sons 1 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 discovered. He is not 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 Northumberland), 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 heirship 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 disinterestedness unknown to the antiquaries of past generations, it is by no means impossible that a male heir of Northumberland 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 or St. James's, Clerkenwell, under date of July 1, 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 William Percy, half-brother of the "Trunkmaker."

VI

No sooner had the marriage of the younger Lady Northumberland to Mr. Montagu been made public than the Dowager

The heiress of the Percies, and

mother,

Countess.

Countess (who hated and despised her beautiful daughter-in-law) set about putting the provisions of Earl Josceline's will into force.1 She went her grand- in state, with her bodyguard of footmen, to Northe Dowager thumberland House, of which she took formal 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.

grasping, and, if we may believe contemporary accounts, unscrupulous "1 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 year2; 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. 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. 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 Northumberland writing: "I am very glad the deare child is soe well. I leave her wholly to your care to remove her when you thinke fitt, and I desire that you would stay to come with her; for I shall not be at ease if you are not with her. And pray take care to defend her from her grandmother, who has not so much civilitie left as to come and speake to me her selfe; 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.

3 Although the Dowager had seized upon Northumberland House, she continued for some time longer to live at Suffolk House.

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

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 offspring, Montagu's children, had come to wean her affections 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 colloquially, 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."1 Moreover her keen eyes detected in Lady Elizabeth's nature a certain

1 De Fonblanque.

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 commissioned her brother, Lord Suffolk1 to open negotiations with the Marquis of Winchester 2 "in regard to an alliance between the Houses of Percy and Powlett." Lord Winchester 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. formally proposed for the hand of Lady Elizabeth Percy, on behalf of his natural son George Fitz-Roy, recently created Earl of Northumberland. 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. 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.

2 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 1, 1674, his other titles being Viscount Falmouth and Baron of Pontefract.

• The Dukes of Southampton and Grafton, the latter ancestor of the present Duke.