PERCY, The name of a noble family whose head, William de Percy, accompanied Wil liam I. to England. and obtained from him thirty knights' fees in the north of England. The rep resentation of the house devolved in the time of Henry I. (1100-35) on Agnes, daughter of the third baron, who married Josceline of Louvain, who assumed the l'ercy name. The head of the family at the time was one of the chief barons who extorted Magma Charta from King John: and the ninth feudal lord in the reign of Edward I. (1272-1307) maintained, with others of the greater barons, the spiritual independence of the English Crown. This nobleman's great-grand son was a distinguished military commander under Edward III., and, acting as marshal of England at the coronation of Richard was created Earl of Northumberland. He subsequent ly, however, took up arms against Richard. and placed the crown on the bead of Henry of Lan caster, who became I henry IV. Again dissatisfied with the Government, he joined in rebellion with his son, Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, for the purpose of transferring the crown to Mortimer. Earl of March. (See PERCY, SIR HENRY.) The Earl, with the other leaders of this rebellion, fell at Bramhain Moor (I40S), and his titles became forfeited. These, however, were revived in favor of his grandson, who became Lord High Con stable of England, and who was killed at the battle of Saint Albans. This Earl's son and
successor (the third Earl) met a like fate on Towton field, fighting in the van of the Lancas trian army. The fourth Earl was murdered by the populace in Northumberland. when ordered by Henry VII. to enforce a subsidy. Tile execu tion of the seventh Earl by Elizabeth.is part of the history of England. The eighth Earl was committed to the Tower. on a charge of being concerned in a plot in favor of Mary Queen of Scots, and died )1 death in prison. The tenth Earl fought in the civil wars against Charles I., though he took no part with the regicides, and eventually joined in the general effort to bring about the Restoration. The eleventh Earl left an only ehild, who succeeded to the ancient barony of Percy. and marrying Charles, Duke of Somerset, became the mother of Algernon, Duke of Somerset, who was created Earl of Northumberland. with remainder to his son-in-law, Sir Hugh Smithson, of Stan wick, in the County of York, a gentleman of respectable lineage. Sir Hugh, succeeding to the earldom, obtained in 1766 his advancement to the Dukedom of Northumberland.