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Richard
III Society
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Richard
III and the Percys
By Sandra Worth
(Printed in Ricardian Register Fall 2000--Copyright © Sandra
Worth,: used with permission)
[Note on spelling of the plural of Percy: The article as printed in the
Ricardian Register, spells this as Percys as it's done here. However,
you will note many references spell the plural as Percies.]
In contrast to his relationship with the Nevilles
who shaped him, and the Stanleys who came to represent, in some
strange, symbolic sense, the judgment of God on his kingship,
Richard’s relationship with the Percys seems to have been
fairly
clear-cut. On one side stood Sir Robert Percy, a close personal friend
since his boyhood days who fought and died with him at Bosworth; on the
other, Henry Percy, an erstwhile Lancastrian foe and an arch-enemy of
Richard's foster-family, the Nevilles. While the two Percys were
distantly related, familial ties and connections of blood did not
necessarily make for unity in fifteenth century England. Robert
Percy’s father was a Yorkist taken prisoner at the disastrous
battle fought at Wakefield in 1460, and Henry Percy’s father
was
a Lancastrian killed fighting for Henry VI at Towton in 1461. As Ralph
Griffiths observes:
“The higher aristocracy was a great cousinhood, highly
suspicious
of one another on matters of property and local influence, and deeply
divided by jealousies and resentments caused by the very fact of their
blood and marital ties. Therefore, families cooperated politically only
in a minority of instances.”
Not much is known about Sir Robert Percy of Scotton
and he remains a rather obscure figure. Unlike his remote kinfolk, the
Percys of Alnwick, he was a staunch supporter of York. His father,
Robert Percy of Scotton, a follower of the Yorkist Nevilles and the
Duke of York, was taken prisoner at Wakefield, where York was slain
along with Warwick’s father, the Earl of Salisbury, and two
of
their sons. The young Robert Percy was then sent to the household of
the great Yorkist, the Earl of Warwick, to receive his education. It
was there he made the acquaintance of two fatherless boys who were to
become his lifelong friends: Francis Lovell, and Richard, Duke of
Gloucester.
Robert’s birth date is not clear, but it is
possible he may have been born as early as 1445, which would have made
him seven years older than Richard. He probably fought with Richard at
Barnet, but he must not have enjoyed a military reputation, as there is
no record of any service in the 1481-1482 campaign against the Scots
where so many of Richard’s northern followers were knighted.
There is no doubt, however, of his close friendship with Richard. He
received a knighthood the day before Richard’s coronation,
was
prominent in the ceremonies that followed, and along with
Richard’s other devoted boyhood friend, Francis Lovell, he
was
singled out to serve the King and Queen at their coronation banquet, a
high honor perhaps akin to the modem equivalent of being chosen
bridesmaid at a wedding.
During the two years of Richard’s kingship,
Robert Percy was at his side much of the time, enjoyed great favor and
was clearly trusted. He kept the faith to the end and died fighting for
Richard at Bosworth. In 1487, his son Robert (by his first wife,
Ellinor, daughter of Sir Ralph Bewley), joined the Earl of Lincoln and
Francis Lovell at Stoke in their rebellion against Henry VII. After
Lincoln’s defeat, this Robert was attainted, but his
attainder
was reversed two years later, and his posterity continued at Scotton
for several generations.
Henry Percy’s relationship with Richard could
not differ more dramatically from Robert Percy’s record of
friendship, affection, and abiding loyalty.
The main facts of Henry Percy’s life, his
actions at Bosworth and subsequent murder, are well documented, but
nothing has survived to illuminate his humanity and he remains a stiff
cardboard figure in history. No known great acts of kindness, valor, or
accomplishment are attributed to him by any of his contemporaries, and
no personal letters have survived to give us an insight into his
thoughts. Only at Alnwick Castle does a stone inscription provide a
faint glimpse into the psyche of the man regarded as one of
history’s greatest traitors. There, above the doorway of the
barbican, stands the Percy shield, the lion rampant of Louvain carved
in stone, and the motto Esperance ma Comforte, which was placed there
sometime between 1469-89.
