Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland,
KG (c. 1502 – 1537) was an English nobleman, active as a military officer in the north.
He is now primarily remembered as the betrothed of
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...
, whom he was forced to give up before she became involved with and later married
King Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement w ...
.
Early life
Henry Percy was born about 1502,
the eldest son of
Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, by Catherine, daughter of Sir Robert Spencer.
[ Through his mother he was a ]first cousin
A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle.
More generally, in the lineal kinship, kinship system used in the English-s ...
of William Carey, who was the brother-in-law to Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...
.
When quite young, Henry was sent to serve as a page in Thomas Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey ( ; – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal (catholic), cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's Lord High Almoner, almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and ...
's household. It was a way for young aristocrats to learn about their societies.[ He was knighted in 1519. The principal source for the early passages of Percy's life is the biography of Wolsey by George Cavendish.
]
Involvement with Anne Boleyn
Though his father had planned by 1516 to betroth Percy to Mary Talbot, the daughter of George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, he fell in love with Anne Boleyn, then a young lady about the court. Percy became betrothed to Anne, probably in the spring of 1523 when he was still page to Wolsey. On hearing the news, Wolsey scolded Lord Percy before his household, as permission for the marriage had not been sought from his father nor from the King. The latter had an interest due to the importance of the Northumberland earldom. While Cavendish claimed that the King already had a personal interest in Anne at this point, driving Wolsey's angry reaction, this has been debated. The intrigue was soon discovered, and the Earl of Northumberland sent for young Lord Percy.
Besides the proposed Talbot match, another serious obstacle was that Anne was intended to wed James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond (who was then a page in Wolsey's household). This match was intended to manage and resolve a dispute over the earldom of Ormond involving Sir Thomas Boleyn, her father, who had a somewhat feeble claim on the vast Ormond estates in Munster
Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
through his grandfather.
Another significant reason for Percy's father's refusal to permit the match was that he believed Anne Boleyn, a mere knight's daughter, not a high enough rank for his son and heir.
Marriage to Mary Talbot
Percy's father reportedly scolded him, saying "thou hast always been a proud, presumptuous, and unthrift waster," and he was quickly and unhappily married to Lady Mary Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, by early 1524[ or in 1525, with earlier legal stages. Starkey dates it at August 1525 or August 1526. The old earl allowed the couple little in the way of comforts or income. Wolsey attempted to insinuate his own servants into the household as a means of controlling the young Henry.
By 1528, only four years into their marriage, the couple's relationship had broken down irretrievably. Northumberland suspected his wife of spying on him for Norfolk, while her father worried that the young husband was abusing her and might even poison her. Northumberland was outraged at Shrewsbury's suspicions and refused to permit his father-in-law's servants to see or speak to his wife. When the countess's brother-in-law, William, Lord Dacre, asked the Duke of Norfolk to defend her, Northumberland told Norfolk that he, Northumberland, would never see her again as long as he lived. The couple may have separated shortly thereafter, at least temporarily, since Mary delivered a stillborn child at her father's home in April 1529. In 1532, Mary accused her husband of a precontract (i.e. betrothal with legal force) with Anne Boleyn. She confided her alleged grievance to her father, who then mentioned the matter to ]Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, (10 March 1473 – 25 August 1554) was an English politician and nobleman of the Tudor era. He was an uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both of whom were beh ...
. Anne Boleyn, consulted, ordered an inquiry. Northumberland denied the accusation on oath.
In 1536 Shrewsbury noted his daughter had been living with him for two and half years. At about the same time, Northumberland announced that he was bequeathing his entire inheritance to the King since he had no children, and he and his wife were not likely to have a legitimate heir. He was by then also estranged from his brothers, and did not want them to inherit his property.[Harris, Barbara, J., ''English aristocratic women 1450 – 1500: marriage, family, property and careers,'' pg. 177.] Mary Talbot hated Henry heartily for the rest of his short life, and later sought a divorce.
Border warfare
In July 1522 Northumberland was made a member of the Council of the North; in October he was made deputy warden of the East Marches. His brother-in-law William Dacre suggested that, young as Northumberland was, he should be made warden the same year.
On 19 May 1527 he succeeded his father as sixth Earl of Northumberland; he was made steward of the honour
Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself ...
of Holderness on 18 June. On 2 December he became Lord Warden of the East and West Marches.
Northumberland was constantly ill with an ague–a feverish, shivery illness, probably malaria–and was burdened with debt, and yet had to keep up an establishment and engage in fighting on his own account. Cardinal Wolsey treated him in a patronising manner. He was not often allowed to go to court, nor even to his father's funeral. His chief friend was Sir Thomas Arundell.
In spite of all this, Northumberland was very active on the borders. He had leave in 1528 to come to London; in 1530, while he was at Topcliffe, he received a message from the king ordering him to go to Cawood and arrest Wolsey. He sent his prisoner south in the custody of Sir Roger Lascelles, while he remained to make an inventory of the Cardinal's goods. He was one of the peers who signed the letter to the Pope in July 1530 asking that the divorce might be hurried on, was a friend of Sir Thomas Legh, and possibly was a reformer. On 23 April 1531 he was created Knight of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...
