Percy, Henry, 1st earl of Northumberland, (1342-1408), English statesman;leading figure during the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV
Percy, noble English family which came to England with William theConqueror and held land in n. England; family name of earls and dukes ofNorthumberland.
Percy (family)
The Percy family, descended from Normans who were first settled byWilliam I (the Conquerer) in Yorkshire, played an important role inEnglish political history. The acquisition (1309) of Alnwick Castle byHenry Percy, 1272-1315, made the family a power on the Scottish border.Another Henry Percy, b. 1342, d. Feb. 20, 1408, an associate of Johnof Gaunt's, was named 1st earl of Northumberland in 1377. He and his sonHenry--nicknamed Hotspur--b. May 20, 1364, d. July 21, 1403, supportedHENRY IV against Richard II in 1399, but the Percys later quarreled withHenry over the ransom of Scottish prisoners. Both died in rebellionsagainst Henry IV--Hotspur at Shrewsbury and Northumberland at BramhamMoor. During the Wars of the Roses (1455-85), members of the Percyfamily supported the Lancastrian king Henry VI; after his Yorkist rivalbecame king (1461) as Edward IV, the Percys lost their earldom andestates until 1470.
The family retained strong attachments to the Roman Catholic church afterthe Reformation. Sir Thomas Percy was executed in 1537 for supportingthe Pilgrimage of Grace, a Catholic uprising in northern England. Hisson, Thomas Percy, 7th earl of Northumberland, 1528-72, was beheaded forsupporting Mary, Queen of Scots and Roman Catholicism in the NorthernRebellion against Elizabeth I in 1569. Another Thomas Percy, b. c.1560,d. Nov. 9, 1605, was involved in the Gunpowder Plot (1605) againstParliament and King James I; and Henry Percy, 9th earl ofNorthumberland, b. 1564, d. Nov. 5, 1632, was imprisoned on suspicionof complicity.
In 1766 the Percy family acquired the title duke of Northumberland, atitle they have retained to the present, along with the ancestral AlnwickCastle.
George Holmes
Bibliography: Jacob, E. F., The Fifteenth Century (1961).
Louis IX, called St. Louis (1214-70), king of France (1226-70), son andsuccessor of Louis VIII. Louis's mother, Blanche of Castile, daughter ofAlfonso IX, king of Castile, was regent during his minority and againfrom 1248 until her death in 1252. During the latter years Louis was inthe Holy Land on the Seventh Crusade (see Crusades: The Later Crusades).Louis and his forces were defeated and captured in Egypt in 1250, and theking remained in Palestine for four years before returning to France. In1258 Louis signed the Treaty of Corbeil, relinquishing to the kingdom ofAragón all French claims to Barcelona and Roussillon, in return for whichthe Aragonese renounced their claims to parts of Provence and Languedoc.In 1259 he signed the Treaty of Paris, by which Henry III of England wasconfirmed in his possession of territories in southwestern France andLouis received the provinces of Anjou, Normandy, Poitou, Maine, andTouraine. In 1270 Louis embarked on another Crusade and died en route atTunis in northern Africa. He was succeeded by his son Philip III. Louis,an outstanding monarch of medieval times, was canonized in 1297. Hisfeast day is August 25.
Louis IX. (St. Louis), King of France, 1226-1270, married in 1234Margaret (Marguerite) of Provence., eldest daughter of Raymond BerengerIV., Count of Provence, who was able to marry one of his youngerdaughters to the king's brother, Charles of Anjou. They had two sons asfollows:
1. Blanche, 1240-1243.
2. Isabel, 1242-1271, married in 1255 Theobald V. of Champagne, King ofNavarre, who died in 1271.
3. Louis, 1244-1260.
4. Philip III., the Bold , King of France, 1270-1285, born in 1245. Hemarried (1) Isabella of Aragon and later in 1274 (2) Mary of Brabant,daughter of the Henry III., Duke of Brabant. She died in 1321. Accordingto one record the children of Isabella and Philip III. were as follows:
Philip II (of France) (1165-1223), king of France (1180-1223), one of themost powerful European monarchs of the Middle Ages. His full name wasPhilip Augustus.
The son of King Louis VII, Philip was born on August 21, 1165, inGonesse, near Paris. He became coregent with his father in 1179. From1181 to 1186 Philip combated a coalition of barons in Flanders, Burgundy,and Champagne and at their expense increased the royal domain. Philipallied himself with Richard, duke of Aquitaine, who in 1189 becameRichard I of England, and in 1190 the two kings embarked on the ThirdCrusade. The kings quarreled, however, and Philip returned to France in1191. Allied with Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and Richard's brother,John, later king of England, Philip attacked Richard's territories inFrance. Richard returned in 1194 and went to war against Philip. By thetime of Richard's death in 1199, Philip had been forced to surrender mostof the territory he had annexed. Philip subsequently warred against John,who became king of England in 1199; between 1202 and 1205 Philip morethan doubled his territory by annexing Normandy, Maine, Brittany, Anjou,Touraine, and Poitou.
A coalition of European powers, including England, challenged the growingpower of France in 1214. Philip's forces, however, decisively defeatedthe coalition at the Battle of Bouvines, establishing France as a leadingcountry of Europe.
Philip increased the royal power not only by extending the royal domainbut also by reducing the power of the feudal lords. He replaced the nobleofficers at court with an advisory council appointed from the middleclass and supported the communes against the nobles. France prosperedfrom his judicial, financial, and administrative reorganization of thegovernment; serfdom declined, towns grew, and commerce flourished. Philipestablished Paris as the fixed capital of France, paved the streets, andhad many new buildings constructed in the city.
