Henry Percy (Hotspur)
Sir Henry Percy KG known as Sir Harry Hotspur, or Hotspur, was a late-medieval English nobleman. He was a significant captain during the Anglo-Scottish wars, he led successive rebellions against Henry IV of England and was slain at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 at the height of his career. Henry Percy was born 20 May 1364 at either Alnwick Castle or Warkworth Castle in Northumberland, the eldest son of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, Margaret Neville, daughter of Ralph de Neville, 2nd Lord Neville of Raby, Alice de Audley, he was knighted by King Edward III in April 1377, together with the future Kings Richard II and Henry IV. In 1380, he was in Ireland with the Earl of March, in 1383, he travelled in Prussia, he was appointed warden of the east march either on 30 July 1384 or in May 1385, in 1385 accompanied Richard II on an expedition into Scotland. "As a tribute to his speed in advance and readiness to attack" on the Scottish borders, the Scots bestowed on him the name'Haatspore'.
In April 1386, he was led raids into Picardy. Between August and October 1387, he was in command of a naval force in an attempt to relieve the siege of Brest. In appreciation of these military endeavours he was made a Knight of the Garter in 1388. Reappointed as warden of the east march, he commanded the English forces against James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas, at the Battle of Otterburn on 10 August 1388, where he was captured, but soon ransomed for a fee of 7000 marks. During the next few years Percy's reputation continued to grow, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Cyprus in June 1393 and appointed Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine on behalf of John of Gaunt, Duke of Aquitaine. He returned to England in January 1395, taking part in Richard II's expedition to Ireland, was back in Aquitaine the following autumn. In the summer of 1396, he was again in Calais. Percy's military and diplomatic service brought him substantial marks of royal favour in the form of grants and appointments, but despite this, the Percy family decided to support Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, in his rebellion against Richard II.
On Henry's return from exile in June 1399, Percy and his father joined his forces at Doncaster and marched south with them. After King Richard's deposition and his father were'lavishly rewarded' with lands and offices. Under the new king, Percy had extensive civil and military responsibility in both the east march towards Scotland and in north Wales, where he was appointed High Sheriff of Flintshire in 1399. In north Wales, he was under increasing pressure as a result of the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr. In March 1402, Henry IV appointed Percy royal lieutenant in north Wales, on 14 September 1402, his father, the Earl of Dunbar and March were victorious against a Scottish force at the Battle of Homildon Hill. Among others, they made a prisoner of 4th Earl of Douglas. In spite of the favour that Henry IV showed the Percys in many respects, they became discontented with him. Among their grievances were: the king's failure to pay the wages due to them for defending the Scottish border. Spurred on by these grievances, the Percys rebelled in the summer of 1403 and took up arms against the king.
According to J. M. W. Bean, it is clear. On his return to England shortly after the victory at Homildon Hill, Henry Percy issued proclamations in Cheshire accusing the king of'tyrannical government'. Joined by his uncle, Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, he marched to Shrewsbury, where he intended to do battle against a force there under the command of the Prince of Wales; the army of his father, was slow to move south as well, it was without the assistance of his father that Henry Percy and Worcester arrived at Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403, where they encountered the king with a large army. The ensuing Battle of Shrewsbury was fierce, with heavy casualties on both sides, but when Henry Percy himself was struck down and killed, his own forces fled; the circumstances of Percy's death differ in accounts. The chronicler Thomas Walsingham stated, in his Historia Anglicana, that "while he led his men in the fight rashly penetrating the enemy host, was unexpectedly cut down, by whose hand is not known."