. On 11 May 1532 he was made High Sheriff of Northumberland for life and on 26 April, a privy councillor.
Northumberland took part in the trial of Lord Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre, who at first pleaded ‘not guilty.’ to charges of treason. Dacre, however, was ‘over persuaded.’ He changed his plea to guilty. He must have hoped for, or expected, leniency. The judges and Dacre then tried to get the king's mercy. It wasn't forthcoming.
Dacre was executed at Tyburn by hanging, having been given false hope when a stay of execution arrived in the morning. Three other of Dacre's party were also executed.
Northumberland was accused of slackness on the borders, and also of having a sword of state carried before him when he went as justiciary to York. If illness was in part responsible, Eustace Chapuys also ranked him, on information which he had from his doctor, among the disaffected early in 1535.
In May 1536 Northumberland, by now a man in broken health, formed one of the jury for the trial of Anne Boleyn. Anne is said to have confessed a precontract with him in the hope of saving her life. He collapsed following the verdict and had to be carried out.
Later life
Having no children, Northumberland began to arrange his affairs. In February 1535 he wrote to Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...
that he had decided to make the king his heir, a decision he confirmed later. In 1536 he was created Lord President of the Council of the North, and vicegerent of the Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...
.
In September 1536 he had a grant of £1,000 to come to London to make arrangements about his lands. The matter was incomplete when the Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was an English Catholic popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536 before spreading to other parts of Northern England, including Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and north Lancashire. The protests occurre ...
began. Northumberland's brothers and mother were open sympathisers with the rebels, but the Earl himself remained loyal to the Crown. The rebel leader Robert Aske and his men came to Wressle Castle
Wressle Castle is a ruined palace-fortress in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, built for Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, Thomas Percy in the 1390s. It is privately owned and it is usually open to the public for a few days each year. ...
, where Percy was ill in bed, and asked him to resign his commands of the marches into the hands of his brothers, or at least go over to the rebels. He refused both requests; and when the lawyer William Stapleton went up to see him, he was in despair. Aske sent him to York, to protect him from his followers, who wanted to behead him.
Northumberland made a grant to the king of his estates, on condition that they pass to his nephew. When, however, his brother, Sir Thomas, was attainted and executed, Northumberland made the grant unconditional in June 1537. By this time his mind was fast failing. He moved to Newington Green
Newington Green is an open space in North London between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, Green Lanes and Matthias Road to the north, ...
, where Richard Layton
Richard Layton or Leighton (1500?–1544) was an English churchman, jurist and diplomat, dean of York and a principal agent of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Life
Early life
He was born about 1500, son ...
visited him on 29 June 1537. Layton found him yellow and distended.
Northumberland died on 30 June 1537 and was buried in St Augustin's Church, now the site of St John at Hackney parish church. Writing in the early seventeenth century, the antiquarian John Weever recorded Percy's original epitaph in the church, which read: 'Here lieth interred, Henry lord Percy, earl of Northumberland, knight of the most honourable order of the Garter, who died in this town the last of June 1537, the 29th of HEN VIII.' [Ancient funerall monuments within the vnited monarchie of Great Britaine, Ireland, and the islands adiacent, with the dissolued monasteries therein contained: their founders, and what eminent persons haue beene in the same interred. As also the death and buriall of certaine of the bloud royall; the nobilitie and gentrie of these kingdomes entombed in forraine nations..by John Weever] A (presumed Victorian era) memorial plaque was discovered during the 2020 refurbishment of St John at Hackney, and was re-installed inside the church.
Family
He married, in 1524, Mary Talbot, daughter of George, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, but left no surviving issue. They did have one known child, stillborn on April 1529 at the home of the earl of Shrewsbury, where Mary had gone to escape her husband. The earldom fell into abeyance
Abeyance (from the Old French ' meaning "gaping") describes a state of temporary dormancy or suspension. In law, it can refer to a situation where the ownership of property, titles, or office is not currently Vesting, vested in any specific perso ...
on his death, but was revived in favour of his nephew Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
. His widow lived until 1572.
Northumberland's two brothers, Sir Thomas and Sir Ingelram Percy, took an active part in the management of his estates. They were both leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was an English Catholic popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536 before spreading to other parts of Northern England, including Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and north Lancashire. The protests occurre ...
. Both were arrested. Sir Thomas was attainted and executed in 1537. His sons succeeded to the earldom: Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
as seventh earl and Henry as eighth earl. Sir Ingelram Percy was confined in the Beauchamp Tower, where his name is to be seen cut in the stone. He was soon liberated, went abroad into exile, and died June 30 1537. He left an out-of-wedlock daughter, Isabel, who, in 1544, married Henry Tempest of Broughton.
References
*Eric Ives (2005), ''The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northumberland, Henry Percy, 6th Earl Of
1500s births
1537 deaths
6
16th-century English nobility
Knights of the Garter
Henry Percy, 06 Earl of Northumberland
High sheriffs of Northumberland
Lords Warden of the Marches
16th-century English knights