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A Power in the Land: The Percys

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While the first representative of the Percy family in England probably did not fight at Hastings, it's likely that he arrived the following year to found what would become one of the wealthiest and one of the most socially elevated aristocratic dynasties in the country. It survived in its male line until the death at a young age of the 11th Earl of Northumberland in 1670, leaving only a daughter. Elizabeth Percy's third husband was a Seymour and the duke of Somerset and her granddaughter, another Elizabeth, married Sir Hugh Smithson, who adopted the name of Percy and became 1st Duke of Northumberland. It is through this line that the family still survives. Lomas's goal is not to supersede but to update and reinterpret the work of Edward Barrington de Fonblanque (ANNALS OF THE HOUSE OF PERCY, 1887) in light of new data and perceptions. The family's progress in national life was far from smooth and even, being visited at intervals with political disaster, economic near-ruin, and plain bad luck. His approach is one of scholarly detail but his style is quite readable, making this an entirely accessible case study accompanied by a lengthy bibliography.

In the middle ages, the people of northern England "knew no prince but a Percy." The Percy family ruled the English/Scottish borders in the middle ages from their castles at Alnwick, Warkworth, and Prudhoe, among others, serving as march wardens and representatives of the king. They led the English through many battles in the Scottish wars of independence, including the battles of Neville's Cross, Otterburn and Humbleton Hill. Henry Percy, the first Earl of Northumberland, and his famous son, Harry Hotspur, were immortalized by Shakespeare in his play, "Richard II." They were allies of Richard II who turned on him and helped set Henry IV on the throne, only to turn against him, too, with disastrous results.

This book is a survey of the history of the ambitious family of kingmakers that ruled the north and its later descendants who brought stability and honor to the family name. Complete with lots of portraits of the family from the Renaissance on, the book is not terribly in-depth, but is an easy and enjoyable read about one notable family's journey through time.