The Fall of the House of Percy, 1368-1408

This book traces the parallel careers of the three most famous medieval members of this great northern noble family: Henry Percy, 1st earl of Northumberland (d. 1408); his brother Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester (d. 1403); and his son, Henry ‘Hotspur' Percy (d. 1403). The Rise and Fall of the Percy Family might have served better as a title, for by far the majority of the book is taken up with an account of the increasing fortunes of the family during the second half of the fourteenth century; only a relatively small part considers the Percys' ‘fall' when they became unstuck in the opening years of the fifteenth century in the reign of Henry IV. In its conception, Richard Lomas has chosen a very rich and compelling subject: the fortunes of these noblemen were linked very closely to the political turmoil of the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV so that their story to a great extent overlaps with the more general unfolding of politics, war and rebellion in these years. Of course, at certain key moments, such as Henry's deposition of Richard in 1399 and the rebellions against Henry IV in 1403 and 1405, the Percy family played an absolutely central role in events. It is the broader contextualisation of the mainly political circumstances which influenced the careers of the Percys which is one of the central aims of the book. It is not a work of original research, but rather a synthesis of predominantly secondary published works which are listed in the bibliography

Ancient history · Brother · Fall of man · Fifteenth · Political science · Politics · Reign · Subject (documents · Classics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law