3. Louis VIII See below.
Philip married on August 15, 1193 (2) Ingeborg (Ingeburge or Isambour))of Denmark, sister of King Chanute VI. of Denmark. She was born in 1175,died in 1236, but that marriage lasted but one day. For some unknownreason, Philip totally rejected her after the first night together, andhe had her shut up in a nunnery and later put in prison, attempting toobtain a divorced decree, in order to remarry. There were no children. Hequickly married in 1196 (3) Agnes of Meran, daughter of the German princeof the Holy Roman Empire, who ruled Merano, even though she was soclosely related to Philip that their union was automatically forbidden bycanon law. Philip found some obliging churchmen to annul the firstmarriage and solemnize the second, on May 7, 1196. The Pope CelestineIII. did not take action except to issue appeals and warnings. WhenInnocent III. became Pope in 1198 the affair had been dragging on for twoyears. When Philip refused to yield, Pope Innocent III. placed aninterdict against all of France. This action deprived the entirepopulation of the sacraments of the Church. Philip finally in desperationagreed to a separation from Agnes, and the Pope lifted the ban. But notbefore she bore him a son, Philip Hurepel of Boulogne, died in 1234,Count of Boulogne by marriage with the heiress to the country, activeduring the reign of Louis IX., and a daughter, Mary (Marie), who died in1224, married (1) Philip I. of Namur, who died in 1212, and (2) Henry I.,Duke of Brabant, who died in 1235. There was issue by this secondmarriage.
Another son (illegitimate) was born to Philip and "a maiden of Arras",Pierre Charlot, Bishop of Noyon.
Artois
{ahr-twah'}
A former province in northern France, Artois is roughly equivalent to thepresent department of Pas-de-Calais (6,638 sq km/2,363 sq mi). ARRAS, themajor town, was its capital. Artois is bounded by Flanders on thenortheast, by Picardy on the south and southwest, and by the EnglishChannel on the northwest. It is a low-lying region with some hills in thesouth. Coal mining and agriculture are the principal economic activities.
Originally part of Flanders, Artois came under French control for thefirst time in 1180, through the marriage of King Philip II to Isabel ofHainaut. Artois passed to Burgundy in 1329. It became a possession of theHabsburgs in 1477 and a province of Spain in 1493. It was reconquered bythe French in 1640; French possession was confirmed by the treaties ofthe Pyrenees (1659), Nijmegen (1678), and Utrecht (1713). Because of itsstrategic importance, Artois was the scene of heavy fighting during WorldWar I.
Isabella of Hainault, daughter of Baldwin V., Count of Hainault, andniece of Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders. Her dowry was Amiens andArtois. Isabella died prematurely in 1190. She and Philip had children asfollows:
•1. Robert•2. Charles
•3. Louis VIII
Artois
{ahr-twah'}
A former province in northern France, Artois is roughly equivalent to thepresent department of Pas-de-Calais (6,638 sq km/2,363 sq mi). ARRAS, themajor town, was its capital. Artois is bounded by Flanders on thenortheast, by Picardy on the south and southwest, and by the EnglishChannel on the northwest. It is a low-lying region with some hills in thesouth. Coal mining and agriculture are the principal economic activities.
Originally part of Flanders, Artois came under French control for thefirst time in 1180, through the marriage of King Philip II to Isabel ofHainaut. Artois passed to Burgundy in 1329. It became a possession of theHabsburgs in 1477 and a province of Spain in 1493. It was reconquered bythe French in 1640; French possession was confirmed by the treaties ofthe Pyrenees (1659), Nijmegen (1678), and Utrecht (1713). Because of itsstrategic importance, Artois was the scene of heavy fighting during WorldWar I.
Philip III (of France), called The Bold (1245-85), king of France(1270-85), the son of King Louis IX, born in Poissy, near Paris. A weakruler, he was dominated at various times by his chamberlain, his wife,his mother, and especially his uncle Charles I of Anjou, king of the TwoSicilies. In 1285, the last year of his reign, Philip made anunsuccessful attempt to annex the kingdom of Aragón.
Louis VII, called The Young (1121?-80), king of France (1137-80), son andsuccessor of Louis VI. In the first year of his reign he married Eleanorof Aquitaine, daughter of William X, duke of Aquitaine. Louis soonaroused the opposition of Pope Innocent II because of his support of arival to the papal candidate for the archbishopric of Bourges, and hislands were placed under papal interdict. Louis next fought a 2-year warand conquered Champagne in 1144. In 1147 he joined the unsuccessfulSecond Crusade as one of its two chief military leaders (the other wasConrad III of Germany). Louis returned to France two years later, and in1152 his marriage to Eleanor was annulled; in the same year she marriedHenry of Anjou, later Henry II, king of England. Louis warred with Henryfor the possession of Aquitaine but renounced all rights to the duchy in1154, the year Henry became king of England. Between 1157 and 1180 Louiscontinued sporadic warfare against Henry, who held many of the Frenchprovinces. Louis was succeeded by his son Philip II (Philip Augustus).
Louis VI, called The Fat (1081-1137), king of France (1108-37), son andsuccessor of Philip I; he was married to Adelaide of Savoy. Almost hisentire reign was spent in subduing the robber barons, who preyed on theenvirons of Paris but were finally forced to yield to royal authority.For some 20 years during the period from 1109-1135, Louis waged waragainst Henry I, the Norman king of England, and against Henry'sson-in-law, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V; he successfully repelled aninvasion by Henry V in 1124. Louis greatly strengthed the royal power inFrance, granted benefactions to the church and privileges to towns, andbecame known as the protector of the peasants and as a fearless militaryleader. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Louis VII.
