Thomas Northumberland

“ The family of Harbottle was once considerable in Northumberland. (See Fuller, pp. 312, 313.) A daughter of Guischard Harbottle, Esq., married Sir Thomas Percy, Knt., son of Henry the fifth,—and father of Thomas seventh, Earls of Northumberland.
FOOTNOTES:
[212] Froissart speaks of both parties (consisting in all of more than 40,000 men) as entering England at the same time: but the greater part by way of Carlisle.
[213] And, according to the ballad, that part of Northumberland called Bamboroughshire; a large tract of land so named from the town and castle of Bamborough ”

“ Northumberland had many misfortunes. He was constantly ill from a kind of ague. He was burdened with debt, and yet had to keep up a vast establishment and engage in much fighting on his own account. Wolsey treated him like a boy so long as he was in power. He was not often allowed to go to the court, nor even to his father's funeral. To add to his other distresses, he disagreed with his wife, who soon returned to her father, and hated her husband heartily for the rest of his short life. ”

“ For a false knight that brought me here, Even I the fair flower of Northumberland.” They took her up beside them then, (Follow, my love, come over the strand) And brought her to her father again, And she the fair flower of Northumberland. Now all you fair maids, be warned by me, (Follow, my love, come over the strand) Scots never were true, nor ever will be, To lord, nor lady, nor fair England. WHITTINGHAM FAIR. Are you going to Whittingham Fair (Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme) , Remember me to one that lives there, For once she was a true lover of mine. ”

“ By the accidents of the revolution, by 'stout courage and proudness of stomach,' by dexterity, perhaps by crime, Northumberland was become almost absolute—absolute as the able man can always make himself in times of disorder, if he is untroubled with moral scruples, when his competitors for power are as unprincipled as himself, and only his inferiors in capacity. ”

“ But at the last moment a real trial came upon him, and then he showed, as he did all his life, a want of that element of hardness, that backbone as it is sometimes called, which is an indispensable constituent in a really great man in troublous times. Northumberland, as we have seen, had all but completed his scheme by gaining over the young King himself, as well as the most important members of his Council. The King himself, in his zeal for what he called 'the religion,' became impatient for the completion of the arrangement which he had made for its maintenance. ”

“ Northumberland's dissatisfaction with Elizabeth's government now reached a crisis. Simple-minded by nature, he had no political ambitions, but he was devoted to the religion of his fathers, and had inherited a strong sense of his own and his family's importance in the border country. Had no efforts been made to thwart the peaceful exercise of his family's traditional authority, he would doubtless have spent his life in the sports of hunting and hawking, which he loved, and in exchanging hospitalities with his neighbours. ”

“ When he thought he had settled this, he married the Lady Jane to his eldest unmarried son, the Lord Guilford Dudley, and gave her two younger sisters to his friends. The story of the disasters brought thereby on all concerned is universally known.
But it is not so well known that Northumberland’s far-reaching [Pg 249] vision had seen and settled with further possible royal successions, and he betrothed his brother Andrew to the sole daughter and heir of Ellinor, Countess of Cumberland. ”

“ There was a church here, too, in Saxon times, for Bishop Ecfrid built one about the year 830, and in it was buried the Saxon king Ceolwulf who became a monk: the present church has a good deal remaining of the one built on the same site by Bishop Flambard, about the same time as the castle. Earl Gospatric, whom William the Conqueror made Earl of Northumberland in return for a considerable sum of money—doubtless thinking that to give a Northumbrian the Earldom would reconcile the North to his rule—is buried in the church porch. ”

“ Of all the abundance of treasure which Northumberland possesses, from a historical point of view—of all its wealth of interesting relics of bygone days—ancient abbey, grim fortress, menhir and monolith, camp and tumulus—none grips the imagination as does the sight of that unswerving line which pursues its way over hill and hollow, from the eastern to the western shores of the north-land, visible emblem, after more than a thousand years, of the far-flung arm of Imperial Rome. ”

“ His captivity was rendered less severe by the presence in the Tower of other prisoners of intelligence, and more than all the rest of the earl of Northumberland, whom we have already noticed as collecting round him in his prison men of science and literature, and thus converting his cell into a palace of knowledge and refined delight. Northumberland was another of those men who delighted in learning, whom a king really wise and learned would have delighted to honour. But James's love was not a love of learning or literature on its own account, it was a love of himself. ”

“ Northumberland, seeing that opinion was taking a powerful turn in Mary's favour, became fearfully perplexed, and hearing that an adverse force was being collected, came to the resolution that "somebody" must go and oppose the enemy. Who that "somebody" should be, was a very puzzling question, for Northumberland did not like the business himself, and was afraid to trust anyone else with a matter of so much consequence. At length he offered the task to Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey ”

“ Two years after this, a party of Scots under the next Douglas rode into Northumberland, coming nearly as far south as Newcastle. Hotspur set off from Bamburgh, of which castle he was Constable at the time, to intercept them. He awaited them on the banks of the Glen, near Wooler; and the archers of his force went out for forage meanwhile. When the Scots arrived, they found themselves in the presence of an enemy whom they had imagined to be behind them, and they immediately occupied Homildon Hill. ”

“ At the head of Northumberland Street, on the open space of the Haymarket, stands a beautiful winged Victory on a tall column, crowning “Northumbria” typified as a female figure at the foot of the column. This graceful and striking memorial is the work of T. Eyre Macklin, and is in memory of the officers and men of the North who fell in the Boer War of 1899-1902. Two other noteworthy statues in the town are those of Lord Armstrong, near the entrance to the Natural History Museum at Barras Bridge, and of Joseph Cowen, in Westgate Road. ”

