves over exacting where they believed her
happiness to be concerned. Accordingly a compromise was
suggested. The lovers were to endure a complete sepa-
ration for the space of six months. If, after that time, their
mutual affection continued, Lady Hertford promised to
consider the match favourably. To this Lady Betty agreed,
although, as she told her mother, she was now so deeply
in love that she had grave doubts as to her ability to carry
out the conditions. " You say you fear my resolution gives
me some fain," she wrote, "and I cannot, without forfeiting
the sincerity I have hitherto preserved throughout the whole
affair}- deny that I am not quite easy about it. But let me
conjure you not to think of this." ^ The fears thus expressed
were soon justified. Her swain's continued absence
weighed so heavily on Lady Betty's spirits, that her health
was "seriously affected." Greatly alarmed by the news
which reached her, Lady Hertford threw prudence to the
winds, and promised to receive Sir Hugh Smithson as a
son-in-law, if by that means she could effect her daughter's
cure. Happiness is a potent medicine ; and Lady Betty
became convalescent in a marvellously brief space of time,
while the reappearance of her lover at Swillington com-
pletely restored her to health and spirits. The com-
plaisance of her parents she repaid by a grateful and
affectionate letter of thanks ; while Sir Hugh on his part
addressed to Lady Hertford a formal proposal for her
daughter's hand, couched in language of which the follow-
ing is an example : —
"As I was extremely sensible that I had neither fortune
nor any other qualification sufficient in itself to procure
me so great an honour, my hopes only depended upon
Lady Betty being moved in my favour by the sincerity of
my love ; the constant regard which I hope she is con-
vinced I will pay in every action of my life to promote her
1 The writer evidently forgot her rather disingenuous letter of October I.
* Dated November I, 1739; Alnivick MSS.
430 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
pleasure and happiness ; and the miseries I must suffer
from a disappointment." 1
Letters were also exchanged between Smithson and
Lord Hertford ; and the matter was looked upon as settled
save for the very important item that the sanction of the
Duke of Somerset had not yet been obtained. It was felt
that considerable diplomacy would have to be exercised in
approaching this elderly autocrat, and Lord Hertford for
one expressed grave doubts as to the possibility of per-
suading the Duke to accept a person of Sir Hugh's modest
extraction as a fitting consort for his grandchild. There
was one point in the lover's favour, however ; the Duke
took little interest in Lady Betty, all his hopes being
centred in her brother, Lord Beauchamp.
It was anticipated that the Duke of Somerset's first
question, when referred to in the matter, would deal with
the identity of Sir Hugh Smithson, and a state-
smlthsons ment was accordingly prepared in which the
of Yorkshire yOung baronet's origin and circumstances were
and London. •> & &
treated to the best advantage. As, however,
much was glossed over or evaded in this account, so as not
to arouse the Duke's prejudices, it seems desirable to lay
before the reader a more straightforward version of Sir
Hugh's family history.
The Smithsons, then, were of a substantial yeoman
stock, whose pedigree can be traced back with certainty to
the reign of Edward III., and may perhaps be followed to
a period long anterior. As will be seen by the accompany-
ing genealogical table, the line is deduced in Harrison's
"History of Yorkshire" from one Hugh le Smythe, who held
lands at Thornton Watlous, co. York, in the time of Henry
II., Richard, and John.2 Without doubt General Planta-
1 AlnwicTi MSS.
1 The History of Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 490, &c. This work was compiled by
George H. de S. Nevill Plantagenet Harrison, a general in the Argentine
service.
GENEALOGY OE SMITHSON
HUGH LE SMYTHE ;
held lands at Thornton Watlous,
Co. York, temp. Henry II.,
Richard I. , and John.
WILLIAM LE SMYTHK ;
held lands at Thornton Watlous,
30 Henry III.
WILLIAM LE SMYTHESONNE
of Thornton Watlous ;
husbandman ; 49 Henry III.
[NOTE. — This Pedigree is ex-
tracted from the History
of Yorkshire, by Planta-
genet Harrison, and is de-
rived from wills, deed*,
inquisitions, and legal
suits. From 44 Edw. III.
its authenticity can hardly
he disputed.
ROBERT LE SMYTHESON
of Thornton Watlous ;
v. 14 Edward I.
WILLIAM.
PETER LE SMYTHESON
of Thornton Watlous
(indicted for the murder of
William Sturdy, and
acquitted thereof,
19 Edward III.).
WILLIAM.
ROGER.
I
WILLIAM SMITHESON
of Newsham ; husbandman
(tenant of the Cattericks of
Stanwick, 44 Edward III.).
I
ROBERT SMYTHESON
of Thornton Watlous
(co-defendant with his father,
19 Edward III.);
v. 32 Edward III.
I
I
HUGH SMITHESON
of Barton.
i
ROBERT SMITHESON
of Dalton.
I
WILLIAM SMITHSON ;
tenant in Newsham ,
6 Henry IV.
I
JOHN SMITHSON
of Altofts.
I
ROBERT.
ROGEK.
MATILDA;
heiress of
lands in
Yafiford.
= WILLIAM SMITHSON ;
" franklyn," " gentleman,"
and " forester" ;
held lands in Newsham ;
died temp. Henry V.
1
JOHN SMITHSON,
husbandman in
Newsham,
10 Henry VI.
ALICIA = HUGH SMITHSON ;
tenant in Newsham to
John Catterick, Esq.,
of Stanwick Hall ;
v. 29 Henry VI.
JOHN SMITHSON
of Walburne.
I
I
ROBERT SMITHSON.
man-at-arms of Agin-
court, 3 Henry V. ;
v. ag Henry VI.
I
a quo
SMITHSON
J
di<
MARY, =
dau. of Alexander
Makers of
Berningham.
i
J.
\NTHONY SMITHSON
of Newsham ;
*'. 12 Henry VII. ;
'.d ante 19 Henry VIII.
THOMAS SMITHSON
of Cowton Grange ;
v. 12 Henry VIII.
of Moulton.
1
- RALPH SMITHSON,
farmer, of Newsham,
and tenant to
Anthony Catterick
of Stanwick Hall ;
died 1553.
.
SL.
1 1
JOHN. ANTHONY
SMITHSON.
clerk ;
v.
26 Henry VIII.
HENRY SMITHSON
of Aldburgh ;
tenant to
the Cattericks.
\
B
GENEALOGY OF SMITH SO W— continued
A.
t
EI.KANOR = WILLIAM SMITHSON
of Newsham ;
tenant farmer under
William Catterick of
Stanwick, 5 Edw. VI. ;
and under Anthony
Catterick of Stanwick,
28 Eliz.
RALPH
SMITHSON
of Newsham ;
will, 1582.
THOMAS
SMITHSON ;
v. 1553-
WILLIAM SMITHSON,
yeoman . of Newsham
(purchased the lands of
Newsham from the
Stanwick family).
I
a quo
SMITHSONS,
yeomen, of Newsham.
ANTHONY SMITHSON,
yeoman,
of Newsham ;
v. 13 James I.
DOROTHY,
dau. of
eremiah Rawsterne,
citizen of London.
SMITHSON
OF STANWICK.
= (Sir) HUGH SMITHSON,
citizen and haberdasher
of London
(apprenticed to Ralph and
William Robinson,
haberdashers, who pur-
chased the estates of
Rokeby and Brignal, and
were ancestors of the
Marquis of Ripon) ;
amassed a fortune as
successor to the Robinsons,
and purchased the
MANOR OF STANWICK
from Anthony Catterick
f°r ^4°°o. A. D- 1638 ;
created a BARONET (1660);
died 1677.
FRANCIS
SMITHSON,
draper,
of Richmond
(a Quaker) ;
will dated
Aug. 9, 1670 ;
s.f.
t
I
JAMES SMITHSON
of Aldburgh ;
farmer.
,1
WILLIAM SMITHSON,
citizen and haber-
dasher of London ;
aged 22, in 33 Eliz.
JOHN SMITHSON,
citizen and haber-
dasher of London ,
ii Charles II.
I
I I
WALTER
SMITHSON,
citizen and
paper-stainer,
of the "White
Horse," Bow
Row, Ludgate ;
v. 1659.
ROGER
SMITHSON,
citizen and
haberdasher
of London ;
died ante 1659.
MARY,
dau. of
Edward Wingate.
I
= Sir JEREMY SMITHSON,
2nd Baronet,
of Stanwick Hall,
Co. York ;
citizen and haberdasher
of London ;
died 1684.
" I
HUGH SMITHSON,
citizen and haber-
dasher of London ;
died 1673.
4
Hon. ELIZABETH =
LANGDALE,
dau. of Marmaduke,
Lord Langdale.
1
= Sir HUGH SMITHSON
3rd Baronet,
of Stanwick Hall ;
died 1729.
ANTHONY SMITHSON,
of Gray's Inn ;
v. 13 Chas. II.
I
HUGH SMITHSON,
Gent. , of Tottenham
High Cross, who
bequeathed to bis
cousin an estate of
,£3000 per annum ;
died 1740 s.f.
HUGH,
died v.p.
s.p.
I
LANGOALE
SMITHSON,
died v.p.
PHILADELPHIA,
dau. of
Walter Reveley
of Newby Wyske ,
Co. York.
Lady ELIZABETH SEYMOUR
(Percy),
heiress of the estates and
name of Percy.
1740
Sir HUGH SMITHSON (Percy),
4th Baronet of Stanwick
(afterwards ist DUKE OF
NORTHUMBERLAND, K.G.).
I
DOROTHY SMITHSON.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 431
genet Harrison, the author of this work, was an eccentric
and not always trustworthy historian ; but in tracing the
Smithson descent, he derived his information from such
reliable sources as deeds, leases, wills, parish books, records
of suits-at-law, and inquisitions post-mortem ; to all of which
he gives the fullest references. Moreover he was him-
self a native of Newsham, where the Smithsons had cer-
tainly been settled since 44 Edward III.; and his mother's
family, the Hutchinsons of Newsham, were minor gentry
in the selfsame portion of the parish of Kirkby-Ravens-
worth.
De Fonblanque quotes an alleged descent of Sir Hugh
Smithson from one "William Smithson, gent., of News-
ham, temp. Richard II.," and speaks of the "ruins of the
mansion seat " of the family at Newsham.1 According to
Harrison, the only family of gentle descent settled in
Newsham before Elizabeth's time was named Johnson, and
the "mansion seat" in question belonged to them. If the
Smithsons were anything more than yeomen, it seems
strange that they did not possess armorial bearings until
the grant made by the Heralds' College to the first baronet
in 1660. From their first appearance in Newsham, they
seem to have been tenants of the fine old family of
Catterick or Catherick of Stanwick Hall,2 whom they
afterwards supplanted as lords of the soil. From an In-
quisition post-mortem we learn that " Anthony Smithson of
Newsham, in the parish of Kirkby-Ravensworth, husband-
man, younger son of William Smithson of Newsham,
yeoman, held lands there from Anthony Catherick,
Esquire, of Stanwick, and paid the subsidies thereon
39 Eliz. "; and that he "purchased \ the tithes of Bolton,
5 Aug. 13 Jac. I.," together with "18 acres of arable land,
18 acres of meadow, and 20 acres of pasture, with a
1 Annals of the House of Percy, vol. ii. (Appendices).
2 Stanwick came to the Cattericks by the marriage of William Catterick with
Maria, daughter and heir of Robert Fitz-IIugh Stanwick of Stanwick, temp.
Edward I. Like many another ancient house, they followed the Catholic faith,
and were forced to sell their estates.
432 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
messuage, barn, &c., all in Newsham, from Anthony
Catherick, Esquire, of Stanwick and Carleton."1 This
Anthony Smithson was the father of Hugh Smithson, who,
from being an apprentice to Ralph and William Robinson,
haberdashers, of London, eventually succeeded to their
business, and thereby amassed a large fortune. Following
the example of his old masters, the Robinsons,2 Smithson
decided to invest his money in an estate ; and a natural
affection for the locality led him to purchase Stanwick
Hall from his father's former landlord, Anthony Catterick,
for the sum of .£4000. He did not reside at Stanwick
until late in life, but continued to carry on business as a
haberdasher. A Roman Catholic by religion, he could
hope for no civic or political preferment ; but he is said
to have assisted the exiled Charles II. from time to time
with considerable loans. His reward was a baronetcy,
conferred in the year of the Restoration, after which he
retired from trade, and took up his abode in old Stanwick
Hall, now a farmhouse. Harrison, speaking of the parish
church of St. John at Stanwick, says : " A great many of
the Pigot family were buried here, whose tombs were
destroyed to make way for a cumbrous piece of imposture
erected to the memory of the first Sir Hugh Smithson of
Stanwick, who is here represented as a Cavalier warrior in
armour, with Miss Rawsterne, his wife, lying beside him.
Here we have the sublime and the ridiculous combined in
the superlative degree. This Sir Hugh Smithson was only
a haberdasher of humble birth, who made a fortune in his
trade, and purchased the Stanwick estate for ^4000, and a
baronetcy for ^1095." 3
1 Inquis. P. M., quoted by Harrison; History of Yorkshire. Carleton
remained in the possession of the Cattericks until 19 Chas. II., when it was
alienated to the Witham family.
2 These wealthy tradesmen bought the manors of Rokeby and Brignall, and
founded the family now represented by the Marquis of Ripon, K.G. Like Smith-
son, they were Yorkshire born.
* This last assertion lacks proof. The more likely version is that the
baronetcy was conferred by way of repayment of loans to the King.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 433
Sir Hugh's shop, which was situated in Cheapside,
descended to his two elder sons, Jeremy and Hugh ; his
wife, whose peculiar maiden name is given above, retain-
ing a life interest. The eldest son, Jeremy, also succeeded
to Stanwick Hall and the baronetcy ; while a third child,
Anthony, inherited property at Tottenham High Cross, near
London, as well as at Armine, co. York. This Anthony
was father of Hugh Smithson of Tottenham,1 M.P. for
Middlesex, who, in the absence of children of his own,
made the third Sir Hugh Smithson of Stanwick his heir.
Sir Jeremy Smithson, second Bart., sold the haberdasher's
shop in Cheapside. The third Bart., Sir Hugh, married a
Roman Catholic lady of noble family, Elizabeth, daughter
of Marmaduke, second Lord Langdale ; 2 but, after her
death, abjured his ancestral faith and died an Anglican in
1729. All his children remained Catholics, however, and
his four daughters died professed nuns. It was this recent
and intimate connection of his family with Rome which
made the first Duke of Northumberland an object of such
suspicion to the "No Popery" rioters of 1770. It seems
fairly certain that he himself was baptized in the old
religion, and continued a member of it until the death of
his father, Langdale Smithson ; 3 after which, as his grand-
father's heir, he was instructed in the Anglican doctrine.
Sir Hugh Smithson, fourth Bart., of Stanwick (as he was
now styled), matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on
October 15, 1730, and took his degree practically as a
matter of course. In 1738 he was High Sheriff of York-
shire ; and in 1739 a suitor for the hand of Lady Elizabeth
Seymour.
1 By Susannah, daughter of Sir Edward Barkham, Bart., of Southacre,
Norfolk. Hugh Smithson of Tottenham represented Middlesex in five Parlia-
ments, and married (i) Hester, daughter of Michael Godfrey, Deputy-Governor
of the Bank of England, by whom he had a son, Anthony, died vitd patris 1722 ;
and (2) the Hon. Constantia Hare, only daughter of Henry, second Lord
Coleraine, who died s.p. 1726.
2 Son of the dashing Cavalier, Sir Marmaduke Langdale.
3 See Genealogy of the Smithsons.
II. 2 E
434 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
In order to flatter the egregious self-esteem of the Duke
of Somerset, it was thought better, in asking him for his
sanction to the match between Lady Betty and
°f Sir Hugh, to suppress the negotiations which had
and Lady already taken place, and to allow his Grace to
imagine that he, as head of the house, had been
approached in the first instance. This was an example of
the proverbial Yorkshire diplomacy, and originated with
Smithson himself. He also decided that the good offices
of some influential friend would be necessary to secure
him a proper hearing at Northumberland House. Such a
sponsor was readily found in the person of his neighbour
of the North Riding, the Duke of Leeds,1 who wrote a
letter introducing Sir Hugh as a gentleman of hereditary
title and fortune, his " intimate acquaintance and particular
friend," who experienced "a very particular regard and
esteem for Lady Betsy Seymour." " Sir Hugh" continued the
Duke of Leeds, " has at present better than ^4000 a year
entirely within his own power, and subject to no encumbrance
whatsoever, except only £200 a year to his mother? He will
doubtless inherit on the death of a relative? who is upwards
of four score years of age, very nearly if not quite ^3000 a
year more" *
To his respectful application, the Duke of Somerset
majestically replied " that he did not know Sir Hugh
Smithson, or his fortune, but that if upon inquiry he should
find out that his family was Gentlemanly and respectable, and
that his fortune would allow of his settling -£2000 a year
Rent charge on his (the Duke's] Granddaughter, by way of
j'oynture, and £s°° for pin money, that he should not object
to it,"5 Apparently the inquiries respecting the Smithson
1 Thomas Osborne, fourth Duke of Leeds, K.G., who succeeded to the title
in this year. He died 1789.
1 She was Philadelphia, daughter of Walter Revely of Newby '\Yiske, county
York.
3 This was Hugh Smithson, M.P., of Tottenham High Cross.
4 Duke of Leeds to Duke of Somerset : Cowsladfs Journal in Alnu'ick MSS.
5 CowslaJe's Journal, Almvick MSS.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 435
family did not quite satisfy the Duke,1 for, although he
did not actually forbid the match, he sought in many ways
to have it broken off ; nor would he consent to receive
Sir Hugh, or to countenance him by direct correspondence.
To the last he urged his son and granddaughter to hold out
for more advantageous settlements, hoping by this means
to frighten Smithson away. On February 8, 1740, he
wrote from Petworth to Lady Betty insisting that the
Tottenham and Armine2 estates, to which Sir Hugh was
heir presumptive, should be included in the settlements.
But here the Duke encountered an unexpected rebuff,
which had the happy effect of silencing him for the time
being. Mr. Smithson of Tottenham High Cross, the owner
1 One of the facts discovered, however, was that Sir Hugh Smithson (through
the Langdales) could claim distant kinship with his future bride, as thus : —
1
1
HENRY,
MATILDA, =
= RALPH,
3rd BARON PERCY.
dau. of HENRY,
2nd LORD NF.VII
L
*
2nd BARON PERCY.
OF RABY.
a quo
RALPH,
LADY ELIZABETH
ist EARL OF WESTMORELAND.
SEYMOUR.
1
LADY CECILY NEVILL. = EDMUND, DUKE OF YORK.
LADY ANN PLANTAGENET. = Sir THOMAS ST. LEGER.
GEORGE MANNERS, LORD Roos. = ANN ST. LEGER.
I
THOMAS, ist EARL OF RUTLAND.
I
Sir JOHN SAVAGE, Kt. = LADY ELIZABETH MANNERS.
THOMAS, VISCOUNT SAVAGE.
THOMAS SAVAGE (2nd son).
MARMADUKE, = ELIZABETH SAVAGE.
2nd LORD LANGDALE. I
Hon. ELIZABETH LANGDALE. = Sir HUGH SMITHSON, 3rd Bart.
LANGDALE SMITHSON.
Sir HUGH SMITHSON, 4th Bart.
2 Armine or Ayrmine Hall, Yorkshire, has since descended, through the
Smithsons and Percies, to the family of Heber-Percy of Ilodnet.
436 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of the estates in question, resented the proposal as a
slur cast upon his good faith. "It was true," he sturdily
declared, " that he was no Duke, nor boasted of any such
great alliances ; but in point of honourable dealing he would
yield to no man. That he had given his word that he would
leave certain of his estates to Sir Hugh Smithson, and that
was sufficient: and he would not be tied down by any
lawyers" J The Duke of Somerset made no further attempt
to interfere ; but he never forgave the Smithson family
for thus defying him, and we shall see presently how
nearly he succeeded in wreaking a malevolent revenge
upon his grandchild and her husband.
Lady Betty Seymour and Sir Hugh Smithson were
married on July 18, 1740. A few weeks later we are
afforded a glimpse of the happy couple, going in magnifi-
cent apparel, to call upon their cousin, Mr. Smithson.
