Part 8

It may be accepted as probable that the first Norman by whom this barony was held was Gilbert Tyson, standard-bearer of the Conqueror, the kind of personage who very naturally would be intrusted with the charge of a remote and turbulent northern district. His descendants continued to hold some estates under the lords of Alnwick in the reign of Edward III., but there is no foundation for the legend that the barony of Alnwick passed to Yvo de Vesci by his marriage with Alda, a granddaughter of Gilbert Tyson. Still, by whatever means he may have acquired possession, Yvo de Vesci was lord of Alnwick about the year 1096; and he also is the first Norman baron of this barony whose history, scanty as it is, rises above doubt and speculation. He died about the year 1134, leaving, without any male issue, an only daughter, Beatrix, his sole heiress.

Before we pass on to trace the fortunes of the descendants of Yvo de Vesci, a brief notice must be taken of a memorable incident which took place in the immediate neighbourhood of Alnwick before Yvo himself had become its lord. After the Norman Conquest many of the Anglo-Saxon nobles found a sympathizing refuge to the north of the Border, under the protection of Malcolm Caenmore, or “great head,” King of Scotland, whose queen was an Anglo-Saxon princess, being sister to Edgar Atheling. Malcolm, in his zeal for the fallen Anglo-Saxon dynasty, five times made incursions into Northumberland, laid waste the country far and wide with fire and sword, and carried away almost the entire adult population as slaves into Scotland. This devastating warfare was suspended in consequence of a treaty, during the concluding years of the reign of the Conqueror; but it broke out afresh after the succession of Rufus, and Malcolm, accompanied by Prince William, his eldest son, in person led an expedition as far south as Alnwick; and there, on the 13th of November, 1093, the king himself fell in an ambuscade, his son at the same time was mortally wounded, and the Scottish army was dispersed by Earl Robert de Mowbray, the governor of Bamborough Castle. The body of Malcolm, having rested about thirty years at Tynemouth, was removed and re-interred at Dunfermline by his son Alexander. There still remain two fragments of a rude memorial cross, which, from an early period, has marked the spot assigned by tradition to the scene of Malcolm’s discomfiture and death; and, in 1774, one of his descendants, Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland, erected on the same spot another cross, designed in accordance with the debased architectural taste of that period.

The one circumstance connected with the career of Yvo de Vesci that has come down to us is the fact that he began to build the earliest parts of the existing castle of Alnwick. With the barony, the castle of Alnwick passed to Eustace Fitz-John by his marriage with Beatrix, the heiress of Yvo de Vesci. In the hands of this able baron, Alnwick Castle was “most strongly fortified:” he also founded the monastery of Alnwick, and in 1157 was succeeded by his eldest son, William, who, in honour of his mother, assumed the name of De Vesci. In the time of this baron, another King of Scotland found that the neighbourhood of Alnwick Castle was no place of safety. In the year 1174 William the Lion, while besieging the fortress of the De Vescis, was taken prisoner, and the large army under his command was completely routed, De Vesci himself taking an active part in the fierce struggle. His descendant, John De Vesci, who died in 1288, leaving no issue, founded and endowed Hulne Abbey; and he was the first baron of his house who was summoned by the king to the parliament by writ, his predecessors having been barons by tenure. William De Vesci III., one of the claimants of the Scottish crown, was born in 1245, and succeeded to the barony of Alnwick on the death of his brother. The last baron of Alnwick of his race, he died in 1297, without legitimate issue, having infeoffed the celebrated Anthony Bec, Bishop of Durham, with all his lands and his castle of Alnwick, to hold them in trust for an illegitimate son. But in 1309 the bishop sold the castle and barony of Alnwick to Henry de Percy; and this conveyance was confirmed by Edward II. in 1310.

