Part One
No, not that Harry – Henry Algernon Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland. We know he and Anne Boleyn had a love affair sometime between 1522 and 1527 when Anne was serving Queen Katherine at the Tudor court and Harry was a member of Cardinal Wolsey’s household. When the affair was discovered, his father and Cardinal Wolsey were greatly displeased. Harry was already intended for Mary Talbot, the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and there may have been other plans for Anne. Whatever the real reason for their anger, the two lovers were ordered to part, and utterly humiliated by his father and Wolsey’s verbal tirades, Harry appears to have crumbled and accepted defeat. A fuming Anne Boleyn was promptly packed off back home to Hever Castle, to nurse her broken heart and rail at Cardinal Wolsey. And that, as they say, was that. Done and dusted – for the moment, at least.
But what of Harry? In misery and disgrace, he was ordered to return north, to the magnificence of Wressle Castle, in Yorkshire. He had been brought up at Wressle, a castle with five towers, moated on three sides – the fourth enjoying lovely gardens – with the River Derwent running close by. Here he had enjoyed a life of complete luxury, sharing one of the forty-three bedrooms with his younger brothers, Sir Thomas and Sir Ingelram Percy. Now, back in his childhood home, I can imagine him sulking over his lost love and staring in resentment at the new wife forced upon him.
On the other hand, perhaps there was little time to mope about what might have been. Back in July 1522, Harry had been appointed a member of the Council of the North – a court of justice to oversee the governing of Yorkshire and the north. This council would ensure the king’s orders were carried out since the north was always troublesome. Just to be sure, the king, aware that the people there would only accept orders from a Percy, made Harry Warden of the East and Middle Marches. He knew that the Percy family was an ancient and powerful dynasty, over five centuries old, and more important to those in the north than the king in London. They owned a vast amount of property and land throughout England and King Henry and Wolsey intended to curb their power. It is no wonder that the twenty-year-old Harry was eyed with jealousy and suspicion.
On 19 May 1527, Harry succeeded his father as sixth Earl of Northumberland and discovered that his father had died leaving him nothing but debts. Not surprisingly, all the money had gone on the earl’s lavish lifestyle at Wressle, and other properties, as can be seen in his household account book. Obviously, the old earl had not heeded the warning inscribed on the wall of one of the inner chambers:
‘When it is time of cost and great expense,
Beware of Waste and spend by measure:
Who that outrageously make his dispense,
Causes his goods not long to endure…’
Just to make matters worse, Wolsey refused Harry permission to attend his father’s funeral and appears to have treated him with some contempt. He seems to have had a poor opinion of him altogether, for he advised the boy to give better attendance to matters, leave of his prodigality, sullenness, mistrust, disdain, and making of trouble. If that wasn’t enough, Harry then wrote to his friend, Thomas Arundel, complaining that after his father’s death, Wolsey seized the furniture in his father’s chapel and his fine Service Books, and kept them for his own private use. Charming. With no money, an unhappy marriage and practically banned from court, matters were looking pretty bleak for the new earl…
Picture of Henry Percy, from the Duke of Northumberland Collection, Syon House.
Wressle Castle Yorkshire - Creative Commons images.