Henry Percy

Notes:

He was restored as Earl of Northumberland in 1416 and regranted his father's entailed estates. He was knighted by the king, to whom he remained faithful all his life. He was slain fighting for the Lancastrian cause at the First Battle of St. Albans.

Family/Spouse: Eleanor Neville. Eleanor (daughter of Ralph de Neville and Joan Beaufort) died about 1473. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Henry Percy was born on 25 Jul 1421; died on 29 Mar 1461 in near Towton, Yorkshire, England; was buried in St. Dionis, Yorkshire, England.
2. Katherine Percy was born on 28 May 1423 in Leconfield, Yorkshire, England; died between 2 May 1493 and 17 Oct 1493.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 30 May 1364

Notes:

The holder of many offices and titles, he was knighted by Edward III in April 1377 along with the future kings Richard II and Henry IV, who were almost exactly his age. Not long after the latter ascended the throne, Henry Percy went into open rebellion, and was slain at the battle of Shrewsbury. His body was buried at Whitchurch, Shropshire, but was disinterred two days later to be exhibited in Shrewsbury. The head was cut off and fixed onto one of the gates of York.

Henry married Elizabeth Mortimer before 10 Dec 1379. Elizabeth (daughter of Edmund Mortimer and Philippe of Clarence) was born on 12 Feb 1371 in Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales; was christened on 16 Feb 1371; died on 20 Apr 1417. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 13 Feb 1371, Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales

Notes:

Earl of Northumberland. From Wikipedia:

Henry Percy was originally a follower of Edward III of England, for whom he held high offices in the administration of northern England. At a young age he was made Warden of the Marches towards Scotland in 1362, with the authority to negotiate with the Scottish government. In February 1367 he was entrusted with the supervision of all castles and fortified places in the Scottish marches. He went on to support King Richard II and was created an Earl and briefly given the title of Marshal of England. Between 1383 and 1384 he was appointed Admiral of the Northern Seas. After Richard elevated his rival Ralph Neville to the position of Earl of Westmorland in 1397, Percy supported the rebellion of Henry Bolingbroke, who became King as Henry IV.

On King Henry IV's coronation he was appointed Constable of England and granted the lordship of the Isle of Man. Percy and his son, Henry Percy, known as "Hotspur", were given the task of subduing the rebellion of Owain Glynd?r, but their attempts to make peace with the Welsh rebels did not meet with the king's approval.

In 1403 the Percys turned against Henry IV in favour of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, and then conspired with Owain Glynd?r against King Henry. The Tripartite Indenture was signed by all three parties, which divided England up between them. Glynd?r was to be given Wales, and a substantial part of the west of England, Northumberland was to have received the north of England, as well as Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire. The Mortimers were to have received the rest of southern England, below the river Trent.

The Percy rebellion failed at the Battle of Shrewsbury, where Hotspur was killed. Since the earl did not directly participate in the rebellion, he was not convicted of treason. However, he lost his office as Constable. In 1405 Percy supported Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York, in another rebellion, after which Percy fled to Scotland, and his estates were confiscated by the king.

In 1408 Percy invaded England in rebellion once more and was killed at the Battle of Bramham Moor. Percy's severed head was subsequently put on display at London Bridge.

Henry married Margaret de Neville on 12 Jul 1358 in Brancepeth, Durham, England. Margaret (daughter of Ralph de Neville and Alice de Audley) died on 11 May 1372; was buried in North Allerton, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 12 May 1372
• Alternate death: 13 May 1372

Notes:

Earl of March. Earl of Ulster.

From Wikipeia:

An infant at the death of his father, Edmund, as a ward of the crown, was placed by Edward III of England under the care of William of Wykeham and Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel.

The position of the young earl, powerful on account of his possessions and hereditary influence in the Welsh marches, was rendered still more important by his marriage on 24 August 1369 at the age of 17 to the 14-year-old Philippa, the only child of the late Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, the second son of Edward III.

Lionel's late wife, Elizabeth, had been daughter and heiress of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster, and Lionel had himself been created Earl of Ulster before his marriage. Edmund inherited the title Earl of Ulster on Lionel's death.

Therefore, the Earl of March not only represented one of the chief Anglo-Norman lordships in Ireland in right of his wife Philippa, but Philippa's line was also the second most senior line of descent in the succession to the crown, after Edward, the Black Prince and his son, King Richard II of England. John of Gaunt, younger brother of Prince Edward, had become the 1st Duke of Lancaster and thus the source of the House of Lancaster's claim to the throne.

This marriage had, therefore, far-reaching consequences in English history, ultimately giving rise to the claim of the House of York to the crown of England contested in the Wars of the Roses between the Yorks and the Lancasters; Edward IV being descended from the second adult son of Edward III as great-great-grandson of Philippa, countess of March, and in the male line from Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York and the fourth adult son of Edward III.

Edmund Mortimer's son Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March would become heir presumptive to the English crown during the reign of Richard II.

Mortimer, now styled Earl of March and Ulster, became Marshal of England in 1369, and was employed in various diplomatic missions during the next following years. He was a member of the committee appointed by the Peers to confer with the Commons in 1373 - the first instance of such a joint conference since the institution of representative parliaments on the question of granting supplies for John of Gaunt's war in France.

He participated in the opposition to Edward III and the court party, which grew in strength towards the end of the reign, taking the popular side and being prominent in the Good Parliament of 1376 among the lords who supported the Prince of Wales and opposed the Court Party and John of Gaunt. The Speaker of the House of Commons in this parliament was March's steward, Peter de la Mare, (1294-1387 of Little Hereford, Hereford), who firmly withstood John of Gaunt in stating the grievances of the Commons, in supporting the impeachment of several high court officials, and in procuring the banishment of the king's mistress, Alice Perrers. March was a member of the administrative council appointed by the same parliament after the death of Edward, the Black Prince to attend the king and advise him in all public affairs.