Deriving, as it would seem, their memorable name from that district in Normandy in which from an early period, long before the Norman Conquest of England, their family had been established, the PERCIES were represented in the ranks of the Conqueror at Hastings by William de Percy, who assumed the additional name of Le Gernons, or Algernon, as a personal epithet denoting the mass of hair which he wore about his face. About 1166, or almost an exact century after the battle of Hastings, the wealth, dignities, and power of the Percies centred in an heiress who, perhaps in 1168, married Josceline de Louvain, second son of the Duke of Brabant, and half-brother to the second queen of Henry I. of England. A legend has been preserved, which relates that on her marriage with Josceline, Agnes de Percy stipulated that her husband, at his own option, should assume either the arms or the name of Percy; and it is added that the bridegroom elected to retain his own arms, the blue lion rampant of Brabant, while he assumed the paternal surname of his bride. This legend, however, must be regarded as the poetic offspring of a later age, since at the time of the marriage of Agnes de Percy armorial insignia had neither assumed any definite character, nor had any such insignia become hereditary.

There is nothing to show that Josceline de Louvain ever bore the name of Percy; but it is certain that the surname of his mother was assumed and borne by the second son of Josceline’s marriage with the Percy heiress, Henry de Percy; and by his descendants and successors the same name was regularly borne. It was Sir Henry de Percy, third of the name, who in 1309, the second year of Edward II., when already he was possessed of vast wealth, and great power, became the _first Lord of Alnwick of the House of Percy_, by purchase from Bishop Anthony Bec. Having taken an active part in the wars with Scotland and otherwise distinguished himself among the foremost men of his time, Henry, first Baron Percy of Alnwick, died in 1315, and was buried at Fountains Abbey, to which institution he had been a munificent benefactor. One of the powerful barons who signed the memorable letter to Pope Boniface VIII., in which the peers of England refused to recognise or allow the interference of Papal authority with the independent sovereignty of this realm, he married Eleanor Fitz-Alan, daughter of Richard, Earl of Arundel, by whom he had two sons, and of these the elder, another Henry de Percy, succeeded his father as second Baron Percy of Alnwick, to whom was granted by Edward III. the castle and manor of Warkworth “for service in peace and war,” as appears from the original grant now in the Duke of Northumberland’s possession. This Lord Percy was interred at Alnwick Abbey, the only head of the family buried in Northumberland. The history of the lords of Alnwick from this period becomes so closely interwoven with the history of England, that it would be superfluous in such a sketch as the present to attempt to introduce even a slight outline of the career of each of those renowned barons; and, indeed, if it were desirable, it would not be possible here to find space for the very slightest outline of so comprehensive a subject. Accordingly, we now are content to give but little more than the succession of the Percies after they became lords of Alnwick.

Henry de Percy, eldest son of the first baron, succeeded his father as second Baron Percy of Alnwick; he died in 1352, leaving, by his wife Idonea de Clifford (whose magnificent monument, with its rich and splendid architectural canopy, unsurpassed in England, and also without a rival in its remarkable condition of preservation, is the pride of Beverley Minster), four sons, of whom the eldest, Henry, succeeded as third Baron Percy of Alnwick. This baron died in 1368; his eldest son, by Mary of Lancaster, Henry de Percy, sixth of his name and fourth baron, was created EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND by Richard II., and High Constable of England. This great noble fell a victim to the tyranny of Henry IV., at Bramham Moor, in 1409. He was thrice married: first to Elizabeth, heiress to the Earl of Angus, by whom he acquired the barony of Prudhoe; secondly to Margaret de Neville; and thirdly to Maud de Lucy, sister and heiress of Lord Lucy, widow of Gilbert de Umfraville, and mother of her second husband’s first wife: and by these alliances the barony of Prudhoe, with the estates of the Lucys and the castle and honour of Cockermouth, became annexed to the Percy earldom. Sir Henry de Percy, known by his surname of HOTSPUR as well in song as in history,—

“Who was sweet Fortune’s minion and her pride,”

the earl’s eldest son, was killed near Shrewsbury in 1403. At Trotton, in Sussex, a fine monumental brass commemorates Elizabeth de Mortimer, wife of Hotspur, and afterwards of Lord Camoys.