Lady Hertford writes to her son, Lord Beauchamp :
" Sir Hugh and Lady Betty went to dine and pay their respects
to Mr. Smithson of Tottenham High Cross. Though in the
very midst of summer, they were both of them dressed as for
a holiday ; she in a silver stuff of four pounds a yard, and
Sir Hugh in a lead colour and silver stuff coat embroidered
with silver, and Waistcoat and Parements of white silk
embroidered with silver and colours'' 2
Little Beauchamp (who was now making the "Grand
Tour " in care of his tutor) was naturally eager for news
of " Betty and her husband," and his mother gratified him
to the best of her ability. Sir Hugh, it seemed, had de-
veloped a remarkable taste for art, and was busy buying
pictures wherewith to decorate the walls of his mansion
at Stan wick.3 In his search for talent he had discovered
a new painter of English birth, whose work, he declared,
rivalled that of Guido. This great genius, Lady Hertford
calls "Huby" (or is this an error of her printer?); and
1 Cowslade's Journal, Almvick A1SS.
2 Letters of the Countess of Hertford, 1740.
3 A new hall had taken the place of the old one at Stanwick ; but this was
in turn to give way to a still larger structure.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 437
she tells her son that " Sir Hugh has bespoke as many pictures
of Huby as will furnish his Salon at Stanwick, He {Huby) is
allowed four years to complete them ; which I hope he will do,
for the owner of the house will never prevail upon himself to
hang the work of any other painter by them" The mysterious
" Huby " was none other than Giles Hussey, whose extra-
ordinary promise and equally extraordinary self-effacement
are noticed in Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting."1 Sir Hugh
showed keen artistic instinct in selecting Hussey, then
almost unknown, to paint for him ; and he would probably
have made his protege famous, if the latter's peculiar tem-
perament had not marred his career.
During the winter of 1740 Mr. Hugh Smithson of Totten-
ham died, bequeathing, as he had promised,his landed estates
to Sir Hugh. The latter was immediately elected M.P. for
Middlesex in his cousin's place ; and, in the absence of a
town house of their own, Lady Betty and he resided for
some time in the late Mr. Smithson's villa at High Cross.2
But a death of far more importance to Sir Hugh and
his wife took place on September n, 1744, when George,
Lord Beauchamp, heir of the united names of
becomes heir Seymour and Percy, was carried off by smallpox,
Perries • on ^e cve °^ ^'s twenty-first year. After a brief
spite of old sojourn, in England, during which he made the
somerset. acquaintance of his brother-in-law, young Beau-
champ had returned to the Continent in 1742, still in charge
of a tutor, Storrocks by name. The autumn of 1744 found
the travellers at Bologna, and on September 5th of that year
Lord Beauchamp wrote a letter to his mother, in which
1 Giles Hussey (1710-1788), was born at Marnhull in Dorsetshire, of a Roman
Catholic family, and educated at Douay and St. Omer. Walpole describes his
work as " equal to very great masters" (Anecdotes of Painting, ii. 318). Sir Hugh
Smithson offered him a home for life, and a settled income ; but this he refused.
He had peculiar theories on the subject of art, and deeming himself misunder-
stood, abandoned the brush altogether, and died a recluse on the estate of his
brother. — Diet, of Nat. Biog.
a It was known as " the Black House," and stood by the main road, near the
Cross of Tottenham (Robinson ; History of Tottenham').
438 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
he promised himself the pleasure of visiting Alnwick for
Christmas. Six days later, the poor lad fell a victim to
the dread scourge which was then ravaging Italy. By his
decease, Lady Elizabeth Smithson was suddenly trans-
formed from the wife of a country baronet of moderate
wealth, into the prospective heiress of two great historic
families, and of an estate among the largest in Great Britain.
The old Duke of Somerset heard the news ; not with sorrow
indeed, but in an unnatural frenzy of rage and bitterness.
With Lord Beauchamp he saw pass away his proud anti-
cipation of a male line of Seymours, premier peers of
England. He saw, too, how greatly the despised Yorkshire
baronet must benefit by the change ; and it cut him to the
quick when he thought that Hugh Smithson, descendant of
a London tradesman, had, by his (Somerset's) own lack of
foresight, been permitted to marry the first heiress in the
three kingdoms. Not one touch of grief untinged by sel-
fishness, not the slightest feeling of sympathy with his son
and daughter in their bereavement, can be detected in any
of the Duke's utterances at this time. Nay, to such lengths
did his perverse nature carry him, that he broke in upon
Lord Hertford's sufferings with a cruel letter, full of shame-
ful reproaches and abuse. " It is a most terrible loss for
his parents, Lord Beauchamp's death," writes Horace Wai-
pole ; "if they were out of the question one could not be
sorry for such a mortification of the pride of old Somerset.
He has written the most shocking letter imaginable to poor
Lord Hertford, telling him it is a judgment upon him for
all his undutifulness, and that he must always look upon
himself as the cause of his son's death. Lord Hertford is
as good a man as lives, and has always been most un-
reasonably ill-used by that old tyrant." J Lady Hertford
also refers in her " Letters " to the effect of this brutal attack,
coming as it did in the midst of their affliction.
Somerset, however, was not satisfied with thus gratify-
ing his spite at Hertford's expense. He resolved, if pos-
sible, to prevent the Smithsons from reviving the Percy
1 Letters to Sir Horace Mann ; vol. ii. p. 48.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 439
name and honours. Knowing that his son's immediate
family were far too much concerned with their own
grievous trouble to pay attention to Court affairs, he
drew up and forwarded a petition to the King, in which
he asked that the Earldom of Northumberland should be
conferred upon him, " with a special remainder, in default of
male issue, to his grandson, Sir Charles Wyndham, BartJ and
the heirs male of his body ; and after that to the heirs male of
the body of his other grandson, Percy Wyndham 0' Bryan" 2
Such a patent would, of course, have the effect of diverting
the representation of the House of Percy from the direct
heiress, Lady Betty Smithson, to the Wyndham family and
its descendants. The petition was presented, on behalf
of the Duke, by Lord Granville ; 3 and the King was led to
believe that, according to the terms of Somerset's contract
of marriage with Elizabeth Percy in 1682, the great estates
attached to the Northumberland title would pass to the
" senior male grandson of that union " (i.e. to Sir Charles
Wyndham), to the exclusion of female heirs. George II.
was by no means well versed in English law, and easily
allowed himself to be persuaded. In fact the affair had
progressed so far that the new patent was made out, ready
for the royal signature, before any hint of what was afoot
reached the ears of Lord Hertford and his circle. Fortu-
nately it was not altogether too late to prevent the malicious
designs of the Duke of Somerset from succeeding. Eager
to arrest the meditated injury to his only remaining child,
Hertford invoked the assistance of the Duke of Newcastle ;
and subsequently wrote directly to the King, sending his
protest by the hands of Sir Hugh Smithson. Whatever
were the faults of George II., he loved honesty and justice
1 Sir Charles Wyndham was son and heir of Sir William Wyndham by
Lady Katharine Seymour. He afterwards succeeded to the Earldom of
Egremont, and a large portion of the Percy estates, now inherited by Lord
Leconfield.
" Second son of Sir W. Wyndham. lie was created first Earl of Thomond,
but died s.p.
3 The second Lord Carteret inherited the title of Earl Granville through his
mother, a peeress in her own right, daughter of the Cavalier Earl of Bath.
440 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
in so far as his narrow mind permitted him to realise those
qualities. Hearing that Lord Hertford, his old companion
in arms at Oudenarde, had objected to the issue of the
patent, he was at first greatly surprised (for Granville had
kept him in the dark as to the true state of affairs), and
then eager to investigate the matter in all its bearings.
Sir Hugh Smithson was summoned to a private interview
in the royal closet, and invited to state freely his own and
his father-in-law's views. It was a mission for which the
sharp-witted Yorkshireman was peculiarly fitted. Within
half-an-hour he had explained to the King (and to Queen
Caroline, who was also present) the nature of the plot
hatched by Somerset, and the absolute untruth of his
assertions regarding the settlement of the Percy estates.
Petworth, Leconfield, and a considerable portion1 of the
property had, it was true, been unwisely left in the Duke's
power to will away as he desired ; but the great bulk of the
old Northumberland possessions must descend, with the
Barony of Percy, to Lord Hertford, and after him to Lady
Betty and her heirs. The King was justly angry at the
deception which had been practised upon him ; but, in
his usual puzzle-headed fashion, he told Smithson that
" the affair had gone so far, he scarcely knew what to do."
Sir Hugh begged at least that the signing of the patent
should be deferred ; and to this George readily consented.
Nothing was done in the matter until the spring of the
following year (the ever memorable " '45 "), when the
Duke of Somerset obstinately renewed his application to
the King, coupled with a broad hint to the effect that his
services to the House of Brunswick merited the favour
demanded, especially in view of the threatened invasion of
Prince Charles Edward, and the temptations held out by tlie
Jacobites, to all who would lend aid to the legitimist cause.
The King might have been cozened by Granville and his
Hanoverian advisers into yielding to the importunities of
1 These estates were, in fact, afterwards settled by old Somerset upon the
Wyndhams, and are now owned by their heirs, as the title of Lord Leconfield
indicates.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 441
so powerful a nobleman (for the defeat of Fontenoy, and the
other disasters of the campaign of 1744-5, had inspired the
royal family with fears for the safety of their throne), were
it not that Somerset abandoned his malignant designs as
suddenly as he commenced them. The explanation of
this change of front is perhaps to be found in a fearless
letter of remonstrance written to him by his grandchild,
Lady Betty. The arguments which she put forward were
in truth unanswerable ; and throughout the entire epistle
the diplomatic hand of Sir Hugh Smithson may readily
be discerned. Somerset is thus addressed : —
"LONDON, iqth April 1745.
"My Lord,
" Some time before Christmas I was informed that
application had been made to ye King for a patent to create
your Grace Earl of Northumberland for life, with remainder
to my father and his heirs male, and in default of them to
Sir Charles Wyndham, and then to Mr. 0' Bryan &c., and
then to Miss Wyndham.1
"As I was conscious to myself that I had never done
anything to deserve your Grace's displeasure, much less to be
disowned as your granddaughter, I rather chose to attribute
it to Lord Granville's artifices, or Sir Charles Wyndham 's
solicitations ; but the former solemnly declares that he never
had any furtlicr concern in this affair than being obliged as a
Minister to deliver your Grace's message to the King; and as
to the latter, I have now by me a letter (ready to produce to
your Grace) from Miss Wyndham, in which she declares it a
mark of distinction unasked by any of their family ,
" Thus, my Lord, they throw the whole of the affair upon
your Grace. However the King, being better informed of some
circumstances relating to it, determined to postpone the patent till
further insight should be given him. As I found the thoughts of
the whole world (for it was the topic of general conversation)
1 This was Elizabeth, who afterwards married the Right Hon. George
Grenville, the proposer of the obnoxious Stamp Act which led to the American
Revolution.
442 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
concurred in looking upon this procedure as most unjust with
regard to me, so I doubted not but that, upon mature reflec-
tion, Your Grace would never be prevailed upon to give your
consent to anything so prejudicial to one who has never offended
you. However, being informed that your Grace has now
made afresh application, it lays me under an absolute necessity
of remonstrating in my own cause. To be sure if Your Grace
is ambitious of adding to your other titles that more antient
one of Earl of Northumberland, it is very proper that you
should have it; after Your Grace it naturally comes to the
right descendant of that family, my father ; but after that,
in default of heirs male, it goes to Charles Wyndham from
me, who (since the irreparable loss of my most dear and ever
to be lamented brother} am at present the undoubted heir of
that great and noble family of Percy, as evidently appears by
those more antient titles of the Baronies of Percy, which I
must necessarily inherit.
" These considerations, I therefore flatter myself, will in-
duce Your Grace to view this affair in its true light ; and then,
I am persuaded, you will either consent that my name shall
be inserted in the patent after my father s, or no longer
persevere in an application so apparently to the prejudice of,
my Lord,
" Your Grace's obedient servant,
" ELIZABETH SMITHSON."
Somerset would not insert the name of Lady Betty
in the patent, and he willed every acre he could
possibly alienate from the direct line to his favourite
grandsons, the Wyndhams ; but from this time forward
he allowed the project for reviving the Earldom of
Northumberland to drop. His decease at a great age in
1748 made Lord Hertford seventh Duke, and inheritor
of the as yet undivided property for life. Duke Alger-
non was in his sixty-fifth year when he succeeded. The
death of his only son had left him broken in health and
spirits ; and he determined, before death should claim
him, to secure for his daughter and her descendants a title
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 443
appropriate to the great landed possessions which were
to be theirs. To the Wyndhams, with whom he had no
quarrel, he also wished to leave a suitable title ; and it was
lastly his sincere desire that the contract entered into
and afterwards evaded by his father, concerning the pre-
servation of the Percy name, should now be honourably
observed by Lady Betty Smithson and her husband.
The King, who had a high regard for the new Duke of
Somerset, easily granted all his requests. On October 2,
1749, he was created BARON WARKWORTH OF WARKWORTH
CASTLE, and EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, " with remainder,
in case of failure of his own male issue, to Sir Hugh
Smithson and his heirs male by Lady Elizabeth Seymour ;
in default of which the dignities were to pass to the heirs
male of Lady Elizabeth by any other marriage which she
might contract." A day later, the Duke was further created
BARON COCKERMOUTH OF COCKERMOUTH and EARL OF
EGREMONT, "with remainder to Sir Charles Wyndham,
Bart., and the heirs male of his body ; in default of which
to Percy Wyndham O'Bryan and the heirs male of his
body." The seventh Duke of Somerset died on February
7, 1750; and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Sir Hugh
Smithson, as second Earl of Northumberland and Baron
Warkworth ; while his daughter, Lady Betty, inherited
the Barony of 1624.*
One of the first steps taken by Hugh, Earl of North-
umberland, was to assume the name and arms of Percy,
sir Hugh m accordance with the wishes of his predecessor.
Smithson be- A special Act of Parliament, passed in February
comes Earl 11,1- , •
ofNorthum- 1750, enabled him to do this; and although
ukeTtheand Horace Walpole and other gossips of the day
name of affected to ridicule the change as pretentious and
Percy- absurd, "Earl Smithson" (as they called him)
was fully justified in following the example of Josceline of
1 The Dukedom of Somerset passed to Sir Edward Seymour, sixth Bart., of
Berry Pomeroy, ancestor of the present Duke, and the Earldom of Egremont
and Barony of Cockennouth to Sir Charles Wyndham.
444 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Louvain, and adopting the patronymic of the noble family
whose heiress he had married, and whose recognised chief
he had now become. In 1751 he took his seat in the
House of Lords and moved the address to the Throne.1
A year later he became a Lord of the Bedchamber, and
received his commissions as Lord-Lieutenant of Northum-
berland and Vice-Admiral of the Northumbrian shore on
March 20, 1753. The Garter was conferred upon him in
1756, and this raised an outcry among the friends and
adherents of many disappointed peers, who held that " the
old nobility"2 was degraded by the bestowal of the blue
ribbon upon "a person of obscure descent." The truth
seems to be that Northumberland, whose sterling worth
was everywhere admitted when he was merely Sir Hugh
Smithson, had made by his good fortune a host of ene-
mies and envious calumniators. Walpole, who had once
borne testimony to his good breeding, now painted him
as a vulgar upstart, and delighted in chronicling spiteful
stories of his ostentation. We are asked to believe that he
spoke of Harry Hotspur as his "ancestor" ; and that when
Lord March 3 visited Alnwick, he received him in state with
the remark, " I believe, my lord, this is the first time that
ever a Douglas and a Percy met here in friendship." Nor
was " Lady Betty " (as she continued to be styled) spared
by her husband's critics. Walpole did not like her, and she
is variously set down in his " Letters " as "coarse," " ostenta-
tious," and " junketaceous." It was her habit, he declares,
to follow the Queen * to the theatre with a longer retinue
than her own ; and in spite of her apparent frankness, he
considered her secretly mischievous. Coarse she certainly
was (as indeed were most of the great ladies of the day),
1 In his speech he had to comment upon the little-regretted demise of
Frederick, Prince of Wales.
2 It is difficult to divine what was meant by " the old nobility." Of the
riantagenet nobility only scanty remnants were left ; and the great majority of
the higher titles were held by the descendants of " new men," ennobled in Tudor
or Stuart times.
3 Son of the Duke of Queensberry.
J Queen Charlotte, wife of George III., is here alluded to.
J
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W
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at
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O
fc.
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THE HOUSE OF PERCY 445
and she never shrank from a joke because of its indecency.1
There is on record an account of a magnificent supper,
given by Northumberland and his wife in 1758 (a few
months after the Earl had received his Garter) to George
II.'s mistress, the Countess of Yarmouth.2 The principal
ornament on the supper-table represented a Court hunt at
Herrenhausen, with a carriage drawn by six prancing
steeds, in which sat two figures, one representing the King,
and the other Lady Yarmouth. The portraits of these
"august personages" were unmistakable; and a contem-
porary writer describes this trophy as " the apotheosis of
concubinage."
Fortunately for their own peace of mind, both Earl and
Countess were plentifully endowed with good humour, and
never allowed themselves to show resentment at the attacks
of the envious. As nothing mean or dishonourable was
ever alleged against either of them, they may be said to
have come particularly well through the fires of criticism.
From the first, Earl Hugh showed himself an excellent
landlord. Allusion has been made to the wretched state
into which the northern estates of the Percies had been
allowed to fall, through the carelessness or incapacity of
the Duke of Somerset. Those wide tracts had in fact been
little better than waste for half a century. The houses of
the tenants were in ruins, the woods had been ruthlessly cut
down for fuel, agriculture itself had fallen into disuse. The
new Earl remembered what William Als-gernons had done
for Yorkshire, and resolved to do likewise for Northumber-
land. " He found the country almost a desert," says Collins,
" and he clothed it with woods and improved it with agri-
culture." Every year for twenty years he is said to have
planted over 1200 trees, until the once desolate region
began to assume a warm and sheltered aspect. The ruined
cottages were rebuilt or repaired, and an intricate system
1 The curious will find many examples of this trait of " Lady Betty " in the
works of Walpole and his contemporaries.
3 Sophia de Walmoden, Lady Yarmouth, was the last mistress of an English
king to receive a peerage.
446 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
of drainage helped to reclaim the marshy districts. The
Earl imported fruit-trees and flowers, many of them belong-
ing to species until then quite unknown in England. To
such an extent did he improve the estates which his wife had
brought him, that in less than thirty years — from 1749 to
1778 — the rent-roll had leaped, without any extra burdens
being laid upon the tenants, from ^8607 to .£50,000 per
annum, A large portion of this increase was due to the
mines, which Northumberland developed enormously.
At the outset of his political career, Northumberland
attached himself zealously to the party of Lord Bute (to
whose daughter his elder son, Lord Percy, was subse-
quently married) ; and in order to please Bute he accepted,
in 1762, the inferior post of Lord Chamberlain to Queen
Charlotte. In this capacity he became a member of the
private junto known as "the King's Friends,"1 and was
sworn of the Privy Council. His fine presence and
engaging manners rendered him so acceptable to both
King and Queen, that on March 17, 1763, Henry Fox
suggested to Bute the advisability of making him Privy
Seal.2 Only a month later, however, Bute's Ministry fell ;
and Grenville, who succeeded, looked upon Northumber-
land as an ambitious upstart, and disliked him accordingly.
Still the royal favour was sufficient to secure for the young
Earl the viceroyalty of Ireland, which was entrusted to
him early in 1763. He was popular in Ireland, where
his policy was as conciliatory as existing conditions per-
mitted, and where the people long remembered him as
"the flaitheamlach* Lord-Lieutenant." So great was his
expenditure at Dublin Castle, and so magnificent the hospi-
tality which he maintained, that Horace Walpole accused
him of vulgar ostentation.4 In one brief parliamentary
season over 1400 dozens of rare wine were drunk at the
1 "The King's Friends" met secretly at Andrew Stone's house in the
Privy Gardens.
2 Fitzmaurice's Shclburne, i. 198.
3 This expressive Gaelic word (pronounced much like " ilo'hoolach ") signi-
fies literally " princely," but is used to imply prodigality, or wastefulness.
4 Grenville Papers, iii. 112.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 447
viceregal table,1 and the castle became a species of club,
where open house was kept, where all shades of politi-
cal opinion mingled freely, and where eating, drinking,
gambling, and love-making went on from morning till
night.
Meanwhile the King had wearied of Grenville's govern-
ment, and its opposition to his pet project of enlarging
the powers of the Crown. When Northumberland visited
England, early in 1765, he was at once sent for by King
George, who employed him in a political intrigue aimed at
the overthrow of Grenville, and the formation of " a strong
and lasting administration" made up of the principal
Whigs. The Earl was ordered to put himself into imme-
diate communication with the Duke of Cumberland, whose
advice and aid he was to solicit. His first interview with
the victor of Culloden took place at Newmarket, where he
led the conversation dexterously from the safe subjects
of horses and hounds, to the dangerous ones of plots
and politics. Cumberland seems to have been as much
impressed by his plausible manners as the King had been,
and readily promised his help in the projected change of
ministers. Pitt and Temple were next approached, and
enlisted in their turn — the former willingly, the latter
with some reluctance. Every effort was made to keep
Northumberland's connection with the intrigue a secret,
but the truth leaked out before long. In Grenville's
Diary, under date of March 15, 1765, we read: "Lord
Northumberland is known to have been on Saturday night
with the King, who waited for him in the garden, and
let him in himself. He stayed but a very short time,
returned to London, and soon after the Duke of Cumber-
land came to Richmond. There have been several meet-
ings at Northumberland House." 2 So pleased was the
King with Northumberland's skill in the character of
Mercury, that, as the prospects of a new Ministry grew
more rosy, he proposed to place the Irish Viceroy at its
head. The Earl, his Majesty suggested, should be First
1 Almvick MSS. 2 Grenville Papers (Diary).
448 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Lord of the Treasury in succession to Grenville, with
Pitt and Charles Townshend as Secretaries of State, and
Temple as Lord Privy Seal. Temple, who looked upon
Northumberland as a mere henchman of Lord Bute,
violently resented this proposal, and refused to accept
office. Pitt, while he admitted that the Earl deserved
reward for his services, was equally firm in opposing his
elevation to the responsible office of Prime Minister j1 and
so the negotiations ceased, and Northumberland went
back to Dublin Castle. But not for long. Grenville lost
no time in revenging himself, and before the summer
was over the Earl was dismissed from the viceroyalty in
favour of Lord Hertford.2
Next year, when Pitt at length succeeded in forming a
government " under the nominal leadership of the Duke of
Grafton," the King (more moderate in his wishes) desired
that Northumberland should be made Lord Chamberlain.
