Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/444

Percy owing to illness, was absent when judgment was pronounced on the accusers of Gloucester (Annales Henrici IV, pp. 308, 315). On 29 Nov. he was appointed a commissioner to treat with France, and on 16 Dec. left London to cross over to Calais. The negotiations continued at Leulingham till the spring of 1400 (Fœdera, viii. 108, 125, 128, 132; Proc. Privy Council, i. 83, 102; Traïson et Mort, p. 105). In March 1400 Worcester was sent with a fleet to Aquitaine to quell the threatened disaffection, and succeeded in appeasing the communities of Bordeaux and Bayonne (, xiv. 238–41). On 18 May he was again appointed to treat for the restitution of Richard's child, Queen Isabella (Fœdera, viii. 142). He was present in parliament on 22 Jan. 1401, when he answered certain petitions on behalf of the king (Rolls of Parliament, iii. 455 b). Early in 1401 Worcester was reappointed seneschal (Annales Henrici IV, p. 337), and on 20 April resigned his post as admiral of the north. On 18 and 22 May he was present at the councils which settled the ordinances for Wales, and during this and the following month was employed in the negotiations with France (Fœdera, viii. 185–6, 199, 203). He was one of the commissioners who escorted Isabella to France in July. Early in 1402 Worcester was made lieutenant of South Wales, and captain of Cardigan and Lampeter Castles; but his formal appointment was only dated 31 March (cf., Hist. Henry IV, i. 244). About the same time he was appointed tutor to the Prince of Wales. On 3 April he was present at Eltham when Henry was married by proxy to Joanna of Navarre. Worcester was a trier of petitions in the parliament held in October, and on 24 Oct. was appointed one of the escort to bring the new queen from Brittany. With this purpose he left Southampton on 28 Nov., and returned with Joanna in January 1403.

Worcester gave up his position as lieutenant of South Wales on 7 March 1403. He does not again appear in Henry's service, and was perhaps already falling under some suspicion; though the news that he had removed his treasure from London, abandoned his post with the prince, and joined his nephew Hotspur in open rebellion, came as a surprise about the middle of July. He joined with his brother and nephew in the formal defiance of the king (, p. 352), and was present with the latter outside Shrewsbury on 21 July. In reply to Henry's overtures, Worcester was sent in the morning to the king. According to the common account, which is followed by Shakespeare in ‘The First Part of King Henry IV,’ act v. scenes 1 and 2, Henry showed a readiness to compromise; but Worcester made peace impossible by misrepresenting the king's proposals (, Hist. Angl. ii. 257;, Chron. London, p. 88). In the subsequent battle of Shrewsbury Worcester was taken prisoner. When he saw his nephew's dead body he burst into tears, declaring that he cared no more what fortune had in store for him (Annales Henrici IV, p. 370). He was beheaded two days later, on 23 July, according to one account against the king's own wish (ib.) His head was sent to London, where it was displayed on the bridge till 18 Dec., when it was taken down and sent to be buried with the body in the abbey church of St. Peter at Shrewsbury (, i. 364). In January 1484 the attainder against him was reversed in response to a petition by the then Earl of Northumberland (Rolls of Parliament, vi. 252 b). In spite of a statement to the contrary (cf., p. 227 n.), it does not seem that Worcester was ever married. Froissart (xiv. 168, ed. Buchon) speaks of his intention to make his nephew Thomas—probably meaning his great-nephew—his heir. His silver plate was granted to the Prince of Wales, and much of his other property to George, earl of March (, i. 370; Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, iv. 639;, Issues of Exchequer, p. 298).

In his younger days, at all events, Percy was a brave and gallant soldier. Froissart says that he found him in 1395 ‘gentle, reasonable, and gracious’ (xiii. 208). The writer of the ‘Annales Henrici Quarti’ (p. 365) says that no one would ever have suspected him of treason; for while English perfidy was a byword, he was always trusted, and the kings of France and Spain accepted his word as better than a bond. Yet he played the traitor both to Richard and to Henry. Family affection may account for his first act of treason; but the second is not to be explained so simply. The common accounts represent him as a prime mover in the rebellion (Annales Henrici IV, p. 368; Chron. Lond. p. 88; Chron. Religieux de St. Denys, iii. 112). The Monk of St. Denys (ib. iii. 110) speaks of Worcester's uneasy conscience at the memory of his share in Richard's fall. Worcester may also have felt that his family was too powerful to be tolerated permanently by the new king. Shakespeare suggests both views in ‘The First Part of King Henry IV’ (act i. sc. 3, and act v. scenes 1 and 2), in which play Worcester appears as the cool, wary intriguer, perhaps as a foil to his