Henry Percy, the fourth Earl of Northumberland, was
born in 1446, and on his father’s attainder was placed in
captivity for nine years. This imprisonment appears not to
have
been strict, and his transfer to the Tower was of short duration, a
matter of only a few months under Warwick in 1469. Nevertheless it
seems to have exacted a heavy toll on the twenty-three year old Percy.
His motto, In Hope is my Comfort, devised sometime during the years of
his captivity, brings to mind the image of a young man reared to
inherit a virtual kingdom and wield enormous power who, instead, sits
in confinement, mulling the circumstances that brought about his
predicament, hoping for freedom and chafing at the Yorkist yoke placed
around his neck. These long years of captivity and resentment of York
led to a certain grim determination. He would never let it happen
again. In future, should he regain his freedom, he would commit to no
one but himself, do nothing that might jeopardize his interests. From
now on, the young man tells himself, Percy stands for Percy. Nothing
else matters, not honor, not justice, not loyalty, oaths, or promises.
An analysis of his handwriting corroborates this
assessment. According to Florence Graving, a Master Certified
Graphoanalyst with extensive experience in handwriting analysis for
corporations, legal firms, and in court testimony as an expert witness,
handwriting cannot predict actions, but traits in evidence can be
projected into a psychological personality profile.
As we would expect, Henry Percy’s psychological profile is
far from flattering.
Percy was aggressive and didn’t hesitate to
push past people to get what he wanted. He was also overly sensitive to
criticism and imagined it where none existed. No doubt these traits
surfaced when he was in Richard’s service governing the
North,
causing friction and straining their relationship. Richard could not
have been unaware of the resentment his superior authority elicited,
and to his credit, he made every effort to accommodate the prickly
lord. On one occasion, the city of York discharged one of their clerks,
and the man went to Percy, who reinstated him. The city appealed to
Richard. He looked into the matter, and not wishing to over-rule Percy
on his own authority, and doing his utmost to be fair, he had
Edward’s own lawyers examine the case. The King’s
lawyers
found for the city and Richard had to rule against Percy. On another
occasion they each backed different men for the post of prior of
Tynemouth and Richard’s candidate won the position. A man
like
Percy would have taken this defeat as a personal affront, and Richard,
as sensitive and highly intelligent as he was, could not have been
ignorant of the fact.
At other times, when the city of York received
conflicting commands, one from Percy, the other from Richard, they
ignored Percy and did Richard’s bidding. Richard may not
always
have known, but given Percy’s psychological profile and his
subsequent actions at Bosworth, the touchy earl must have smoldered.
These incidents led to an agreement between Richard
and Henry Percy in 1474 in which Richard undertook to be the
earl’s good and faithful lord and promised not to claim any
office or fee granted to the earl by the king or others, and not to
take into his service any men retained by the earl.
“Clearly,” writes Rosemary Horrox,
regarding this
indenture, “Percy had felt himself seriously threatened by
Gloucester’s position in the north. The agreement was
designed to
protect Northumberland from direct encroachment and to defuse a
potentially dangerous rivalry.”
Richard, in his pursuit of justice for the poor,
established the Council of the North as a sort of court of appeals, and
less than three months later, the Council dealt successfully with a
riotous protest against certain enclosures of land. According to Paul
Murray Kendall, “this success, however, offended the proud
Henry
Percy, whom the city had ignored in making its appeal to the
Council.” And proud he was, this
Percy—‘a
conceited peacock’, says his handwriting. And envious. He
coveted
material possessions and power. Mindful that his family had been
all-powerful in the North for a hundred years, a man like Percy, the
greedy, vain, conceited heir of Hotspur, would not have taken kindly to
Richard clipping his wings, no matter how fair and diplomatic Richard
tried to be.