Hertford was, however, appointed to that post, thus sup-
planting the Earl for the second time within twelve months.
Northumberland protested warmly to Pitt (now Lord Chat-
ham), setting forth his services in Ireland, and his useful
work against Grenville. All this the new minister freely
admitted, but as he had " no post of sufficient importance
to offer to one of my lord of Northumberland's rank and
great estate," he advised the Earl to sue for a step in the
peerage, promising to exert all his influence with the King to
further such a request. It was Chatham's belief, and that of
the King as well, that Northumberland would rest content
with a marquisate, which was considered a great dignity
for one who had risen, chiefly by chance, and in a very
short space of time, from the rank of a modest country
gentleman. But in this anticipation the sovereign and his
adviser reckoned without the ambition and astuteness of
Earl Hugh. The latter realised that any step which he
should now succeed in obtaining might be the last that the
1 See Chatham Correspondence, iii. 240.
2 Francis Ingram Seymour, second Marquis of Hertford.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 449
King could be prevailed upon to grant in his favour. There-
fore he resolved to demand as much as possible while yet
the opportunity remained. When a special audience was
allotted to him, he leisurely summed up his various services,
and with great composure asked the complaisant monarch
fora dukedom. At this, we are told, "the King coloured
and looked embarrassed ; said he must take some little time
to consider what engagements he was under ; and named
Lord Cardigan. He then withdrew to his closet, from which
he returned in a short time and told Lord Northumberland
that he would make him a Duke." l
As a matter of fact, the King took longer in making
up his mind than we are here given to suppose, and
certainly consulted Chatham before granting Northum-
berland's daring request. The Prime Minister, although
at first greatly astonished, kept his word by reporting
favourably upon the matter. George's own version of
the audience is as follows : " I told him (the Earl)
that his request for a Dukedom was new to me, that
I could give him no other answer than that I would
consider of it ; that I had thought he only looked up to
a Marquisate. He said that was a more modern rank
in the English peerage ; that what he asked was the
old title of Lady Northumberland's family ; that if he
succeeded he would never be an applier for public em-
ployments. I then concluded with assuring him that he
should know my decision to-morrow. Undoubtedly few
peers have so great an estate in point of income, and scarce
any in point of extent, therefore if you will co-operate
with me in declaring I don't mean by this to open a door
for the creating of many Dukes, I will consent to it." 2
According to the Duke of Grafton, Northumberland, in-
spired by his wife's descent from the princely house of
Louvain, and desirous of commemorating that semi-royal
ancestry, was inclined rather to despise the ancient territorial
dignity of the Percies, and to insist that his promised duchy
1 Grenvillt Papers, iii. 384.
3 Chatham Correspondence, iii. 74.
II. 2 F
450 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
should be that of Brabant. Of course such a title was out
of the question and could not be conferred by an English
monarch. Wiser counsels prevailed, and in the end the
Earl was satisfied to become Duke of Northumberland.
On October 4, 1766, Grafton wrote to Chatham : " Lord
Northumberland was yesterday created Duke of North-
umberland, Earl Percy, and Viscount Louvaine, the last of
which Mr. Conway had the address to persuade him from
adding as a second Dukedom, as he before had of getting
him to change the title he first asked, that of Duke
Brabant." 1
Among the nobility, the new creation was most un-
popular. Over fifty years had elapsed since a dukedom
(other than royal) had been added to the English peerage,
and the old taunts respecting his Smithson descent were
flung in Northumberland's face by a hundred hostile
critics. He received these attacks with his usual imper-
turbability of temper, and self-satisfaction is a buckler
which blunts the keenest arrows. Having nothing more
to expect at the hands of the King, or Lord Bute (whose
secret influence still prevailed), he gradually withdrew
from the Court party, and renounced the doctrine of
absolutism. From the first he was in sympathy with the
discontented American colonists ; and we find him voting
against the obnoxious Stamp Act, and subsequently in
favour of its repeal. Like Chatham, he strenuously op-
posed the American War, and replied with contempt to
those who accused him of lack of patriotism in regard to
that disastrous and unnecessary strife. Indeed he tried to
compel his son's resignation from the army, rather than
allow the latter to serve against the insurgents. Lord
Percy, however, while sharing his father's dislike of the war
party and their short-sighted policy, felt bound in honour
to lead his regiment to the front.
An evidence of Northumberland's political generosity
1 Chatham Correspondence, iii. 88. As a matter of fact the title of
Lovaine of Alnwick (Baron, not Viscount) was not conferred until January 28,
1784.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 451
may be found in his connection with the Wilkes affair and
its sequel. His son had been M.P. for Westminster from
1764 until the election of 1767, when the seat was
contested by Wilkes's candidates. The Duke used all
his influence as Lord-Lieutenant of Middlesex against
Wilkes, while the Duchess entered into the bitter contest
with infinite zest. We learn from Horace Walpole that
the famous demagogue had been sweeping all before
him, until he encountered a formidable Amazon "who,
although not an Arc or a Pucelle, is a true Joan in
spirit, style, and manner. This is Her Grace of Nor-
thumberland, who has carried the mob of Wilkes from
him, sitting daily in the midst of Covent Garden, and
there setting her son, Lord Percy, and Lord Thomas
Clinton, against Wilkes's two candidates, Lord Mahon and
Lord Mount Norris." During the Wilkes riots of 1768,
the mob attacked Northumberland House, and would
not withdraw until the Duke and Duchess appeared at a
window, and drank two tankards of ale to the toast of
" Wilkes and Liberty ! " Nevertheless when, in 1770, Lord
North advised the King to refuse the remonstrance of the
London Corporation on the Westminster election, Nor-
thumberland was one of those that supported Chatham's
resolution condemning such a course as unconstitutional
and fraught with peril to the state.
Duchess Elizabeth died in London on the sixtieth anni-
versary of her birthday, December 5, 1776. In spite of a cer-
tain frank vulgarity peculiar to her generation, she appears
to have been a woman of high spirit and considerable liter-
ary attainments. Her letters to Queen Charlotte, as well as
to her husband and children, have none of the correctness
and grace displayed in the epistles of her mother, the
Duchess of Somerset, but they possess, on the other hand,
both originality and humour, qualities wholly lacking in the
stilted compositions of the elder lady. She had a pretty
skill in bouts rttn<fs and similar versification, of which a type
survives in her well-known " Lines on a Buttered Muffin,"
written for the volume of society rhymes collected by her
452 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
friend Lady Miller at Batheaston.1 Goldsmith was her
favourite poet, and wrote, at her suggestion, his ballad of
" Edwin and Angelina," afterwards published in "The Vicar
of Wakefield" as "The Hermit." To Dr. Johnson she paid
homage at a distance, and Boswell was for years one of
her correspondents. Her death forms the subject of two
poems, "The Teares of Alnwick, a Pastoral Elegy," by
Henry Lucas, and " A Monody Sacred to the Memory
of Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland, by Thomas
Maurice."
In 1778 the Duke was appointed Master of the Horse, a
selection which Walpole chuckles over as absurd, because
Northumberland suffered from the stone and was very lame
with gout. During the Gordon Riots he was freely accused
by the mob of being a Roman Catholic, and the fact that
his father, grandfather, and many other near relations had
belonged to that faith, was made much of by the agitators.
The windows of Northumberland House were broken by
ardent Protestants ; and a few days later the Duke's coach
was stopped while conveying him to the House of Lords.
The fact that "a man in black" sat by his side was quite
sufficient for the zealots. A cry went up that the individual
in sombre garb was a "Jesuit priest and the Duke's con-
fessor." 2 On this the mob dragged Northumberland from
the coach, and religiously robbed him of his watch and
purse.3 What became of the unfortunate "man in black"
is not stated.
After Pitt came into power, the Duke was created Baron
Lovaine of Alnwick, with remainder to his second son Lord
Algernon Percy. He continued to the last to exert himself
towards the improvement of his estates, and the embellish-
ment of his various houses. Through Goldsmith's intro-
duction, he became the patron and fast friend of Thomas
1 Lady Miller, wife of Sir John Miller, lived at a villa in Batheaston, near Bath,
and was accustomed to hold "literary tournaments," where great dames vied with
each other in the production of hauls rimts and the like. Walpole speaks of the
Duchess of Northumberland having got " very jollily through her task " — i.e. the
'• Buttered Muffin " verses.
2 Mahon ; Hist, of England, vii. 28. 3 Ibid.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 453
Percy,1 afterwards Bishop of Dromore, the compiler of the
" Reliques of English Poetry." Periodical attacks of gout
greatly embittered his declining years, and he died of this
disease on June 6, 1786, at Syon House. His remains were
interred in St. Nicholas's Chapel, Westminster Abbey,
beside those of Duchess Elizabeth.
1 Thomas Percy was born on April 13, 1729, at Carl way Street, Bridgenorth.
He was the son and grandson of grocers (Bridgeiiorlh Common Council Books),
but the tradition of his family was that it sprang from the House of Northumber-
land. This may have been so (and many years before Thomas Percy's birth, the
"Trunkmaker" claimant had admitted that the Worcestershire Percies were
descendants "of the second Earl"), but the pedigree lacks positive proof. In
Nash's Worcestershire, Dr. Percy's line of descent is set forth from that John
Percy of Newton (grandson of Sir Ralph Percy, " the Gledd of Dunstanburgh ")
whom we described as having sold his estates and left the North, temp. Henry VIII.
John of Newton is supposed to have left a son, Thomas Percy of Worcester, whose
son, James Percy, made his will October 2O, 1574. Thomas, grandson of this
James, was Mayor of Worcester in 1662 ; and the grandson of Thomas, Arthur
Percy, settled at Bridgenorth as a grocer, and died 1771. His son, another
Arthur Percy (1704-1764), was father of Bishop Thomas Percy, as well as of
Arthur Percy of London, whose son Thomas (the Bishop's nephew) became editor
of the Reliqw!.
Bishop Percy became M.A. of Oxford in 1753, took Holy Orders, and was
given the college living of Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire. Here he resided
for twenty-nine years. His literary labours began with miscellaneous works,
chiefly upon China and the Chinese, his knowledge being, of course, obtained at
second hand. The discovery of a seventeenth-century folio MS. containing old
English poems, at the house of Humphrey Pitt of Shifnal, co. Salop, turned
his thoughts in a new direction, and in 1765 he published the Reliijues. Although
Johnson, Warburton, and others sneered at the simplicity of the ancient ballads,
the public hailed their revival with delight. Goldsmith introduced Percy to the
Duke of Northumberland, who made him his chaplain. In 1768 Percy edited the
Household Booke of the "Magnificent" Earl of Northumberland, and in 1771
published the Hermit of Warkworth. Chaplain to the King in 1769, he was made
Dean of Carlisle in 1778, and Bishop of Dromore in 1782. His Irish diocese was
remote, and, as time went on, he became more and more out of touch with the
literary world. In 1804 his sight began to fail, and he was almost blind when he
died on September 30, iSll. Dr. Percy was buried in the new transept which he
had added to Dromore Cathedral. By his wife, Ann Gutteridge (whose family
name he characteristically altered to " Goodryche "), he had two sons, who died
young, and two daughters, of whom the elder, Barbara, married Ambrose Isted
of Ecton, Northants, and the younger, Elizabeth, Archdeacon the lion. Pierce
Meade. Mrs. Percy was the heroine of the well-known lines to " Nancy,"
published by her husband in Dodsley's Collection, vol. vi. (1768). She was lor
some time nurse to Prince Edward, father of the late Queen Victoria. Bishop
Percy's nephew, the Rev. Thomas Percy (1768-1808), was Vicar of Gray's
Thurock, Essex, and edited the fourth edition of the Reliques.
454 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
The attacks made upon the first Duke of Northumberland
by contemporary writers and politicians (more or less
jealous of his extraordinary success) almost invariably
took the form of vague innuendo and ill-natured deprecia-
tion. After weighing them carefully, we arrive at the con-
clusion that he was a man of great determination, sound
common sense, and considerable, though somewhat flam-
boyant, taste. Perhaps the summary of his character given
by Dutens ,is the fairest. " He had great talents," writes
this author, "and more knowledge than is usually found
among the nobility. . . Although his expenditure was
unexampled in his time, he was not generous, but passed
for being so, owing to his judicious manner of bestowing
favours." * By his Duchess, Northumberland left three
children — (i) Hugh, who succeeded as second Duke; (2)
Algernon, Lord Lovaine, and Earl of Beverley, ancestor
of the present Duke ; and (3) Lady Elizabeth Percy, who
died unmarried.2
Hugh Percy, second Duke of Northumberland, was
born August 28, 1742, and entered upon the profession
The -soldier of arms at an early age. He was still a mere
Duke-' boy, indeed, when he served as a volunteer under
the Duke of Brunswick in the Seven Years' War. He
took part in the disastrous battle of Bergen, and rode in
Lord Granby's charge through the French lines at Minden.
1 Memoirs of a Traveller, ii. 96-98.
1 He also left two na'.ural daughters, who were buried in Westminster Abbey,
with his legitimate offspring, and a son, known first as James Lewis Mackie,
and afterwards as James Smithson (1765-1829), the enlightened founder of the
Smithsonian Institution at Washington, U.S.A. This gentleman's mother was a
relative of the Duchess of Northumberland, Elizabeth Hungerford Keate, great-
grand-niece of Charles, "the Proud" Duke of Somerset. She was heir of the
Hungerford family of Studley (Diet. Nat. Biog., article "Smithson, James").
Smithson became M.A. of Oxford in 1786, and devoted his life to scientific
pursuits. By his will (1826) he bequeathed most of his estate for the establishment
at Washington of an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge
among men." In 1867 the value of this splendid gift was calculated as 650,000
dollars. The Smithsonian Institution was established by Act of Congress on
August 10, 1846. James Smithson died at Genoa, June 27, 1829.
<££./. *""/'^,/^,,/' ''I,,)//,, ,„/*",/„,„
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 455
Young as he was, he compiled an interesting commentary
on these campaigns, the " Pocket Book of Military Notes,"
preserved at Alnwick, and quoted by various writers. De
Fonblanque states that "in 1762 he received his first com-
mission."1 This is an error, as on May i, 1759 (while not
yet seventeen), he had been already gazetted ensign in the
24th Foot, and had exchanged into the 8$th with the rank of
captain on August 6th of the same year. On April 16, 1762,
he became lieutenant-colonel commanding the i nth Regi-
ment, and a few months later captain and lieutenant-
colonel in the Grenadier Guards, of which corps he was in
1764 (October 26) made colonel. His election as M.P. for
Westminster, and subsequent contest for that seat with
Wilkes's nominees, have been already referred to. His
appointment to the command of the $th Regiment of Foot
in 1769 led to a very bitter letter by Junius ; 2 but the
choice proved in the long run well advised. Having
married Lady Anne Stuart, daughter of Lord Bute, he was
at first one of the so-called " King's Friends " ; 3 but the
outbreak of the American trouble and his inherited con-
tempt for the war party soon drove him into opposition.
Although bitterly opposed to the war, he held it to be his
duty as a soldier to obey orders, and lead his regiment even
in what he considered an unjust struggle. His father
obtained leave of absence for him,4 but Percy ignored the
indulgence, and set sail for Boston with his men early in
1774. General Gage placed him in command of Boston
Camp, from whence he wrote to his father : " As I cannot
say this is a business I very much admire, I hope it will
not be my fate to be ordered up the country. Be that as
it may, I will do my duty as long as I continue in the
1 Annals oftht House of Percy, vol. ii.
2 Letter to Sir W. Draper, February 7, 1769.
8 Albemarle's Rockingham, i. 185.
4 At the same time the great Earl of Chatham commanded his elder son, then
in Canada, to quit the army rather than serve against the Americans, and the
Earl of Effingham, when ordered to the front, resigned command of his regiment
"as a protest against the injustice of making war upon a People striving for their
Rights."
456 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
service." l Nevertheless his known opinions caused him
to be distrusted by the authorities, and he was repeatedly
passed over. On April 19, 1775, after the Battle of
Lexington, he left Boston in command of a brigade con-
sisting of the Welsh Fusiliers and four other regiments, in
order to cover the retreat to Charleston of the army which
had been hemmed in at Concord, and left without ammuni-
tion. While on this difficult service, he marched thirty
miles in ten hours during the daytime, and was under an
incessant fire for fifteen miles.2
He opposed the arbitrary conduct of some of the
British generals, and drew upon himself the wrath of the
belligerent party at home, while between Lord Howe and
himself there sprang up a bitter feud. This was why he
took no part in the fight at Bunker's Hill,3 when his regi-
ment was "almost entirely cut to pieces." Howe com-
plained of his behaviour to the authorities ; but Gage still
stood his friend. On July n, 1775, he was given the local
rank of major-general, and made major-general in the
army on September 29. The following year saw him a
lieutenant-general in the army, with local rank of general.
On November 16, 1776, he commanded a division in the
attack upon Fort Washington, and was the first to enter
the enemy's lines. But the quarrels between Lord Howe
and himself became more violent, and his hatred of the
war more intense. At length, in 1777, he asked for and
obtained his recall. " Lord Percy," wrote Horace Walpole,
"has come home disgusted with Howe."4 His regiment
parted with him regretfully, as did all the troops then at
Boston. With the common soldiers his popularity was
unbounded, for not only had he abolished corporal punish-
ment among his men, but the widows of all those killed
in battle were sent home at his expense, and given sums
of money to keep them from want. His regiment solicited,
and eventually received permission to call themselves " the
Northumberland Fusiliers " in his honour, and this although
1 Alnwiclc MSS., quoted by De Fonblanque. 2 Bancroft ; iv. 538-9.
3 Diet, of Nat. Biography. * Correspondence, vi. 445-6.
8th Duke of Argyll,
K.G., K.T., P.C.
LORD
JAMES PERCY;
*. 1885.
EUSTACE
CAMPB
i
Edgcumbe.
Other Issue.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 457
the men had no connection with the Borders, and had
been chiefly recruited in Ireland. In America, Lord Percy's
memory is treasured as that of a chivalrous and humane
commander, and his portrait hangs to this day in the
Town Hall of Boston. He did not leave the army after
his return to England, although his active service then
ceased. In 1784 he was given the command of the 2nd
troop of the Royal Horse Guards (afterwards incorporated
in the and Life Guards), and he became colonel of this
corps in 1806. Meanwhile, in 1793, occurred his promo-
tion to the rank of general. In 1776, on the death of his
mother, he entered the House of Lords as Baron Percy ;
and he succeeded to the Dukedom in 1786, becoming
shortly afterwards Lord-Lieutenant and Vice-Admiral of
Northumberland. The Garter was conferred upon him
in 1788. A painful episode in his career was the divorce
of his first wife. The trial of this case began on May 27,
1778, and the divorce was granted, by Act of Parliament,
in March 1779.' Two months later, the then Earl Percy
was married to Francis Jane, daughter of Peter Burrell,
Esq., of Beckenham, Kent,2 whose sister was already
the wife of his brother, Lord Beverley.3
Northumberland's liberal views led him to follow the
party of Fox and the Prince of Wales. His great political
influence rendered him a most valuable recruit, as may be
judged from the extraordinary deference paid to him by the
Whigs. When Fox and Portland took office in 1789, he
was offered, but declined, the Irish viceroyalty. The Prince
of Wales was so anxious to conciliate him, that he even
1 Countess Percy was accused of misconduct with " Will"1 Bird, Esq., a young
gentleman of the University of Cambridge." She had borne Lord Percy no
children, and apparently did not remarry.
2 Mr. Peter Burrell owned a moderate estate in Kent, entered Parliament,
and became Commissioner of Excise. His children (with the exception of one
daughter) all made brilliant matches. His only son married the sister and
co-heir of the last Duke of Ancaster (she afterwards became a peeress in her own
right), and was created Baron Gwydyr. Of his daughters, one married the Duke
of Hamilton and, after his death, the Marquis of Exeter, while two others became
Duchess of Northumberland and Countess of Beverley respectively.
* See Genealogy, Table IV.