Another is. The legend that he was killed by the Prince of Wales seems to have been given currency by William Shakespeare, writing at the end of the following century; the Earl of Worcester was executed two days later. King Henry, upon being brought Percy's body after the battle, is said to have wept; the body was taken by Thomas Neville, 5th Baron Furnivall, to Whitchurch, for burial. However, when rumours circulated that Percy was still alive, the king'had the corpse exhumed and displayed it, propped upright between two millstones, in the market place at Shrewsbury'; that done, the king dispatched Percy's head to York, where it was impaled on the Micklegate Bar, whereas his four-quarters were sent to London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Chester before they were delivered to his widow. She had him buried in York Minster in November of that year. In January 1404, Percy was posthumously declared a traitor, his lands
Berwick Castle
Berwick Castle is a ruined castle in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England. The castle was founded in the 12th century by the Scottish King David I. In 1296–8, the English King Edward I had the castle rebuilt and the town fortified, before it was returned to Scotland. In November 1292, King Edward announced in the great hall before the full parliament of England and many of the nobility of Scotland his adjudication in favour of John Balliol of the dispute between him, Robert the Bruce and the count of Holland for the Crown of Scotland. 1330 "Domino Roberto de Lawedre" of the Bass, described as Custodian or Keeper of the Marches and the Castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed, received upon the termination of his employment there, £33.6s.8d, plus a similar amount, from the Scottish Exchequer. The town and castle changed hands several times during the English-Scottish conflicts. In 1464 the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland record that Robert Lauder of Edrington was paid £20 for repairs made to Berwick Castle. In the 16th century, during the reign of Elizabeth I, the walls were strengthened with the addition of two semi-circular artillery flanking towers, one at the river's edge and the other on the angle of the curtain wall.
The castle's location in the hotly disputed border country between England and Scotland made it one of the most important strongholds in the British Isles, it had an eventful history. As a major tactical objective in the region, the castle was captured by both the English and Scots on a number of occasions and sustained substantial damage; the castle changed hands in less violent circumstances when the English King Richard I sold the castle to the Scots, to help fund the Third Crusade. The castle fell into English hands in the last week of August 1482. After invading Scotland following a pact with the Duke of Albany, Duke of Gloucester captured the castle from Patrick Hepburn, Lord Hailes; the construction of modern ramparts around Berwick in the sixteenth century rendered the castle obsolete and its history is one of steady decline. Large parts of the structure were used as a quarry, while in the nineteenth century, the great hall and much of what remained was demolished to make way for Berwick-upon-Tweed railway station.
The railway platforms now stand where King Edward took oaths of allegiance from Scottish nobility in 1296, marked by a large notice to that effect. The principal surviving part of the structure is the late thirteenth century White Wall and the steep and long flight of steps known as the Breakneck Stairs, it is now administered by English Heritage. Sir William Douglas, 1294–1296 surrendered to Edward I of England following the Massacre of Berwick Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, English governor c.1314 Edmond de Caillou, Gascon governor for the English, Killed at the Battle of Skaithmuir 1316. Sir Robert de Lawedre of the Bass, 1330-3. Patrick de Dunbar, 5th Earl of March, Jan-July 1333. Robert de Lawedre of Edrington, 1461/2–1474. David, Earl of Crawford, 1474–1478. Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass, Knt. 1478–1482. Sir Patrick Hepburn, 1st Lord Hailes, 1482. Sir William Drury, Marshal of Berwick-upon-Tweed, before 1564. Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, appointed 1564 Sir George Bowes of Streatlam, County Durham, Marshal of Berwick.
In 1568 he escorted Queen of Scots, from Carlisle to Bolton Castle. His sister Margery married John Knox. Images of Berwick upon Tweed Castle Berwick Castle The David & Charles Book of Castles, by Plantagenet Somerset Fry, David & Charles, 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3 The History of Scotland, by John Hill Burton, Edinburgh, 1874: vols: iv. p. 364–5, v. pps: 68, 71, 73, 115, 120, 257, 365, for Sir William Drury John Knox, by Lord Eustace Percy, London, 1937, p.165
House of Percy
The House of Percy is an English noble family. They were one of the most powerful noble families in northern England for much of the Middle Ages, known for their long rivalry with another powerful northern English family, the House of Neville; the House of Percy descended from William de Percy, a Norman who crossed over to England after William the Conqueror in early December 1067, was created 1st feudal baron of Topcliffe in Yorkshire, was rebuilding York Castle in 1070. The name derives from the manor of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy, the home of the family at the time of the Norman Conquest. Members have held the titles of Earl of Northumberland or Duke of Northumberland to this day, in addition to Baron Percy and other titles; the Percy surname twice died out in the male line but was re-adopted by the husband of a Percy heiress and by their descendants. In the 12th century, the original Percy line was represented by Agnes de Percy, whose son by her husband Joscelin of Louvain adopted the surname Percy.
