The Early Percy Family

The Perci family came from Normandy in the 11^th century and had purchased Alnwick Castle from Bishop Bek of Durham in 1309.  In 1332, King Edward III granted the Barony of Warkworth to Sir Henry Percy in lieu of payment to protect the English realm from the Scottish invaders. The young Henry Percy was only 16 when he succeeded his father and was a renown soldier and became known as ‘Henry the Strong’. He achieved distinguished victories at Halidon Hill in 1333 and against the French in the naval battle of Sluys of the Flemish coast in 1340. In 1346, he led the Northumbrian division into battle against King David Bruce who he defeated and captured at Neville’s Cross near Durham and he fought The Black Prince in 1347.

Sir Henry Percy died at Warkworth in 1352 age just 53 from an unknown illness, after an illustrious military career; his funeral at Alnwick Abbey was apparently an imposing affair with 200 priests officiating. He was succeeded by his son Henry Percy 2^nd or ‘Henry the Short’ as he was known due to his limited stature. Although not of his father’s calibre he served the King and realm well fighting at the battle of Crecy in 1346 and alongside the King on an expedition into Scotland. He had married Mary, daughter of the Earl of Lancaster, at the age of 19 but died in 1368, not yet 47 years old, leaving behind two sons Henry and Thomas who were to be important in English history as the Earls of Northumberland and Worcester respectively. It is thought that it was during the time of Henry Percy 2^nd that the Hermitage was hewn from the escarpment by the Coquet river.

The young Henry Percy (3^rd) was only 26 when his father died but had already proven himself on the battlefield of France; in1377, he was already Marshal of England when at the Coronation of Richard II he was created the First Earl of Northumberland. Just a year later, in 1378, his eldest son distinguished himself at the siege of Berwick at the age of only 13 and the young Henry Percy (4^th) was nicknamed ‘Hotspur’. After various daring raids along the French coast the young Hotspur returned to Northumberland where raiding Scots were becoming a problem. In 1388, Hotspur and his brother Ralph were reconnoitering the raiding Scot’s camp outside of Newcastle when they were discovered by James Earl of Douglas; in the ensuing hand-to-hand engagement ‘Hotspur’ was unhorsed and the Earl of Douglas captured his lance and pennant before riding off victorious. The Scots, assured of their superior power, continued their slow return towards Scotland while the charismatic ‘Hotspur’ reinforced his numbers and gave pursuit and marched 32 miles in a single day to catch up with their quarry. The confident ‘Hotspur’ attacked immediately that evening at Otterburn, probably thinking that the element of surprise would make up of the exhausted condition of his troops; however, despite ferocious fighting and the killing of the Scots’ leader James Earl of Douglas, the Scots prevailed and both Henry Percy ‘Hotspur’ and his brother were captured. The carnage of the battle was immense with hundreds of dead on both sides.

Hotspur and his brother were released after their father, the First Earl of Northumberland , paid a hefty ransom and the borders became quieter for a while. Meanwhile the First Earl of Northumberland along with his son ‘Hotspur’ and the Neville the Earl of Westmoreland had combined forces to depose the weak King Richard II and installed the usurper Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster on the throne as King Henry IV. This resulted in the Percy’s receiving gifts of lands and castles which in turn re-ignited their feud with the Douglas clan on the border.

Under Earl Archibald Douglas, in May 1402 the Scots had raised an army of more than 10,000 and swept South wasting much of Northumberland before returning with their bounty. However, ‘Hotspur’ and his calculating ally the Scottish Earl of March, surprised the retreating hoard at Homildon Hill near Wooler. Here ‘Hotspur’s’ archers inflicted staggering losses on the Scottish army firing wave after wave of arrows into their foe while being protected by an impenetrable wall of heavily armoured cavalry. Earl Archibald Douglas was wounded and captured along with 80 of his knights, the prime of the Scottish Army. The wounded Douglas was carefully cared for by ‘Hotspur’ and taken to Alnwick Castle to recuperate before being moved to Warkworth Castle where a strong friendship developed between the two arch foes.

King Henry IV became increasingly jealous of the Percys whose power was increasing, despite the fact that he gained his crown through their services, he started to try to limit their influence. The rules of chivalry dictated that captives taken in battle became the ‘property’ of the victors to ransom or dispose of as they wish; however, King Henry ordered the Earl of Northumberland not to dispose of the captives from Homildon Hill until he received instruction further from the King. This enraged the Earl of Northumberland and his son Harry Hotspur and Warkworth Castle became the seat of the conspiracy to depose Henry IV. Earl Archibald Douglas was release on the promise of raising an army to fight alongside Harry Hotspur and in 1403 this considerable force marched towards Wales where Owen Glendower was already embroiled in battle with the Kings forces.

