Henry Percy

Sir Henry Percy (20 May 1364 – 21 July 1403), nicknamed Hotspur or Harry Hotspur, was an English knight who fought in several campaigns against the Scots in the northern border and against the French during the Hundred Years' War. The nickname "Hotspur" was given to him by the Scots as a tribute to his speed in advance and readiness to attack. The heir to a leading noble family in northern England, Hotspur was one of the earliest and prime movers behind the deposition of King Richard II in favour of Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He later fell out with the new regime and rebelled, and was slain at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 at the height of his fame.

Career Henry Percy was born 20 May 1364 at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, the eldest son of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, and Margaret Neville, daughter of Ralph de Neville, 2nd Lord Neville of Raby, and Alice de Audley. He was knighted by King Edward III in April 1377, together with the future kings Richard II and Henry IV. In 1380, he was in Ireland with the Earl of March, and in 1383, he travelled in Prussia. He was appointed Warden of the East March either on 30 July 1384 or in May 1385,

Spurred by these grievances, the Percys rebelled in the summer of 1403 and took up arms against the king. According to J. M. W. Bean, it is clear that the Percys were in collusion with Glyndŵr. On his return to England shortly after the victory at Homildon Hill, Henry Percy issued proclamations in Cheshire accusing the king of 'tyrannical government'. This is the view taken by Alnwick Castle, home of Hotspur's descendants and place where a statue of him is exhibited. The legend that he was killed by the Prince of Wales seems to have been given currency by William Shakespeare, writing at the end of the following century. The Earl of Worcester was executed two days later. Shortly after Henry died in battle, his uncle was executed. An attainder was issued and the family's property, including Wressle Castle in the East Riding of Yorkshire (above), was confiscated by the Crown. King Henry, upon being brought Percy's body after the battle, is said to have wept. The body was taken by Thomas Neville, 5th Baron Furnivall, to Whitchurch, Shropshire, for burial. However, when rumours circulated that Percy was still alive, the king "had the corpse exhumed and displayed it, propped upright between two millstones, in the market place at Shrewsbury". In January 1404, Percy was posthumously attainted, declared guilty of high treason, and his titles and lands were declared forfeit to the Crown.

Marriage and issue Henry Percy married Elizabeth Mortimer, the eldest daughter of Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, and his wife, Philippa, the only child of Lionel, 1st Duke of Clarence, and Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster. By her he had two children:

Sometime after 3 June 1406, Elizabeth Mortimer married, as her second husband, Thomas de Camoys, 1st Baron Camoys, by whom she had a son, Sir Roger Camoys. Thomas Camoys distinguished himself as a soldier in command of the rearguard of the English army at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415.

Legacy

Henry Percy, 'Hotspur', is one of Shakespeare's best-known characters. In Henry IV, Part 1, Percy is portrayed as the same age as his rival, Prince Hal, by whom he is slain in single combat. In fact, he was 22 years older than Prince Hal, the future King Henry V, who was a youth of 16 at the date of the Battle of Shrewsbury. The 2022 play The Prince by Abigail Thorn presents an interpretation of Shakespeare's fictional Hotspur as a closeted trans woman.

One of England's football clubs, Tottenham Hotspur, is named after Hotspur, who lived in the region and whose descendants owned land in the neighbourhood of the club's first ground in the Tottenham Marshes.

A statue of Henry Percy was unveiled in Alnwick by the Duke of Northumberland in 2010.

The protagonist of the video game Shadows of the Damned is named Garcia Hotspur.

Tom Glynn-Carney portrayed Hotspur in The King (2019).

Joe Armstrong portrayed Hotspur in The Hollow Crown (2013).

Sean Connery portrayed Hotspur with Robert Hardy as Prince Hal. The 1960 production was part of a BBC series An Age of Kings, a synthesis of Shakespeare's histories, with the episodes (3 & 4) featuring Hotspur first broadcast in summer 1960.

A British Airways Boeing 737-200, registered as G-BKYH, was given the name "Hotspur" in 1994, until the airline retired the aircraft.

George Percy, a member of the Percy family, is the CEO of Hotspur Geothermal, a British geothermal energy company named after Henry Percy.

A character in George R. R. Martin's fantasy world "A Song of Ice and Fire" named Ser Quentyn Ball "Fireball" was loosely inspired by Sir Henry Percy.

Footnotes