Again in the 18th century, the heiress Elizabeth Seymour married Sir Hugh Smithson, who adopted the surname Percy and was created Duke of Northumberland. William de Percy, 1st Baron Percy, who came from the village of Percy in Normandy, was in the train of William I. After arriving in England following the Harrying of the North, he was bestowed modest estates in Yorkshire by Hugh d'Avranches. However, by the reign of Henry II the family was represented by only an heiress, Agnes de Percy following the death of the third feudal baron; as her dowry contained the manor of Topcliffe in Yorkshire, Adeliza of Louvain, the widowed and remarried second wife of Henry I, arranged the marriage of Agnes with her own young half-brother, Joscelin of Louvain. After their wedding, the nobleman from the Duchy of Brabant in the Holy Roman Empire settled in England, he adopted the surname Percy and his descendants were created Earls of Northumberland. The Percys' line would go on to play a large role in the history of both Scotland.
As nearly every Percy was a Warden of the Marches, Scottish affairs were of more concern than those in England. In 1309 Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy purchased Alnwick Castle from Bishop of Durham; the castle had been founded in the late 11th century by Ivo de Vesci, a Norman nobleman from Vassy, Calvados in Normandy. Descendent of Ivo de Vesci John de Vesci succeeded to his father's titles and estates upon his father's death in Gascony in 1253; these included the barony of Alnwick and a large property in Northumberland and considerable estates in Yorkshire, including Malton. Due to being under age, King Henry III of England conferred the wardship of John's estates to a foreign kinsmen, which caused great offence to the de Vesci family; the family's property and estates had been put into the guardianship of Bek, who sold them to the Percys. From this time the fortunes of the Percys, though they still held their Yorkshire lands and titles, were linked permanently with Alnwick and its castle.
Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy, granted the lands of Patrick IV, Earl of March, in Northumberland, by Edward II in 1316, began to improve the size and defences of the castle. He was given the manor and castle of Skipton. Was granted, by Edward III, the castle and barony of Warkworth in 1328, he was at the siege of Dunbar and the Battle of Halidon Hill and was subsequently appointed constable of Berwick-upon-Tweed. In 1346, Henry commanded the right wing of the English Army which defeated a larger Scottish force at the Battle of Neville's Cross, his son, Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy married Mary of Lancaster, an aunt of John of Gaunt's wife Blanche of Lancaster. In 1377 the next Henry Percy, was created Earl of Northumberland, which title he was given after the coronation of Richard II. Nor was this all, for he was that Northumberland whose doings in the next reign fill so large a part of Shakespeare's Henry IV, he was the father of the most famous Percy of all, Henry Percy the fifth, better known as "Hotspur."
Hotspur never became Earl of Northumberland, being slain at Shrewsbury in the lifetime of his father, whose estates were forfeited under attainder on account of the rebellion of himself and his son against King Henry IV. Henry V restored Hotspur's son, the second Earl, to his family honours, the Percys were staunch Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses which followed, the third Earl and three of his brothers losing their lives in the cause; the fourth Earl was involved in the political manoeuvrings of the last Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III. Through either indecision or treachery he did not respond in a timely manner at the Battle of Bosworth Field, thus helped cause his ally Richard III's defeat at the hands of Henry Tudor. In 1489, he was murdered by some of his tenants; the fifth Earl displayed magnificence in his tastes, being one of the richest magnates of his day, kept a large household establishment. Henry Percy, the sixth Earl of Northumberland, loved Anne Boleyn, was her accepted suitor before Henry VIII married her.