The King was, however, well prepared to meet this force as he had been preparing an army to invade Scotland. With this army and his own son, Henry Prince of Wales, he sped to Shrewsbury to intercept the Northern hoard and stop them from joining ranks with the Welsh rebels. The two opposing forces were equal in strength at about 14000 men each so Hotspur and Douglas with 30 of their best knights, aimed to capture the King in a daring raid into the heart of the opposing force. However, the King got wind of this scheme and dressed himself as an ordinary soldier and gave numerous men his own Royal Insignia; ‘Doughty Douglas’ had sworn to kill the King and, in his quest, killed many of these surrogates. Harry Hotspur was also fighting desperately, aware that this was a do-or-die situation; but when raising his visor for some air was killed by a random arrow.  The rebel army seeing their leader fall became disorganised and were defeated; Douglas and Hotspur’s uncle the Earl of Worcester were captured while some “2300 gentlemen and 6000 soldiers” fell on the battlefield. The Earl of Worcester was immediately beheaded and Hotspur’s body was buried with the King’s permission; however, he was summarily disinterred and his body dismembered and set on poles along the King’s highways as a deterrent to other rebels.

During this period Hotspur’s father, the Earl of Northumberland, had been ill at Warkworth Castle but on hearing of the impending battle had marched South with reinforcements only to learn of his son’s death when he reached Durham. After returning to Warkworth he was summoned by the King to York to where he surrendered and was tried for treason; after around a year of incarceration he was pardoned and released.

Despite his release, the Earl of Northumberland resented the King for his son’s and his brother’s deaths; he joined a conspiracy with the Archbishop of York and Lord Bardolph who had raised an army of some 15000 men. The rebel army awaited the arrival of Northumberland at Shipton but by the time the Earl had arrived the Archbishop had been turned to the Kings side and the army had disbursed.

The King was by now determined to crush the upstarts in Northumberland and in June 1405 raised a host of 37000 men with the biggest collection of siege engines ever seen, including for the first time canon, which marched on Northumberland. Prudhoe Castle surrendered without a fight and the King’s army moved North to Warkworth. The Earl of Northumberland withdrew to Scotland taking Hotspur’s 12 year old son with him and leaving Warkworth castle under the charge of faithful soldiers John de Middleton and John Creswell. These stalwarts had improved the castle defences and were prepared for a long siege but not for the onslaught of combined catapults, trebuchets, mangonels and the newly invented canons. The canons were ranged  against the South Wall between the Barbican and Montague Tower; the largest ‘bombard’ was able to fire hewn stone balls of 30 inches in diameter and after firing just 7 times the devastation was immense and the castle surrendered. The castle inhabitants were allowed to leave and return to their homes unmolested.

The Kings forces moved up the coast to Berwick and repeated their successful routine sacking that castle just as efficiently. The King then turned this juggernaut South to Alnwick castle and which surrendered without a fight.

The Earl of Northumberland, having left Hotspur’s son with the Bishop of St. Andrews for safety, fled to Wales then France with Lord Bardolph before returning to Scotland to try to raise an army against the King. In 1408, their ill-equipped rebellion marched South to Yorkshire to meet with Sir Thomas Rokeby who had promised to join them but instead he attacked the rebels from behind. In the short but bloody battle, both the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolph were killed. The Earl was beheaded and quartered with his head displayed on London Bridge and his body parts in Lincoln, York, Newcastle, and Berwick; eventually his remains were collected and interred at York Minster.

After Warkworth Castle fell in 1405, Henry IV made his third son, John of Lancaster, Warden of the east marches and he stayed  at Warkworth Castle for a while; however, John was short of funds and the Castle fell into a state of disrepair. Later, Sir Robert Umfraville was gifted the castle by King Henry IV and held it until Henry V gave it back to Hotspur’s son in 1415 making him the Second Earl of Northumberland at the age of twenty-seven. He completely restored his favourite castle and took up the old family occupation of harrying raiders on the Scottish border; he became the hero and victor of ‘Chevy Chase’ at Piperden in 1430.

With the developing War of the Roses the Second Earl stayed loyal to King Henry V and his son and likewise supported the Red Rose of Lancashire. In the first major battle at St. Albans, in 1454, the White Rose of York was victorious, and the elderly Earl was slain at the age of 62. His body was interred at the Abbey Church in St. Albans along with many of the Lancastrian nobles killed in the battle.

Henry the 3^rd Earl of Northumberland was like his father a staunch supporter of the House of Lancaster and the Red Rose. He was victorious at Wakefield and the second battle of St. Albans but the tide turned against him on Palm Sunday 1461 at Towton. Seeing the devastating effect of the Yorkshire archers, he rallied his men into a hand to hand fight which continued for six hours and left the Earl and most of his men dead on the field. On his death he Northumberland Estates again became the property of the Crown and King Edward IV gave the Earldom to John Neville, Lord Montague. However,  he gave Warkworth Castle to his brother the Duke of Clarence but his tenure was short lived as it was overrun by the Lancastrians; however, in 1462, the castle fell easily to the Earl of Warwick who used it as his base for controlling the region for the King.