“ Some at least must have felt that property and life hung in the balance. But it was Northumberland who, as he had most to lose, had most to fear. The practical head of the State, and wielding a power little less than that of Somerset, he had amassed riches and offices to an amount bearing witness to his rapacity. In matters of religion he had been as strong, though less sincere, in his opposition to the Church claiming Mary’s allegiance as his predecessor. ”

“ When prices fell after the peace he reduced his rents twenty-five per cent.; and the tenantry, to show their gratitude, erected a memorial column in 1816. But when some gave up their farms in expectation of a further reduction, they were forbidden to compete for them again; this prohibition remained in force till the time of the fourth duke.
Northumberland was elected F.S.A. in May 1787, and F.R.S. on 6 March 1788. When Earl Percy, he presented to the king a petition, with twenty thousand signatures, in favour of Dr. ”

“ For the next three hundred years Northumberland was swept by successive waves of raid and reprisal, in the course of which occurred the two well-known events, the attack of William the Lion of Scotland on Alnwick Castle, and the more famous affair still, the struggle between Percy and Douglas known as the battle of Otterburn, which was fought in “Chevy Chase” (Cheviot Forest) . More important poetically than politically, it stands out more vividly in the records of the time than many other conflicts of larger import. ”

“ Surely, if the choice remain of the accuracy of the ballad or the fact of the bridge, it is the duty of all leal North-country people to swear by the ballad. Perhaps the good Bishop did not personally oversee the rebuilding of Chollerford Bridge: more probably the Wear and Tees do not come down with the angry impetuosity of the Tyne in flood!
The remains of the great Roman camp of Cilurnum (The Chesters) may be seen here within Mrs. Clayton’s park. This was the largest military station in Northumberland, Corstopitum, which is very much larger, being more of a civil settlement. ”

“ Northumberland had met Richard at Conwy, to which place he had retired after his return from Ireland, and they were journeying together when, amid the recesses of the mountains, near Penmaen Rhôs, the king descried a large body of soldiers with the Percy banners. The unhappy monarch attempted to escape, but Northumberland seizing the bridle of his horse, compelled him to proceed towards Rhuddlan Castle, where they dined, and in the evening conducted him to Flint. ”

“ In the wild and lovely district where the North Tyne takes its rise, is Kielder Castle, a shooting box belonging to the Duke of Northumberland.
This neighbourhood is the scene of two romantic ballads; that of the “Cowt (colt) of Kielder” and the Ettrick Shepherd’s ballad of “Sir David Graeme.” The deadly enemy of the young “Cowt,” so called from his great strength, is Lord Soulis of Hermitage Castle, on the Scottish side of the border. The Cowt, with his followers, was enticed into the Castle, where Lord Soulis purposed his death ”

“ His troops melted away, leaving their captain at the mercy of his enemies. In the camp confusion prevailed. Northumberland was first put under arrest, then set again at liberty upon his protest, based upon the orders of the Council that “all men should go his way.” Was he, the leader, to be prevented from acting upon their command? Young Warwick, his son, was upon the point of riding away, when, the morning after the scene in the market-place, the Earl of Arundel arrived from Queen Mary with orders to arrest the Duke. ”

“ He was present in 1601 at the siege of Ostend, where he considered himself as so much aggrieved by the conduct of sir Francis Vere, that on the return of this officer to England he sent him a challenge. During the decline of the queen's health, Northumberland was distinguished by the warmth with which he embraced the interests of the king of Scots, and he was the first privy-councillor named by James on his accession to the English throne. ”

“ The Duke passed on, and the procession moved forward to Tower Hill.
The last words of a worthless man are in themselves of little moment; but the effect of the dying speech of Northumberland lends to it an artificial importance. Whether to the latest moment he hoped for his life, or whether, divided between atheism and superstition, he thought, if any religion was true, Romanism was true, and it was prudent not to throw away a chance, who can tell? At all events, he mounted the scaffold with Heath, the Bishop of Worcester, at his side ”

“ With the Tyne and its tributary streams we have already travelled; but there are others yet awaiting us, claiming our attention sometimes for the romantic scenery through which they run their bright course, sometimes for the historic sites they pass on their way, sometimes for both reasons. Wansbeck, Coquet, Aln, or Till—each has its own interest, as has also the Tweed in that score or so of miles along which it can he spoken of in connection with Northumberland. ”

“ In September 1536 he had a grant of 1,000l. to come to London in order to make arrangements about his lands. The matter had not been completed when the northern rebellion known as the ‘pilgrimage of grace’ broke out. Northumberland's brothers and mother were open sympathisers with the rebels, but the earl himself remained loyal. The rebel leader, Aske, and his men came to Wressell, where he was ill in bed. The earl, who is spoken of as ‘Crasyside,’ was besought to resign his commands of the marches into the hands of his brothers, or at all events go over to the rebels. ”

“ The fact is, the present Northumberlands are the issue [3] of a marriage which took place in 1657 between an heiress of the real Percies and one Sir Hugh Smithson, a Yorkshire baronet; and the whole narrative may be read in Burke’s Peerage under the title of ‘Northumberland.’ It does not, however, mention the reply of George III. to one of the dukes of this house who complained to him that he was the first Duke of Northumberland who did not possess the Garter. ”

“ Northumberland had contrived that Edward on his deathbed should disinherit both his sisters in favour of his own daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, and as soon as the throne was vacant it was Northumberland's intention to seize Mary's person. The council sent her a deceitful message at Hunsdon, bidding her visit the king, who was very ill. ”

“ There was yet time to turn back; and had the Reformation been, as he pretended, the true concern of the Duke of Northumberland, he would have brought Mary back himself, bound by conditions which, in her present danger, she would have accepted. But Northumberland cared as little for religion as for any other good thing. He was a great criminal, throwing a stake for a crown; and treason is too conscious of its guilt to believe retreat from the first step to be possible. ”