He married to the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, but as he died without a son, his nephew, Thomas Percy became the seventh Earl. Thereafter, a succession of plots and counterplots—the Rising of the North, the plots to liberate Mary Queen of Scots, the Gunpowder Plot – each claimed a Percy among their adherents. On this account the eighth and ninth Earls spent many years in the Tower, but the tenth Earl, fought against King Charles in the Civil War, the male line of the Percy-Louvain house ending with Josceline, the eleventh Earl; the heiress to the vast Percy estates married the Duke of Somerset.
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family in the context of a feudal or monarchical system, but sometimes appearing in elective republics. Alternative terms for "dynasty" may include "family" and "clan", among others; the longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, otherwise known as the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house", which may be styled as "royal", "princely", "ducal", "comital" etc. depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members. Historians periodize the histories of numerous nations and civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties; as such, the term "dynasty" may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, to describe events and artifacts of that period. The word "dynasty" itself is dropped from such adjectival references; until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty: that is, to expand the wealth and power of his family members.
Prior to the 20th century, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. In nations where it was permitted, succession through a daughter established a new dynasty in her husband's ruling house; this has changed in some places in Europe, where succession law and convention have maintained dynasties de jure through a female. For instance, the House of Windsor will be maintained through the children of Queen Elizabeth II, as it did with the monarchy of the Netherlands, whose dynasty remained the House of Orange-Nassau through three successive queens regnant; the earliest such example among major European monarchies was in the Russian Empire in the 18th century, where the name of the House of Romanov was maintained through Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna. In Limpopo Province of South Africa, Balobedu determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mother's dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
Less a monarchy has alternated or been rotated, in a multi-dynastic system – that is, the most senior living members of parallel dynasties, at any point in time, constitute the line of succession. Not all feudal states or monarchies were/are ruled by dynasties. Throughout history, there were monarchs. Dynasties ruling subnational monarchies do not possess sovereign rights; the word "dynasty" is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but are, for example, members of a family with influence and power in other areas, such as a series of successive owners of a major company. It is extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team; the word "dynasty" derives from Latin dynastia, which comes from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to "power", "dominion", "rule" itself. It was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, "power" or "ability", from dýnamai, "to be able". A ruler from a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a "dynast", but this term is used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains a right to succeed to a throne.
For example, King Edward VIII ceased to be a dynast of the House of Windsor following his abdication. In historical and monarchist references to reigning families, a "dynast" is a family member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchy's rules still in force. For example, after the 1914 assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg, their son Duke Maximilian was bypassed for the Austro-Hungarian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Since the abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Duke Maximilian and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position; the term "dynast" is sometimes used only to refer to agnatic descendants of a realm's monarchs, sometimes to include those who hold succession rights through cognatic royal descent. The term can therefore describe distinct sets of people. For example, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II through her sister Princess Margaret, is in the line of succession to the British crown.
On the other hand, the German aristocrat Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a male-line descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, possesses no legal British name, titles or styles. He was born in the line of succession to the British throne and was bound by Britain's Royal Marriages Act 1772 until it was repealed when the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 took effect on 26 March 2015. Thus, he requested and obtained formal permission from Queen Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999. Yet, a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time, stipulating that dynasts who
Henry V of England
Henry V called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England from 1413 until his early death in 1422. He was the second English monarch of the House of Lancaster. Despite his short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France, most notably in his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe. Immortalised in the plays of Shakespeare, Henry is known and celebrated as one of the great warrior kings of medieval England. In his youth, during the reign of his father Henry IV, Henry gained military experience fighting the Welsh during the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr and against the powerful aristocratic Percy family of Northumberland at the Battle of Shrewsbury. Henry acquired an increasing share in England's government due to the king's declining health, but disagreements between father and son led to political conflict between the two. After his father's death in 1413, Henry assumed control of the country and asserted the pending English claim to the French throne.
