General Notes

Henry, inheriting as 9th Baron Percy, by right of tenure, was summoned to Parliament as Lord Percy in 1298/9. This nobleman became the first of the border Percies. An infant at the time of his father's death, Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, was appointed his guardian, and his early years were spent as a page at court. After a bitter quarrel with the monks of Fountain Abbey, over a question of game rights (it is interesting to note that the Percies were ever ready for a conflict with the ecclesiastical powers), he was sent at the head of an army against the invading Scots, and succeeded in arresting their march. This 9th Baron fought in France, Normandy and Wales, but it was along the Scottish borders that his greatest deeds of prowess were wrought. In 1296 his cousin, Edward I, knighted him before the gates of Berwick, and for his share in the victory of Dunbar he was made Governor of Ayr and Galloway, and Custodian of the Borders. The House of Percy was transplanted from the soil of Yokshire to the district beyond the Tyne. For the castle and lordship which the 9th Baron coveted most were those of Alnwick in Northumberland.