After several years the fortified honours and estates of the Percies were restored to Henry, the son of Hotspur, who thus became the second Earl of Northumberland. This great earl was killed, fighting under the red-rose banner, at St. Albans, in 1455; and was succeeded by his fourth surviving son, by his marriage with Eleanor de Neville, another Henry, who, with one of his brothers, fell at the disastrous rout of Towton, in 1461. Two other brothers of this earl died in arms in the Lancastrian cause; one of them, Sir Ralph de Percy, a few days before the final catastrophe at Hexham in 1464, was killed fighting bravely on Hedgeley Moor, where a cross was erected as a memorial of his valour and his fall: of this cross the shaft, adorned with the heraldic insignia of Percy and Lucy, is still standing. Under the third earl, who, by his marriage with Eleanor de Poynings, acquired the baronies of Poynings, Fitzpayne, and Bryan, the estates attached to the earldom reached their greatest territorial extent, and constituted a vast principality.

In 1469 the attainder of the third earl having been reversed, his only son, Henry, became the fourth earl; he was killed in a popular tumult in 1489, when his eldest son, by his marriage with Maud de Herbert, Henry Algernon, succeeded as fifth earl. Remarkable rather for an almost regal state and magnificence than for the warlike qualities that before his time had been hereditary in his house, he was the first Earl of Northumberland who did not fall in battle or otherwise suffer a violent death. He died in 1527, having married Catherine Spense, or Spencer. The Household Book of this earl, which has been published by Bishop Percy, is one of the most remarkable and characteristic documents that illustrate the personal history of the greatest English nobles in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His son, the sixth earl, a second Henry Algernon de Percy, the lover of Anne Boleyn in her earlier and really happier days, married Mary Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, but in 1537 died without issue, when the grand Percy earldom became extinct.

Twenty years later, “in consideration of his noble descent, constancy, virtue, and valour in deeds of arms, and other shining qualifications,” of which last recommendations to royal favour the fact that he was a zealous Roman Catholic certainly was not the least influential, Thomas de Percy, eldest son of the second son of the fifth earl (Sir Thomas Percy), was created by Queen Mary, Baron Percy, and also restored to the earldom of Northumberland; but the tenure by which the restored earl was to hold his dignities and lands restricted the succession absolutely to the heirs male of his own body, and to those of his brother. This the seventh earl was executed, as a traitor, at York, in 1572, leaving no surviving son. Accordingly, his brother, Henry de Percy, became the eighth earl: he died in 1585, having been shot (it was said, but most doubtfully, by his own hand) while a prisoner in the Tower. The eldest son of this earl, by Catherine de Neville, Henry, succeeded as ninth earl: he was a learned, eccentric personage, commonly known as “the Wizard,” and died, after an imprisonment of fifteen years in the Tower, in 1632. He married Dorothy Devereux, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Algernon, one of the noblest of his race. This great earl died in 1668, having married, first, Anne Cecil, and, secondly, Elizabeth Howard. His successor, his only son (by his second marriage), Josceline de Percy, the eleventh and last earl of Northumberland of the direct lineage of the Percies, died in 1670, leaving, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Southampton, an only child, a daughter, Elizabeth de Percy, four years old at the time of her father’s death.

Here we pause, before we trace onwards the fortunes of the later lords of Alnwick, that we may direct our attention to the history of their grandest northern fortress-home, Alnwick Castle.