In 1415, Henry embarked on war with France in the ongoing Hundred Years' War between the two nations. His military successes culminated in his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt and saw him come close to conquering France. Taking advantage of political divisions within France, he conquered large portions of the kingdom and Normandy was occupied by the English for the first time since 1345–1360. After months of negotiation with Charles VI of France, the Treaty of Troyes recognised Henry V as regent and heir apparent to the French throne and he was subsequently married to Charles's daughter, Catherine of Valois. Following this arrangement, everything seemed to point to the formation of a union between the kingdoms of France and England, in the person of King Henry, his sudden and unexpected death in France two years condemned England to the long and difficult minority of his infant son and successor, who reigned as Henry VI in England and Henry II in France. Henry was born in the tower above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle in Wales, for that reason was sometimes called Henry of Monmouth.
He was the son of Henry of Bolingbroke and Mary de Bohun, thus the paternal grandson of the influential John of Gaunt, great-grandson of Edward III of England. At the time of his birth, Richard II, his first cousin once removed, was king. Henry's grandfather, John of Gaunt, was the king's guardian; as he was not close to the line of succession to the throne, Henry's date of birth was not documented. However, records indicate that his younger brother Thomas was born in the autumn of 1387 and that his parents were at Monmouth in 1386 but not in 1387, it is now accepted that he was born on 16 September 1386. Upon the exile of Henry's father in 1398, Richard II took the boy into his own charge and treated him kindly; the young Henry accompanied King Richard to Ireland. While in the royal service, he visited Trim Castle in County Meath, the ancient meeting place of the Irish Parliament. In 1399, Henry's grandfather died. In the same year, King Richard II was overthrown by the Lancastrian usurpation that brought Henry's father to the throne and Henry was recalled from Ireland into prominence as heir apparent to the Kingdom of England.
He was created Prince of Wales at his father's coronation and Duke of Lancaster on 10 November 1399, the third person to hold the title that year. His other titles were Duke of Earl of Chester and Duke of Aquitaine. A contemporary record notes that during that year, Henry spent time at The Queen's College, Oxford under the care of his uncle Henry Beaufort, the chancellor of the university. From 1400 to 1404, he carried out the duties of High Sheriff of Cornwall. Less than three years Henry was in command of part of the English forces, he led his own army into Wales against Owain Glyndŵr and joined forces with his father to fight Henry "Hotspur" Percy at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. It was there that the sixteen-year-old prince was killed by an arrow that became stuck in his face. An ordinary soldier might have died from such a wound, but Henry had the benefit of the best possible care. Over a period of several days, John Bradmore, the royal physician, treated the wound with honey to act as an antiseptic, crafted a tool to screw into the broken arrow shaft and thus extract the arrow without doing further damage, flushed the wound with alcohol.
The operation was successful, but it left Henry with permanent scars, evidence of his experience in battle. For eighteen months in 1410–11, Henry was in control of the country during his father's ill health and took full advantage of the opportunity to impose his own policies; when the king recovered, he dismissed the prince from his council. The Welsh revolt of Owain Glyndŵr absorbed Henry's energies until 1408; as a result of the king's ill health, Henry began to take a wider share in politics. From January 1410, helped by his uncles Henry Beaufort and Thomas Beaufort, legitimised sons of John of Gaunt, he had practical control of the government. Both in foreign and domestic policy he differed from the king, who discharged the prince from the council in November 1411; the quarrel of father and son was political only, though it is probable that the Beauforts had discussed the abdication of Henry IV. Their opponents endeavoured to defame the prince, it may be that the tradition of Henry's riotous youth, immortalised by Shakespeare, is due to political enmity.
Henry's record of involvement in war and politics in his youth, disproves this tradition. The most famous incident, his quarrel wi
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate, a great-grandson of King Edward III through his father, a great-great-great-grandson of the same king through his mother. He inherited vast estates and served in various offices of state in Ireland and England, a country he governed as Lord Protector during the madness of King Henry VI, his conflicts with Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, other members of Henry's court, as well as his competing claim on the throne, were a leading factor in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, a major cause of the Wars of the Roses. Richard attempted to take the throne, but was dissuaded, although it was agreed that he would become king on Henry's death, but within a few weeks of securing this agreement, he died in battle. Two of his sons, Edward IV and Richard III ascended the throne. Richard of York was born on 21 September 1411, the son of Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, by his wife Anne de Mortimer, the daughter of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March.
