Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland

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Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland, 2nd Baron Percy (1532 – 21 June 1585) was an English nobleman and conspirator.

Origins

He was born in about 1532 at Newburn Manor (Northumberland), the second of two sons of Sir Thomas Percy (c. 1504–1537) (2nd son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland), by his wife Eleanor Harbottle. His father was executed in 1537 as a chief actor in the Pilgrimage of Grace.

Career

Brought up with his elder brother

During the Rising of the North, in which his elder brother was a chief actor (November–December 1569), Henry Percy remained loyal to the government, joined the royal forces, and vigorously attacked the rebels. Queen Elizabeth promised him favour and employment in return for his services. When his brother was a prisoner in Scotland, Percy wrote urging him to confess his offences and appeal to the queen's mercy. In 1571 he was elected knight of the shire for Northumberland and, on his brother's execution at York in 1572, he assumed by Queen Elizabeth's permission the title of eighth earl of Northumberland, in accordance with the patents of creation.

Mary, Queen of Scots, was in confinement at Tutbury, and he opened communication with her agent John Lesley, the bishop of Ross, at Easter 1571, offering help for her escape. Sir Ralph Sadler suspected his intentions, and on 15 November 1571 Percy was arrested while in London and sent to the Tower of London. On 23 February 1572 he wrote, begging the queen to release him. After eighteen months' detention he was brought to trial on a charge of treason. Thereupon he threw himself on the queen's mercy, was fined five thousand marks, and was directed to confine himself to his house at Petworth. On 12 July 1573 he was permitted to come to London, and was soon afterwards set at liberty.

On 8 February 1576 he first took his seat in the House of Lords, and was one of the royal commissioners appointed to prorogue parliament in November. In September 1582 he entertained the French agent, M. de Bex, and looked with a friendly eye on

In December 1584 Northumberland was sent to the Tower for a third time. He protested his innocence, and courted inquiry. Six months later, on 21 June 1585, he was found dead in his bed in his cell, having been shot through the heart. A jury was at once summoned, and returned a verdict of suicide. He was buried in the church of

• Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564–1632), married Lady Dorothy Devereux
• Thomas Percy
• William Percy, poet and playwright
• Sir Charles Percy, of Dumbleton, Gloucestershire, where survives his monument;
• Lucy Percy, married Sir John Wotton and then Sir Hugh Owen
• Richard Percy
• Sir Joscelyne Percy
• Anne Percy
• Sir Alan Percy (died 1613), married Mary Fitz
• Eleanor Percy (1583–1650), married William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis
• Sir George Percy (1580–1632), married Anne Floyd. Their daughter Anne Percy married John West.

His wife Katherine was buried in St Paul's Chapel within Westminster Abbey.^[2]

Ancestry

References

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Percy, Henry (1532?-1585)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.