The plan of the castle, as it exists at the present time, is shown in our engraving; and it will be seen that five distinct periods in the architectural history are indicated by varieties of shading introduced into the outlines. The extreme extent of the walls from east to west slightly exceeds 1,000 feet; while that from north to south is somewhat less than 600 feet. The varied outline of the space enclosed within the walls, which in a great measure has been determined by the nature of the ground, in an infinite degree enhances the equally noble and picturesque aspect of the edifice. The figures in the plan refer to the various parts of the castle in the manner following:—1, is the Barbican; 2, the Gateway to the second Baly; 3, the Octagonal Towers; 4, the Norman Gateway; 5, the Grand Staircase; 6, the Guard Chamber; 7, the Principal Ante-Room; 8, the Library; 9, the Saloon; 10, the Drawing-Room; 11, the Dining Hall; 12, the Chapel; 13 and 14, State Bed-Rooms, 15, Boudoir of the Duchess; 16, Kitchen; 17, Estate Offices; 18, Laundry; 19, Guest-Hall; 20, Stables; 21, Riding-School; 22, West Garret; 23, Abbot’s Tower; 24, Falconer’s Tower; 25, Postern Tower; 26, Constable’s Tower; 27, Ravine Tower; 28, East Garret; 29, Warder’s Tower; 30, Auditor’s Tower; 31, Clock Tower; and 32, the Avener’s Tower. Thus, the open ground within the circumvallation, as will be seen by the plan, is divided into two irregular spaces, the outer and the inner Baly, the outer being toward the west. Occupying a central position is the Keep, a grand cluster of towers and curtain-walls, enclosing an open court-yard: of these towers, the new Prudhoe Tower, within which is the Library (No. 8), with its lofty banner-turret, is the most conspicuous. Running south, commencing with No. 13 and extending to No. 2, a new range of buildings connects the Keep with the early Percy gateway between the balies, and with the main southern curtain. In this direction, all the buildings, from No. 29 to No. 17, and from thence (with the exception of No. 31, which is one of the flanking towers of the main curtain) to No. 19 southward, and to No. 21 westward, are new, and they have been erected beyond and without the limits of the proper fortification. In like manner, the whole line of curtain-wall, from No. 24 to No. 25, is new. To the north of the Keep the ground falls somewhat rapidly in the direction of the river; from the bridge which here crosses the Aln, the view of THE CASTLE, as its groups of towers and its far-extending walls rise proudly above the encircling woods, is particularly fine and impressive.

The principal approach and entrance to the castle are from the west. Here, to the westward of the original outer face of the fosse, stands the Barbican; an embattled outwork of equal strength and dignity, the work of the first of the Percies, about A.D. 1310. The rounded arch of the entrance gateway here is an example of a usage not very uncommon at the period which has just been specified, and always present in the works of Lord Henry de Perci. The Barbican, which covers an area of 55 feet in length by 32 feet in width, is a perfect example of the style of fortification that was held to be essential for defence against assault in mediæval warfare. One remarkable feature, which is repeated again and again in various parts of the castle, cannot fail at once to attract attention when approaching the Barbican; this is the array of tall figures representing armed warders of the fourteenth century, sculptured in stone, which surmount the parapet, and stand upon the merlons of the embattling, casting their long shadows upon the grey masonry.