458 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
submitted to a serious rebuff at his hands. On June 10,
1803, the Prince wrote from Brighton asking that his "young
friend Tom Sheridan" should be nominated by the Duke
for one of his vacant boroughs.1 Northumberland replied
that he could not grant the request, as Lord Percy would
soon be of age, and the vacant boroughs should be kept
open for his selection.2 But the "first gentleman in
Europe " was not to be put out of countenance by this
snub. Soon afterwards he offered Northumberland the
Wardenship of the Stannaries, an honour which the Duke
declined. As the Duke grew older, frequent attacks of gout
spoilt his temper, and it required all the diplomacy of Fox
and his party to keep him satisfied with the Whig policy.
He was very jealous of his influence in the party, and
insisted upon being consulted in all important matters.
When Pitt died in 1806, and the " Ministry of all the Talents "
came into power, there had been no time to confer with
Northumberland, then ill at Alnwick. The Duke was furious
with Fox and Grenville, the chiefs of the new Government,
for this seeming neglect, and went so far as to send a circular
to all the members for boroughs under his control, ordering
them in the loftiest terms not to vote or even take part in
debates, " until I am able to judge of the principles upon
•which this new coalition intend to govern the country!'* He
accused Fox of " ingratitude and duplicity," and would not
be placated although the minister wrote a letter of justifica-
tion, pointing out the haste with which the new Cabinet was
formed, and the distance of Alnwick from London. Some-
thing resembling a reconciliation was brought about by the
Prince Regent ; but the Duke and Fox were hardly friends
when the latter died, a few months later. Northumberland's
political power increased under Grenville. In 1807 Sir
William Gordon informed him that Lord Camden had
written in the following terms : " You may certainly feel
yourself authorised to assure the Duke of Northumberland
1 Alnwick MSS. (quoted by De Fonblanque, and Diet, of Nat. Biography}.
2 Ibid. Lord Percy did not enter Parliament until three years later.
3 Several copies of this autocratic document still exist, one of them in the
Alnwick MSS.
UJ
pg
THE HOUSE OF PERCY
459
that, in the event of his Grace having any disposition to
confer with the Ministry upon public business, the Duke of
Portland or the Lord Chancellor will certainly wait upon
him to discuss every measure of importance previous to its
adoption."1 For his elder son he was offered a peerage,
and when Lord Percy chose to enter the House of Commons,
Grenville placed at his disposal the borough of Buckingham,
for which he might be returned "without the trouble of
personal attendance" The Duke himself was, at the same
time, offered the command of the Blues.
Northumberland followed the traditions of his father in
regard to the estates, and was, upon the whole, an excellent
landlord. When prices fell after the Peace, he reduced his
rents by twenty-five per cent., in recognition of which gene-
rosity his northern tenants erected a memorial column at
Alnwick in 1816. Great feasts were given by him at Aln-
wick twice a week, to which, we are told, " local farmers
and tradespeople were frequently invited." The second
Duke died on July 10, 1817, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey. Walpole describes him as " totally devoid of osten-
tation, most simple and retiring in his habits." In early life
he had shown himself a gallant and skilful soldier ; and he
preserved to the last the character of an honourable gentle-
man, patriotic according to his lights, choleric in old age
because of the malady from which he suffered, and re-
spected as much by his opponents as by his friends. He
was succeeded by his eldest son.
Hugh, third Duke of Northumberland, was born April 20,
1785. He studied at Cambridge, becoming M.A. of St.
Th th'rd Jonn's College in 1805, and an LL.D. in 1809.
and fourth The enormous political influence of his family
°tterSathe Prior to the K<-jf°rm Bill made his return to
distinguished Parliament a mere matter of the choice of seats.
On August i, 1806, he was returned as a Tory
for the borough of Buckingham, and on October 7 of the
same year for Westminster. In May 1807 he was elected
1 Alnwick MSS. (quoted by Ue Fonblanque).
460 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
M.P. for the county of Northumberland, and also for
Lancashire. His active parliamentary career began early,
for on March 17, 1807, as the spokesman of the anti-slave-
trade, he brought in a bill for the abolition of slavery in the
British Colonies. On March 12, 1812, he was summoned to
the House of Lords as Baron Percy ; and on July 10, 1817,
he succeeded to the Dukedom. The Garter was conferred
upon him two years later ; 1 and at the splendid coronation
of George IV. he carried the second sword. His great
wealth enabled him, when sent to Paris in 1825 as am-
bassador extraordinary and representative of the King at
the coronation of Charles X., to pay the entire cost of
the expedition out of his own pocket. On his return he
was presented with a diamond-hilted sword, and sworn a
member of the Privy Council.2
In politics the third Duke was a Tory of very moderate
views. He accepted the Viceroyalty of Ireland in 1829,
at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, on the distinct
understanding, however, that his term of government
should not exceed eighteen months. Great surprise was
expressed at his taking office at all, for it was supposed
that he objected to Catholic Emancipation, and he had
offended the King in 1825 by withholding his proxy from
the first Catholic Relief Bill. He now declared that he
would welcome Emancipation, if the measure were intro-
duced by " responsible persons" such as Wellington and
Sir Robert Peel. The news that he had proposed to
reduce his salary as Lord-Lieutenant by one-half led
to some rather ill-natured comments, Greville setting it
down as " a piece of vulgar ostentation intended to show
off his wealth." On the whole his administration seems
to have been a useful one. He laboured assiduously to
promote the peace of Ireland ; and impressed upon the
judges the injustice of administering the law in the interests
of any particular creed or class.3 In April 1830 he issued
1 November 25, 1819. 2 On March 23, 1825.
3 Northumberland was especially bitter against "manufactured outrages." In
1830, George IV. (through the influence of his Secretary, MacMahon) asked the
Duke to reprieve a Clare gentleman named Comyn, who had been convicted of
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 461
a proclamation suppressing the Catholic Association ; but
that body, having accomplished its allotted task, had already
dissolved itself. The Tory Government collapsed in No-
vember 1830, in consequence of the widespread demand
for Parliamentary reform ; and Northumberland returned
to England. After this he lived a rather retired life, mostly
at Alnwick ; and although he naturally opposed so crushing
a blow to his interests as the Reform Bill, we do not find
him taking any active part in the debates upon that great
measure. He became High Steward of Cambridge Uni-
versity in 1834, and Chancellor in 1840. On February 12,
1847, he was found dead in his bed at Alnwick Castle.
The Duke is characterised by Greville as "a very
good sort of man, with a very narrow understanding ; an
eternal talker, and a prodigious bore." There is no doubt
but that this description was greatly exaggerated. In his
Irish administration, at least, Northumberland was far
from displaying a " narrow understanding." Although he
lived in the North, and expended large sums there, he was
not popular among his northern tenantry, chiefly because
of his encroachments on common rights, and the exclusion
of Alnwick from the Corporation Act through his influence.
On April 29, 1817, he married Lady Charlotte Florentina
Clive, daughter of Edward, first Earl of Powis, and grand-
daughter of the famous Lord Clive. She had been for
some time governess to the Princess, afterwards Queen
Victoria, and was, according to Greville, "sensible, amiable,
and good-humoured, ruling her husband in all things."1
The couple left no children ; and the Duke was suc-
ceeded by his next surviving brother, Algernon, Lord
Prudhoe.
The fourth Duke, born Lord Algernon Percy on
December 15, 1792, entered the navy as a midshipman in
May 1805, and became lieutenant in 1811. He took part,
under Lord Exmouth, in the engagement off Toulon and
setting fire to his own house. Northumberland was with great difficulty induced
to consent ; but he took occasion to complain to Sir Robert Peel of the favourit-
ism too often shown in the administration of Irish affairs.
1 She survived until July 27, 1866.
462 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
the capture of Genoa ; being promoted Commander in
1814, and Post-Captain in the following year. After the
General Peace he was placed upon the reserved list, but
his promotion did not cease, for he rose successively to
be Rear-Admiral (1850), Vice-Admiral (1857,) and Admiral
(1862). In 1816 the title of Baron Prudhoe of Prudhoe
Castle was conferred upon him. The rest of his useful
life was mauily devoted to scientific and archaeologi-
cal research. He travelled extensively in the East, in
company with Major Felix ; and in 1826 was one of a dis-
tinguished party of savants who explored the monuments
of Egypt, and brought back to England a vast quantity
of treasures from those storehouses of the past. During
1834 Lord Prudhoe was a member of Sir John Herschel's
scientific expedition to the Cape of Good Hope,1 and his
enthusiasm on behalf of Oriental lore led him to defray
the entire expense of Edward William Lane's monumental
" Arabic Lexicon." Oxford University in 1841 deservedly
conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L.
Having succeeded his brother as fourth Duke, he
enlarged Alnwick Castle, and enriched it with the rare
collections which he had amassed in Egypt, Arabia, and
South Africa. The Egyptian antiquities are now preserved
in the Ravine Tower, and among them is the celebrated
obelisk "set up by Harmachis, son of the Sun-God,"
which was presented to the Duke by his friend Mohammed
Ali Pasha.
Northumberland's only active incursion into politics
took place in March 1852, when he accepted office as First
Lord of the Admiralty in Lord Derby's first administration.
In this capacity he had much to do with the introduction
of steam-power into the navy. At the fall of the ministry
in 1853, the Garter fell to his share. He was already a
Fellow of the Royal Society, the Astronomical and Geo-
logical Societies, and the Society of Antiquaries ; as well
as President of the Royal Institution and the United
Service Institution, and a trustee of the British Museum.
1 Undertaken for the purpose of observing the southern constellations.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 463
He married, in August 1842, Lady Eleanor Grosvenor ;
but died at Alnwick Castle, February 12, 1865, without
issue. The Barony of Percy (1624) then descended in the
female line to his grand-nephew, John James Hugh Henry
Stewart-Moray, seventh Duke of Atholl ; l while the Duke-
dom of Northumberland, and the titles attached to it,
passed to his cousin George Percy, second Earl of Beverley.
The branch of Beverley sprang from Lord Algernon
Percy, second son of Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland,
who was born in 1750, and in 1786 succeeded
h's father by special remainder as second Baron
and their Lovaine of Alnwick. Lord Lovaine was a young
nts' man of independent character, and differed in
politics from the head of his house, the second Duke,
who told Colonel MacMahon that, immediately after their
father's funeral, his brother Algernon informed him that
he did not approve of his (the Duke's) Whig connection,
and intended to take sides with the Tories. He allied him-
self accordingly to Pitt, and was created Earl of Beverley
in 1800. By his wife, Isabella Susanna Burrell (daughter
of Peter Burrell of Beckenham, and elder sister of Frances
Jane Burrell, second wife of the Duke of Northumber-
land2), he left at his death, on October 21, 1830, eight sons
and three daughters. The eldest son, George, succeeded
his father as second Earl of Beverley, and in 1865 became
fifth Duke of Northumberland. The other sons may be
briefly noticed as follows : —
(2) Algernon Percy; born 1799, was Minister Plenipo-
tentiary to the Swiss Cantons ; and died s.p. on August '10,
1833-
(3) Hugh Percy; born January 29, 1784. Educated
at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was M.A. in 1807 and
D.D. in 1825. Having taken Holy Orders, he married
in 1806 Mary, eldest daughter of Charles Manners Sutton,
1 See Genealogy, Table IV. The eldest son of the Duke of Atholl, John
George, Marquis of Tullibardine, D.S.O., worthily upholds the military reputation
of his ancestors, both paternal and maternal.
2 See p. 457. The Countess of Beverley died January 24, 1812.
464 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
Archbishop of Canterbury, and was by the latter collated
to the benefices of Bishopsbourne and Ivychurch in Kent.
He became successively Chancellor and Prebend of Exeter
(1810), Chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral (1812), Arch-
deacon of Canterbury (through the influence of his father-
in-law, 1822), and Dean of Canterbury (1825). In 1825
he was elevated to the episcopal see of Rochester, and
translated a few months later to that of Carlisle. He was
"a prelate of the old school, and a courtly country gentle-
man."1 While Bishop of Carlisle, he greatly enlarged the
episcopal residence at Rose Castle ; and it was his custom,
when travelling to London, to drive his four horses himself.
Without doubt he owed much to the favour of his father-
in-law, Archbishop Manners Sutton, but he was a con-
scientious and energetic prelate. He died at Rose Castle,
February 5, 1856, leaving a numerous family, of which
Algernon Heber-Percy, Esq., of Hodnet Hall, Salop, and
Armine Hall, Yorkshire, is the principal representative.2
(4) Josceline Percy ; born January 29, 1784, entered the
navy in 1797, and in 1806 served under Sir Hume Popham
at the capture of Cape Town, being promoted commander
in the same year. He was M.P. for the family pocket-
borough of Beeralston 1806-1820. In 1831 he was made a
Companion of the Bath ; and in 1841 Rear-Admiral and
Commander-in-Chief at the Cape station — which last-men-
tioned post he held until 1846. Promoted to be Vice-
Admiral in 1851, he served as Commander-in-Chief at
Sheerness from 1851 to 1856. He married Sophia Elizabeth,
daughter of Moreton Walhouse, Esq.. of Hatherton, co.
Stafford ; 3 and died at his residence near Rickmansworth,
October 19, 1856.
(5) Henry Percy ; born 1786, and entered the army at
an early age, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel. At
1 Diet, of Nat. Biography.
* Mr. Heber-Percy of Hodnet is son of the late Algernon Charles Heber-Percy,
Esq., of Hodnet (son of Bishop Hugh Percy), by Emily, daughter and co-heir
of the Right Reverend Reginald Heber, D.D., Bishop of Calcutta, and niece and
co-heir of Richard Heber, M.P., of Hodnet Hall.
9 By whom he left issue one son and two daughters.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 465
the battle of Waterloo be served as aide-de-camp to the
Duke of Wellington, and was mentioned in despatches.
He died sj. 1825.
(6) William Henry Percy; born March 24, 1788,
followed his brother Josceline into the navy in 1801,
becoming commander in 1810, and captain a few years
later. He was for some time M.P. for Stamford, and was
promoted Rear-Admiral on the retired list in 1846. He
died October 5, 1855.
(7) Francis John Percy ; born 1790, and died a captain
in the 23rd Regiment in 1812.
(8) Charles Percy ; born 1704, married Anne Caroline
Bertie-Greatheed, grandchild and sole heir of Bertie Bertie-
Greatheed, Esq., of Guyscliffe, co. Warwick. He died
October n, 1870, and his widow in 1882. As their only
child, Anne Barbara Bertie-Percy, died s.p., the estate of
Guyscliffe passed by special settlement to her cousin, Lord
Algernon Malcolm Percy.
Two of the three daughters of the Earl of Beverley were
married ; the elder (Lady Charlotte Percy) to George, third
Earl of Ashburnham ; l the younger, Lady Emily, to Andrew
Mortimer Drummond, banker, of Charing Cross, and
Denham, Middlesex. A third daughter, Lady Susan Percy,
died unmarried in 1847.
George, second Earl of Beverley, was eighty-six years
of age when he succeeded his cousin as fifth Duke of
The ust Northumberland, and he enjoyed the latter dignity
three Dukes for little more than two years. He was a Privy
"e^ett state Councillor, and had held office as a Lord of the
of the House Treasury in Pitt's last ministry; besides serving
of Percy. jn the Household of the Regent (afterwards
George IV.) and in that of Queen Victoria. He married,
on June 22, 1801, Louisa Harcourt Stuart-Wortley, daughter
of the Hon. James Archibald Stuart-Wortley, sister of the
1 By whom she had a daughter, Lady Jane Henrietta, who married, 1836,
Admiral Charles Henry Swinburne, and had issue Algernon Charles Swinburne,
perhaps the greatest of living English poets.
II. 2 G
466 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
fifth Lord Wharnecliffe, and granddaughter of the Prime
Minister, Lord Bute.1 At his death, which occurred on
August 21, 1867, he left issue three sons and two daughters.
Of the sons the eldest was Algernon George, the late
Duke ; the second, Lord Josceline William Percy, born
1811, died 1885 ;2 and the third, Lord Henry Hugh
Manners Percy, V.C. The last-named gallant soldier de-
serves a notice more extended than can here be accorded
to him. Born on August 22, 1817, he became captain
and lieutenant-colonel of the Grenadier Guards. In this
capacity he fought with distinguished gallantry throughout
the Crimean War, taking part in the battles of the Alma
(where he was wounded), Balaclava, Inkerman (again
wounded), and Sebastopol. At Inkerman, on November 5,
1854, he won the proudest distinction of the British soldier,
the Victoria Cross. Finding that, like a true descendant
of Hotspur, he had charged too far, and that many other
officers and men of different regiments were in the same
predicament, he set himself to save the situation, and, if
possible, the lives of those thus cut off from their friends.
By dint of extraordinary exertions he succeeded in collect-
ing the bewildered remnants of the charge, and placing
himself at their head. Their last round of ammunition
had been fired, and they were almost surrounded by the
enemy. Percy had been badly wounded, but he held
his force well in hand, and led them under a heavy fire
back to the British lines. In this desperate march, his
knowledge of the ground stood him in good stead, and
fifty lives were saved by his instrumentality. The exploit
brought him the Victoria Cross, which the late Queen
pinned on his breast, May 5, 1857. From 1855 to 1865
he was aide-de-camp to her Majesty, and in 1861, during
the complication with the United States (happily averted
by the good sense of Lincoln) he was sent to New Bruns-
1 This lady was consequently niece of the divorced wife of the second Duke
of Northumberland. She died in 1848.
3 His son, George Algernon Percy, born 1849, is now captain and lieutenant-
colonel of the Grenadier Guards.
THE HOUSE OF PERCY 467
wick in command of his Grenadiers. He retired from
active service in 1862, and died on December 3, 1877,
having attained the rank of lieutenant-general. For his
Crimean services he had been honoured by France and
Turkey, with the Cross of the Legion of Honour and the
Order of the Mejidie respectively. Lord Henry Percy
never married. His sister, Lady Margaret, married Edward
Richard Littleton, second Lord Hatherton. Another sister,
Lady Louisa, died unmarried in 1883, aged eighty-one
years.
Algernon George Percy, sixth Duke of Northumberland,
was born May 2, 1810. He was educated at Eton and
Cambridge, and served for some time in the Grenadier
Guards. He represented Beeralston in Parliament from
1831-2, and North Northumberland from 1852-65, becom-
ing a Lord of the Admiralty in 1858, and Vice-President of
the Board of Trade in 1859. From 1878-80 he was Lord
Privy Seal in the last administration of Lord Beaconsfield.
Among other offices held by the Duke were those of
Lord-Lieutenant of Northumberland, Chairman of Quarter
Sessions for Surrey, and Hon. Colonel of the Northum-
berland Militia. In 1842 St. John's College, Cambridge,
conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. He married,
in 1845, Louisa, daughter and heir of Henry Drum-
mond, Esq., M.P., of Albury Park, Surrey, and left
issue two sons, Henry George, seventh and present
Duke, and Lord Algernon Malcolm Arthur Percy of
Guyscliffe, co. Warwick, M.P. for Westminster (1882-5)
and for St. George's, London (1885-7), sometime Lieu-
tenant in the Grenadier Guards, and Hon. Colonel 3rd
Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. The sixth Duke
died on January 2, 1899.
Henry George Percy, seventh Duke of Northumber-
land, K.G., P.C., was born on May 29, 1846; represented
North Northumberland in Parliament (1868-85), served
as Treasurer in the Household of the late Queen ; and is
Lord- Lieutenant of Northumberland and Hon. Colonel of
the Northumberland Militia. He married, on December
468 THE HOUSE OF PERCY
23, 1868, Lady Edith Campbell, daughter of the late
George Douglas, Duke of Argyll, and has issue five
sons and as many daughters. His eldest son, Henry
Algernon George, Earl Percy, has been Member of
Parliament for South Kensington since 1895, and is
best known by his two books descriptive of travels in
Asia Minor.
Here we will leave the History of the Great House of
Percy. The fresh and fruitful branch engrafted upon the
parent tree has thriven broadly and well ; the proud old
sap mingles freely with the new : stock and scion have
united their finest qualities, and are as one. The Percy
stem, unlike that of Douglas, put forth few offshoots, and
afforded no nourishment to parasitic growths. The pine
indeed might serve as its emblem rather than the oak.
Yet it seems difficult of belief that a race so ancient should
have left no male heirs ; and such heirs may yet be found
labouring humbly upon some stony Irish hillside, or sharing
in the strenuous life of the great American Republic. In
their absence the honours of Percy are worthily borne by
the inheritors of the Percy estates, through whose veins
the blood of Hotspur courses yet, and to whom England
looks with honest pride, as the representatives of a splendid
and stainless name.
INDEX TO VOLUME II
[A'awes of Persons are printed in ordinary type; all other names
in italics. Numerals refer to pages of Vol. II. The letter
" n" signifies " note."]
ADAMSON, John, 423
Adda, Monsignord', Papal Nuncio,
406, 407
Addison, Joseph, 420
Albemarle, Dukes of, see Monk
Albemarle, Mad Duchess of, see
Cavendish, Lady Elizabeth
Albury Park, Guildford, 467
Alington, William, third Lord, 398
and «.
Allen, Thomas, 167 and «., 205, 2 1 1
Aln-wick, Barony of, 154
Almuick Castle, 16, 29, 92, 99, 100,
126, 175, 216, 217, 267, 359, 360,
422, 423, 458, 459, 461, 462, 463
" Alsalia," Thomas Percy in, 99, 100
Alston, Sir Edward, M.D., 401 n.
