LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland, from portrait by Van dyke Percy Shrine, Beverley Autograph of Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland Gunpowder Plot Conspirators, from National Portrait Gallery Seal and Autograph of Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland Josceline, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, from mezzotint by Lady Elizabeth Seymour, wife of sixth Duke of Somerset, from Autograph of Elizabeth, wife of first Duke of Northumberland Elizabeth Baroness Percy, from an engraving by Houston, after Autograph of Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland . Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland, from portrait by Autograph of Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland The Complete Achievements of the late Duke of Northumber- LIST OF GENEALOGIES Table 3. From Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland, to :: ", 458 "" ", 460 "" ❞ 466 showing kinship between Hugh Smithson and his wife Table 4. From first Duke of Northumberland to seventh Duke Facing page 430 Page 435 Facing page 456 of Northumberland THE HOUSE 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 gentleman, but scantily endowed with either resolution or foresight. Earl Henry, on the other hand, was a man of strong will, keen intellect and far-reaching ambitionuntroubled 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 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." 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. "I 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 Yesternight was a nombre 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 subsequently invited him to a personal interview, in the course of which he was induced to give his own account of the recent Scottish wars. Moreover the French commander, D'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," then held in 1 Orig. State Papers; Queen Elizabeth to Duke of Norfolk, December 25, 1559. 2 State Papers; Maitland to Cecil. Orig. State Papers (Scotland), Record Office. • Lord Keith, son of the Earl Marischal. |