Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/428

Percy Reg. Bib. 18 D ii. It consists of poems, chiefly by Lydgate. He married Lady Catherine (d. 1542), daughter of Sir Robert Spencer, by Eleanor, countess of Wiltshire, and by her had three sons—Henry Algernon [q. v.], who became sixth earl, and is separately noticed; Sir Thomas Percy, and Sir Ingelram Percy—and two daughters: Margaret, who married Henry, lord Clifford, first earl of Cumberland, and Maud, who married William, lord Conyers.

[De Fonblanque's Annals of the House of Percy; Introduction to Percy's edition of the Northumberland Household Book; Letters and Papers, Henry VIII; State Papers, Henry VIII, i. 146, iv. 45; Chron. of Calais (Camd. Soc.); Hall's Chronicle, ed. 1809, p. 498; Drake's Eboracum, App. xviii. &c.; Leland's Itinerary, i. 47, 54, vii. 50–1; Percy's Reliques, ed. Wheatley, i. 124; Casley's Cat. of Royal MSS. p. 283; Doyle's Official Baronage, ii. 653; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, ii. 304, &c.] 

PERCY, HENRY ALGERNON, sixth (1502?–1537), was eldest son of Henry Algernon, fifth earl [q. v.], by Catherine, daughter of Sir Robert Spencer. He was born about 1502, and sent, when quite young, to be a page in Wolsey's household. He was knighted in 1519, and, in spite of the fact that his father had destined him as early as 1516 (Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII, i. 1935) for the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, he fell in love with Anne Boleyn, then a young lady about the court. The intrigue was soon discovered, and the Earl of Northumberland sent for. Wolsey himself, though ignorant as yet of the king's inclinations, scolded the young man. Lord Percy gave way, but there is little doubt that the attachment lasted through his life. In July 1522 he was made a member of the council of the north; in October he was made deputy warden of the east marches, and Dacre suggested that, young as he was, he should be made warden the same year. On 19 May 1527 he succeeded his father as sixth Earl of Northumberland; he was made steward of the honour of Holderness on 18 June; on 2 Dec. he became lord warden of the east and west marches.

Northumberland had many misfortunes. He was constantly ill from a kind of ague. He was burdened with debt, and yet had to keep up a vast establishment and engage in much fighting on his own account. Wolsey treated him like a boy so long as he was in power. He was not often allowed to go to the court, nor even to his father's funeral. To add to his other distresses, he disagreed with his wife, who soon returned to her father, and hated her husband heartily for the rest of his short life. Many of his troubles are reflected in his letters (cf., Why come ye not to Court?). His chief friend was Sir Thomas Arundell [q. v.]

In spite of his anxieties he was very active on the borders. He had leave in 1528 to come to London, Wolsey writing that he hoped he would prove ‘conformable to his Hyghness's pleesor in gyvyng better attendaunce, leaving off his prodigality, sulleness, mistrust, disdayne, and making of partys.’ In 1530, while he was at Topcliffe, he received a message from the king ordering him to go to Cawood and arrest Wolsey. He seems to have acted as humanely as he could, and sent his prisoner south in the custody of Sir Roger Lascelles, while he remained to make an inventory of the cardinal's goods. He was one of the peers who signed the letter to the pope in July 1530 asking that the divorce might be hurried on, and, from his friendship with Sir Thomas Legh [q. v.], it seems as though he were of the new way of thinking in religious matters. On 23 April 1531 he was created K.G.; on 11 May 1532 he was made sheriff of Northumberland for life; and on the 26th of the same month a privy councillor. In 1532 Northumberland stood in great peril. His wife, drawing, doubtless, upon her recollection of matrimonial squabbles, accused him of a precontract with Anne Boleyn. She confided her alleged grievance to her father, who cautiously mentioned the matter to the Duke of Norfolk. Anne Boleyn ordered a public inquiry. Northumberland denied the accusation, and his accusers were routed.

Northumberland took part in the trial of Lord Dacre in July 1534. In the January following he was accused of ‘slackness’ on the borders, and also of the graver offence of having a sword of state carried before him when he went as justiciary to York. Illness was doubtless in part responsible for his neglect of duty in the previous year. But Chapuys ranked him, on information which he had from his doctor, among the disaffected early in 1535. Having no children, Northumberland now began to arrange his affairs. In February 1535 he wrote to Cromwell that the king had given him leave to name any of his blood his heir; but, on account of their ‘debylytery and unnaturalness,’ he had determined to make the king his heir. This decision he confirmed later. In 1536 he was created lord president of the council of the north, and vicegerent of the order of the Garter. In May 1536 he formed one of the court for the trial of Anne Boleyn, but when he saw her he grew ill and left the room. Anne is said to have confessed a pre-