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Birth:          25 Mar 1273 Petworth, Sussex, England
Death:          2 Oct 1314 Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, England
Burial:         Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, England

Notes
posthumous child
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_de_Percy,_1st_Baron_Percy
Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick (1273–1314)[3] was a medieval English 
magnate.

He fought under King Edward I of England in Wales and Scotland and was granted 
extensive estates in Scotland, which were later retaken by the Scots under King 
Robert I of Scotland. He added Alnwick to the family estates in England, founding a 
dynasty of northern warlords. He rebelled against King Edward II over the issue of 
Piers Gaveston and was imprisoned for a few months. After his release, he declined to 
fight under Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn, remaining at Alnwick, where he 
died a few months later, aged 41.
Origins[edit]

Henry was born at Petworth in Sussex on 25 March 1273, seven months after his 
father's death, saving the family line from extinction, as two older brothers had died in 
infancy, and all six uncles had died without leaving any legitimate heir. He was 
fortunate in having the powerful John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey as his maternal 
grandfather. Henry was the son of Henry de Percy (d.1272), 7th feudal baron of 
Topcliffe, Yorkshire,[4] by his wife, Eleanor de Warenne, daughter of John de 
Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey by Alice de Lusignan, Countess of Surrey, half sister of 
King Henry III.[5] His great-great-grandfather was Jocelin de Louvain (d.1180) who 
had married Agnes de Percy (d.1203), one of the two daughters and co-heiresses of 
William II de Percy (d.1174/5), 3rd feudal baron of Topcliffe, whose descendants had 
adopted the surname "de Percy".[4]

Majority & change of arms[edit]

In 1293 Henry came into his inheritance of estates in Sussex and Yorkshire, including 
Topcliffe Castle, the ancient family seat. In 1294 he married Eleanor, daughter of the 
Earl of Arundel. He then proceeded to change the family coat of arms from Azure, five 
fusils in fess or[7] ("Percy ancient") to Or, a lion rampant azure ("Percy modern")(a 
blue lion rampant on a gold background). Blue and gold were the Earl Warenne's 
colours and a gold lion rampant had been the Arundel's arms. Alternatively the arms 
are said to be the arms of Brabant.[2] This emphasised his royal and noble 
connections and marked his ambition. This was also the year he went to war for the 
first time, summoned to fight in France, but then diverted to Wales to join Edward I in 
suppressing a Welsh rebellion. There he learned the grim business of medieval 
warfare, and command and supply of armies in the field.

Marriage and progeny[edit]

Henry de Percy married Eleanor FitzAlan, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 8th Earl of 
Arundel,[8] and had two sons:
Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy (b.1299), who succeeded his father.
William de Percy (c.1303-1355).

Knighthood and war in Scotland[edit]

By the summer of 1295 Henry was in the north with his grandfather Earl Warenne. 
Edward I's deliberately humiliating treatment of King John I of Scotland and his nobles 
was making war inevitable. Warenne was King John's father in law, used as an 
intermediary by Edward. In 1294 Philip IV of France had taken back Aquitaine from the 
English crown and now negotiated a treaty with the Scots to wage war on Edward on 
two fronts. During March 1296 Edward I's army surrounded Berwick on Tweed, then 
the largest town in Scotland and an important seaport. It was here on 30 March that 
Henry Percy was knighted by the King.[9] Later on the same day the town was taken 
and the ruthless king, apparently provoked by the inhabitants previously baring their 
buttocks at him, ordered the city put to the sword "whatever the age or sex" and 
according to the Scotichronicon 7,500 were executed.[10]

Percy, under Warenne's command, was sent north to Dunbar where the castle was 
held by the Earls of Mar, Menteith and Ross, together with many lesser nobles. After 
they had beaten a Scottish force outside the castle the king joined them, and the 
castle soon surrendered. The rest of Scotland was occupied in the space of a few 
weeks and English administrators installed. King John Balliol was forced to abdicate 
and Warenne appointed to govern Scotland as a province. Having proved his ability 
Henry Percy was given the task of governing Ayr, Galloway and Cumberland, based at 
Carlisle Castle. With King Edward now turning his attention to affairs in France there 
was only a year or so of peace before the situation in Scotland began to unravel. In 
the summer of 1297 William Wallace murdered the English sheriff of Lanark and was 
joined by Robert Bruce, Bishop Lockhart, James Stewart and Sir William Douglas in 
the Scottish lowlands while Andrew Murray started a Highland uprising.