King Edward IV restored the Earldom and estates to Henry Percy in 1469 , the 4^th Earl, who had a chequered career. He staunchly supported Richard III on his succession when Edward IV died, but swapped sides to Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII. However, as tax collector for the King he quickly became unpopular and was beheaded by a mob in 1489 and buried with much ceremony in Beverley Minster in an alter tomb. He had thoroughly restored Warkworth Castle and been very  supportive of churches; he had Warkworth Church enlarged and his crest is on one of the church buttresses. He also started the construction of a college church in the castle grounds; however, this was never completed and only the bases of some pillars remain today.

Henry Allgernon succeeded as the 5^th Earl of Northumberland but preferred to stay in castles further from the border and the continual Scottish raiding parties, although Warkworth Castle under Constable Thomas Horsley remained impregnable to them. The 5^th Earl died of natural causes and was succeeded by his eldest son Henry. The 6^th Earl did stay at Warkworth Castle although he did complain to King Henry VIII about the constant Scottish raids. In 1534, work was undertaken on the Castle’s South wall between the Montague tower and Barbican (keep) though this remained unfinished due to disagreements between the two Constables of the Castle; in the same year a new drawbridge was erected across the dry moat. The 6^th Earl was apparently very attached to the ill-fated Anne Boleyn and was badly affected by her marriage to Henry VIII; he did marry but died childless and so Earldom and estate passed back to the Crown. At this time the castle was apparently in good condition but was left unmaintained by Henry VIII. However, in 1543, Lord Parr, Catherine Parr’s brother became Warden of the Marches and planned to take up residence in Alnwick Castle; however, an epidemic raged across Alnwick forcing him to repair Warkworth Castle toa habitable condition. However, the Castle reparations were not maintained afterwards and by 1550 the record of the Marches notes that Warkworth Castle was once more in disrepair.

The Percy family were again restored to the Northumberland estates and Thomas Percy, nephew of the 6^th Earl and a Roman Catholic, was made 7^th Earl of Northumberland by Queen Mary in 1557 and returned again to Warkworth Castle. In 1567 George Clarkson carried out a detailed inventory of every castle feature and warned the Earl of significant risk of ruin; he also recommended an additional fortified wall to extend from the Montague tower across the ford to Helsay, to better protect the castle. Unfortunately, these recommendations were not implemented and when Protestant Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne it was not long before the castle would once again change hands. In 1569, while the Earl marched South against the Queen, Sir John Foster of Berwick and Henry Percy, The Earl’s brother who had converted to Protestantism marched south and took Warkworth Castle after some subterfuge with the Castle leaders. The Castle was then plundered of any removable object by Foster; the 7^th Earl was soon rounded up and transferred to York where he was beheaded in 1572.

Henry Percy, brother of the 7^th Earl and a staunch protestant, became the 8^th Earl but was soon imprisoned in the Tower of London for allegedly plotting with Mary Queen of Scots; on his apparent suicide, or more likely murder, in the Tower in 1585 he was succeeded by his son Henry who became the 9^th Earl. He was a remarkably clever man, fitting out his own man of war to fight the Spanish Armada; in 1604 he acquired Isleworth and Syon House but a year later, through association with the Gunpowder Plot, was incarcerated in the Tower of London for 15 years. During this time Warkworth and Alnwick Castles were under the care of his cousin Thomas Percy, who was also implicated in the Gunpowder Plot; Thomas appointed John Ladyman, Vicar of Warkworth, as his deputy and so began a systematic stripping of Warkworth Castle. The 9^th Earl died at his Sussex home in 1632 never returning North; he was succeeded by his son Algernon but the 10^th Earl never stayed at Warkworth castle. During the great Rebellion, in 1664, Warkworth Castle had 200 Royalist troops garrisoned there with several pieces of artillery as King Charles troops retreated from the advancing Scots in the Great Rebellion. On the arrival of the Scottish force the garrison surrendered after just a single canon was fired. Four years later the external walls of the Castle were completely removed by the evacuating army so that it could never be used as a defensive position again.

The last male heir of the Percy line was Joscelyn who became the 11^th  Earl but being of ill-health he moved to and died in Italy leaving a young widow, the daughter of the Earl of Southampton and a daughter Elizabeth. At this time the Castle’s outer buildings seem to have become a communal quarry of building stone for the local population with many of the larger houses in Warkworth built from Castle stone; the local bridge was also repaired using this stone.

Legal wrangles continued over the ownership of the Percy Estates but the majority passed to Elizabeth, the heir of the eleventh Earl; she married three times, the first two husbands dying very suddenly, with the third being the Duke of Somerset. Their eldest son, Algernon Seymour, inherited the estates that in turn passed on to his only offspring, Elizabeth who married Sir Hugh Smithson in 1740 and became the first Duke of Northumberland,  the line from which the current castle owners are descendants. During these several generations, none of the owners returned to live in Warkworth Castle; there was a debate at the time of the marriage of heiress Elizabeth and the Duke of Somerset about their returning to the North but they chose Alnwick Castle to restore as the lands were significantly bigger.