Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, (25 July 1421 – 29 March 1461) was an English magnate.
The
Earldom of Northumberland was then one of the greatest landholdings in
northern England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...
; Percy also became
Lord Poynings on his marriage. This title would bring him into direct conflict with the Poynings family themselves, and indeed, feuds with neighbouring nobles, both lay and ecclesiastical, would be a key occupancy of his youth.
Percy married Eleanor Poynings, who outlived him; together they had four children. He was a leading
Lancastrian during the
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...
, from which he managed to personally benefit, although his father died early in the war. He was not, however, to live to enjoy these gains, being killed at the
Battle of Towton
The Battle of Towton took place on 29 March 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, near Towton in North Yorkshire, and "has the dubious distinction of being probably the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil". Fought for ten hours between a ...
in 1461 on the defeated Lancastrian side.
Early life and war with Scotland
Percy was the son of
Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (3 February 139322 May 1455) was an English nobleman and military commander in the lead up to the Wars of the Roses. He was the son of Henry "Hotspur" Percy, and the grandson of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of No ...
, and
Lady Eleanor Neville, daughter of
Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife,
Joan Beaufort.
Percy was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity.
The concept of a knighthood ...
in 1426 together with
Henry VI. He was appointed
Warden of the Eastern March on the
Scottish border on 1 April 1440, originally for four years, and subsequent extensions in 1444, and 1445, for the next seven years. This came as well with the custody of
Berwick Castle and responsibility for its defence He was to hold this post until March 1461. In May 1448, Percy, with his father and
Sir Robert Ogle, invaded Scotland and burnt
Dunbar
Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...
and
Dumfries
Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...
, for which, in revenge, the Scots attacked his father's castles of
Alnwick
Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116.
The town is south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border, inland from the North Sea ...
and
Warkworth. King Henry made his way north, and whilst at
Durham sent Percy – now Lord Poynings – to
raid
RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...
Dumfrieshire; the sortie – "only to return with some 500 cattle" – of around 5,000 men failed, and he was captured whilst caught in a marsh following his father's
defeat at the River Sark on 23 October. Sir Robert Ogle was now outlawed and the king used half of his estates to compensate Poynings for the
ransom
Ransom refers to the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release. It also refers to the sum of money paid by the other party to secure a captive's freedom.
When ransom means "payment", the word ...
he had expended arranging his release from captivity.
Tensions with Scotland remained, to the extent that Poynings, his father, and other nobles were requested to stay and guard the border rather than attend Parliament, for which they were excused. In summer 1451, with an Anglo-Scottish
truce pending, Poynings was commissioned to treat with Scottish embassies. In July 1455, he successfully prevented an assault on
Berwick by the
Scottish King,
James II, and was congratulated by the English King as a result.
Feud with the Poynings
In the late 1440s, the Yorkshire tenants of his father, the
Earl of Northumberland
The title of Earl of Northumberland has been created several times in the Peerage of England and of Great Britain, succeeding the title Earl of Northumbria. Its most famous holders are the House of Percy (''alias'' Perci), who were the most po ...
, were in almost constant conflict with their neighbours, those of the
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the ...
, involving armed skirmishes which Percy's brothers led. These events were deemed so severe that in 1448 they led to the only progress north for the King during his reign. The same year, because of a dispute over the inheritance his family received as a result of Henry Percy's marriage, the Earl of Northumberland's retainers had ejected the earl's relative, Robert Poynings, from his Sussex manors. A year later, Henry Percy – now Lord Poynings by right of his wife – took direct part, with his father, in raiding the manor of Newington Bertram in Kent, which was also
enfeoffed by Robert. This attack also apparently involved cattle rustling and theft, and Robert later claimed it to be so brutal that he was "deterred from seeking a remedy at law for three years".
Feud with Nevilles
By the early 1450s, relations with a powerful neighbouring family, the
Nevilles, became increasingly tense, and Poynings' brother
Thomas, Lord Egremont, had finally ambushed a Neville force, returning from a wedding, near
Sheriff Hutton, with a force of between 1,000 and 5,000 men. Although this was a bloodless confrontation, a precedent for the use of force in this particular dispute had already been laid in the previous violence in the region. By October 1453, Poynings was directly involved, with his father, brothers Egremont and
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
, and joined by Lord Clifford, in forcing a battle with
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
and
Richard Neville at
Topcliffe. The feud continued into the next year, when Poynings reportedly planned on attending
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
accompanied by a large force of men in February, and three months later both he and the earl were summoned by the king to attend council in an attempt to impose a peace; a second letter was "written but not despatched". Neither, along with John Neville or Salisbury, did as requested.
Wars of the Roses
During the
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...
, Percy followed his father in siding with the
Lancastrians against the
Yorkists. The Earl himself died at what is generally considered to be the first battle of the wars, at
St Alban's on 22 May 1455, and Poynings was elevated as third Earl of Northumberland, without having to pay relief to the Crown, because his father had died in the King's service. He in his turn "swore to uphold the Lancastrian dynasty". Although a reconciliation of the leading magnates of the realm was attempted in October 1458 in London, he arrived with such a large body of men (thought to be around 1,500) that the city denied him entry. The new earl and his brother Egremont were bound over £4,000 each to keep the peace.
When conflict broke out again, he attended the so-called ''
Parliament of Devils'' in October 1459, which condemned as traitors those Yorkists accused of, among other offences, causing the death of his father four years before. On 30 December 1460, Percy led the central "
battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...