Working closely with Robert Clifford from Westmorland, Percy confronted the other 
rebels at Irvine while Wallace was in central Scotland, and negotiated their 
submission, subduing southern Scotland for a while. Warenne then began an 
expedition to hunt down Wallace and Murray, finding them waiting north of the River 
Forth near Stirling Castle. The ensuing Battle of Stirling Bridge was a disaster for the 
English army. Percy and his fellow commanders could only watch helplessly from the 
castle as their infantry, caught on the far side of the one narrow bridge were 
slaughtered. Murray was however killed in the battle. The English were temporarily 
expelled from Scotland and on the defensive, with the Scots raiding northern England. 
In the following spring of 1298 King Edward returned from France and assembled a 
large army, including many Welsh longbow archers, to begin a new and determined 
assault on Scotland. They caught up with Wallace at Falkirk on 22 July where Henry 
Percy was part of the fourth reserve division of experienced and highly mobile 
cavalry.[11]
Baron and Scottish landowner[edit]

Early in 1299 the King granted the estates of Ingram Balliol, who had been involved in 
the Scottish rebellions, to Henry Percy, including land in England and south west 
Scotland. This not only gave him greater income and status, but also a vested interest 
in the continuing conquest of Scotland. The king also summoned Percy to attend 
parliament as a peer of the realm, making him a baron by writ. His family had 
previously had the courtesy title of baron because of their land holdings. Percy had 
proved himself an able soldier and administrator and found royal favour. The rest of 
the year was spent skirmishing with Scottish guerilla groups, and the following summer 
campaigning with the king although little was achieved other than the capture of 
Caerlaverock Castle after a long siege, at which he was present with his elderly 
grandfather Earl Warenne. The Caerlaverock Poem or Roll of Arms made at the siege 
by the heralds records the armorials of Warenne and Percy in a single verse, 
translated from Norman French into modern English thus:[12]

"John the good Earl of Warenne
 Of the other squadron held the reins
 To regulate and govern,
 As he who well knew how to lead,
 Noble and honourable men.
 His banner with gold and azure
 Was nobly chequered.
 And he had in his company
 Henry de Percy, his nephew (son nevou) (sic)
 Who seemed to have made a vow
 To rout the Scots.
 A blue lion rampant on yellow
 Was his banner very conspicuous"
Correspondence in late 1301 shows Percy at his estate at Leconfield in Yorkshire, 
where his wife probably lived, at a safe distance from Scottish raiding parties. In 
February 1303 Percy was sent north in a cavalry force led by Johannes de Seagrave 
which was defeated at Roslin. He then joined King Edward's summer offensive, 
reaching Dunfermline in early November. Robert Bruce had already changed sides to 
support Edward and in February 1304 most of the Scots negotiated a settlement with 
the English king. Henry Percy is known to have played a prominent role in the 
negotiations.[13] Only Stirling Castle now remained to be subdued, and was battered 
by catapults during the spring of 1304, while King Edward's militant queen, Marguerite 
of France, watched from a specially built wooden shelter.

The siege culminated in the commissioning of Warwolf, a giant trebuchet which 
flattened the curtain walls. The defenders had tried to surrender four days earlier, but 
had been made to wait by the king while he tried out his new toy. In September 1305 
the first joint English and Scottish parliament met at Westminster to agree a 
constitution for the unified state, with Percy playing a leading role in the negotiations, 
but Robert Bruce, a leading representative of the Scots, was already conspiring to 
rebel. On 25 March 1306 Robert Bruce was crowned King of Scotland at Scone 
Abbey, upon which Edward confiscated his lands and gave them to Henry Percy. The 
King now appointed Percy to command northwest England and southwest Scotland, 
with orders to suppress the rebellion without mercy. Bruce's army was soon defeated 
in battle, but Bruce escaped to wage a guerilla campaign against the English from the 
wild countryside of Galloway. For several years afterwards the English Barons held the 
castles of southern and central Scotland, but were ambushed and harried in the 
countryside.

A new monarch[edit]

Edward I, on his way to launch a new campaign against the Scots, died on 7 July 
1307 before crossing the border. The dying Edward I, asked his assembled barons to 
give the succession to his only surviving son Edward. He also asked them to maintain 
the banishment Piers Gaveston from England. Henry Percy was not present, being left 
in charge of southern Scotland. The death of Edward I, with the conquest of Scotland 
incomplete, was a personal disaster for Percy. After years of hard fighting he now had 
extensive land holdings in southern Scotland, but this was of less interest to Edward II 
who promptly recalled Gaveston and made him Earl of Cornwall, an office of great 
wealth. Gaveston, a formidable tournament fighter in the melee, openly despised and 
insulted the old king's stalwart warriors.

Edward II left Scotland in August 1307 after replacing his father's loyal and 
experienced commanders, Clifford, Valence and Percy who were sent home, only to be 
recalled to Scotland in October. By then, however, Robert Bruce had escaped from 
Galloway to the Highlands, and had raised new forces and taken eastern Scotland by 
the end of the year. In August 1308 Bruce captured Argyll, previously loyal to King 
Edward and then raided Northumberland. Percy and Clifford were again summoned to 
defend Galloway, at their own expense, against an onslaught by Robert Bruce's 
surviving brother Edward. They were able to hold the castles, but not the countryside. 
Percy had travelled south to Westminster in February that year for the king's 
coronation, where he would have seen Gaveston's arrogance.

