ART. V.-Annals of the House of Percy, from the Conquest to the Opening of the Nineteenth Century. By Edward Barrington de Fonblanque. In Two Volumes. London. Private Circulation only. 1887. IN For N these sumptuous volumes Mr. de Fonblanque has traced the descent of a princely estate and an illustrious title. In so doing he has had occasion to write the annals, not of one family, but of four; for three times over, owing to the failure of the male line, an heiress has endowed her husband's race with the famous name and vast possessions of the historic Percies. That the founder of the House of Northumberland came to England from Normandy seems clear enough, and, if we would trace the Percies further back, we may content ourselves with the theory of the learned Dugdale, that their progenitor was one Manfred, who came out of Denmark into Normandy before the adventure of the famous Rollo thither.' But here in truth we are lost in the mists of conjecture and tradition, and the utmost that the historic conscience will justify is to acquiesce in Mr. de Fonblanque's judicious dictum, that The Norman Percies must have had an ancestor, and the legend of Manfred the Dane may be accepted as well as another.' Manfred is said to have been baptized in 912, and to have been the ancestor of four generations of Norman nobles who were Lords of the Canton of Perci in Lower Normandy. It would appear that a cadet of this family, William de Percy, either accompanied or immediately preceded the Conqueror to England, and received from him a grant of lands in Yorkshire. These lands were the rightful property of a Saxon lady, one Emma of the Portor de Port-so called from her ownership of Semer, near Scarborough, then an important sea-port; and it seems that William de Percy compensated the Saxon maiden for the loss of her possessions by making her his wife. The story is thus told in the ancient Registrum Monasterii de Whitbye: 'Emma of the Porte ... was Lady of Semer besides Skarburgh afore the Conquest, and of other lands, William Conqueror gave to Syr William Percye for his good service; and he weddid hyr that was very heir to them in discharging of his conscience.' Sir William Percy seems to have adopted the habits of the people among whom he settled, for his nickname of Als Gernon, equivalent to à la Barbe, shows that he had followed the Anglo-Saxon fashion of letting his beard and whiskers grow. This nickname, softened into Algernon, became in later times, and remains unto the present day, a Christian name Vol. 168.-No. 336. of 2 D of the Percies, and of other families which have derived it from them.* Besides the lands which he acquired with his wife, William Percy received from the Conqueror large grants of territory in Northumberland and Durham. He built the castles of Spofforth and Topcliffe; and figures in the Domesday Book as holder in capite of eighty-six lordships in the North Riding of Yorkshire, exclusive of Whitby, of thirty-two lordships in Lincolnshire, and of other lands in Essex and Hampshire. He joined the first Crusade, and died in 1096 within sight of the Holy City. He was buried at Antioch, and his heart was brought to England and deposited at Whitby in the Abbey Church, which he had himself refounded. His successor was Alan Percy, of whom little more than the name survives, and he was succeeded by a second William Percy, and he in turn by a third of the same name. This William de Percy, fourth Baron, acquired the great manor of Pettiward or Petworth in Sussex. He was twice married. By his second wife he had no children. By his first, Alice de Tunbridge, daughter of Richard, third Earl of Clare, he had several sons, none of whom survived him. It is one of these sons, Ralph Percy, Lord of Smeaton, to whose sacrilegious crime and consequent penance Sir Walter Scott refers in the second Canto of Marmion : 'Then Whitby's nuns exulting told While horns blow out a note of shame, Saint Hilda's priest ye slew." Besides these sons, William de Percy had two daughters, Maud and Agnes, who, owing to the failure of his male issue, became his co-heiresses. The elder (who died without children), married William de Newburgh, third Earl of Warwick. * As these sheets are passing through the press, we have received the inte resting and important Work of The Battle Abbey Roll,' by the Duchess of Cleveland, in which the reader will find much information respecting the House of Percy. Indeed the title hardly does justice to the Work, as there is scarcely an ancient family in the country upon the history and lineage of which her Grace does not throw light. We hope to be able to return to these interesting volumes at a future period. The The younger, Agnes, was destined to an even more magnificent alliance. King Henry I. had married, as his second wife, Adeliza, daughter of Godfrey, Count of Louvain, and Duke of Brabant, in whose veins flowed the blood of the illustrious Charlemagne. Adeliza married, as her second husband, William de Albini, and some years afterwards she sent into France for her halfbrother, Jocelyn of Louvain, 'to share her prosperity and happiness,' and also, it would seem, to improve his fortunes by an English alliance. He chose for his bride Agnes de Perci; but her father declined to allow the tokens of his daughter's descent, as sole heiress and representative of the Percies, to be absorbed even in the honours of the princely house of Brabant. So we read in the Register of Whitby Abbey, that— This Jocelyn . . . wedded this dame Agnes Percy upon condition that he shold be called Jocelyn Percy, or els that he shold bare the armes of the Lord Percy, and he toke the counsell of his syster and he chose rather to be called Jocelyn Percy than to forsake his owne armes (which be feld ore, a lion rampant, azure), for so shold he have no right title to his father's inheritance, and so of right the Lord Percy shold be Duke of Brabant, tho they be not so indede.' The Lady Agnes survived her husband for nearly a quarter of a century, and died at a great age in 1205. With her the Norman Percies ended. Her eldest son had predeceased her, and, on her death, the honours of her house devolved on her grandson, William de Percy, then in his fifteenth year. Meanwhile her second son, Richard, had inherited the property of his aunt, the