" or section of the victorious Lancastrian army at the
Battle of Wakefield, following which, the army marched south, pillaging on the road to London. He fought against Warwick at the
second Battle of St. Albans on 17 February 1461, and he commanded the Lancastrian van at the
Battle of Towton
The Battle of Towton took place on 29 March 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, near Towton in North Yorkshire, and "has the dubious distinction of being probably the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil". Fought for ten hours between a ...
on 29 March 1461, however, "his archers were blinded by snowstorms", and he was either slain in close fighting or died of his wounds soon after. He was buried at
St Denys's Church, York. He was posthumously
attainted by the first parliament of the victorious
Edward IV
Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...
in November 1461, and his son and namesake was committed to the
Tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
.
Estates, offices and finances
The estates of the Earls of Northumberland had traditionally been in constant use as a source of manpower and wages in defence of the border since the Percy family first gained the office the previous century. The wages assigned to the third Earl were substantial: £2,500 yearly in time of peace, and £5,000 during war, as well as an annual payment for the maintenance of Berwick's upkeep (£66 in peacetime and £120 in wartime). Percy often had to provide from his own resources, however, as "securing payment was not easy" from the Exchequer, (for example, in 1454 he received no payments at all). In July 1452 he gained a twenty-year fee-farm (£80 yearly, from Carlisle), although he subsequently lost it in favour of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, in July 1454. Throughout the 1450s, the Crown continually made efforts at paying Percy his Warden's wages and fees promptly (paying him full wartime rates for the whole of the year 1456–7, for example), and since he was a loyal Lancastrian he achieved this more often than his counterpart on the west march, Salisbury, who by now had publicly aligned himself with York. The fee farm of Carlisle was returned to Percy in November 1459, following Salisbury's attainder in Coventry. He also benefited from the attainder of York, being granted an annuity of £66 from the latter's forfeited Wakefield Lordship in Yorkshire; he also received £200 from the profits of Penrith.
As a reward for his role in the Lancastrian victory at Ludford Bridge, he was made Chief Forester north of the River Trent and the Constable of Scarborough Castle on 22 December 1459 for life. He was nominated to a wide-ranging commission of
oyer and terminer
In English law, oyer and terminer (; a partial translation of the Anglo-French , which literally means 'to hear and to determine') was one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat. Apart from its Law French name, the commission was also ...
(from the old French, literally a commission "to hear and determine") on 30 May 1460, his new rank was a tactic to deal with the treasons and insurrections in Northumberland. On 3 July, he was granted Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Cambridgeshire, all belonging to Salisbury, on a twelve-year lease. After the Yorkists captured Henry VI at the
Battle of Northampton in 1460, they accused Percy of having looted York's northern estates during his exile in Ireland. This charge was likely to have had some truth in it, as it was his continued pillaging of those estates, with the Lords Clifford and Dacre, that led to York marching north to Wakefield in December 1460. These incomes, however collected, would have been vital to the Earl both personally and militarily as his northern estates especially had been a victim of feudal decline for most of the first half of the fifteenth century: even on the forfeit of the earldom to the Crown in 1461, his arrears have been calculated as still standing at approximately £12,000.
Family

On or before 25 June 1435, by the arrangement in 1434 of his father and
Cardinal Beaufort, he married Eleanor Poynings (c.1422-11 February 1484), ''
suo jure
''Suo jure'' is a Latin phrase, used in English to mean 'in his own right' or 'in her own right'. In most nobility-related contexts, it means 'in her own right', since in those situations the phrase is normally used of women; in practice, especi ...
'' Baroness Poynings, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Poynings of
Poynings in
Sussex
Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
, by his second wife Eleanor Berkeley, a daughter of
Sir John Berkeley of
Beverston Castle
Beverston Castle, also known as Beverstone Castle or Tetbury Castle, was constructed as a medieval stone fortress in the village of Beverston, Gloucestershire, England. The property is a mix of manor house, various small buildings, extensive gar ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
.
In 1446 she became heir general to her grandfather
Robert Poynings, 4th Baron Poynings (1380–1446), inherited his title of Baron Poynings (which having been created by writ was able to descend to females) and his large estates across the south of England. He was summoned to
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
from 14 December 1446 to 26 May 1455, by writs directed ''Henrico de Percy, chivaler, domino de Ponynges'' ("Henry de Percy, Knight,
lord of the manor
Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...
of Poynings"). His wife was a legatee in the 1455 will of her mother, Eleanor, Countess of Arundel (widow of
John FitzAlan, 13th Earl of Arundel). They had at least one son and four daughters:
*Anne Percy (1444–1522), who married
Sir Thomas Hungerford in 1460.
*
Margaret Percy (b. c. 1447), who married Sir William Gascoigne
*
Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland (c. 1449 – 28 April 1489), who married Maud Herbert, daughter of the
first Earl of Pembroke.
*Eleanor Percy (1455-c. 1477), who married
Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr; they had no children.
*Elizabeth Percy (1460–1512), who married
Henry Scrope, 6th Baron Scrope of Bolton.
Ancestry
Notes
References
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Further reading
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* – a section of the last page of the 2nd earl's biography.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Percy, Henry, 3rd Earl Of Northumberland
1421 births
1461 deaths
15th-century English nobility
Military personnel from the East Riding of Yorkshire
3
English military personnel killed in action
Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms
Lords Warden of the Marches
Poynings, Henry Percy, 5th Baron Poynings
People from Leconfield
People of the Wars of the Roses
Henry Percy, 03rd Earl of Northumberland