Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/412

Percy , fourth ], the king's chamberlain, whom he charged with suppressing a letter sent to the king from Rochelle, and with imprisoning the bearer. At first Latimer tried to avoid producing the prisoner, and the Londoners were highly indignant at seeing Percy confounded through his having taken up the cause of a man whom he could not find (Chronicon Angliæ, pp. 81, 82). When the parliament was dissolved, Percy was won over by Lancaster to the court party by the promise of the marshal's office. He was believed to have dissuaded the duke from taking the life of Sir Peter de la Mare [q. v.], the late speaker, but his defection from the popular cause was bitterly resented, and made him as much disliked as he had before been loved (ib. pp. 105, 108). He entered on the marshal's office on or about 1 Dec., though his formal appointment is dated later.

In common with Lancaster he took up the cause of Wiclif, and when on 19 Feb. 1377 Wiclif was summoned before the bishops at St. Paul's, Percy walked before him as marshal, and used violence to the people in order to clear the way through the crowd in the church. The bishop of London [see ] declared that he would have no such doings in the church, and an altercation ensued. When the lady-chapel was reached, Percy demanded that Wiclif should be allowed to sit before his judges, saying that the more the charges were that he had to answer, the more need he had of a comfortable seat. On this he and the bishops came to high words. On that day he and Lancaster had advised the king to supersede the mayor by appointing a captain over the city, and to authorise the marshal to execute his office within the city; and this, together with their insults to the bishop, greatly excited the citizens against them. The next day Lord Fitzwalter appeared before the common council, and declared that a prisoner was detained in the Marshal's house contrary to law, and warned the citizens that if they let such things pass they would live to repent it. The citizens took arms, broke into the marshalsea, brought the prisoner out, burnt the stocks in which he had been set, and searched every room to find the marshal. Not finding him, they rushed to the duke's palace, the Savoy, thinking to find him there. Percy and the duke were dining together at the house of a certain William Ypres. They were warned of their danger by one of the duke's knights, and escaped by water to Kennington, to the house of the Princess of Wales, who gave them shelter. When a day or two later Percy returned to parliament, he went to Westminster attended by an armed retinue (ib. pp. 117–30). On 8 May he received his formal appointment as marshal of England, and was further made captain in the marches of Calais (Fœdera, iii. 1078). Shortly before the king's death Sir John Menstreworth, lying in the marshal's prison under sentence of death, entrusted him with a letter to the king, and it was believed that Percy suppressed it.

On 15 July the young king, Richard II, the influence of Lancaster being in the ascendant, created Percy Earl of Northumberland, and he thus became earl-marshal. Nevertheless Margaret, elder daughter of Thomas of Brotherton (1300–1338) [q. v.], second son of Edward I, who had been earl of Norfolk and earl-marshal, asserted her right to the office, and claimed to execute it by deputy at the coronation. It was, however, declared that the office was in the king's gift, and, forasmuch as there was no time to hear and finally decide the case, that Percy should hold the office temporarily, saving the rights of all concerned (Liber Custumarum, p. 548). The new earl therefore acted as marshal at the coronation on the 16th, and on that and the preceding day showed so much courtesy and forbearance to the crowd that he regained no small part of his former popularity. He then resigned the marshal's staff, alleging the pressure of his private affairs, and being, it was thought, unwilling to contest the office with the Countess Margaret (Chron. Angliæ, p. 165). His presence was needed in the north, for the Scots, under the Earl of Dunbar, pillaged and burnt Roxburgh. Northumberland retaliated by entering Scotland with a large force and wasting the lands of Dunbar, burning everything that he came across in three days' march. On 12 Dec. he was again appointed a warden of the east and west marches, and on 22 Oct. 1378 a joint commissioner to treat with Scotland. Hearing towards the end of November that the Scots had surprised Berwick, he, in company with his eldest son, Sir Henry, called Hotspur [q. v.], attacked the place, and retook it after a fierce struggle. In 1380 he had a dispute with the men of Newcastle and Hull about a Scots ship which they had taken, and which he claimed as a prize, either wholly or in part, on behalf of the crown. The ship was finally taken possession of by a Hull man, and the earl's claim failed (ib. p. 267). A serious inroad of the Scots was made across the border in the summer; they wasted parts of Cumberland and Westmorland, pillaged Penrith, threatened Carlisle, and carried off great booty, doing the earl damage to the amount of more than one thousand marks. He was preparing to take