Alston, Sarah, Duchess of Somerset,
401 and n.
Ancaster, Duke of, 457 «.
Andover, Defeat of Lord Percy at,
283
Anglesey, 253
Anglesey, Earl of, see Annesley
Anjou, Due d', 18
Anne of Austria, 263
Anne of Denmark, Queen of Eng-
land, 90, 130, 143, 147, 153, 190,
191, 214, 270
Anne, Queen, 325, 405, 408-417
Annesley, James, first Earl of
Anglesey, 337 and n. 354, 355
Antwerp, 290
469
Apsley, Sir Allan, Governor of the
Tower, 217
Apsley, Peter, 217, 218
Arabian Horses, imported by tenth
Earl of Northumberland, 296,
297
Archceologia, 176
Argos, Battle of, 396
Argyll, Dukes of, see Campbell
Arlington, Lord, 313, 314
Armada, The, 45, 46
Armine Hall, co. York, 433, 435
and n., 464
Army Plot, The, 246-250, 282, 283
Armstrong, Hector, 173
Arundel Castle, 19
Arundel, Earl of, 202, 203, 216
Ashburnham, George, third Earl
of, 465
Ashburnham, Lady Jane Henrietta
(Swinburne), 465 n.
Ashburnham, John, Lord, 247
Ashton, Ralph, the Younger, 155
Astell or Astle, John, 174
Astley, Lord, 271
Athlone, Larkfield near, 368 n.
Atholl, Duke of, see Moray
Aucher, Gabriel, 208
Aulnoy, Madame d', 386, 387
Aungier"s History of hleworth,
95 n.
Aylmer, Bishop of London, 53, 55
Ayscough, Sir William, 370
470
INDEX
BABINGTON, Anthony, 21
Bacon, Francis, Viscount St.
Albans, 62, 68, 77, 82 n., 97, 149,
170 »., 327, 328, 337
Bagenal, Marshal, 66
Bailiffe, servant of Sir C. Hatton,
24, 26, 27, 28
Balaclava, Battle of, 466
Ballylonan, King's county, 368 n.
Balquanquill, Stuart, Lady Thynn,
380 n.
Balquanquill, Dr. Walter, 380 n.
Bamburgh Castle, 216,217
Bamford Castle, 274 n.
Bamford, Colonel John, 274-276
and «., 311
Banastre, Amor, 369
Bancroft, Richard, Archbishop of
Canterbury, 103, 117, 119, 124
Bankes, Sir John, 252
Banks's Dorm, and Ext. Baronage,
357, 358, 362, 363
Banks's Anna Bullen, 417
Barclay, Scots Commissioner, 262
Barker, Elizabeth, 326 n.
Barkham, Sir Edward, Bart., 433 n.
Barkham, Susannah, 433 ».
Barking, Ninth Earl's Villa at, 47
Barnes, Barnabie, 207
Barnewall, Patrick, 19
Barnewall, Robert, 19, 21
Bates, Thomas, Gunpowder Plot
conspirator, 105-116
Bayning, Paul, Viscount, 173 n.
Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli,
Earl of, 467
Beaufort, Duke of, 405, 406
Beaumont, Justice, 100
Bee, Sieur du, see Prdaux
Bedford, Countess of, 193, 195
Bedford, Earl of, 238, 248, 258, 261,
262
Beeralston, Percy "pocket-borough,"
464, 467
Belfast, Essex slaughters his Irish
guests at, 50 n.
Bennet Sir John, 263 n.
Bergen, 454
Berkeley, Lord, 280, 314
Berkeley, Mary ("Fair Thyamis"),
52 and n.
Bertie-Greatheed, Anne Caroline,
(Mrs. Percy), 465
Bertie-Greatheed, Bertie, of Guys-
cliffe, 465
Bertie-Percy, Anne Barbara, 465
Beswicke-in-Holdernesse, 371
Betham, Sir W., Ulster King of
Arms, 367
Beverley, Percy family of, 99, 369-
372
Bickley, co. Devon, 360
Bird, William, 457 n.
Bishopsbourne, Kent, 464
Blackeston, John, 346, 347
Blois, 315
Blood, Colonel, 162, 389
"Bloody Tower" The, 161 and ».,
165
Blount, Charles, Lord Mountjoy,
5', 52
Blount, Sir Christopher, 5 1
Blount, Edward, Lord Mountjoy,
240
Blunt, Rev. J. H., 93
Boleyn, Queen Anne, 51, 162
Boleyn, Mary, 51
Bologna, 437, 438
Bolton, Duke of, see Paulet
Bolton, Yorks., 431
Bond, Thomas, 316 n.
Booth's Rising, 291
Boroski, assassin of Tom Thynn,
390-392, 393-395
Borris-in-Ossory, 368 n.
Boston, 455, 456
Boston Camp, Lord Percy in com-
mand of , 455
Boston Town Hall, Percy's portrait
in, 457
Boswell, James, 452
Botevill, see Thynn
Botti, Horatio, slayer of the
"Hector" Duke of Somerset, 400
INDEX
471
Boughton, co. Nortliants, 324
Boughton, Lord Montagu of, see
Montague
Bourchiers, Earls of Essex, 50
How, 163
Bowes, Sir George, 14, 15
" Bowyer Tower" The, 162
Boyle, Roger, adventurer, first Earl
of Cork, 257 n.
Boyle, Roger, Lord Broghill, Earl
of Orrery, 257 and n., 385
Boynton, Cecily, 369, 370
Boynton, Thomas, 369
Bradford, Earl of, see Newport
Bradshaw, the regicide, 296 ;/.
Branx/wlm, 172 n.
Breda, 290
Brentford, sack of, by Royalists, 258
Bret, Colonel, 382 and n.
"Brick Tower," The, 162, 163, 165,
169, 194, 212
Bridgeman, Sir Orlando, 352 n.
Bridgetine Nuns of Syon, their
•wanderings, 93-96
Bridgewater, Earl of, 366
Brignall, Yorks., 432
Brissac, Madame de, 32 1
Bristol, Earl of, 202, 216
Broghill, Lord, see Boyle, Roger
Brooke, Sir Calisthenes, 71
Browne, Sir William, 118, 119
Browning's Strafford, 244
Broxboume, Herts., 52-56
Bruce, Edward, 84, 85
Bruell, Peter, murdered by Mon-
mouth, Thynn, and others, 389
and n., 400 ;/.
Bruges, 299
Brunswick, Duke of, 454
Buccleugh, 172 n.
Buccleugh, Anne Scott, Countess
of, 377
Buccleugh, Duke of, 324
Bunker's Hill, Battle of, 456
Burnes, The, 58
Burnet's Hist, of His Own Times,
398, 403, 456, 457
Burke's Peerage, 327
Burrel family, its rise, 457 and n.
Burrell, Frances Jane, Duchess of
Northumberland, 457 and «.,
463
Burrell, Isabella Susan, Countess
of Beverley, 457 and »., 463
and ti.
Burrell, Peter, of Beckenham, Kent,
457 and n., 463
Burton, Elizabeth, " the Holy Maid
of Kent," 94
Burton, Francis, bookseller, 148,
1 56 n.
Bushell, Thomas, 328 and n., 337,
346
Bute, Marquis of, see Stuart, John
Butler, Lady Elizabeth, Countess of
Chesterfield, 302 and n.
Butler, James, first Duke of
Ormonde, 302, 303
Butler, James, second Duke of
Ormonde, 403, 407
Butler, Sir Thomas, Bart., 368
Byrom, Yorks., 425 n.
C/ESAR, Sir Julius, 154
Caius College, Cambridge, Heraldic
books at, 362
Caher Castle, 66
Cambridge, Town of, 355, 364
Cambridge University,2ll-2l^,^2,
398, 408, 459. 46i, 463, 467
Camden, Lord, 458
Campbell, Lady Edith, now
Duchess of Northumberland, 468
Campbell, George Douglas, late
Duke of Argyll, 468
Campbell, John, Duke of Argyle,
416
Campden, Viscount, see Noel
Canaletto's view of old Northum-
berland House, 256
Cannington, co. Somerset, 344, 345
Canterbury, Archbishops of, see
under names of principal Arch-
bishops
INDEX
Canterbury, Dean of, Hugh Percy
as, 464
Capel, Algernon, second Earl of
Essex, 303, 310 n.
Capel, Lady Anne, Countess of
Carlisle, 303
Capel, Arthur, first Earl of Essex,
298, 302, 303, 319, 374 and n.,
381, 382, 404 «.
Capel, Arthur, Lord Capel, 285, 302
Capel, William, Lord Mayor of
London, 302
Cape Town, capture of, 464
Cardigan, Lord, 449
Carew, Sir George, 56
Carew, Lord, 169
Carey, Henry, first Viscount Falk-
land, in n.
Carey, Henry, first Lord Hunsdon,
27
Carey, Katherine, Lady Knollys,
51, 144 n.
Carey, Sir Robert, afterwards Earl
of Monmouth, 57, 64
Carey, William, 51 n.
Carisbrooke Castle, 278, 286
Carleton, Dudley, afterwards Vis-
count Dorchester, 64, 65, 71, 72,
173, 190, 193 «., 194 n., 195, 200-
2O2, 212
Carleton, Yorks., 432 n.
Carlisle, Bishop of, Hugh Percy as,
464
Carlisle, Dean of, Thomas Percy
as, 453 ».
Carlisle, Earl of, see Howard,
Charles
Caroline, Queen, 423
Caron, Sir Noel, 75
Carr, Robert, Earl of Somerset, 172,
173 and n., 196, 317 n.
Carter, Ralph, 354
Cashiobury, Herts., 302
Catterick, Anthony, 431, 432
Catterick, William, 431 n.
Catterick or Catherick family, of
Stan wick, 431, 432
Cavendish, Lady Elizabeth, the
Mad Duchess of Albemarle, 324,
325 and n., 379, 389 n.
Cavendish, Henry, first Duke of
Newcastle, 247, 248
Cavendish, Henry, second Duke of
Newcastle, 325, 378
Cavendish, Henry, Earl of Ogle,
325, 349, 350, 378, 379
Caversham House, 273
Catesby, Robert, Gunpowder Plot
conspirator, 104-116
Catesby, Robert, the Younger, 106
and n.
Catholic Relief Bill, 460
Cecil, Lady Anne, Countess of
Northumberland, 204, 216, 227,
298
Cecil, Edward, Viscount Wimble-
don, 219 and n.
Cecil, James, fourth Earl of Salis-
bury, 382
Cecil, Robert, first Earl of Salis-
bury, 22 n., 29, 61, 63, 70, 79, 82-
85, 88-91, 92, 109, 116-119, 124-
126, 128-157, 161, 205
Cecil, Thomas, first Earl of Exeter,
5, 6, 82
Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, I,
2,4, 5,6,8-15, 17, 18,21,23,26,
31,32, 41-44, 55, 58, 174
Cecil, Sir William, 79
Challoner, Mr., 261
Chamberlain, John, 64, 65, 72, 173,
190, 193-195, 2°o, 212
Chambers, Dr. Richard, 198
Champion, Henry, 306, 327, 329,
33i, 335 »•, 337, 338, 344, 35',
352, 369
Charles, Archduke, 405, 408
Charles Edward, Prince, 440
Charles I., 107, 202, 203, 212, 215-
282,317
Charles II. (as Prince of Wales),
162, 269, 284, 289-291 ; (as King)
293-297, 313 and n., 318, 322, 324,
334, 349-351, 376-378,404,432
INDEX
473
Charles X., of France, 460
Charleston, 456
Charleston-in- Tynedale, \ 54
Chartley, co. Stafford, 50
Cheapside, Smithson's shop in, 433
Chesterfield, Earls of, see Stanhope
Chesterfield's tetters, 188
Cheyne, Elizabeth, Lady Vaux, 340
and »., 345, 371
Cheyne, Sir Thomas, 340 «.
Chichester, Earl of, see Leigh
Chilcot, Ann, 326 n.
Chilcot, Roger, 326 n.
Churchill, Lady Anne, Duchess of
Montagu, 324
Churchill, John, Duke of Marl-
borough, 324, 325, 409, 420, 421
Christchurch College, Oxford, 212,
213
Gibber, Colley, 385
Circiniani, Nicholas, 313
Clanricarde, Earl of, 219
Clare, Earl of, 258, 262
Clarendon, Earl of, see Hyde,
Edward
Clarendon State Papers, 275
Clarke, a priest, 91 n.
Clarke, John, 343
Clements Inn, Gimpcnvder Plot ren-
dezvous behind, 107, no, 112
Clifford, Lady Anne, Countess of
Pembroke, 339 and n., 340
Clifford, George, Earl of Cumber-
land, 339 «.
Clifford, Henry, Earl of Cumber-
land, 340
Clifford, Thomas, Lord, 313 n., 344
Clinton, Lord Thomas, 451
Clive, Lady Charlotte, Duchess of
Northumberland, 461
Clive, Lord, 461
Clive, Edward, first Earl of Powis,
461
Clononeen, Queen's co., 368
Cobham, Sir Henry, 32-35
Cobham, Lord, 68-70, 77, 82 ; 88-91
160, 164, 165, 168
Cockermouth Castle, 126
Cock, Sir Henry, 52-55
Cogenhoe, co. Northants, 362 and
"; 363
Coke, Attorney-General, 58, 88, 90,
125-128, 147-150
Cole, Rev. William, 359
Collectanea Gen. and Her., 358
Collingwood, Sir Cuthbert, 638
Collins's Peerage, 314, 315, 327
Colnbrooke, 258
Compton, James, second Earl of
Northampton, 339 n.
Compton, James, third Earl of
Northampton, 398 «.
Comslade, William, 424
Concord, Massachusetts, 456
Constable, Stephen, 369, 370
" Constable Tower;'1 The, 163, 165
Convention Parliament, 407
Conway, Lord, 229, 233, 234, 237,
238, 261
Conway, Lord, 383
Cope, Dame, of Horton, 338
Cope, Lydia, 338
Copes, of Denshanger, 335 «.
Coplestone, Sir John, 344, 345
Corbrigg Manor, 154
Cornwallis, Sir Charles, 117, 118
Cornwallis, Sir William of Brom,
15 and n.
Cottington, Francis, Lord, 219 and
«., 228, 231, 235
Cotton, Anne, 269
Coward, William, 316 n.
Craik's Romance of the Peerage,
(case of James Percy), 326-367
Cranbourne, Viscount, see Cecil
Craven, Lord, 273 n.
Crispe, Rev. Henry, 364
Cromwell, Oliver, 262, 268, 275, 277,
278, 280, 287, 288, 290 ; his re-
mains exhumed and mutilated,
295, 296
Cromwell, Richard, 287, 290, 291
Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex,
94
474
INDEX
Cropredy Bridge, Battle of, 283
Croydon, Archbishops Palace at,
117-125
Cruise, or Crushe, Paul, Irish spy,
37 and «.
Curtis, Mr., of Windsor Court,
London, 351
Cumberland, Earls of, see Clifford
Cumberland, William, Duke of, 447
DACRE, Leonard, 4
Dacre, Lord, 280
Danby, Earl of, see Osborne,
Francis
Daniel's Hist, of England, 170
Darcy, Sir Francis, 197
Dartmouth, Earl of, notes to Burnet,
398, 403, 412
Davenant, Sir William, 242
Dee, Dr. John, 60, 167
De Fonblanque, E. B., Annals of
the House of Percy, 123, 171, 205,
256, 257, 267 »., 284, 310, 314, 3'7,
374 «• 375. 38° »• 4oi, 455. 459
Delaval, Robert, 174, 175
Delaware, Lord, 209
Denbigh, Earl of, 280, 281
Denny, Edward, Lord, 192
Denny, Honora, Lady Hay, 192,
242
Denshanger, Northants, 335 «.
Derby, Earl of, 462
Derinond, Flanders, 94
Devereux, Sir Charles, 52 «.
Devereux, Dorothy, Countess of
Northumberland, 49-58, 62-67,
173, 178, 179, 190, 191, 196, 198,
'99
Devereux, Penelope, Lady Rich, 51,
52, 189
Devereux, Robert, second Earl of
Essex, 51, 57, 58, 63, 64 ; his re-
volt and death, 65-68, 104, 319 ».
Devereux, Robert, third Earl of
Essex, 248, 261, 262
Devereux, Walter, first Earl of
Essex, 50 and »., 61
Devonshire, Countess of, 226
Devonshire, Duke of, see Cavendish
D'Ewes, Sir S., 258
Digby, Sir Everard, Gunpowder
Plot conspirator, 105-116
Digby, Sir John, 221
Digby, Sir Kenelm, 216, 221
Digby, Lord, 240
Digby, Sir Robert, of Coleshill,
H3
D'Israeli, Isaac, Life of Charles I.,
236, 241, 252
Disraeli, see Beaconsfield, Earl of
Doncaster, Viscount, see Hay,
James
Donington, Lincoln, 328
Dormer, Lady Elizabeth, Countess
of Chesterfield, 302
Dormer, Robert, Earl of Carnarvon,
302 n.
Dorset, Earl of, see Sacville
Dorset, Marchioness of, 369, 370
Dottay, 437 ».
Douglas's Peerage, 192
Dover, Treaty of, 313
D'Oyzelle, 2
Drake, Sir Francis, 47
Dromore, Bishop of, Thomas Percy
as, 453 n.
Drummond, Andrew Mortimer, 465
Drummond, Henry, M.P., of Albury
Park, 467
Drummond, Louisa, Duchess of
Northumberland, 467
Drury Lane, 169
Drury, Lord Justice, 53
Duchesne, 170
Dudley, John, Duke of Northum-
berland, 95
Dudley, Lord Guilford, 95
Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester,
2, 10, 12, 13, 51,52, 191
Dugdale, Sir William, Garter
King of Arms, 332, 333, 346,
350, 356-363, 368
Dunbar, 2
Dunbar, George, Earl of, 159, 317
INDEX
475
Dunluce, Lord, see MacDonnell
Randal, Earl of Antrim
Dunsford, co. Devon, 326 n.
Duns table, 112
Dutens, 454
Dykveldt, secret agent of William
III., 407
Dymoke, Sir Edward, King's
Champion to Charles II., 294 n.
Eos ton Maudit, Northants, 453 ».
Edgehill, Battle of, 254, 257
Edmonds, Sir Thomas, 119
Edward VI., 194
Egyptian Antiquities at Almuick
Castle, 462
" El Dorado? Raleigh's, 171
Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, 107,
192
Elizabeth, Princess, 269-273, 275,
282, 286 andw., 311
Elizabeth, Queen, 2-4, 6-17, 19-26,
28, 3i. 34, 36, 38, 45, 46, 48-50,
51, 59, 66, 68, 74-77,79, 85,87,
88, 211
Elkes, John, reader to ninth Earl,
171
Elkes, Timothy, treacherous ser-
vant of ninth Earl, 148-153, 171
Ellerker, James, 371
Ellerker, John, of Risby, Yorks, 371
Enfield Chase, 88
England, Roger, 359, 360
Englefield, Sir Francis, 21
Epping Forest, 163
Eson, 362
Essex, Countess of, 226 n.
Essex, Earls of, see Capel
Essex, Earls of, see Devereux
Essex House, 63, 108, 1 10, 1 16, 120,
146 and n., 169, 193, 200,211, 371
Eton College, 467
Eure,Lord, Warden of the Marches,
58- 59
Evelyn, John, description of
Northumberland House, 256 ; of
Syon, 296 ; on the training of
Lord Percy, 297, 305, 306, 321 ;
on George Fitz-Roy, Duke of
Northumberland, 377, 384 ; on
the assassins of Tom Thynn,
395
Exclusion Bill, 407
Exeter, Marquis of, 457 n.
Exmouth, Lord, 461
" Fairest Ccelia," Sonnets to, by
Wm. Percy, 207, 208, 228
" Fcery Pastorall? by Wm. Percy,
208
Fairfax, Sir Thomas, afterwards
Lord Fairfax, 262, 271, 277, 280
Fawkes, Guido, Gunpowder Plot
conspirator, 104-116
Felix, Major, 402
Fenny Stratford, \ \ 2
Fenwick, Constable of Alnwick, 39
Ferrers of Chartley, 50
Fez, King of, Ambassador from
the, 385
Ffotherley, auditor to ninth Earl,
1 20 and n.
Ffrancis, Sir Edward, 120
Finch, Lady Charlotte, Duchess of
Somerset, 418
Finch, Daniel, second Earl of
Nottingham, 418
Fitton, family of, Cheshire, 40 n.
Fitton, Francis, of Binfiekl, Berks,
30, 40-45
Fitz-Roy, George, Earl and Duke
of Northumberland, 350, 376-378
and ;/.
Fitz- William, Elizabeth, 371
Fitz-William, William, of Maple-
thorpe, 371
Fleet Prison, 207
Fleetwood, Thomas, 337
Floyd, Ann, Wife of George Percy,
208, 209 and n
Florio's New Dictionary, 170
Flushing, 290
Forster, Sir John, 7»., 9, 10, 14, 15,
58,59
476
INDEX
Forster's Arrest of the Five
Members, 294, 295
Fort Washington, 456
Foubert, Major, and his Riding-
School, 292 n., 390 and n.
