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Percy ready to make concessions as before. ‘The repulse he had formerly received at Oxford upon his addresses thither, and the fair escape he had made afterwards from the jealousy of the parliament, had wrought so far upon him that he resolved no more to depend upon the one or provoke the other, and was willing to see the king's power and authority so much restrained that he might not be able to do him any harm’ (ib. viii. 244). During 1645 he acted with the leaders of the independents, helping to secure the passage of the self-denying ordinance, and the organisation of the new model army (, Great Civil War, ii. 189;, Studies and Illustrations, p. 353). On 18 March he was appointed to the guardianship of the king's two youngest children, with a salary of 3,000l. a year; and it was even reported that if the king continued to refuse to come to terms, the Duke of Gloucester would be made king, with Northumberland as lord protector (ib.; Lords' Journals, vii. 279, 327). After the fall of Oxford the Duke of York also passed into his custody, with an allowance of 7,500l. for his maintenance.

With the close of the war Northumberland again took up the part of mediator. His own losses during its continuance had amounted to over 42,000l., towards which, on 19 Jan. 1647, parliament had voted him 10,000l. (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 86; Commons' Journals, viii. 651). In January 1647 he united with Manchester and the leading presbyterian peers in drawing up propositions likely to be more acceptable to the king than those previously offered him. They were forwarded through Bellièvre, the French ambassador, who transmitted them to Henrietta Maria (, Great Civil War, iii. 213). On 26 Nov. 1646 Northumberland had been accused of secretly sending money to the king during the war, and the charge had been investigated at the desire of the commons by a committee of the House of Lords; but the informer himself finally admitted that the charge was false (Lords' Journals, viii. 578, 678). That it should have been made at all was probably the effect of his obvious preference for a compromise with Charles.

Northumberland was one of the peers who left their seats in parliament after the riots of July 1647, and signed the engagement of 4 Aug. to stand by the army for the restoration of the freedom of the two houses (Lords' Journals, ix. 385). It was at Northumberland's house, Syon, near Brentford, that the conferences of the seceders and the officers of the army were held and an agreement arrived at (, Vindication, p. 191). When the king was in the hands of the army, and during his residence at Hampton Court, he was allowed to see his children with more frequency than before, parliament, however, stipulating that Northumberland should accompany his charges. In one of these interviews it is said that Charles gently reproached Northumberland for his defection, and hinted that, if he would return to his allegiance, the Duke of York should be married to one of his daughters. But Northumberland remained firm against any temptations; while his opposition to the vote of no address proved that fear was equally unable to make him swerve from the policy of moderation and compromise (, Lives of the Princesses of England, vi. 360;, Great Civil War, iv. 52). On 21 April 1648 the Duke of York escaped from Northumberland's custody, and made his way in disguise to Holland. But as early as 19 Feb. Northumberland had asked to be relieved of his charge, and declined to be responsible if he should escape; so the two houses, on hearing the earl's explanation, acquitted him of all blame in the matter (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1648–9, p. 19; Lords' Journals, x. 220; Life of James II, i. 29–33). In the following September Northumberland was appointed one of the fifteen commissioners sent to negotiate with Charles at Newport, and appears from his subsequent conduct to have regarded the king's concessions as a sufficient basis for the settlement of the nation. In the House of Lords he headed the opposition to the ordinance for the king's trial. ‘Not one in twenty of the people of England,’ he declared, ‘are yet satisfied whether the king did levy war against the houses first, or the houses first against him; and, besides, if the king did levy war first, we have no law extant that can be produced to make it treason in him to do; and for us to declare treason by an ordinance when the matter of fact is not yet proved, nor any law to bring to judge it by, seems to me very unreasonable’ (, Great Civil War, iv. 289).

Under the Commonwealth and protectorate Northumberland remained rigidly aloof from public affairs. He consented, however, to take the engagement to be faithful to the Commonwealth (, Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion, p. 292). At his own request parliament relieved him of the expensive and troublesome charge of Prince Henry and the Princess Elizabeth, appointing, at his own suggestion, his sister, the Countess of Leicester, to fill his place (, Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 127, 138; Commons' Journals,