Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/445

Percy nephew Hotspur. He was a benefactor of the university of Cambridge.

[Froissart, vols. vii–ix. ed. Luce and Reynaud, and vols. vii–xiv. ed. Buchon; Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, the Annales Ricardi II and Henrici IV in Trokelowe, Blaneford, &c., Chronicon Angliæ, 1328–88, Eulogium Historiarum (these four in Rolls Ser.); Vita Regis Ricardi Secundi, by the Monk of Evesham, ed. Hearne; Otterbourne's Chronicle; Hardyng's Chronicle; Adam of Usk's Chronicle, ed. Thompson; Chron. des Religieux de St. Denys; Traïson et Mort de Roy Richard (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Creton's poem on the deposition of Richard II in Archæologia, vol. xx.; Rymer's Fœdera; Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, vol. iv.; Nicolas's Ordinances and Proceedings of the Privy Council; Devon's Issues of the Exchequer; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 285–6; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, ii. 249–53; Doyle's Official Baronage, iii. 715–17; Beltz's Memorials of the Order of the Garter, pp. 221–7; Wylie's History of England under Henry IV; Nicolas's History of the Royal Navy, vol. ii.; Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy, i. 50, ii. 167.] 

PERCY, THOMAS, seventh (1528–1572), born in 1528, was elder son of Sir Thomas Percy, by his wife Eleanor, daughter of Guiscard Harbottal of Beamish, Durham. The father, a younger son of Henry Algernon Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland [q. v.], took a prominent part with his brother Ingelram in the Yorkshire rebellion of 1536 (the ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’), was attainted, and was executed at Tyburn on 2 June 1537, being buried in the Crutched Friars' Church, London. Thereupon his elder brother, Henry Algernon Percy, sixth earl [q. v.], fearing the effect of the attainder on the fortunes of the family, voluntarily surrendered his estates to the crown, and on his death, on 29 June 1537, the title fell into abeyance. Sir Thomas's widow married Sir Richard Holland of Denton, Lancashire, and died in 1567.

Young Thomas and his brother Henry were entrusted, as boys, to the care of a Yorkshire squire, Sir Thomas Tempest of Tong Hall. They were restored in blood on 14 March 1549. Soon afterwards Thomas was permitted to inherit a little property destined for him by his uncle, the sixth earl. A catholic by conviction, he was favourably noticed by Queen Mary, who made him governor of Prudhoe Castle. In 1557 he displayed much courage in recapturing Scarborough, which had been seized by Sir Thomas Stafford, who was acting in collusion with the French. On 30 April 1557 he was knighted and created Baron Percy, and on the day following was promoted to the earldom of Northumberland, in consideration of ‘his noble descent, constancy, virtue, and value in arms, and other strong qualifications.’ Failing heirs male of his own, the title was to devolve on his brother Henry. A further portion of the estates attaching to the earldom was made over to him. A few weeks later he was nominated a member of the council of the north and high marshal of the army in the north.

Other honours quickly followed. He was elected a member of Gray's Inn in June, and became bailiff of the liberty of Richmond (June 26), and chief keeper of Richmond forest, and constable of Richmond and Middleham castles (26 July). On 2 Aug. 1557 he was appointed joint lord-warden-general of the east and middle marches towards Scotland, and captain of Berwick, and a week later lord-warden-general of the middle marches (Tynedale and Riddesdale). The general protection of the borders from the raids of the Scots was thus entrusted to his care. He performed his duties with much vigilance, and in August 1558 he anticipated a project of the Scots for surprising Norham and Wark castles. In January 1558–9 he raised a thousand men to garrison Berwick against the threatened invasion of the French.

His avowed catholic sympathies did not, however, commend him to Queen Elizabeth and her advisers. It is true that on her accession he was again nominated lord-warden-general of the east and middle marches, and was made lord-lieutenant of Northumberland, and, as chief commissioner to treat with Scotland respecting the boundaries of the two kingdoms, signed a treaty at Upsettington on 31 May 1559 (, Fœdera, xv. 472–4). But the borderers sent to London complaints of his rule: Ralph Sadler was ordered to inquire into the alleged grievances, and in his despatches expressed doubt of the wisdom or loyalty both of Northumberland and of his brother Henry. In 1560 the earl, smarting under Sadler's comments, resigned his office. Lord Grey, his wife's uncle, was appointed in his place. But Northumberland peremptorily refused to receive his successor at Alnwick Castle, and he raised objections when it was proposed in 1562 that he should invite the Queen of Scots there, so that she might have an interview in the castle with Queen Elizabeth. None the less he was elected K.G. on 22 April 1563. In 1565 Lord Burghley's agents reported that he was ‘dangerously obstinate in religion.’

In 1567 he was exasperated by a claim preferred by the crown to a newly discovered copper-mine on his estate of Newland in