Fox, Charles, James, 283 «., 457,
458
Fox, Henry, Lord Holland, 446
Fox, Sir Stephen, 283 and n.
Frankford, King's county, 368 «.
Frost, Margaret, 369, 370
Frost, Walter, of Beverlejfc 369,
370
GAGE, General, 455, 456
Gage, Sir Henry, 207
" Garden Tower," The, 161 and n.
Gardiner's Hist, of England, 127,
128, 220, 237, 246, 275
Garnet, Father, and the Gunpowder
Plot, 105 n., 112, 113, 115 n.
Garrard, George, 218-220, 227,237
Garter, Order of, splendid pageant
at investiture of tenth Earl, 218-
220
Cateshead, co. Durham, 359
Gee, Rev. John, of Dunsford, 326 n.
Gee, Rev. John, M.A., 326 n.
Gee, Sir Orlando, chief agent to
tenth and eleventh Earls, to the
Dowager - Countess, and the
Duchess of Somerset, 308, 326
and «., 327, 337, 338, 340, 369
Gembling, co. York, 88
Genoa, capture of, 462
George I., 386, 405, 415, 416, 417,
419,421
George II., 417, 439, 440, 443, 445
George III., 446,447, 448-45°
George IV., 457, 458, 460, 465
Gerard, Elizabeth, Lady, 163
Glasco, Sir William, 351
"Globe" Theatre, 60
Gloucester Hall, Oxford, 207
Gloucester, Henry, Duke of, 269,
273, 275. 277, 282, 286 and «., 31 1
Godfrey, Hester, 433 n.
Godfrey, Michael, 433 n.
Godolphin, 409
Goldsmith, Oliver, 452, 453
Goldsmith's Hall, 267
" Gordon Riots," 433, 452
Gordon, Sir William, 458, 459
Goring, Colonel George, 247, 248
Gower, Sir John, 173
Gowrie, Earls of, see Ruthven
Grafton, Dukes of, 376 «., 407, 449,
45°
Grange, Laird of, see Kirkcaldy
Grant, John, and the Gunpowder
Plot, 113-116
Granville, Earl (Carteret), 439 and
»., 44°, 441
Gravesend, 392
Gray, Lady Catherine, Countess of
Hertford, 398, 399
Gray, Lady Jane, 95
Great Sandal, co. York, 369
Greene, Giles, 120
Greene, William, clerk, 34 and n.
Greenway, Jesuit priest, and the
Gunpowder Plot, 103, 105, 106
Grenadier Guards, 445, 466 and ».,
467
Grenville, George, 441 n.
Grenville, Lord, 458
Grenville Papers, 446, 447, 449
Grenville, Henry, 461
Grey, Lord, Warden of the Marches,
2
Grey of Ruthyn, Lord, 68-70, 75,
82, 89-91, 160, 164-166
Grosvenor, Lady Eleanor, Duchess
of Northumberland, 463
Guicciardini, 36, 39
Guiscard, assailant of Harley, 41 1
Guise, Due de, 37
Gunpowder Plot, Account of the,
103-116, 127
HALES, Sir Edward, 343, 344
Halifax, Marquis of, 303, 383, 408
Halkett, Lady Ann, see Murray,
Ann
INDEX
477
Hall, Thomas, slayer of Thos.
Percy and Catesby, 1 1 5 «.
Hallam, quoted, 129
Hal ley's Comet, 166
Hamilton, Lady Ann, 302
Hamilton, Dukes of, 231, 285,
457 »•
Hampden, John, 262
Hampton Court, 272, 273
Harbottel, Sir Guiscard, of Beam-
ish, 40 n.
Harcourt, Comte d', 262, 263
Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor, 122,
123,410
Hardwicke, second Earl of, 122
Hare, Hon. Constantia, 433 n.
Hare, Henry, second Lord Cole-
raine, 401 n., 433 n.
Harington, Lord, 107
Harley, Edward, first Earl of
Oxford, 409, 411,412, 415
Harriott, Thomas, 97, 164, 166 and
n., 169, 205
Harrison, General, 280
Harrison, General George Plan-
tagenet, 43°-432
Harrow den, Norlhants, 335 ;
registers of, 338
Haselrig, 262
Haslewood, Joseph, 208
Hatfield, 150
Hatherton, Lord, see Littleton
Hatton, Sir Christopher, 17, 21-23 ;
accused of complicity in the
eighth Earl's murder, 24-29, 36,
38, 52 n., 56 n.
Hatton, Lord and Lady, 385
Haughton, Lord, 203
Havre-de- Grace, 316, 388
Hay, James, first Earl of Carlisle,
168, 192-199, 200, 228, 240, 242
Hay, James, second Earl of Car-
lisle, 242
Hay, Sir James, of Kingask, 192
Hay, Sir Peter, of Megginch, 192
Heath, Lord Chief-Justice, 218
" Hectors? The, 389, 400 and n.
Henley, Anthony, 417
Henrietta Maria, Queen, 217, 218,
242, 244-246, 253, 254, 282-285
Henry VIII., of England, 51, 88,
94
Henry IV., of France, 6, 61
Henry, Prince of Wales, 92, 107
Heralds' College, state of books,
temp. Charles II., 331, 332
Herbert, Philip, fifth Earl of Pem-
broke, 173 n.
Herbert, Sir Thomas, 272
Herbert, William, first Lord Powis,
29
Heron, Secretary to Charles I.,
259
Herrenhaitsen, 445
Herrick, Robert, 242
Herschel, Sir John, 462
Hertford, Earl of, see Seymour,
Wm., second Duke of Somerset
Hill, Nicholas, 167, 211
Hindlip Hall, Worcester, Father
Garnet arrested at, 115 n.
Hinton St. George, 173 n.
Hinton, Viscount, 173 n.
Hippisley or Hippesley, John, 174,
212
Hodnet Hall, Salop, 464
Holinshed's Works, 36
Holland, Earl of (Rich), 226, 233,
243, 258, 261, 262, 285
Holland, Lord, see Fox, Henry
Holies, Denzil, 258, 278
Holt, Lord Chief- Justice, 410
Hopkins, William, 278
Hopton, Sir Owen, Governor of
the Tower, 12, 24, 28, and «.
Horton, Northants, 335 ; registers
of, 338 «•, 34°, 34i, 362
Howard, Charles, second Earl of
Carlisle, 303, 336
Howard, Lady Elizabeth, 302
Howard, Lady Elizabeth, Countess
of Northumberland, 255-257,
260, 262, 298, 307 ; her strange
character, 317 ; peculiar methods
478
INDEX
of managing her grandchild's
estate, 318 ; opposition to James
Percy, 329-3 5 5 ; forces her grand-
child into two wretched mar-
riages, 3/8-384 ; her life in
London, 385, 391 ; chooses a
third husband (Somerset) for
her grandchild, 397-402
Howard, Lady Frances, Countess
of Somerset, 172-174, 195, 196,
317 »., 388 n.
Howard, James, third Earl of Suf-
folk, 336, 376, and »., 377, 385
Howard, Henry, first Earl of
Northampton, 20, 22, 63, 79, 82,
83, 124, 126
Howard, Lady Margaret, Countess
of Orrery, 257 and «., 385
Howard of Escrick, Lord, 404,
405 «.
Howard, Theophilus, second Earl
of Suffolk, 255, 257 n., 317 n.
Howard, Thomas, Duke of Nor-
folk, 9
Howe, Lord, quarrel with Earl
Percy in America, 456
Hues, Robert, 97, 166, and n., 167,
205, 212
Humber, River, 254
Hunmanby, co. York, 88
Hunsdon, Lord, see Carey, Henry
Hunsdon, Lord, 280
Hunter, Rev. Joseph, F.S.A., 358 n.,
368
Hurst Castle, 280
Hussey, Giles, painter, 436, 437
and «.
Hutton, Sergeant, 174
Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon,
216, 236, 244, 245, 249-251, 266,
270 n., 273, 274 »., 283, 284
Ightham Moat House, Kent, 205
and n.
Inkermann, Battle of, Lord H.
Percy wins the Victoria Cross at,
466
"Instructions to My Son" by the
" Wizard" Earl, 175-180
"Instructions for the Lord Percy
in his Trauells," 180-188
Ireland, Lords- Lieutenant of, first
Duke of Northumberland as,
446-448 ; third Duke of Nor-
thumberland as, 460, 461
Ireton, General, 275, 279, 280 ; ex-
humation and mutilation of his
corpse, 296 n.
" Ironsides" Cromwell's, at Wres-
sill, 268
Islewortk, or Isleworth-Syon, 93,
94, 77, 196, 326 »., 385
Ivychurch, Kent, 464
JACKSON, Rev. E., History of
Longleat, 382 n., 384 «.
James I. and VI., 77-93, 102-104,
106-110, 113, 115 n., 1 17-143)
147-159, 163 and «., 192, 197-
202
James II. and VII., 220, 269, 271,
272 ; flight from Northumber-
land's guardianship, 273-277,
302 and n., 303, 305, 311, 313,
318, 319, 324, 349, 405-408
James, Prince of Wales, "Chevalier
de St. George," 416
Jardyne, on the Gunpowder Plot,
129
Jerinyn, Henry, Lord, 247, 248, 284
Jersey, 228
Jesse's Courts of the Stuarts, 302 «.
Jhonsone, "Master Doctor," 18
Johnson, Samuel, 422, 452
Johnston of Warriston, 262
Jonson, Ben, 47, 97, 167
Jordan, Agnes, Abbess of Syon,
94 »-
" Junius" on Lord Percy, 455
"Junio," The Whig, 409
KEITH, Lord, " Master of Mare-
schal," 2
Kent, Earl of, 280
INDEX
479
Kepler, Johann, 166, 168
Ker, Sir Thomas, of Fernieherst,
172 n.
Keyes or Keys, Gunpowder Plot
conspirator, 104-116, I2O».
Kingask, 192
Kirkcaldy, William, Laird of
Grange, 2, 3
Kirk-Levinton, co. York, 88
Kit- Cat Club, 420
Kitson, Lady, 36
Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 420
Knollys, Lettice, Countess of Essex
(and of Leicester), 50, 51
Knollys, William, Earl of Banbury,
144, 146
Knox, John, Letters to, from Sir
Henry Percy, 3, 4
Knyvet, Sir Thomas, in and n.
Koningsmarck, Aurora von, mother
of Marshal Saxe, 386
Koningsmarck, Charles John,
Count von, early life of, 385-
387 ; falls in love with Elizabeth
Percy, 387 ; leads expedition
against Tangiers, 387 ; challenges
Tom Thynn twice, and again by
proxy, 388, 389 ; tried for com-
plicity in Thynn's murder and
acquitted, 393, 394 ; dies in
battle at Argos, 396 and «., 413
Koningsmarck, Philip Christopher,
Count von, reputed lover of
Queen Sophia Dorothea of Zell,
386, 390, 394 ; assassinated by
command of George I., 396 n.
Koningsmarck, Count Otto William
von, generalissimo of Venice,
386, 395
" Kriegspiel," or " War - Game,"
played by the "Wizard" Earl,
170
LA BORDERIE, M. de, French Am-
bassador, 126 and n.
La Fayette, Mdme. de, 320, 321,
322
La Fosse, 323
Lambert, General, 291
Lambeth, Catesby1! house at, 104
Lamplugh, Dr., 337
Lane, Edward William, 462
Langdale, Elizabeth, 433
Langdale, Marmaduke, second
Lord, 433
Langdale, Sir Marmaduke, 433 n.
La Rochefoucauld, Mdme. de,
321
Latimer, Lord, see Nevill
Laud, Archbishop, 224-226, 231,
234-236
Leconfield, Lord (Wyndham), 439
n., 440 n.
Leckonficld or Leconfield, co. York,
216, 440
Leicester, Earl of, see Dudley
Leicester, Earl of, see Sidney
Leigh, Francis, Earl of Chichester,
309
Leith, 2
Legion of Honour, Cross of the, con-
ferred upon Lord Henry Percy,
V.C., 467
Lemming/on coal pits, 175
Lennox, Duke of, 229
Lenthall, Speaker, 295
Lerice, the "Hector" Duke of
Somerset, slain at, 400
Leslie, General, 235, 238
Letheringham, Suffolk, 173
" Levellers? The, 267, 277, 279-281,
285
Lexington, Battle of, 456
Ley den, 150
Library of the " Wizard" Earl, 39,
99, 167-170,201
Lincoln, Abraham, 466
Lindsey, Earl of, 221
Lingard on the "Wizard" Ear!,
165, 166
Lisbon, Bridgetine nuns of Syon at,
95, 96
Lisle, Viscount, see Sidneys, Earls
of Leicester
480
INDEX
Littleton, Edward Richard, second
Lord Hatherton, 114 n., 467
Littleton, Stephen, of Holbeach,
114
Lloyd, Colonel, 277, 278
Locke, John, as physician to the
eleventh Earl, 313 and n.
Lodge's National Portraits, 24 1
Longleat Hall, Wilts, 380 and ».,
382 n.
Lostivithiel, skirmish at, 283
Loudoun, Earl of, 236, 262, 264
Louis XIV., 263
Lowther, Sir Charles Bingham,
425 n.
Lowther, Lady, 425 and n.
Lowther, Sir William, 425
Lowthers, Lords Lonsdale, 425 n.
Lucas, Henry, 452
Lucy, Sir Edmund, 35 and n.
Lumsden, Thomas, 1 50
Lunsford, Governor of the Tower,
253
MACDONNELL, Randal, Lord Dun-
luce, first Marquis of Antrim,
219, 229 and «., 246
Machiavelli's Works, 39, 170
MacMahon, Colonel, 460 «., 463
Mahon, Lord, 451
Maidenhead, 273
Maitland, 2
Maitland, Scots Commissioner at
Uxbridge, 262
Malone, Edmund, 176
Malplaquet, 421
Maltravers, Lord, 212
Manchester, Earl of, 248, 280
Mandeville, Lord, see Manchester
Manners-Sutton, Charles, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, 463, 464
Manners-Sutton, Mary, wife of
Bishop Hugh Percy, 463, 464
Mapletoft, Dr. John, tutor to
eleventh Earl, 304 and n, 305-313,
323. 374, 375
March, Earl of, 444 and «.
Marchmont, M. de, French Am-
bassador, 1 8
Marham, Northants, 364
Marlborough, Duke of, see Churchill
Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of,
411
Marinello's Medical Treatises, 39,
170
Marnhull, Dorset, 437 n.
" Martin Tower," " Wizard" Earl
confined in the, 162-174
Martyn, Henry, 239, 252 ; thrashed
by Northumberland, 260-262,
267, 280
Mary I., I, 2, 94, 95, 406
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, 8, 9,
15, 19,20,22,37,45,84,92
Mary, William and, 405
Masham, Mrs. (Abigail Hill), 411-
415
Massachusetts, colony of, 1 50
Maurice, Thomas, 452
Maxey, Elizabeth, 326 n.
Maxey, Sir William, 326 «.
Mayerne, Dr., 228
Maynard, Lord, 258, 280
Middlesex, Earl of, 202, 216
Middlesex Election of 1767, The,
45'
Militia Bill, The, 253
Miller, Lady, of Batheaston, 452
and n.
Miller, Sir John, 452 n.
Minden, Battle of, 458
Minor ics. The, 163, 169
Modon, Battle of, 395
Mohammed Ali Pasha, 462
Monk, Christopher, second Duke of
Albemarle, 324 n., 389
Monk, General George, first Duke
of Albemarle, 291, 292, 324 n.
Monmouth, James, Duke of, 303,
316 «., 349 ; his merry jest at the
expense of James Percy, 352-
354, 377, 379-382, 389 and n.,
39 '-393, 396, 400, 405
Mans, Siege of, 388
INDEX
481
Monson, Sir William, 221
Montagu, Lady Anne, 324
Montagu, Charles, Earl of Halifax,
335 »•
Montagu, Edward, second Lord
Montagu of Boughton, 320 n.
Montagu, Edward, third Lord
Montagu of Boughton, 323
Montagu, George, of Horton, 328,
335 and n.
Montagu House, Bloomsbury, site
of the British Museum, 323
Montagu, John, second Duke of
Montagu, 324
Montagu, Ralph, afterwards Lord
Montagu of Boughton, and first
Duke of Montagu, 319-325, 373
Montagu, Ralph, Viscount Mont-
hermer, 324
Monteagle, Lord, 68-70
Monteagle, Lord, see Parker
Moore, Mary, 371
Moore, Robert, of Beswicke, 371
Moray, John James Hugh Henry
Stewart, Duke of Atholl, and
Baron Percy, 463 and n.
Moray, John George Stewart,
Marquis of Tullibardine, D.S.O.,
463 n.
Mordaunt, Lord, 127
.\1orpeth, 2
Mortlake, Dr. Dee's house at, 60
and n.
Motteville, Mdme. de, 246
Mountjoy, Lords, see Blount
Mountnorris, Lord, 451
Mowes, The, 58
Muddiman's News Letter, Henry,
315 and >i., 316 and n.
Mugwellor Monk-well Street, James
Percy in, 351
Mulgrave, Earl of, 280
Murray, Ann, afterwards Lady Ann
Halkett, 275, 276
Murray, Will, 276
" Muscovet," Ambassador from,
385
II.
Nafferton, co. York, 88
Naseby, Battle of, 284
Nassau, Count Henry of, 190
Naunton, Penelope, Countess of
Pembroke, 173 n.
Naunton, Sir Robert, I73».
Navarino, 395
Navy, attempted reforms in the,
by the tenth Earl, 222-227, 229-
233, 298
Nevill, John, fourth Lord Latimer,
4 and n, 5, 6, 13
Nevill, Katherine, Countess of
Northumberland, 4, 29, 30, 40-
44 ; remarries Francis Fitton,
45
Nevill, Lucy, Lady Cornwallis,
15 n.
Nevill, Ralph, Earl of Westmore-
land, 351 n.
Nevilts Tnn, 351 and «.
Newburn-on-Tyne, \, 238
Newbury, second battle of, 283
Newcastle, co. Stafford, 96
Newcastle, Duke of, see Pelham
Newcastle, Earls and Dukes of, see
Cavendish
Newcastle House, Clerkenivell,
325 »•
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 235, 238
Newland or Ne-wlands, co. York,
369
Newmarket, 397
Newport, Isle of Wight, Conference
of, 278-280
Newport. Francis, Viscount New-
port, and first Earl of Bradford,
352-354 and n.
Newport, Lord, 248
Newsham, co. York, 431, 432
Nicholas, Secretary, 284
Nichol's Synopsis of the Peerage,
215 and n.
Noel, Baptist, third Viscount
Campden, 398 n.
Noel, Lady, born Wriothesley, 309,
323
2 H
482
INDEX
Noel, Mary, Countess of North-
ampton, 398 and n., 401
Norfolk, Duke of, see Howard
Norreys or Norris, Henry, 162
Norris, Sir John, 69
" No Popery" Riots, Duke of North-
umberland maltreated during the,
433, 452
North, Captain, 199
North, Lord, 280
Northampton, Earl of, see Compton
Northampton, Earl of, see Howard,
Lord Henry
Northampton House, see North-
umberland House
Northampton, Marchioness of, 210
North Hall, 57
Northumberland, Duke of, see
Dudley
Northumberland, Duke of, see
Fitz-Roy
Northumberland, Dukes of, see
Percy
Northumberland, Earldom of, new
and old creations, 215, 216
Northumberland, Earls of, see
Percy
" Northumberland Fusiliers, " so
re-named in honour of Earl
Percy, 456, 457
Northumberland House, Black-
friars, 19 «., 37
Northumberland (previously
Northampton) House, Charing
Cross, 248, 256, 257, 291, 293,
296, 372 and «., 397, 4 '7, 447, 45 >
Nottingham, Charles I. raises his
standard at, 255
Nottingham, Earls of, 88, 210
Nottingham, Daniel Finch, Earl
of, 407
Nuncio, Papal (Mgr. d'Adda),
Affair of the, 406, 407
O'BRIAN or O'Bryan, Henry, eighth
Earl of Thomond, 418
O'Bryan, Percy Wyndham, after-
wards created Earl of Thomond,
418 n., 439, 441, 443
Ogle, Captain, 73, 74
Ogle, Earl of, see Cavendish
Oldcorne, Father, companion of
Father Garnet, 112, 1 1 5 n.
O'Neill, Sir Bryan, 50 n.
O'Neill, Con, first Earl of Tyrone,
239 «•
O'Neill, Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, 66,
219 «., 229 n.
Oquendo, Admiral, 232
Orange, Prince of, 388
Oranmore and Browne, Lord, 368
Ormonde, Dukes of, see Butler
Orrery, Earl of, see Boyle, Roger
Osborne, Francis, Earl of Danby,
and Duke of Leeds, 303, 408
Osborne, Peregrine, third Duke of
Leeds, 418
Osborne, Thomas, fourth Duke of
Leeds, 434 and n.
