Henry Percy, (16)

  General Notes:

From http://home.att.net/~a.junkins/percy.html#Y4: Second Earl of Northumberland. Warden of the Marches of Scotland. Born February 3, 1392-93. Married Eleanor Neville (Y33). He died at Saint Alban's on March 22, 1455. Parents: HENRY PERCY (Y64) and ELIZABETH MORTIMER (Y65). From Colby, story continued from Y64:

"His estates confiscated and his titles attainted, Henry Percy, the second Earl, was brought up with kindness by the Scots "as if he had not been the whelp of the lion breed that had been the defense of the English and the terror of the Scottish border." Early in the reign of King Henry V, while young Percy was still an exile, the Earl of Cambridge conspired to return him to England along with Thomas de Trumpyngton, the imposter who bore a remarkable resemblance to the king, hoping to raise an insurrection. The plot was discovered and Cambridge was executed for treason."

"About this time the name Henry de Percy, Knt., was listed in Henry V's retinue on the voyage which led to the victory at Agincourt. (See Shakespeare's Henry V). It is not in the list of battle casualties which probably means he was either wounded previously at the siege of Harfleur or had remained there in garrison. This knight, however, was probably a son of Sir Thomas Percy, younger brother of Hotspur; according to other records the Henry de Percy under consideration was summoned from Scotland by the king and his family's former high position restored to him."

"The fact that Percy had married Lady Eleanor Nevill, the monarch's cousin, explains the king's act at least in part. King Henry had been led to forgive the Percys also by his aunt, Countess of Westmoreland and daughter of John of Gaunt, but it is probable that the king also recognized the value of having the Percys' merits and influence to draw upon. "For this much of its facts the beautiful ballad, The Hermit of Warkworth, of which Percy and his bride are hero and heroine, has its warrant in history." The House of Lancaster found no cause to regret its kindness to Percy; although his grandfather and father had died fighting against it, he and four of his sons were to do fighting for it."

""In the third year of King Henry VI," says Collins' Peerage, "he, for the better confirmation of the dignity of the Earl of Northumberland, obtained a charter of creation thereunto, with the yearly fee of 20 pounds, 'nomine comitis,' out of the profits of that country." Some 11 years later a private feud is said to have flared up between this Earl of Northumberland and Earl William Douglas of Angus at Pepperden, near the Cheviot Hills. This is suggested by Brydges' edition of Collins' Peerage to have supplied the story of the ballad of Chevy Chase. If so, it would seem that Northumberland had violated the law of the border by crossing in Scotland to hunt without the Scottish warden's leave and that the Douglas had attacked the hunting party, the resulting skirmish, too unimportant for historians, being embellished by the bards."

"Although a soldier first, this earl seems to have had an interest in literature, for he is commemorated among the benefactors of Oxford for having founded three fellowships at University college there for those born in the diocese of Durham, Carlisle or York."

"The earl had been appointed Constable of England by Henry VI by the time the War of Roses broke out. He was slain in the Battle of St. Albans in 1455 while fighting beside the king and was buried in the abbey at St. Albans. Shakespeare, in Henry VI, Part I, Act 2, Scene 4, says the selection of the white and red roses as badges in this conflict occurred at a meeting of some great lords in the Temple garden. Richard Plantagenet, afterwards Duke of York, exclaims: "In dumb significance proclaime your thoughts---Let him, that is a true-born gentleman, and stands upon the honor of his birth, if he suppose that I have pleaded truth, from off this brair pluck a white rose with me." To which John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, in behalf of his own kindred of the House of Lancaster, replies: "Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, but dare maintain the party of the truth, pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me." ========================================================================== ======================================

  Death Notes:

Slain at the battle of St Albans.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: restored to the forfeited Earldom of Northumberland the Baronies and estates from King Henry V and again created Earl of Northumberland King Henry VI. He was Lord High Constable of England and Lord Warden of the Marches.

Henry married Lady Eleanor Neville, daughter of Ralph De Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort. (Lady Eleanor Neville died in 1463.)