Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy | |
---|---|
Earl of Northumberland | |
Percy | |
Spouse(s) | Lady Dorothy Devereux |
Issue | Lady Dorothy Percy Lady Lucy Percy Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy |
Father | Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland |
Mother | Katherine Neville |
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland,
Early life
He was born at
He was brought up a Protestant, as his father had been, taking instruction from the vicar of
Although his earldom was in the north of England, Northumberland also had estates in the south at Petworth House in Sussex and also at Syon House in Middlesex, acquired by his marriage to Lady Dorothy Devereux (sister of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex) in 1594.
They had four children:
- Lady Dorothy Percy (c. 1598 – 20 August 1659); married Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, by whom she had six children.
- Lady Lucy Percy (1599/1600 – 5 November 1660); married as his second wife James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle.
- Joceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland.
- Henry Percy, Baron Percy of Alnwick (1604 – April 1659); died unmarried.
Though it did produce a male heir, Algernon, the marriage was not successful, and the couple separated after a time, despite efforts by the Queen, who was fond of Dorothy, to reconcile them.
Catholic sympathiser
The Percy family was still largely Catholic, while Northumberland was at least nominally Protestant. When it became clear that the Protestant
Shortly before James's accession to the English throne in 1603,
Thomas Percy went on to become one of the five conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The goal of this plot was to overthrow the Parliament under King James I. When the plot was discovered, Percy fled and was besieged at Holbeche House in Warwickshire. On 8 November 1605, a marksman shot dead both Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy with a single bullet.[10]
The Earl of Northumberland was suspected of
In the Tower
Still a rich man, Northumberland made himself comfortable in the Tower of London. He had spacious apartments in the Martin Tower, which he redecorated and refurbished. He was attended by 20 servants, some of whom he lodged on Tower Hill. He spent £50 per year on books and grew a considerable library. He had his own covered bowling alley and access to facilities for tennis and fencing.
From 1616, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset and Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset were inmates of the Tower and on social terms with Northumberland. Frances promoted the marriage of his second daughter Lucy Percy to James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle. He disapproved of the proposed marriage saying that he would not see his daughter, "dance to a Scotch jig." For a period, he forced Lucy to reside with him in the Tower but Frances outwitted him. Despite Northumberland's extreme disapproval of the marriage, Hay was determined to win his father-in-law's respect and fought for Northumberland's release from the Tower, which was achieved in July 1621.[14][11]
After his release, experiencing deafness and poor eyesight,[11] he went to the Bath Inn, later referred to as the Arundel House, to regain his health. Once recovered Northumberland retired to Petworth House where he remained until his death on 5 November 1632.
His wife died in 1619.
Intellectual interests and associates
Because of his interest in scientific experiments and his library, Northumberland acquired the nickname "The Wizard Earl". The library was one of the largest in England at the time. He was a patron to
Harriot had been a navigational tutor to Raleigh and his captains. From 1598 (or possibly from 1607) Harriot lived at Syon House. There he used a telescope to make a map of the Moon several months before Galileo did the same. He may have been the first person to observe sunspots.
Northumberland had also connections to the literati. George Peele wrote a poem, The Honour of the Garter, dedicated to Percy and for the occasion of his admission to the Order of the Garter, on 26 June 1593. For his efforts Peele was paid £3.[17][18] Christopher Marlowe claimed his acquaintance and certainly moved in the same group.[19] Percy was a friend to John Donne. After Donne's elopement and clandestine marriage in 1601, he had the task of taking a letter for him to the new father-in-law, Sir George More.[20]
In William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost (1594), there is a mention of the "School of Night". It has been argued that this refers to a circle of scientific investigators who met at Syon House, though other commentators think the word "school" is a misprint for something like "shawl." Since Percy was often considered to be an atheist, the "school" was sometimes referred to as the "School of Atheism." Raleigh was the supposed leader and Thomas Harriot and Marlowe were supposedly members. Frances Yates comments on this hypothetical group, supposedly including also George Chapman as the author of Shadow of Night, as arguably part of Ralegh's circle, to the effect that they would be "Saturnians" in the sense of her study.[21]
Notes
- ^ Lee, Sidney (1895). Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 44. London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In
- ^ a b Batho, G. R., ed. (1962), Household Papers of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, Camden Society
- ^ HMC 6th Report (Northumberland) (London, 1877), p. 227.
- ^ Kaufmann, Miranda, Black Tudors (London, 2017), p. 100.
- ISBN 978-0-06-054227-6.
- ^ Brenan, Gerald (1902). Lindsay, William Alexander (ed.). A History of the House of Percy. Vol. II. London: Freemantle & Co. p. 81.
- ISBN 978-0-7472-3408-1.
- ISBN 978-1-84212-089-7.
- ISBN 0-618-34133-1.
- ISBN 978-0-385-47190-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-86232-067-3.
- S2CID 159672324.
- ISSN 0007-1005.
- ISBN 978-0-297-81310-1.
- ^ Pyle, Andrew, ed. (2000). "Percy, Henry, 9th Earl of Northumberland". The dictionary of seventeenth-century British philosophers. Thoemmes. pp. 646–648.
- ISBN 978-1-134-57234-2.
- ISBN 978-0-415-13416-3.
- ISBN 978-0-521-52734-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-162279-3.
- ISBN 978-0-567-65373-4.
- ISBN 978-1-134-52440-2.
External links
- Media related to Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland at Wikimedia Commons