The ceremony was delayed for a week while the French delegation, alarmed that the 
king preferred Gaveston's company to that of Isabella, his 12-year-old French bride, 
threatened to boycott the coronation. In the event Gaveston was given precedence 
over the other Earls. At the following feast Gaveston dressed in an outfit of royal 
purple and pearls, and called the king over to sit with him, instead of Queen Isabella. 
The French delegation walked out and one earl drew his sword and had to be 
restrained from attacking Gaveston. During the spring of 1308 the barons in parliament 
pressed the king to exile Gaveston, developing the Doctrine of Capacities, 
distinguishing between loyalty to the king and loyalty to the crown. On 16 June 1308, 
Gaveston was appointed Lieutenant of Ireland, to get him out of the country, with 
Henry de Percy as a witness.
Founding a dynasty in Northumberland[edit]

In 1309 Henry was able to buy Alnwick Castle from Anthony Bek, the Prince Bishop of 
Durham, giving him a base near to the action in Scotland and a substantial annual 
income of about £475 from the associated lands. To make the purchase price of 
£4666 he borrowed £2666 from Italian merchant bankers, the Lombard Society.[14] 
When William Vesci had died in 1297 without a legitimate heir, Bek had been 
entrusted with the estates of the Vesci family on behalf of his son, the illegitimate 
William Vesci of Kildare. Vesci of Kildare did receive the other family lands in 
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and it is unclear whether he was defrauded by the greedy 
bishop over the sale of Alnwick. In the same year of 1297 Henry obtained a royal 
licence to fortify his mansion at Petworth and two mansions in Yorkshire.[15]

The return of Gaveston[edit]

By the summer of 1309 Edward II had managed to cajole most of his earls into allowing 
Piers Gaveston to return to England, although the most powerful earl, Lancaster, was 
implacably opposed. On 27 June 1309 Gaveston, restored to the Earldom of Cornwall, 
returned to England and soon proved as obnoxious as before, calling Lancaster 
"Churl" and Warwick "Black Cur".[16] Henry Percy would have been preoccupied with 
the purchase of Alnwick at that time and generally tried to stay out of the trouble with 
Gaveston.

At the parliament of February and March 1310 the King was forced to accept the 
election of twenty one Lords Ordainers to govern the country. In June the king began 
a campaign in Scotland in which Percy fought, although many barons senior to Percy 
declined to take part. Robert Bruce continued to fight a guerilla war, refusing to give 
battle, so little was achieved, while relations between the king and his earls further 
deteriorated. In May 1311 Gaveston ordered Percy to hold Perth for the summer with 
two hundred knights and no infantry, a dangerous task at a time when the king's army 
was withdrawing to England. Surviving this Percy was back in London in October.[17]

The barons now forced the king to send Gaveston into exile in Flanders, but he was 
soon recalled and was in York with his heavily pregnant wife in January 1312, with his 
lands restored. Percy was ordered out of Scarborough Castle and Gaveston took it 
over. Violence was now inevitable. In April the king and Gaveston were chased out of 
Newcastle by the sudden arrival of an army under Lancaster, Percy and Clifford, 
fleeing to Scarborough. In their haste they left behind Gaveston's wife and baby 
daughter and a great hoard of treasure, which it took Lancaster, Percy and Clifford 
four days to catalogue. Lancaster held onto this for future bargaining with the king.
[18] Gaveston was soon besieged at Scarborough Castle by Percy, Clifford, and the 
earls of Warenne and Pembroke, surrendering after a month. Percy remained in York 
when Gaveston was taken south to Warwick and then executed.

Imprisonment[edit]

The king, seeking revenge for the death of his friend, stopped short of civil war with 
the rebel earls but made an example of the less powerful Baron Percy by confiscating 
his lands on 28 July 1312, and having him imprisoned by the Sheriff of Yorkshire. The 
earls made Percy's release a priority in their difficult negotiations with the king and he 
was freed in January 1313.[19] and was formally pardoned in October. Gaveston's 
treasure was returned to the king soon after.

The final year[edit]

King Edward now prepared for a campaign in Scotland in 1314, culminating in his total 
defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn. Percy, along with five of the earls and many 
other nobles refused summonses to this campaign because it had not been sanctioned 
by parliament, as required by the Ordinances. There are no contemporary records of 
Percy being at Bannockburn[20] and it seems that he remained at Alnwick, defending 
his land against Scottish raiders. His friend and comrade Robert Clifford did go, and 
was killed in the battle. Within days of the battle Percy was summoned to Newcastle 
to prepare an emergency defence of northern England against an invasion. Instead of 
an all-out invasion, Robert Bruce sent raiding parties to extort money from the northern 
counties. Only a few months later in the first half of October 1314 Henry Percy died, 
aged forty one, of unknown causes.

Parents
DE PERCY Henry (ABT 1235 - 29 Aug 1272)
PLANTAGENET (DE WARENNE) Eleanor (ABT 1251 - AFT 1282)

Siblings
DE PERCY Henry (25 Mar 1273 - 2 Oct 1314)

Marriage To FITZ ALAN (ARUNDEL) Eleanor (ABT 1284 - Jul 1328)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
FITZ ALAN Richard (3 Feb 1267 - 9 Mar 1302)
DE SALUZZO Alice (Alisona) (ABT 1267 - 25 Sep 1292)

Children by FITZ ALAN (ARUNDEL) Eleanor ABT 1284 - Jul 1328
DE PERCY Henry (6 Feb 1301 - 26 Feb 1352)

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