Henry PERCY
(9th E. Northumberland)
Born: 27 Apr 1564, Tynemouth Castle
Died: 5 Nov 1632
Buried: Petworth, Sussex, England
Notes: Knight of the Garter.
Father: Henry PERCY (8º E. Northumberland)
Mother: Catherine NEVILLE (C. Northumberland)
Married: Dorothy DEVEREUX (C. Northumberland) 1594
Children:
1. Dorothy PERCY (C. Leicester)
2. Lucy PERCY
3. Algernon PERCY (10º E. Northumberland)
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Known because of his scientific experiments as "the wizard Earl". Better known for the circles he moved in than for his own achievements.
Although his title was from the north of England, Percy's estates were in the south at Petworth House and at Syon House, a few miles north of Richmond-upon-Thames. Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, acquired Syon in 1594 through his marriage to Dorothy Devereeux.
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Henry employed Thomas Percy (c
1560 - 1605) as a rent-collector at
Syon House. Thomas, the great-grandson
of the
4th Earl of Northumberland, was very unscrupulous. He had 34 charges of
dishonesty brought against him. Henry was a Catholic sympathiser and suffered
under the punitive laws passed by
Elizabeth I in the 1580s. In the 1590's, there were many plots attempted to reinstate the Catholic Church on the Throne via Arabella Stuart. A rumour sprang up purporting that Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland, sought Arabella for his wife. Queen Elizabeth knew the Percys as potential trouble makers with a family history of plotting and double-dealing not calculated to inspire confidence. The girl grand-mother, Bess of Hardwick assured the Queen of England that this would not happen. |
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A member of the Durham House trio with Raleigh and Cobham, he entered in secret correspondence with James VI in 1601. Served at the siege of Ostend under Sir Francis De Vere.
When it became clear that the Protestant James VI of Scotland was likely to succeed Elizabeth, Henry sent Thomas on a secret mission to James' court three times in 1602. He said that English Catholics would accept James as king if he reduced the persecution of Catholics. In the event persecution increased. In desperation, Thomas Percy went on to become one of the five conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. When the plot was discovered Thomas Percy fled and was besieged at Holbeache House in Warwickshire. On 8 Nov 1605, a marksman shot dead both Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy with a single bullet. As a result, Henry Percy was suspected of being part of the plot and spent the next 16 years as a prisoner in the Tower of London. Although innocent he was fined by the Star Chamber £30,000 (£4.5m today) because he had made an enemy of Robert Cecil, E. of Salisbury.
This fine so impoverished him, that this and his other Yorkshire castles were unoccupied, and went to ruin. Shortly afterwards, the buildings at Leconfield were totally demolished, and the valuable materials removed for the repair of Wressil Castle. Leland, who visited the castle about 1538 thus describes it: "Lekingfeld is a large house, and standith withyn a great mote yn one very spatious courte. Three parts of the house, saving the meane gate that is made of brike. The park thereby is very fair and large and meetely welle woddid. Ther is a fair tour of brike for a lodge yn the park". The castle stood a little west of the village, and was surrounded by a wide and deep moat, the remains of which are still to be seen.
Henry Percy met friends while in the Tower; these included Thomas Harriot and Sir Walter Raleigh. They discussed advanced scientific ideas and smoked tobacco. Harriot had been a navigational tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh and his captains. From 1598 (or possibly from 1607) Harriot lived in Syon House, Henry's estate near Richmond. There he used a telescope to make a map of the moon several months before Galileo did the same. He may have been the first person to observe sunspots.
In Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" (1594), there is a mention of the "School of Night". It is now usually accepted that this refers of a circle of scientific investigators which met at Syon House. Thomas Harriot and Christopher Marlowe were members. As a result, Henry acquired the nickname "The Wizard Earl". The astrologer John Dee was also a friend of Henry. There is no evidence that William Shakespeare was involved, but it is possible he was.