Osborne's Memoirs of James /.,
192 n.
Oudenarde, Battle of, 440
Overbury, Sir Thomas, 172
Owen, Sir Hugh, of Anglesey, 29
Oxford, Charles 1. at, 258-262 ; fall
of, 271
Oxford, Earl of (De Vere), 199
Oxford, Earl of, see Harley
Oxford University, 98, 207, 212,
213,433,462
PAGET, Charles, agent of the Catho-
lics, 9, 21, 22, 32-35, 37, 61
Paget, William, Lord Paget, 21
Pall Mall, assassination of Tom
Thynn in, 391, 392 ; the assassins
executed in, 395
Palmer, Katherine, Abbess of Syon,
94 and n., 95
Paluzzi, Cardinal, 313
Parker, Lord Chief-Justice, 410
Parker, William, Lord Monteagle,
discoverer of the Gunpowder
Plot, 68, 106-109, 127
INDEX
483
Parr, Queen Katherine, re-marries
Lord Latimer, 4 n.
Parry, Dr., 19
Paulet, Charles, second Duke of
Bolton, 376 n., 377
Paulet, Charles, sixth Marquis of
Winchester, and first Duke of
Bolton, 376 »., 377
Pa-venham Bury, Bedford, 327, 338,
340 and n., 362
Peckham, Surrey, 96
Peel, Sir Robert, 460 and n.
Peele, George, dramatist, his verses
to the "Wizard" Earl, 46, 47
Pelham, Henry, 191
Pelham, Thomas, Duke of New-
castle, 191, 439
Pemberton, Francis, Lord Chief-
Justice, 336 and »., 393, 394
Pembroke county, tenth Earl Lord
Lieutenant of, 253
Pembroke, Earl of, 258, 263, 278,
280
Pembrokeand Montgomery, Philip,
fourth Earl of, 339 n.
Pennant's London, 300
Pennington, Sir John, 220, 226,
231,253
Penruddocke, Mr., 221
Penshurst, Kent, 205,206, 242, 243,
282, 286, 289
Penny Farthing Street, Oxford,
207
Pepys's Diary, 164, 294, 302 «., 321
" Percies," " The Four," curious
tradition of, 339, 340, 343, 371
Percy, Sir Alan, son of the eighth
Earl, 100, 120, 128, 147, 149,
152
Percy, Alan, M.P., of Beverley, 99,
361, 37i
Percy, Alan, of Beverley, said to
have been twelfth Earl of Nor-
thumberland, 99 n,, 350, 351 n.;
his undoubted descent from the
fourth Earl, 368-372
Percy, Alexander, 350
Percy, Algernon, tenth Earl of
Northumberland, K.G. : Lord
High Admiral of England, 167,
'69. '75-i88, 201, 204 ; his birth
and early life in the Tower, &c.,
210-215; summoned to the House
of Lords, 215 ; begins to asso-
ciate with the Puritans, 216 ; first
marriage,2i6; succeedshisfather,
217 ; invested with the Garter,
218-220; Admiral of the Fleet,
and attempts reform of the navy,
220-226; becomes Lord High
Admiral, 226 ; death of first wife,
and a serious illness, 227 ; made
General-in-Chief of the Army,
233 ; behaviour during the Scot-
tish invasion, 234-238 ; leader of
the Moderate Parliamentarians,
246 ; open breach with the King,
anddismissal fromoffice, 254, 255;
second marriage, 255-257 ; heads
Parliamentary peace party, 257 ;
Commissioner to the King at
Oxford, 258-260; assaults Henry
Martyn, 260 ; again a Parlia-
mentary commissioner at Ux-
bridge, 263-266 ; his heavy losses
by the war, and partial com-
pensation, 266-269 ; becomes
guardian of the King's younger
children, 269-273 ; the Duke of
York gives him the slip, 273 ;
efforts to save the King's life,
277-281 ; his formal protest, 281 ;
abandons public life, and resigns
care of the King's children, 282 ;
defies Cromwell and the " Rump,"
285-287 ; occupations in retire-
ment, 288 - 290 ; his vigorous
help towards the Restoration,
290-293 ; independent attitude
towards the new King, 293-296 ;
peaceful closing years, 297-298 ;
his children, 298-311, 343, 363
Percy, Algernon, first Earl of
Beverley : succeeds his father
484
INDEX
as Lord Loraine, and is created
an Earl by the Tories, 463 ; his
marriage, and children, 463-465
Percy, Algernon, fourth Duke of
Northumberland, K.G : enters
the navy, created Baron Prudhoe,
and attains the rank of Admiral,
461, 462 ; travels extensively in
the East, and acquires a reputa-
tion as a savant, 462 ; his Egyp-
tian collection at AInwick, id.
Percy, Hon. Algernon, Minister to
the Swiss Cantons, 463
Percy, Algernon Charles Heber, of
Hodnet, co. Salop, 464
Percy, Algernon Heber, of Hodnet,
464
Percy, Algernon George, sixth Duke
of Northumberland, K.G., P.C.,
467
Percy, Lord Algernon Malcolm
Arthur, ex-M.P., 467
Percy, Lady Anne, wife of Philip,
Lord Stanhope, 298-301, 310
Percy, Anne, 359
Percy, Anne, otherwise Crispe, 364
Percy, Anne, otherwise Eson, 362
Percy, Sir Anthony, Lord Mayor
of Dublin, son of James Percy,
"the Trunkmaker ; " 325, 349,
352-354 ; Lord Mayor, 367 ; his
descendants, 367, 368
Percy, Sir Charles, son of the eighth
Earl : accompanies Essex to
Ireland, shows great gallantry
at the Battle of the Blackwater,
and wins his knighthood at Cahir
Castle, 66 ; returns to London,
shares in the revolt of Essex, and
goes to the Tower, 66, 67 ; rides
to Scotland with news of Eliza-
beth's death, 87, 88 ; helps
Thomas Percy, 100; and is
deceived by him, 120
Percy, Charles, son of Josceline of
Beverley, 372
Percy, Charles, of Cambridge, 364
Percy, Hon. Charles, of Guyscliffe,
co. Warwick, 465
Percy, Lady Charlotte, Countess of
Ashburnham, 465 and n.
Percy, Lady Dorothy, Countess of
Leicester, 173, 189-191, 194,204-
206, 243, 282, 286, 288, 289, 310.
Percy, Edward, of Beverley, son of
Josceline, 99, 333, 356, 361, 370,
37i
Percy, Edward, son of Alan, secre-
tary to the ninth Earl, 205 and
«•, 371
Percy, Lady Eleanor, wife of
William, first Lord Powis, 29
Percy, Eleanor, otherwise Ferrand,
372
Percy, Elizabeth, Baroness Percy,
and Duchess of Somerset, 298 ;
sole heir of her father, the
eleventh Earl, 312, 316, 322 ; left
in care of Dr. Mapletoft, 323,
334, 357, 358 »-,365, 366 ; becomes
ward of her grandmother, 375 ;
her brief education, ib.; the King
asks her hand for his natural son,
376-378 ; wedded by her grand-
mother to the weak-minded Lord
Ogle, 378, 379 ; a widow at
thirteen, 379 ; forced into mar-
riage with Thomas Thynn, 379-
382 ; flies from Thynn to the
Continent, 382, 383 ; Konings-
marck in love with her, chal-
lenges, and eventually causes the
assassination of Thynn, 385-391 ;
scandalous tales of hercomplicity,
391-397; marries Charles, "the
Proud" Duke of Somerset, 397-
402 ; her personal appearance
and character, 402, 403 ; in favour
with Queen Anne, 408, 409, 411,
412 ; reviled by the Tories, and
lampooned by Swift, 412-414 ;
dismissed from Court, 415 ;
energy in the Hanoverian cause,
416-418 ; her death, 423
INDEX
485
Percy, Lady Elizabeth, Countess
of Essex, 298, 300-303, 310
Percy, Lady Elizabeth, daughter
of the first Duke, 454
Percy, Elizabeth, daughter of the
conspirator, Thomas Percy,
buried in Alnwick, 360
Percy, Elizabeth, otherwise Perkins,
364
Percy, Lady Emily (Drummond),
465
Percy, Frances, otherwise Ellerker,
371
Percy, Francis, son of Robert, of
Bickley, 359, 360, 362
Percy, Francis, of Cambridge,
claimant of the honours of Nor-
thumberland, 332, 350, 352 ; Sir
W. Dugdale's researches in his
behalf, 355-358; Dugdale's certi-
fied pedigree, 359-361 ; flaws in
the statement, 361 ; letter to him
from James Percy, 362, 363 ;
abandons his claims ; last will,
and descendants, 363. 364
Percy, Hon. Francis John, 465
Percy, George, fifth Duke of Nor-
thumberland, and second Earl
of Beverley, P.C., 465, 466
Percy, George, son of the eighth
Earl : Virginian adventurer,
marries and settles in the colony,
208 ; twice Deputy-Governor of
Virginia, and member of the
Council, 208, 209 ; opposes John
Smith, and writes two books
upon colonial affairs, 209
Percy, George, of Ballylonan,
King's county, 368 n.
Percy, Lieut.-Colonel George Alger-
non, 466 n.
Percy, Guiscard, brother of the
seventh and eighth Earls, 333,
356, 360-362
Percy, Henry, eighth Earl of Nor-
thumberland : character of, I ;
Governor of Tynemouth Castle,
ib. ; becomes a Protestant, i.
2 ; services against the Scots,
military and civil, 2, 3 ; as a
matchmaker, 3-6 ; loyalty during
the Northern Rising, 7, 8 ; the
Queen's greed causes his arrest,
8-10 ; prisoner in the Tower,
10-12 ; fined 5000 marks on
vague charges, 13 ; recognised
as Earl, 14 ; forbidden to go
North, becomes discontented,
and is suspected of Romanist
leanings, 17-19; deprived of the
governorship of Tynemouth, 19-
21 ; embraces Catholicism, 21 ;
sent to the Tower for pretended
treason, 21-23 ; his mangled
corpse found in his cell ; suicide
is alleged, but there is evidence
in favour of assassination ; ac-
count of the controversy, 23-29 ;
his body buried within the
Tower, 30
Percy, Henry, ninth Earl of Nor-
thumberland, K.G., 18, 21 ; early
travels, and life in Paris, 31-36 ;
in England, a careless landlord,
an eager student, and a generous
patron of letters, 38-40 ; quarrels
with his mother, 40-45 ; his
patriotism at the time of the
Armada, 45, 46 ; project of alli-
ance with Arabella Stuart
thwarted by the Queen, 48, 49 ;
marries Dorothy Devereux, 49,
50 ; domestic jars, 62-65 ; revolt
and death of his brother-in-law,
Essex, 65-67 ; quarrel with Lord
Southampton averted, 67, 68 ;
more serious feud with Sir
Francis Vere, who declines his
challenges, 69-75 ; mutual re-
criminations, 76, 77 ; pleads for
the English Roman Catholics
with King James, and sends his
cousin, Thomas, to Edinburgh,
67-80 ; James's express promises
486
INDEX
of toleration for the Romanists,
80-82, 85-87 ; Cecil plots against
the Earl, 82-87 ; the latter at
first in favour, but eventually
leaves Court in disgust, 89-93 •
granted Syon Manor, and lives
there among books and scholars,
93-98 ; Salisbury takes advan-
tage of Thomas Percy's relation-
ship to involve the Earl in the
Gunpowder Plot, 116-125; Star
Chamber trial, the Earl's inno-
cence established, he is never-
theless fined .£30,000, deprived
of all offices, and sent to the
Tower, 128 ; opinions of Hallam
and Jardyne on this outrageous
injustice, 129 ; his long im-
prisonment, lightened by scien-
tific studies, 159-174 ; composes
his Instructions to his son, 175-
188 ; opposes the marriages of
his son and daughters, 189-198 ;
released from captivity, 199, 200 ;
closing years, 200-209
Percy, Henry, Lord Percy of Aln-
wick, 213 ; in favour with Queen
and Court, 217, 219, 221 ; quarrels
with Lords Carlisle and Dunluce,
228, 229, ; leader in the Army
Plot, is expelled from Parliament,
and exiled, 246-250 ; joins the
Royalist army, created a Peer,
and shows gallantry and skill
as general of cavalry, 283 ; de-
feated and captured, 283, 284 ;
Lord Chamberlain to the exiled
Prince of Wales, 284, 285 ; dies
neglected at Breda, 289, 290, 342,
343, 363
Percy, Lieut - Colonel, the Hon.
Henry Percy, aide-de-camp to
the Duke of Wellington, at
Waterloo, 464, 465
Percy, Henry, of Pavenham, 327,
329, 338, 339, 343, 362
Percy, Henry, of Horton (father
of James Percy), in the house-
hold of Lord Bacon, 327 ; his
history, 328, 337, 338, 343, 362
Percy, Henry, son of James Percy,
349
Percy, Henry, of Seskin, co. Wick-
low, grandson of James Percy,
367
Percy, Henry Algernon George,
Earl Percy, M.P., traveller and
author, heir of Northumber-
land, 468
Percy, Henry George, seventh
Duke of Northumberland, K.G.,
P.C., &c. : present chief of the
third line of Percy, and represen-
tative of William Als-gernons,
467, 468
Percy, Lord Henry Hugh Manners,
V.C. : displays great bravery
in the Crimean War, wins the
Victoria Cross at Inkermann, re-
ceives honours from France and
Turkey, and attains the rank of
Lieutenant-General, 467
Percy, Hugh, first Duke and second
Earl of Northumberland, K.G. :
originally Sir H. Smithson fourth
Bart, of Stanwick, his birth and
ancestry 424-433 ; descent from
the House of Percy, 435 «. ;
marries Lady Betty Seymour,
who eventually becomes heir of
the Percy line, 436-438 ; her
grandfather, Somerset, attempts
unavailingly to shut them out of
the succession, 438-442 ; Lady
Betty's father created Earl of
Northumberland, with remainder
to Sir Hugh, 442, 443 ; Smithson,
succeeding to title and estates,
assumes name and arms of
Percy, 443, 444 ; receives the
Garter, 444 ; enormously de-
velops his estates, 445, 446 ;
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 446;
created Duke of Northumber-
INDEX
487
land, 448-450; opposes the
Stamp Act, and the American
War, 450 ; assaulted and robbed
by the " No Popery " mob, 452 ;
patronage of Dr. Thomas Percy,
452, 453 ; his death and char-
acter, 454.
Percy, Hugh, second Duke of
Northumberland, K.G., 451 ; his
useful military career, 454, 455 ;
M.P. for Westminster, and mar-
riage to Lady Anne Stuart, 455 ;
opposed to the American War, but
serves from a sense of duty, 455;
covers retreat from Concord under
galling fire, 456 ; disputes with
Howe and other generals, obtains
his recall, 456, 457 ; divorces his
first wife, and marries Frances
Jane Burrell, 457; joins the party
of Fox and the Regent, 457,
458 ; his arbitrary political power,
458, 459 ; death, and character,
459
Percy, Hugh, third Duke of North-
umberland, K.G.: great political
influence, 459, 460 ; Lord Lieu-
tenant of Ireland, 460, 461 ; op-
poses Reform Bill ; Greville's
malicious sneer at his mental
capacity, 461
Percy, Right Rev. and Hon. Hugh,
Lord Bishop of Carlisle : marries
the daughter of Archbishop Man-
ners - Sutton, becomes Arch-
deacon, and then Dean of Can-
terbury, Bishop of Rochester, and
Bishop of Carlisle, 463, 464
Percy, Sir Ingelgram, 160, 344-346,
362
Percy, James, of Dublin (the
" Trunkmaker"), Claimant of the
Northumberland honours, 310,
315; asserts his claim, 316;
antecedents, 325 ; alleged recog-
nition by tenth Earl, 326 ; early
efforts baffled, 329-333 ; petitions
King and Parliament, 334 ; before
the Lords, 336, 337 ; Justice Hales
in his favour, 343, 344 ; pleas of
"privilege" bar his way, 344-348 ;
further petitions and misadven-
tures, 348-364 ; his last claim
opposed by Somerset, 365, 366 ;
condemned as a pretender by
House of Lords, 366,367 ; Craik's
verdict on his case, 367 ; descen-
dants and probable heirs, 367, 368
and «.
Percy, James, uncle of the preced-
ing, 326 and »., 327, 329, 333 n.,
343
Percy, James, 360
Percy, John, son of Josceline of
Beverley, 372 n.
Percy, John, son of the "Trunk-
maker," 349, 367, 368
Percy, John, of Clononeen, 368 n.
Percy, Josceline, eleventh Earl of
Northumberland, 292 and n.,
297 ; delicate health of, 299 ;
early life and training, 303-305 ;
enters public life, 306 ; marriage,
308 ; succeeds his father, 310,
311 ; death of his only son,
312 ; supposed inclination towards
Roman Catholicism, 312, 313 ;
sets out for Rome, 313, 314 ; dies
of fever at Turin, 315 ; his burial,
316 ; last will, 316 ; 343, 344
Percy, Josceline, of Newland, co.
York (son of fourth Earl), 99,
205, 346, 352, 367-372
Percy, Josceline, son of eighth Earl,
66, 67, 148
Percy, Josceline, of Beverley. MP.,
108 «, 361 and n., 371, 372
Percy, Rev. Josceline, M.A., 359 «..
364
Percy, Josceline, of Clerkenwell,
372 ».
Percy, Vice-Admiral Josceline,
M.P., 464
Percy, Lord Josceline William, 466
INDEX
Percy, Lady Louisa, 467
Percy, Lady Lucy (Wotton), 29,
41-45
Percy, Lady Lucy (Countess of
Carlisle), 173, 189, 190, 191-198,
204, 205, 221, 240-246, 250, 281,
and «., 285, 286, 289
Percy, Mary, 364
Percy, Mary, 363
Percy, Lady Margaret, Countess of
Cumberland, 340
Percy, Lady Margaret (Lady
Hatherton), 467
Percy, Margaret (Trevor), 364
Percy, Sir Richard, son of eighth
Earl, serves in Ireland, 66, 332,
333. 344, 345
Percy, Richard, 362, 363
Percy, Robert, 333, 350, 355-360,
362, 363
Percy, Roger, of Charing Cross,
350, 362, 363 ».
Percy, Lady Susan, 465
Percy, Thomas, Bishop of Dro-
more, D.D., 122 ; introduced to
the Duke of Northumberland by
Goldsmith, 453, account of his
life and Works, 453 n.
Percy, Sir Thomas, 160, 215, 356
Percy, Thomas, Constable of Aln-
wick Castle, Gunpowder con-
spirator, 80, 99-103; account of
his connection with the Plot, his
flight and death, 103-116, 119,
120, 122, 123, 128, 148, 149, 205,
233, 333, 356, 358-361, 37'
Percy, Captain Thomas, of Wor-
cester, 351, 453 n.
Percy, Rev. Thomas, 453 n.
Percy, Thomas, 360
Percy, Sir William, 369, 370
Percy, William, son of eighth Earl,
36 ; his retired life at Oxford,
207, 208, 228, 342
Percy, William, alleged son of
Josceline of Newland, 370 n.
Percy, William, 338
Percy, William, glover, his abortive
claims, 340-342, 372
Percy, Rear-Admiral Hon. William
Henry, M.P., 465
Perkins, Doctor, 364
Perrott, or Perrot, Charles, 313, 314
Perrott, or Perrot, 23 «., 52 and n.,
58, 1 60
Perrott, or Perrot, Penelope, Lady
Gower, 1 73 and n.
Perrott, or Perrot, Sir Thomas, 49,
52-58, I73«., 189*.
Perrott, or Perrot, Thomas, of
Haroldston, 52
Petrozani, Francesco, 171
Petworth, co. Sussex, 13-19, 21,35,
40, 41, 47, 48, 92, 176, 198, 200-
202, 204-208, 262, 296, 298-300,
3°8, 326, 331, 371, 372, 397, 4oo-
404, 417, 419, 420, 435, 440
Pierrepont, 278
Pierrepont, Robert, Earl of King-
ston, 282 and n.
Pigot family of Stanwick, 432
Pimbourne (Pimpern ?;, 335
Pirs (Piers?), Mr., 300, 301
Pitt, William, first Earl of Chatham,
447, 448-45°
Pitt, Right Hon. William, 458, 465
Pittscorthy, co. Fife, 192
Plaxton, William, 268
Pocahontas, 209
Pole, Cardinal, as Papal Nuncio,
406
Pollard, Mr., 247
1'omfret, Countess of, 422 and n.
Pontefract, 425
Portland, 221
Portland, Duke of, 457
Portland, Earl of, 261
Popham, Alexander, of Littlecote,
324
Popham, Attorney-General, after-
wards Chief-Justice, 26, 103 ».,
124
Popham, Sir Hume, 464
Potter, Hugh, 306 n.
INDEX
489
Potter v. Thynn, case of, 38 1
Pound, Mr., ill-treatment of, 103,
104
Poulett, Earl, 173 «.
Poulett, William, styled Viscount
Hinton, 173 n.
Poulett, Hon. William John Lyd-
ston, 173 n.