Anne Mortimer was the great-granddaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the second surviving son of King Edward III. After the death in 1425 of Anne's childless brother Edmund, the 5th Earl of March, this ancestry supplied her son Richard, of the House of York, with a claim to the English throne that was, under English law, arguably superior to that of the reigning House of Lancaster, descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of King Edward III. On his father's side, Richard had a claim to the throne in a direct male line of descent from his grandfather Edmund, 1st Duke of York, fourth surviving son of King Edward III and founder of the House of York; this made Richard a prince of blood and member of the ruling dynasty of England, which might have improved his position as contender or possible successor to the throne though his mother's descent gave him a better claim anyway. His adoption of the surname "Plantagenet" in 1448 would serve to emphasize this point, namely his status as an agnate of the English royal family.
Richard's mother, Anne Mortimer, is said to have died giving birth to him, his father, the Earl of Cambridge, was beheaded in 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot against the Lancastrian King Henry V. Although the Earl's title was forfeited, he was not attainted, the four-year-old orphan Richard became his father's heir. Richard had an only sister, Isabel of Cambridge, who became Countess of Essex upon her second marriage in 1426. Within a few months of his father's death, Richard's childless uncle, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, was slain at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415. After some hesitation, King Henry V allowed Richard to inherit his uncle's title and the lands of the Duchy of York; the lesser title but greater estates of the Earldom of March descended to him on the death of his maternal uncle Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, on 18 January 1425. The reason for Henry V's hesitation was that Edmund Mortimer had been proclaimed several times, by factions rebelling against him, to have a stronger claim to the throne than Henry's father, King Henry IV.
Edmund had been a disputed heir of Richard II until his deposition by Henry IV in 1399. However, during his lifetime, Mortimer remained a faithful supporter of the House of Lancaster. Richard would claim to the throne upon his death. Richard of York held the Mortimer and Cambridge claims to the English throne; the Valor Ecclesiasticus shows that York's net income from Mortimer lands alone was £3,430 in the year 1443–44. As he was an orphan, Richard's income became the property of, was managed by, the crown. Though many of the lands of his uncle of York had been granted for life only, or to him and his male heirs, the remaining lands, concentrated in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Yorkshire and Gloucestershire were considerable; the wardship of such an orphan was therefore a valuable gift of the crown, in October 1417 this was granted to Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, with the young Richard under the guardianship of Robert Waterton. Ralph Neville had many daughters needing husbands.
As was his right, in 1424 he betrothed the 13-year-old Richard to his daughter Cecily Neville aged 9. In October 1425, when Ralph Neville died, he bequeathed the wardship of York to his widow, Joan Beaufort. By now the wardship was more valuable, as Richard had inherited the Mortimer estates on the death of the Earl of March; these manors were concentrated in Wales, in the Welsh Borders around Ludlow. They included the Earldom of Ulster, located in Ireland. In a document dated 8 August 1435, he is described as duke of York, earl of March and Ulster, lord of Wigmore, Clare and Connaught. Little is recorded of Richard's early life. On 19 May 1426 he was knighted at Leicester by John, Duke of Bedford, the younger brother of King Henry V. In October 1429 his marriage to Cecily Neville took place. On 20 January 1430, he acted as Constable of England for a duel. On 6 November he was present at th
Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Castle is a castle and country house in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. It is the seat of His Grace The 12th Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest and renovated and remodelled a number of times, it is a Grade. Alnwick Castle guards a road crossing the River Aln. Yves de Vescy, Baron of Alnwick, erected the first parts of the castle in about 1096. Beatrix de Vesci, daughter of Yves de Vescy married Eustace Fitz John, Constable of Chestershire and Knaresborough. By his marriage to Beatrix de Vesci he gained the Baronies of Alnwick; the castle was first mentioned in 1136. At this point it was described as "very strong", it was besieged in 1172 and again in 1174 by William the Lion, King of Scotland and William was captured outside the walls during the Battle of Alnwick. Eustace de Vesci, lord of Alnwick, was accused of plotting with Robert Fitzwalter against King John in 1212. In response, John ordered the demolition of Alnwick Castle and Baynard's Castle, but his instructions were not carried out at Alnwick.