Following the end of the Good Parliament its acts were reversed by John of Gaunt, March's steward was jailed, and March himself was ordered to inspect Calais and other remote royal castles as part of his duty as Marshal of England. March chose instead to resign the post.

On the accession of Richard II, a minor, in 1377, the Earl became a member of the standing council of government; though as husband of the heir-presumptive to the crown he wisely abstained from claiming any actual administrative office. The richest and most powerful person in the realm was, however, the king's uncle John of Gaunt, whose jealousy led March to accept the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1379. March succeeded in asserting his authority in eastern Ulster, but failed to subdue the O'Neills farther west. Proceeding to Munster to put down the turbulent southern chieftains, March was killed at Cork on 27 December 1381. He was buried in Wigmore Abbey, of which he had been a benefactor, and where his wife Philippa was also interred.

Edmund married Philippe of Clarence about May 1368 in Reading, Berkshire, England. Philippe (daughter of Lionel of Antwerp and Elizabeth de Burgh) was born on 16 Aug 1355 in Eltham, Kent, England; was christened in Eltham, Kent, England; died before 8 Jan 1378; was buried in Wigmore Abbey, Herefordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 21 Nov 1378 and 9 Feb 1381

Notes:

Countess of Ulster.

Notes:

Keeper of Berwick Castle, joint Warden of the Marches, Sheriff of Roxburghshire. Fought at Crécy and was present at the siege of Calais.

Henry married Mary of Lancaster before 5 Sep 1334. Mary (daughter of Henry of Lancaster and Maud de Chaworth) was born about 1320; died on 1 Sep 1362; was buried in Alnwick Abbey, Northumberland, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Ralph (de Neville), Lord Neville, 2nd but 1st surviving son, was aged 40 and more at his father's death. He was taken prisoner with his younger brothers at Berwick in 1319. He had begun his long career of public service and official work already in 1322, when he was constable of Warkworth Castle, and serving in the Marches under the Earl of Carlisle. In 1324 he was appointed with the Earl of Angus to escort the envoys of Robert Bruce to York, to treat of peace, and in 1325 commissioner to keep the truce in Northumberland. At the time of his father's death he was already steward of the King's household. In the following January he indented to serve Sir Henry Percy, and in July was commissioned to take over the keepership of the Forest beyond Trent. He was present at the surrender of Berwick Castle to Edward III, July 1333, and again with the King in Scotland in 1334 (June-October) and in the summer of 1335; joint commissioner, 1333 and 1334, to Edward Baliol's Parliament, to demand confirmation of covenants, and in 1334 Warden of the Scottish Marches, some time sole and some time with Percy; in the same year chief of the justices in eyre of the Forest (Notts and Yorks) for that turn; in 1335 he was made keeper of Bamburgh Castle for life, and by Mar. 1336/7 was a banneret. In July 1338 and June 1340 he was appointed on the Council of Prince Edward as Keeper of the Realm, and (by the Bishop) overseer of the keepers of the temporalities of the see of Durham during his absence on the King's service. He commanded the first division at the victory of Durham, or Nevill's Cross, 17 October 1346, where King David of Scotland was taken prisoner; and took part in the naval success against the Spaniards off Winchelsea, 29 Aug. 1350." [Complete Peerage]

Unmentioned by CP, but he was educated at Oxford. He was the first layman to be buried at Durham Cathedral, in recognition of his role in the victory at Nevill's Cross.

Ralph married Alice de Audley after 14 Jan 1327. Alice (daughter of Hugh de Audley and Isolde le Rous) was born about 1300; died on 12 Jan 1374; was buried in Durham Cathedral, Durham, Durham, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Marshal of England. Warden of the Cinque Ports. Fought at Crécy in the first division, with the Prince of Wales. Founder knight of the Order of the Garter. Summoned to Parliament by writ in 1348. In 1354 he obtained a reversal of the sentence against his grandfather, Roger de Mortimer, and was restored to the title of Earl of March and to all of his grandfather's estates which had been forfeited to the Crown. In the following year he was summoned to Parliament by writ as Earl of March. In October 1359 he accompanied Edward III on his unsuccessful invasion of France. He was appointed Constable of the Host and rode at its head. Thereafter he was with Edward in Burgundy, where he died suddenly in February 1360.

Roger married Philippe de Montagu. Philippe (daughter of William de Montagu and Katherine de Grandison) died on 5 Jan 1382; was buried in Austin Priory, Bisham, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Duke of Clarence. In right of his wife, Earl of Ulster. Chief Governor of Ireland.

Lionel married Elizabeth de Burgh on 15 Aug 1342 in Tower of London, London, England. Elizabeth (daughter of William de Burgh and Maud of Lancaster) was born on 6 Jul 1332 in Carrickfergus Castle, Ireland; died on 10 Dec 1363 in Dublin, Ireland; was buried in Austin Friars, Clare, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Countess of Ulster.

The earliest surviving record in which Geoffrey Chaucer is named is a 1357 entry in the account book of her household, in which Chaucer is the recipient of clothing and a small gift "for neccessaries at Christmas." He appears to have been one of her retainers, possibly a page, and was connected with her household until at least 1360. When Prince Lionel came of age in 1359, her household and his merged and Chaucer became one of his retainers.