Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick (25 March 1273 – October 1314) 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 Henry was born at Petworth in Sussex in 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 heirs. 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,Sanders, I.J., English Baronies, Oxford, 1960, p. 148 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.Peter Jerrome, Petworth, from the beginnings to 1660 2002 The Window Press His grandfather was William de Percy, and 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".
Majority and change of arms
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 orDebrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 849, Duke of Northumberland ("Percy ancient") to Or, a lion rampant azure ("Percy modern"). 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. 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 Henry de Percy married Eleanor FitzAlan, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 1st Earl of Arundel,Gee, Loveday Lewes, Women, art, and patronage from Henry III to Edward III: 1216–1377 (The Boydell Press, 2002), 147. and had two sons: Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy (b. 1301), who succeeded his father William de Percy (c. 1303 – 1355)
Knighthood and war in Scotland
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.Alexander Rose, Kings in the North The House of Percy in British History 2002 p145 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.Bower, Walter, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt and others, 1998
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, however, was mortally wounded in the battle and died sometime later. 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.Gerard Brault, Rolls of Arms of Edward I (1272–1307) 1997 pp404-417
Baron and Scottish landowner 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:Howard de Walden, Lord, Some Feudal Lords and their Seals 1301, published 1904, pp. 4,43 "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.J Brain, The Percies in Scotlandp 337 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 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 II. 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.