The castle had been founded in the late 11th century by Ivo de Vesci, a Norman nobleman from Vassy, Calvados in Normandy. Descendent of Ivo de Vesci, John de Vesci succeeded to his father's titles and estates upon his father's death in Gascony in 1253; these included the barony of Alnwick and a large property in Northumberland and considerable estates in Yorkshire, including Malton. As John was under age, King Henry III of England conferred the wardship of his estates to a foreign kinsmen, which caused great offence to the de Vesci family; the family's property and estates had been put into the guardianship of Antony Bek, who sold them to the Percys. From this time the fortunes of the Percys, though they still held their Yorkshire lands and titles, were linked permanently with Alnwick and its castle and have been owned by the Percy family, the Earls and Dukes of Northumberland since; the stone castle Henry Percy bought was a modest affair, but he began rebuilding. Though he did not live to see its completion, the construction programme turned Alnwick into a major fortress along the Anglo-Scottish border.
His son called Henry, continued the building. The Abbot's Tower, the Middle Gateway and the Constable's Tower survive from this period; the work at Alnwick Castle balanced military requirements with the family's residential needs. It set the template for castle renovations in the 14th century in northern England. In 1345 the Percys acquired Warkworth Castle in Northumberland. Though Alnwick was considered more prestigious, Warkworth became the family's preferred residence; the Percy family were powerful lords in northern England. Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, helped dethrone him; the earl rebelled against King Henry IV and after defeating the earl in the Battle of Shrewsbury, the king chased him north to Alnwick. The castle surrendered under the threat of bombardment in 1403. During the Wars of the Roses, castles were infrequently attacked and conflict was based around combat in the field. Alnwick was one of three castles held by Lancastrian forces in 1461 and 1462, it was there that the "only practical defence of a private castle" was made according to military historian D. J. Cathcart King.
It was held against King Edward IV until its surrender in mid-September 1461 after the Battle of Towton. Re-captured by Sir William Tailboys, during the winter it was surrendered by him to Hastings, Sir John Howard and Sir Ralph Grey of Heton in late July 1462. Grey was surrendered after a sharp siege in the early autumn. King Edward responded with vigour and when the Earl of Warwick arrived in November Queen Margaret and her French advisor, Pierre de Brézé were forced to sail to Scotland for help, they organised a Scots relief force which, under George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus and de Brézé, set out on 22 November. Warwick's army, commanded by the experienced Earl of Kent and the pardoned Lord Scales, prevented news getting through to the starving garrisons; as a result, the nearby Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh castles surrendered. But Hungerford and Whittingham held Alnwick until Warwick was forced to withdraw when de Breze and Angus arrived on 5 January 1463; the Lancastrians missed a chance to bring Warwick to battle instead being content to retire, leaving behind only a token force which surrendered next day.
By May 1463 Alnwick was in Lancastrian hands for the third time since Towton, betrayed by Grey of Heton who tricked the commander, Sir John Astley. Astley was imprisoned and Hungerford resumed command. After Montagu's triumphs at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham in 1464 Warwick arrived before Alnwick on 23 June and received its surrender next day. After the execution of Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, in 1572 Alnwick castle was uninhabited. In the second half of the 18th century Robert Adam carried out many alterations; the interiors were in a Strawberry Hill gothic style not at all typical of his work, neoclassical. However, in the 19th century Algernon, 4th Duke of Northumberland replaced much of Adam's architecture. Instead he paid Anthony Salvin £250,000 between 1854 and 1865 to remove the Gothic additions and other architectural work. Salvin is responsible for the kitchen, the Prudhoe Tower, the palatial accommodation, the layout of the inner ward. According to the official website a lar