Having entered the Barbican, passed under the sculptured Percy lion which keeps guard over the archway, and traversed the entrance tower, we find ourselves within the enclosure of the first or outer baly; here, turning to the left, we commence our survey of the castle within the lines of circumvallation. The curtain-wall, extending from the entrance northwards at a right angle to the Abbot’s Tower, and having midway a garret or wall-tower (No. 22 in plan) built upon it, is part of the old Norman work of the De Vescis, with evident tokens of important reparation a little before the middle of the fifteenth century, by the father of Hotspur, the sixth lord of Alnwick. The Armourer’s Tower (No. 23 in plan), which occupies the N.W. angle of the _enceinte_, is a noble piece of Edwardian architecture; it consists of a vaulted basement, with two stories above it, connected by a turret-stair: and its external massive effectiveness is greatly enhanced by the square turret at the N.W. angle of the tower, which rises boldly above the embattled parapet, having its own merlons crowned with weather-beaten sculptured warders. Now facing eastwards, and soon making a slight inclination towards the east, again we follow the line of the Norman curtain-walls, until we reach the new Falconer’s Tower (No. 24 in plan), which has been built on the site of the razed early Armourer’s and Falconer’s Towers; the original curtain apparently extended in a direct line from No. 24 to the Keep. Passing onwards along the new curtain-wall due east from No. 24, we follow the line of this wall as it turns towards the south, and at No. 25 in the plan brings us to the Postern Tower, another massive relic of the first Lord Percy, placed at the base of the eminence upon which the Keep stands; this tower protects a postern or sally-port, and it has a curious staircase in the thickness of its walls: it is now used as a museum for Roman and British antiquities. Advancing still further eastwards, but with an inclination to the north, and again following the course of De Vesci’s curtain, we reach the Constable’s Tower (No. 26 in plan), of Edwardian architecture, to which there are three external entrances, one in each floor: one chamber in this tower is used as an armoury. Again, as we follow the guidance of the curtain-wall towards the S.E., we have before us the Norman masonry, with traces of Edwardian, or first Percy, reparation. Here, about midway between Nos. 26 and 27 of the plan, an embattled projection from the line of the wall has been entitled “Hotspur’s Chair,” and to the east of this projection a gap in the curtain is filled up with eighteenth-century masonry; this gap a not very well-supported tradition assigns to a fierce assault by some Scots, who are said to have been so far successful as to beat down this portion of the castle-wall, after which exploit the tradition adds that the assailants were cut off to a man by the garrison. This tower, which is called both the Ravine Tower and the Record Tower (No. 27 of plan), stands at the easternmost extremity of the castle; with Edwardian remains in its walls, it was for the most part rebuilt in the last century: on the ground-floor is the muniment-room, in which the records are kept. From this point our course inclines in a south-westerly direction, the curtain being eighteenth-century work, until again, at No. 28 in the plan, we welcome traces of the early masonry: here another garret occurs, with the junction of the Norman and modern masonry; then yet another succeeds, as once more we follow an eighteenth-century wall until we reach the new Lion or Garden Gatehouse, No. 29 in the plan, through which a road leads to Barneyside, where are situated the extensive and beautiful gardens of the castle.

From within this gateway, which is flanked by two octagonal towers, one of them—the Warder’s Tower—larger and loftier than the other, the curtain-wall of the first Lord Percy’s work leads in a direct line nearly due west; we follow the course of this wall, we pass through the middle gate-house, erected by the first of the Percies, which both separates and connects the inner and the outer baly; again, on our left, we have early Norman masonry in the curtain, and then we reach the Auditor’s Tower (No. 30 in plan), another relic of the first Lord Percy: here was held the court of the lord of the barony; here now is the private Library of the Duke; and here also is the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, collected by Duke Algernon, the last munificent restorer of Alnwick. Still following the line of the curtain, we reach the Clock Tower. From this tower, the curtain, built in the last century, leads in a northerly direction to the entrance gateway connected with the Barbican, to which, thus completing our entire circuit, we now return, having passed, since leaving the Clock Tower, the Avener’s Tower or Garner (No. 32 of plan), like the adjoining curtain, a modern work.

During our progress from the garden gate (No. 29 in plan) westward and northward to the Barbican, we have passed the long ranges of new buildings that either adjoin or actually abut upon the outer face of the curtain-walls (Nos. 16 to 21 in plan), by no means unimportant parts of the latest restoration, which comprise all the domestic offices and the whole stable department of the castle. These buildings, which have been planned and constructed with the highest architectural and engineering skill, are on a scale of princely magnitude; and of them it may truly be said that they leave nothing to be desired. Of one only of these new edifices is it necessary that we should make particular mention; this is No. 19 on the plan, a noble apartment, covered with an open timber hammer-beam roof. In consequence of there being in the restored castle no such baronial hall as invariably formed the principal feature in a great mediæval stronghold, Duke Algernon built this Guest Hall in its stead, which might enable himself and his successors to assemble his and their tenantry and friends to partake of the always splendid hospitality of the Percies. This hall has also been used for concerts and various other purposes.

From the Barbican we retrace our steps so far as to traverse the roadway that leads to the inner Gate-House (No. 2 in plan), that we may explore the magnificent Keep: this, however, is a duty we postpone; pausing for a while, and resting beneath the tree that grows beside the Barbican. Presently, we shall resume our biographical sketch, and observe by what means an only daughter once again became the ancestress of a noble lineage, and through them brought to the house and castle of the Percies a still more exalted dignity and a still higher honour than ever before had been attained by them.