Kings In The North: The House of Percy in British History

by Alexander Rose

The House of Percy resounds throughout Shakespeare's history plays, the Wars of the Roses and the centuries-long Anglo-Scottish Wars. In the Middle Ages, the earls of Northumberland were famed, or notorious, as the Kings in the North, a region they ran almost as an hereditary domain. Alexander Rose traces the history of this ancient and sometimes haughty dynasty, from the moment William de Percy stepped into England alongside William the Conqueror to the waning of the medieval era after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The book considers the family within its broader context of British history - too often regarded as purely 'Southern English' history - and offers readers the grand sweep of Anglo-Scottish history from the perspective of individuals. The Percys' commanding role in the English wars against Scotland, as well as their part in the Hundred Years War, the Crusades and the politics of the time, feature prominently. Today, as the United Kingdom threatens to crack into its constituent parts,KINGS IN THE NORTH shows us how and why it came together in the first place.

Genres: History, Biography, Medieval, British Literature, Medieval History, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

A little about myself. I was born in the United States, grew up in Australia, educated (to the best of my modest abilities) in Britain, and have now circumnavigated back to the U.S. I served as a writer and producer on the AMC show, "Turn: Washington's Spies," which was adapted from my book, "Washington's Spies."

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or BlueSky (or just go to my website). If you're interested in historical espionage, please do subscribe (free) to my Substack newsletter, "Spionage," at https://alexanderrose.substack.com/

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part fascinating, part aggravating, this discussion of English history from the viewpoint of the Percys of Northumberland tied together lots of loose ends that I knew about the Percys from Shakespeare and novels about Anne Boleyn. It was particularly interesting earlier on, when I had less prior knowledge. (Also he had a habit of occasionally saying something anachronistically British like describing a certain 13th century rebel's appeal as his "bolshi-ness.") Later it became slightly annoying as Rose is what you might call an anti-Ricardian.... Scattered throughout were careless little errors, such as referring to one Percy earl as unmarried not that many pages after describing who he was married to and the birth of his first son...or referring to Richard Duke of York as Richard III's grandfather (he was his father). This always makes me wonder what other errors there were that I did not notice. But there is no other book like this for filling in the detailed history of this prominent medieval family.

[Debby Taylor-Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written history of the Percy, Earls of Northumberland. A must read for any interested in England's medieval power struggle shenanigans.

[Ra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, an interesting read. However, the author assumes that the reader is pretty familiar with both English history and the geography of England and Scotland. As an American, some maps would've been very helpful. Also, the author did not do a good job of keeping people straight. With so many of the same names, the author constantly changed what he would call one person and it was very confusing at times. If I knew more about that period of history and geography, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

[George Fairhurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

What. A. Book! Rose is top of his game with this: a social, political and military history of post Norman Conquest England through the lens of the rise and fall of the Percy family. Informative, well written and just engaging: the author draws you in with speculative motive guessing and a real ability to make you care about what happened to these Earls and Lords some 700 years ago.

Excellent as a book that covers the (many) attempts at English subjection of Scotland, the Wars of the Roses, The Hundred Years War and the turbulent 15th century. Cannot praise highly enough!

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Percy family were indeed very close to exercising the power of "kings" in the north of England. William de Perci, the founder, was not a Companion of the Conqueror, but he arrived from Normandy very soon after Hastings and received his share of the spoils, since the family had ranked high in the nobility of the Contentin for generations. Rose ably sorts out the family’s self-serving traditions (such as claiming descent from Rolf the Ganger), as well as Dugdale’s 17th century research, in developing a probable lineage from at least the early 10th century. He also sets the scene in Yorkshire, showing how and why the Percys were able to acquire so much power and such strong loyalty among lesser barons in the region. In fact, this is far from being a hagiography and Rose may not have a personal connection with the family at all; he never explicitly says, one way or the other. Rather than chronicling each action by each family member over five centuries, he goes to considerable lengths to set their story in historical, social, and political context — especially as this relates to their principal allies and rivals, the Nevilles. The Percys were almost always Wardens of the Marches and often concerned themselves more with the Scots, their immediate hostile neighbors, than with English affairs. They intermarried with the counts of Louvain, acquired Alnwick Castle in 1309, and were created Earls of Northumberland by Richard II following a marriage connection with John of Gaunt. Probably the most famous Percy was "Harry Hotspur," who died at Shrewsbury in the Wars of the Roses. Things got dicey thereafter, with the family (which remained Catholic) being involved with Mary of Scots and the Gunpowder Plot. Two earls spent much of their lives in the Tower and the next fought with the Royalists before the line "daughtered out." The heiress, however, married the duke of Somerset, who in 1766 was created Duke of Northumberland, and it’s their descendants who represent the family today. The author has a fluid, easily absorbed style and while source citations are frequent, he never bogs down in overly academic prose. And the bibliography runs for sixteen pages. This hefty volume is a shining example of what a dynastic study ought to be.

[Barbra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an ongoing project as it contains over 800 pages of historical information which I used to fill in a lot of my history gaps as far as early British History. It was slow reading in spots, but very useful to understand the ongoing problems between Scotland and the British Crown up through the present. The book is a history of the Percy family and their place in British history.

[Jane Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't manage to finish this book. Rose tries hard to lighten his subject matter, but inevitably, at least in the half I read, it's a list of names and battles in which we get lost, without learning anything much about the Percy family itself. But then, little is known about them as people. It seems to me to have been the wrong approach.

[David Stephenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent - incredibly detailed yet still quite the page turner

[Michael Jecks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book for those who want to research the thirteen hundreds, or who want to read a rollicking history of England in turbulent times. I'd certainly recommend it.