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Henry de Percy
Predecessor	Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy
Successor	Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy
Born	1299
Died	1352

Henry de Percy, 9th Baron Percy and 2nd Baron Percy of Alnwick (1299–1352) was the son of Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick, and Eleanor Fitzalan, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 8th Earl of Arundel.

Henry was thirteen when his father died, so Alnwick was placed in the custody of John de Felton.

In 1316 he was granted the lands of Patrick IV, Earl of March, in Northumberland, by King Edward II of England. In 1322, was made governor of Pickering Castle and of the town and castle of Scarborough and was later knighted at York. Henry joined with other barons to remove the Despensers, who were favorites of Edward II.

Following a disastrous war with the Scots, Henry was empowered along with William Zouche to negotiate the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton. This was an unpopular treaty and peace between England and Scotland lasted only five years.

Was appointed to Edward III's Council in 1327 and was given the manor and castle of Skipton. Was granted, by Edward III, the castle and barony of Warkworth in 1328. He was at the siege of Dunbar and the Battle of Halidon Hill and was subsequently appointed constable of Berwick. In 1346, Henry commanded the right wing of the English, at the Battle of Neville's Cross.

In 1329, he founded a chantry, to celebrate divine service for his soul.

Early life and marriage

Percy was still thirteen years old when his father died and was placed by the king under the guardianship of John de Felton, a loyalist who would keep him away from the powerful Earl of Lancaster. His mother controlled the Yorkshire estates, living at Seamer, Roger Damory looked after Foston in Leicestershire and the Archbishop of Canterbury supervised Petworth. On 13 November 1318 he came into his full inheritance and at an unknown date, probably around this time, he married Idonea, daughter of his father's long time friend and comrade in arms Robert de Clifford with whom he would have six sons and four daugthers.

During these years following the crushing defeat of the English armies at Bannockburn northern England was prey to Scottish raiding parties, which penetrated as far as Yorkshire, while ongoing hostility between the Earl of Lancaster and King Edward paralysed any co-ordinated military response. This situation was exascerbated by the Great Famine of 1315-1317. The value of rents from the family's Yorkshire estates collapsed from £400 per annum to almost nothing. In April 1315 Percy was the youngest of fifty northern barons who met at Doncaster to discuss defence of the northern counties, but little came of this meeting. In 1318 Scotts led by Sir James Douglas captured Berwick on Tweed and other castles in Northumberland and beseiged Alnwick Castle, burning and laying waste the Percy estates.

Campaigning with the king

Support for Lancaster had been declining because of incompetent governance as the chief councillor to the king and accusations of plotting with the Scots to protect his own estates. The king had been regaining support from other nobles and the compromise Treaty of Leake was signed in August 1318. In June 1319 the king gathered an army, including Lancaster, at Newcastle on Tyne. Percy brought eighty knights to this force, twice as many as any other northern lord. The army laid siege to Berwick but the king soon learnt that the Scots were intent on cutting his supply lines in Yorkshire and even abducting the queen who was at York. This caused a hasty withdrawal to the River Trent with the queen being whisked away to Nottingham.

Relations between Edward II and many of his barons were worsening. The king's favourites the Despensers were so unpopular that a group of Welsh Marcher lords, the Earl of Hereford, Roger Mortimer and Roger Clifford combined to lay waste the Despenser's lands in Glamorgan. The Earl of Lancaster, already suspected of conspiring with the Scots, joined with these lords and convened a council at Pontefract Priory on 24 May 1321. Percy attended the meeting but decided not to give his support and stayed away from Lancaster from then on. In July the rebel earls marched on London to force the king to exile the Despensers and in August Edward was forced to accept this. The elder Despenser retired quietly but his son turned to piracy, causing havoc to shipping. The king was however able to buy the support of other nobles and take revenge on the rebels. When Lancaster called a rebel parliament at Doncaster in late November Percy declined to attend and was rewarded by the king on Christmas Day with the custodianship of Scarborough Castle, a post formerly held by his father. (207)

The king recalled the Despensers from exile and summonned his barons to gather at Coventry in February 1322 to march north against Lancaster. Percy was delayed in Yorkshire by Scottish raiders but was then well placed to relieve the royal castle at Tickhill, a few miles south of Doncaster, which Lancaster was besieging. By the time Percy arrived Lancaster and Hereford had moved south to Burton-on Trent, trying to hold the bridge against the king's army, then retreating to Pontefract. After waiting at Tickhill Percy joined the king's army as it passed north.(208) The fleeing rebel earls were stopped at Boroughbridge on the River Ure by a vastly outnumbered force of archers and pikemen commanded by Sir Andrew Harclay and Percy was given the task of rounding up stragglers in Yorkshire.(210)

After trying and executing the Earl of Lancaster at Pontefract the King travelled to York where he created Harclay Earl of Carlisle and knighted Percy as a Knight of the Bath. The king summoned a parliament at York, attended by Percy, which annulled the Ordinances of 1311 and restored sovereign power to the monarch under the Statute of York. On the 11 May 1322 the king issued a military summons for an invasion of Scotland and Percy went to Newcastle with his forces. With so many experienced soldiers from the Scottish wars having been killed or executed in the recent Contrariants rebellion the campaign did not go well. The Scots fell back while exercising a scorched earth strategy. After capturing Edinburgh without opposition the English army returned home having achieved nothing and lost men to disease and ambushes.(213)

Only a week after returning from the failed campaign Percy was ordered to leave a sufficient garrison at Alnwick and place himself under the command of a Scottish exile, enemy of the Bruces, David of Strathbogie who was in command of Northumberland.(213) Percy may not have pleased by this arrangement and was rebuked by the king that it was to his "dishonour and shame" that a small force of Scots had been roaming Northumberland, spying and taking hostages, without being challenged.(214) Soon afterwards Bruce entered England with a large raiding force and moved rapidly south in an attempt to capture the king and queen who were at Rievaulx Abbey. This directly threatened the Percy estates at Topcliffe and Percy hurried there from Alnwick to organise an emergency defence of his manor. The English army was outflanked at the Battle of Old Byland and the king and queen only just escaped from the abbey, leaving behind their treasure and baggage, but with the raiders moving so fast the Percy lands were spared pillage.(215)

Family

Married Idonia, daughter of Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, and had five children;

• Henry, b.1320, succeeded his father as 3rd Baron Percy of Alnwick
• Thomas Percy, Bishop of Norwich
• Roger
• Maud Percy, married John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby
• Eleanor Percy, married John FitzWalter
• Isabel

See also Warkworth Castle

References

Sources

• Brenan, Gerald, A History of the House of Percy IIvols. London 1902.
• Lanercost Chronicle, trans. & ed. Maxwell, Sir Herbert. Glasgow 1913.[1]
• Tate, George, The History of the Borough, Castle, and Barony of Alnwick, Vol.1, Henry Hunter Blair, 1866.
• Alexander Rose, Kings in the North The House of Percy in British History 2002 ISBN 1 84212 485 4

References

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