General Notes

There was, perhaps, no more illustrious house of English nobility thanthat of Percy. Both in the age of chivalry, and in the so-called"Renaissance"  or Reformation period, the house of Northumberlandoccupied a position of great, if not paramount, importance. The Percieswere Catholic, but not Ultramontane; Monarchial, but steadfast opponentsof tyrants; they contributed more than their share to the development ofthe National Church and Constitution. Heroes in war, pioneers oflearning, martyrs for religion, are all represented by Percies; whilefrom the earliest period there has been no grander title than that ofKing or Earl of Northumbria.
Tradition bestows upon these lords of Percie a remote Scandinavianorigin, and monkish historians afterwards traced the house from those oldDanish sea-rovers who harried every European shore from Shannon to themouth of the Tiber. In the words of Dugdale: This ancient and right noblefamily do derive their descent from Mainfred de Percy, which Mainfredcame out of Denmark into Normandy before the advent of the famous Rollothere. And another chronicler of the 15th century tells us that a son ofthis Mainfred, the Viking, was one of those who fought side by side withRollo, 1st Duke of Normandy.  Mainfred, who came out of Denmark intoNormandy before the advent of Duke Rollo, who gained possession ofNormandy in 911. Sources for Percy Family:
     History of House of Percy, by Brenan; author's preface, p. XVII;
     Introduction.  Charts pp. 6 and 168, pages 1 to 93;
     Edmondson Baronagium Genealogicum, Vol. 3, pp. 269-270. ;
     Collins Peerage of England, Vol. 2, p. 240; Vol. 3, pp. 217-273;
     Clay's Dormant and Extinct Peerage, pp. 21-24;
     Harleian Society Publications, Visitation of Cheshire, Vol. 18, p.140;
     Ormerod's History of Cheshire, Vol. 3, pp. 306, 363, 394;
     Burke's Landed Gentry (1939), Americans of British Ancestry,
     Vol. 3, pp. 2759-60.