Powhatan, Grand Sachem, visited
by George Percy in Virginia, 209
Powton, Edmund, 120, 174
Preaux, Chevalier Hector de, Sieur
du Bee, 17, 1 8 n.
Pride, Colonel, 280 ; exhumation
of his body, 296 «.
Pritchett, steward to the tenth Earl,
268 «., 269 ».
Prudhoe Barony, 1 54
Prudhoe Castle, 126
Prudhoe, Baron, see Algernon Percy
fourth Duke of Northumberland
Pym, John, 245, 246, 248-250, 262,
285
Queeris Regiment of Dragoons, 405,
407
RALEIGH, Sir Walter, 22, 24, 29,
40, 46, 47, 57, 60, 63, 68, 70, 75,
77, 82 »., 84, 89-91, 97 and n.,
98, 160, 164-168, 171, 198, 208,
211
Ramsay, Mrs., 300
Ramsden, Sir William, 425 n.
Rathlin Island, massacre of inhabi-
tants by Essex, 50 n.
Reform Bill, Northumberland's
political influence prior to, 458,
459 ; passage of the bill, 461
Reiswitz, Lieut, von, 170 and n.
Reresby, Sir John, 383 ; captures
Thynn's assassins, 392, 393
Retcliffe, Katherine, 369
Retz, Cardinal de, 271
Rhead, Dr. Alexander, 97
Rich, Charles, Earl of Warwick,
252, 253, 262
Rich, Earl of Holland, 226, 248, 258
Rich, Robert, third Lord Rich, first
Earl of Warwick, 51, 52, 57
Richardson, Jesuit priest, 101
Richmond, 196, 271, 272, 447
Ripon, Marquis of, 432
Ripon, Treaty of, 246
Robinson, Ralph, haberdasher of
Cheapside, 432 and «.
Robinson, Robert, brother of pre-
ceding, 432 and «.
Rochford, George Boleyn, Lord,
162
Rokeby, co. York, 432 n.
Rokeby, Sir Charles, 1 5
Rome, eleventh Earl of Northum-
berland at, 305 ; he again journeys
thither, 312-314
Rookwood, Gunpowder Plot con-
spirator, 105-116
Rose Castle, Carlisle, 464
Rosse, Mr., 353, 354
Rosseau, 323
Rowe, Mrs. Elizabeth, 422
Royal Horse Guards, 457
Rudolph of Hapsburg, 168
Rugley, co. Northumberland, 58
Russell, Lady Diana, Countess of
Bradford, 352
Russell, Francis, fourth Earl of
Bedford, 352
Russell, Sir Francis, 21, 25
Russell, Lady Rachel, see Wrio-
thesley
Russell, Lord William, 303
Ruthven, John, third Earl of Gowrie,
163 n.
Ruthven, Lord, 2
Ruthven, Patrick, 163 and «.
Ruthven, Patrick, the Younger,
163 n.
Ruthvens, The, 162 n.
Rutland, Earl of, 40, 68, 70
Rye House Plot, 303, 309, 404
and n.
Rysbrack's statue of Charles, Duke
of Somerset, 419
490
INDEX
" SACCHARISSA," see Sidney,
Dorothy
Sacheverel, Dr., 410
Sackville, Isabel, Countessof North-
ampton, 339 n.
Sackville, Margaret, Countess of
Thanet, 339 n.
Sackville, Richard, third Earl of
Dorset, 339 n.
Sadler, Sir Ralph, lo, 14, 15
St. John, Henry, Viscount Boling-
broke, 403, 409, 410, 412-416
St. John, Oliver, 262
St. Luc, Mdlle. de, 214
St. Germains, 408
St. James's Palace, 270, 275, 276,
281,311
St. John's College, Cambridge, 212,
459, 467
St. Katharine1 s-by-the- Toive r, 169
St. Omer, 437 n.
St. Paul's, Churchyard, 1 16
St. Petet's-ad-Vincula, Tower, 25,
30, 162
Salisbury, Earl of, 219
Salisbury, Earl of, 258, 263
Salisbury, Earl of, see Cecil
Salisbury, Hugh, 316
Salkeld, 59
Salvetti, 271
Salwarpc, Worcestershire, 167
Sancroft, Archbishop, 162, 407
Sandal, Great, co. York, 369
Sandys, Sir Edward, 199
Savage, Richard, 423
Saxe, Marshal, 386
Saxony, Augustus, Elector of, 386
Say, Lord, 278
Scott, Janet, Lady Ker, 1 72 ».
Scott, Matthew, 359
Scott, Sir William, of Buccleuch,
172 n.
Sebastapol, 466
Sedgemoor, Battle of, 405
Selby, Dame Dorothy, 205 n.
Selby, Sir William, 159
Selden, Mr., 199, 258
Sevigne, Madame de, 320, 32 1 n.
Seymour, Algernon seventh Duke
of Somerset, first Earl of North-
umberland, 404, 417, 420-424,
430, 438-440 ; succeeds as Duke
of Somerset ; created Earl of
Northumberland, &c., with re-
mainder to Sir Hugh Smithson,
443
Seymour, Charles, sixth Duke of
Somerset, 365, 366 ; descent and
early life, 397-400 ; succeeds to
Dukedom, 400 ; marries Eliza-
beth Percy ; his amazing vanity
and lack of education, 403 ; sym-
pathy with Monmouth, 405, 406 ;
reluctantly joins William III.,
407, 408 ; favoured by Queen
Anne, 408 ; quarrels with Marl-
borough and the Whigs, and in
turn with St. John and the Tories,
409-41 1 ; with Argyll and Shrews-
bury secures the Hanoverian
succession, 415, 416, 417-420;
enraged at death of grandson,
attempts to keep the Smithsons
from succession, 438-441
Seymour, Edward, first Duke of
Somerset, the Protector, 94, 95,
309, 407 n.
Seymour, Edward, Earl of Hertford,
398, 399
Seymour, Sir Edward, fourth Bart.,
407 and ».
Seymour, Sir Edward, sixth Bart,
and eighth Duke of Somerset,
407 >'-, 443 »•
Seymour, Lady Elizabeth, Duchess
of Northumberland : early life,
and courtship by Hugh Smith-
son, 424-430 ; happily married
to Smithson, 436, 437 ; becomes
heir of Percy, 437, 438 ; her
character and tastes, 444, 445 ;
takes part in Westminster elec-
tion, 451; her letters, rhymes, and
literary friendships, 452, 453
INDEX
491
Seymour family, pedigree of, 399
Seymour, Francis, fifth Duke of
Somerset, 389 and n., 398-400
Seymour, Francis Ingram, Marquis
of Hertford, 448
Seymour, George, Lord Beau-
champ, 423, 424, 436-438 ! dies
of smallpox at Bologna, vitA
patris, 438
Seymour, Jane, Queen of Henry
VI 1 1. ,398, 399
Seymour, John, fourth Uuke of
Somerset, 41
Seymour, Lady Katharine (Wynd-
ham), 439 n.
Seymour, William, second Duke of
Somerset (Lord Hertford), 264
Seymour, William, third Duke of
Somerset, 319 and «., 322 ; dies
of love for Lady Northumber-
land, 397
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 303, 313
Shakespeare, William, 5, 60, 67,
97 and n.
Shelley, William, 22
Shenstone, 423
Shipbornc, Kent, 243 n.
Shrewsbury, Duke of, 416
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 1 5
Sicily, Queen of, 412
Sidney, Algernon, 191, 203, 206,
233, 288 »., 303, 379, 404 n.
Sidney, Lady Dorothy, Countess of
Sunderland (Waller's "Saccha-
rissa") 191, 206, 242, 261, 288 «.,
379
Sidney, Henry, Earl of Romney,
191, 288 n.
Sidney, Philip, first Earl of Leices-
ter, 118, 191,232,233
Sidney, Philip, third Earl of Leices-
ter (Lord Lisle), 191, 206, 243,
286, 288 n.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 69, 191, 240, 305
Sidney, Robert, second Earl of
Leicester, 191, 216,239,266, 286,
288, 292-296 and n.
Sidney, Sir Robert, 65
Sidney, Colonel Robert, 191, 288 n,
Slingsby, Sir Henry, of Scriven,
174
Smith, Captain John, 208, 209
Smith, Thomas, 226, 253
Smithfield, East, 162
Smithson, Anthony, 431, 432
Smithson, Anthony, of Tottenham,
433
Smithson, Anthony, 433 n.
Smithson, James, natural son of
first Duke of Northumberland,
founder of Smithsonian Institute
at Washington, 454 n.
Smithson, Sir Jeremy, second Bart.
of Stanwick, 433
Smithson, Sir Hugh, first Bart, of
Cheapside and Stanwick Hall,
county York, 432, 433
Smithson, Sir Hugh, third Bart, of
Stanwick, 433
Smithson, Sir Hugh, fourth Bart.
of Stanwick, see Percy, Hugh,
first Duke of Northumberland
Smithson, Hugh, of Tottenham
High Cross, M.P., 433, 435-437
Smithson, Hugh, of Cheapside, 433
Smithson, Langdale, 433
Smithson, William, of Newsham,
431
Smithson family, account of, 430-
432
Somers, Lord, 411
Somerset, Lady Anne, Countess of
Northumberland, 172, 173
Somerset, Duke of, see Seymour
Somerset, Earl of, see Carr
Somerset, Henry, second Earl of
Worcester, 4
Somerset House, 270
Sophia, Dorothea, Queen, 286 and
«., 296 ».
Southampton, Duke of, see Fitz-
Roy
Southampton, Earls of, see Wrio-
thesley
492
INDEX
Southampton House, ffolborn, 297
and «., 308
Spenser, Edmund, 97, 170 ».
Spettisbury, Dorset, 96
Spratt, Dean, 296
Stafford, Sir Edward, 21, 74, 75
Stafford, Viscount, 354
Stamford, 465
Stanhope, Dr., 55
Stanhope, Earl, Hist, of England,
403
Stanhope, Philip, first Earl of
Chesterfield, 299
Stanhope, Philip, Lord Stanhope,
afterwards second Earl of
Chesterfield, 295-302
Stanhope, Philip Dormer, third
Earl of Chesterfield, 299, 302
Stanley, Venetia, Lady Digby,
221 n.
Stan-wick Hall, co. York, 431, 432,
433, 436, 437
Stern, Lieut. John, assassin of
Tom Thynn, 390-392 ; trial and
execution, 393-395
Stone, Andrew, 446
Stony Stratford, 1 1 2
Storrocks, Mr., 437, 438
Stourton, Lord, 127
Stourbridge Fair, 357, 364
Stow, 271 n.
Strafford, Countess of, 403, 410,
415
Strafford, Earl of, see Wentworth
Strode, Sir George, 421 n.
Strode, Grace, 421 n.
Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer,
53-55
Stuart, Lady Anne, Duchess of
Northumberland, 455 ; divorced,
457 and n.
Stuart, Arabella, 36, 48, 49, 78, 81,
i°3
Stuart, John, Marquis of Bute, 446,
448,450,455-456
Stuart, Matthew, Earl of Lennox,
Stuart Wortley, see Wortley
Suckling, Sir John, 247, 248, 236,
237
Suffolk, Earls of, see Howard
Suffolk House, 318, 374 and n.
Sunderland, Earl of, 303, 411
Surtees, Robert, F.S.A., 358 «.,
368, 370
Swayne, Thomas, 334, 351-353
Swift, Jonathan, 325, 386, 402-405,
412-415,422
Swillington, co. York, 425 and «.,
426
Swinburne, Admiral, Charles
Henry, 465 n.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles,
465 n.
Syon House, Isleworth, 64, 65, 73,
92-98, 108, 109, 116, 120, 148,
157 andw., 158,167-170, 174, 196,
197, 200, 202, 227, 258, 271-274,
277, 281, 282, 288, 296-298, 229-
231, 273, 385, 453
Tadcaster, 267
Tangiers, 387
Tasso's Works, 170
Taunton, 359, 360
Tempest of Broughton, 345 n.
Tempest of Holmside, co. Dur-
ham, 339
Tempest, James, 286
Temple, Lady (Dorothy Osborne),
384
Temple, Middle, 213
Temple, Sir William, 303, 310,
384
Temple Bar, 293
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 106 ;;.
Thanet, Earl of, see Tufton
Theobalds, Herts, 57
Thianges, Mdme. de, 321
Thompson, parson of Egremonde,
3i
Thompson, Robert, 268. 269
Thynn, Thynne, Thinn, or Th'Inn,
family of, 380 «.
INDEX
493
Thynn, Frances, Duchess of Somer-
set, 421 and »., 422-424, 426-
430
Thynn, Hon. Henry, 421 n.
Thynn, Mary, Lady Brooke, 421 n.
Thynn, Sir Thomas, of Longleat,
380 n.
Thynn, Sir Thomas, 380 n.
Thynn, Sir Thomas, created first
Viscount Weymouth, 380 and n.,
421 n.
Thynn, Tom, of Longleat, 353, 357,
358 »., 379, 380 and «., 382-384,
388-390 ; murdered in Pall Mall,
391-393. 396, 397, 412, 413-421,
422
Tibbot, James, 338
Tichbourne, Chidiock, 19
Titchfield, co. Hants, 309 and n.,
323
Tobacco, Love of the " Wizard'1''
Earl for, 40, 92, 98 and n., 168
Tomkins, Colonel, 261
Topcliffe, ancient seat of the Perries,
216, 217
Torperley, Nathaniel, 97, 167 and/;.,
205
Tottenham High Cross, 433, 435-
437
Toulon, action off, 461
Tovicester, 112
Tower of London, eighth Earl in
the, 10-13, 23 ; he is slain or
kills himself there, 23-29 ; ninth
Earl a prisoner there, 125-200;
Sir Charles and Sir Josceline
Percy prisoners, 66, 67 ; Lucy
Percy, Lady Carlisle, a prisoner
for three years, 285, 286
Townshend, Charles, 448
Tresham, Elizabeth, Lady Mont-
eagle, 1 06 n.
Tresham, Francis, betrayer of the
Gunpowder Plot, 105-116, 127
Tresham, Sir Thomas, 106 n.
Trevor, Margaret (born Percy),
364
Trevor, Mrs., victim of Thomas
Thynn, 383, 384
Trinity College, Cambridge, 398,
463
Triumph, The, flagship, 221
Tufton, John, Earl of Thanet,
339*
Tullibardine, Marquis of, see Moray
Timbridge, 300, 301
Turin, 305 ; death of eleventh Earl
at, 3'5
Turnham Green, Royalist camp
on, 258
Tyburn, 296
Tynemouth Castle, i, 4, 7, 10, 13,
20, 21, 25, 31, 46, 126, 159, 267,
210 and n.
Utrecht, 421
Uxbridge, The " Treaty!' or Con-
ference of, 263-266, 271.
Uxbridge, " Treaty House" at,
263 and n.
VANDYCK, Sir Anthony, 163 n.
Yandyck, Lady (born Ruthven),
163 n.
Vane, Sir Harry, 243, 262
Vane, Sir Harry, the Younger, 234,
245, 253, 262, 278
Van Tromp, Admiral, 232
Varnum, Mary, 328, 335, 341
Vaux of Harrowden, Dame, see
Cheyne
Vaux of Harrowden, William, third
Lord, 340
Venice, Koningsmarcks in, 386, 395,
396
Vere, Sir Francis, his quarrel with
Northumberland, 68, 77
Vere, Sir Horace, 69, 72
Vere, John de, sixteenth Earl of
Oxford, 74 n.
Victoria, Queen, 465-467
Victoria Cross, won by Lord Henry
Percy, at Inkermann, 466
494
INDEX
Villiers, Barbara, Duchessof Cleve-
land, 302, 324, 376
Villiers, Edward, 310 n.
Villiers, George, first Duke of
Buckingham, 168, 200, 202, 203,
214-217, 241, 253
Virginia, colony of, George Percy
Deputy-Governor, &c., 208, 209
WAAD, Sir Arthur, Governor of
the Tower, 160, 16 1, 164, 165
Walhouse, Moreton, 464
Walhouse, Sophia (Percy), 464
Walker, Sir Edward, Garter King
of Arms, 331 and n., 332
Waller, Edmund, 191 «., 206, 242,
243, 256-261, 288 ft.
Waller, Sir William, 262
Walpole, Horace, 418 n., 437 ».,
438,444, 445 »-, 45i> 452. 456,
459
Walsh, Sir Richard, 113-115
Walsingham, Secretary, 17, 2 f, 25,
26, 32-34, 37
Wandesford, Sir Christopher, 241
Wanford, co. York, 88
Warburton, Bishop, 244, 245
Ware, 120
Warner, Walter, 97, 166, 167
Warriston, Johnston of, 262
Warwick, Earl of, 253, 254, 262
Warwick, Sir Philip, 245
Waterloo, Battle of, 465
Waterton, Elizabeth, wife of Edward
Percy, 99, 370
Waterton, Sir Thomas, of Walton,
370 n.
Watertons, late of Walton, now of
Deeping Waterton, 370 «.
Watson, a priest, 91
Weldon, Sir Anthony, 192
Wellington, Duke of, 460, 465
Wentworth, Thomas, Earl of Straf-
ford, 203, 205,216,217,221,224-
226, 229-231, 233-235, 237-244
Weymouth, Viscount, see Thynn
Whalley, Nathaniel, 335
Whetstone Park, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, 389 n.
Whinneard, 105
White, Roland, 64
Whitehall, Palace of, 242, 247, 248,
269, 270, 280, 281, 293
Whitelocke, Bulstrode, 258, 260,
264, 265
White's Club House, 318
" White Tower," The, 162
Whitlock, Captain, 73, 120, 148
Widdrington, Sir Henry, 126
Wilde, Mr. Justice, 347
Wilkes, John, 451, 455
William III., 324, 405, 407, 408
Williamson, Sir Joseph, 314, 322,
323 «•
Willis, John, schoolmaster, 213
Wilmot, Lord, 247
Wimbledon, Viscount, see Cecil,
Edward
Winchester, Marquis of, see Paulet
Windebank, Secretary, 220, 221,
230, 231, 232, 234
Windsor Castle, 281, 406
Windsor Court, Mugwell Street,
residence of James Percy, 351 ».
Windsor, Lord, 351 n.
" Windsor Prophecy? 386, 413,
414
Winter, Robert, Gunpowder Plot
conspirator, 104-116
Winter, Thomas, Gunpowder Plot
conspirator, 104-116
Winwood, Sir Robert, 151
IVodehouse, Wentworth, co. York,
244
Women, The " Wizard" Earl dis-
cusses, 177-180
Woodroffe, Joseph, of Woolley, co.
York, senior co-heir of the ancient
Baronies of Percy, Poynings,
&c., 216
Woolley, co. York, 216
Worcester, Earl of, see Somerset
Wortley, Hon. James Archibald
Stuart-, 465
INDEX
495
Wortley, Louisa Harcourt Stuart-,
Duchess of Northumberland,
465, 466
Wotton, Sir John, 29, 42 and ».-
45
Wressill Castle, co. York, 216,217,
267 ; dismantled by Parliament,
268, 269, 286, 287
Wright, Christopher, Gunpowder
Plot conspirator, 104-116
Wright, John, Gunpowder Plot
conspirator, "the best swords-
man in England" 104-116
Wright, Martha, wife of Thomas
Percy, the conspirator, 101, 359
and n.
Wriothesley, Lady Audrey, destined
bride of Lord Percy, dies pre-
maturely, 292-297, 306, 307
Wriothesley, Lady Elizabeth, Coun-
tess of Northumberland, 297,
307, 312, 315-322; after Earl
Josceline's death, marries Ralph
Montagu, subsequently first Duke
of Montagu, 323, 324
Wriothesley, Henry, third Earl of
Southampton, patron of Shake-
speare : his quarrel with the
ninth Earl of Northumberland,
67, 68, 75, 199
Wriothesley, Lady Rachel, wife of
Lord William Russell, 309
Wriothesley, Thomas, fourth Earl
of Southampton, "the Cavalier
Earl " ; 212 and »., 264, 292, 297,
3°7, 3°8
Wyndham, Sir Charles, second Earl
of Egremont, 418 n. ; by the
settlement of his grandfather
succeeds to many of the Percy
estates, 439 and n., 441-443
Wyndham, Percy, see O'Bryan
Wyndham, Sir William, 418 and n.,
419
YARMOUTH, Sophia de Walmoden,
Countess of, 417, 445 and n.
Yelverton, Sir Henry, 199
Young, Charles, F.S.A., 358, 368
Youngs, The, 58
ERRATA— VOLUME II.
53. line 17, for " Strype," read " Aylmer."
97. .. 24./<"' "Tarporley," «arf " Torperley."
'55. ., 19. for "Sir William Cecil," rear!" Sir Robert Cecil."
215, ,, 24, Jor" Henry," read" Thomas."
271, note 3,/or "Goudi," read " Gondi."
457, line 19, for " the then Earl Percy," read "Northumberland.'
457. note I, for " Countess Percy,'' lead " the Duchess."
460, lines 3-4, after "anti-slave trade," understand "party."
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON cV Co.
Edinburgh 6V London
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P5B8
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Brenan, Gerald
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