But according to his handwriting, Percy
successfully concealed the defective inner man behind a pleasant
exterior. This is confirmed by the facts as we know them. Referring to
the indenture agreement made between Richard and Percy, Horrox states
that it seems to have succeeded, and for the rest of the reign the two
nobles apparently cooperated. In a similar vein, M.A. Hicks
states that “the relationship operated on a basis of mutual
respect and warmth and worked well in practice.”
Percy’s handwriting, however, reveals that
behind this friendly and outgoing public demeanor lurked a
self-centered and self-interested human being. No one would have
guessed that inwardly he never committed to anyone or anything except
his own well-being, that in a crisis he would put his own interests
first and do whatever was best for him alone, with no regard to the
welfare of others, no remorse, and no backward glance. There was no
reason for Richard to suspect the inner man was unreliable and utterly
untrustworthy, that he had a rebellious streak and would disregard
laws, promises, and oaths when it suited him, and that he justified his
actions to himself and reserved for himself a mental "exit door" which
he could choose to take when he considered it best for him to do so,
despite utterances and even feats which might appear as loyal
dedication. Kendall’s summary of Henry Percy’s
character is
worth noting:
“His great-grandfather had lost his life fighting against
Henry
IV. His father had lost his life ... fighting against Edward IV...
Restored to the dignity in March of 1470, Henry, Earl of
Northumberland, had made up his mind that he would remain aloof from
any struggles for the English crown. Henceforth the House of Percy
stood only for the House of Percy. When Edward returned from
Burgundy... Percy sat upon his estates, neutral, content to accept
Henry or Edward for his sovereign.
His long association with Richard, Richard’s courtesy and
good will when Duke of Gloucester, Richard’s munificent gifts
to
him of estates and offices when King, did not change his attitude...
Despite Richard’s generosity and favor, he nursed a
resentment,
grim and low-keyed—for he appears to have been a colorless,
low-keyed individual—against the man who had won first place
in
the hearts of the North, and against the King who had established a
royal council to dispense the King’s justice and keep the
King’s peace in Yorkshire. He could only look backward... and
he
felt himself diminished in comparison with his ancestors, who had ruled
the North as they pleased and dispensed their own justice as they saw
fit.”
Esperance ma Comforte. Clearly, Percy never forgot
those nine long years of captivity when all he had was hope. He would
not go back to them. He would do nothing that might jeopardize what he
had regained. On that fateful August day at Bosworth field, he sat his
horse impassively, withheld his aid and, unmoved, watched Richard
gallop to his death.
Henry Percy won himself another four years of life
with his treason. But the man he was—had become—the
man who
ignored his word, cared nothing for justice or fair-play, who was vain,
greedy, power-hungry, untrustworthy, and aggressive, and who lived only
for his own self-interest, finally reaped the harvest of his deeds on a
road in Thirsk. As he was dragged from his horse and murdered by a
small band of commoners, his retinue of eight hundred men sat their
horses, and watched.
i.
Worth, Sandra; Richard and the Nevilles. The Ricardian
Register, Summer, 1999; pp. 4-7
ii.
Worth, Sandra; Richard and the Stanleys, ibid; Fall, 1999;
pp.4-7
iii.
Griffiths, Ralph; KINGS AND NOBLES IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES; St.
Martin’s Press, 1986, p. 37
iv.
The earldom
became extinct after the eleventh Percy Earl of Northumberland died
without an heir in 1670. In 1750 Sir Hugh Smithson succeeded to the
Alnwick estates and was created Duke of Northumberland some years later
for his political services to King George III. The present duke, Ralph,
is the 12th Duke of Northumberland and not a descendant of the medieval
Percys
v.
Horrox, Rosemary; RICHARD III: A STUDY OF SERVICE; Cambridge University
Press; p.62
vi.
Horrox, Rosemary; ibid;
vii.
Kendall, Paul Murray; RICHARD THE THIRD, p.378, and YORK
RECORDS, pp. 190-199
viii.
Horrox, Rosemary; ibid; p. 62
ix.
Hicks, M.A.; WHO’S WHO IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND;
Shepheard-Walwyn, 1991; pp. 344
x.
Kendall, Paul Murray; ibid; pp. 426-427
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