Countess of Warwick, and he now assumed the baronial rights, and administered the great possessions, of his nephew the youthful William. This Richard de Percy, one of the signatories of Magna Charta, was a bold and turbulent Baron, and had no notion of surrendering, even on the termination of his nephew's majority, the advantages which he had thus accidentally acquired. After much litigation, it was decided that he and his nephew should divide the property during his lifetime, and that he should continue to be the official head of the family, and that on his death the two moieties of the great estate should be reunited in the possession of his nephew. He died in 1244, and his nephew, William de Percy, who then first succeeded to the full enjoyment of his undoubted rights, died in the following year. His son Henry de Percy, who now became ninth Baron, married Alianore, daughter of John Plantagenet, Earl of Warren and Surrey, and dying in 1272, was succeeded by his only surviving son, Henry de Percy. We have now arrived at a critical turning-point in the fortunes of the House. Henry de Percy was essentially and pre-eminently a soldier. Throughout his life he was engaged in enterprises of arms. He fought with conspicuous gallantry and success in Scotland, Wales, and France, and, in recognition of his great services to the King, he obtained the royal license to purchase the lordship and Castle of Alnwick. This acquisition placed him at once in the foremost rank of English nobles, and the connection of the Percies with Northumberland dates from this period. Till then, they had belonged to Yorkshire. Alnwick Castle would seem to have fallen into a very dilapidated condition before it was transferred to Henry de Percy. Indeed, he practically rebuilt it. A learned and laborious antiquary, the Rev C. H. Hartshorne, thus sums up his research into the structural antiquities of the Castle. It was Henry de Percy who built 'the barbican and gate-house of approach, the western garret, the Abbot's Tower, the Falconer's Tower, the Armourer's Tower, the Postern Tower or Sally-Port, the Constable's Tower, the Ravine Tower, the tower and gateway betwixt the outer and middle baly, great portion of the east side of the keep, the well, and in all probability a tower standing on the foundation of the present Record Tower; as well as all the intermediate ones westwards up to the barbican. There are marks of his work more or less numerous throughout the whole building in this direction. Obliterated in some places by modern reparation, then again apparent for a few feet, mingled with earlier and disfigured by later masonry, it is yet perpetually apparent, and unmistakably shows how much of the building is due to his exertions.' In 1299 Henry de Percy was summoned to Parliament, and from this time on he and his descendants bore the style of Lord Percy of Alnwick. He joined the Baronial confederacy against Piers de Galvestone, and after the execution of that adventurer, fell under the royal displeasure; but was pardoned, and re-instated in his honours. He was taken prisoner at Bannockburn, was ransomed, and died in the prime of life, in 1314. He had married Eleanor Fitzalan, daughter of the Earl of Arundel, and by her he left a son, Henry, who now succeeded as second Lord Percy of Alnwick. Though only fifteen years old when he succeeded, this young Lord Percy discovered a precocious skill in arms, and not only obtained during his minority the control of Alnwick Castle, but was entrusted with the defence of Scarborough and Pickering Castles. Castles. He took a prominent part in the baronial opposition to Hugh Despenser, and, after the death of Edward ÎÌ., withstood with equal firmness the usurped authority of Queen Isabel and her ally Mortimer. By this conduct, Lord Percy acquired the gratitude and goodwill of Edward III., who appointed him Governor of Skipton Castle and Warden of the Marches, and later conferred on him the Castle, manor, and lands of Warkworth, one of the most renowned fortresses of the border. He served with distinction in France and Scotland, and died in 1352. He left his memorial in the enlargement and fortification of Alnwick Castle, where the two octagonal towers which he added to the inner baly still display the armorial bearings of his kinsfolk, the Cliffords, Arundels, De Vescis, Umfrevilles, Nevilles, and Fitz Walters. By his wife Idonia, daughter of Robert, Lord Clifford, he had a son and successor, Henry, third Lord Percy of Alnwick. This lord was a man of war from his youth,' and though parvus miles, and vir parvæ staturæ, he had borne a man's part in the great fight of Crecy before he succeeded to his title. His marriage was worthy of his character and fortune, for he obtained (in her fourteenth year) the hand of Lady Mary Plantagenet, daughter of Henry, Earl of Lancaster, and greatgranddaughter of Henry III. Dying in 1368, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry, fourth Lord Percy of Alnwick, who was created Earl of Northumberland on the coronation of Richard II. He filled the highest offices of State; was Marshal of England till he resigned that dignity in favour of the Earl of Arundel; was one of the Council of Regency in the King's minority; and figured in turn as General, Admiral, Legislator, and Ambassador. But his great administrative gifts seem to have been combined with a strong tendency towards conspiracy and intrigue. He bore a conspicuous part in the transactions which led to the abdication of Richard; but, though he acquiesced in the assumption of the Crown by Henry of Lancaster, he ultimately took up arms against the new King. Attainted and outlawed, he fell in the fight at Bramham Moor in 1407. By his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Ralph, Lord Nevill of Raby, the Earl of Northumberland was the father of Henry Percy, the famous Hotspur,' of whom, as he predeceased his father (falling at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403), there is no occasion to give a detailed account. The reversal of the attainder in 1414 restored the Earldom of Northumberland to Hotspur's son and heir, Henry Percy, second Earl of Northumberland. This young Earl, who was educated at the Scotch Court and the University of St. Andrew's, filled various offices of |