In Northumberland, Alnwick Castle is the great seat of the Percys, Earls of Northumberland — one of the most imposing inhabited fortresses in England. In Tudor and Jacobean times, this castle at the heart of Percy power was witness to the long decline of this family, undermined by its Catholic and rebel commitments.
The heart of Percy power
A fortress with a shell keep bristling with towers, Alnwick was the major seat of the Percys, guardians of the Scottish March and one of the most powerful dynasties of the North. From this castle, they governed vast domains and embodied the old feudal nobility, able to stand up to the Crown. But this power became, under the Tudors, a danger: suspected, watched, the Percys were gradually broken by a monarchy that no longer tolerated rivals.
From the execution of 1572 to the Powder
The decline of Alnwick follows that of the Percys. Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, having taken part in the Rising of the North of 1569, was executed in 1572; after him, the castle was 'increasingly uninhabited', the family in disgrace. Then came a second disaster: the cousin, also named Thomas Percy, constable of Alnwick from 1594, was one of the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot (1605) — it was he who rented the cellar beneath Parliament where Guy Fawkes placed the powder. He died shortly after, and the Percys, again suspected, withdrew from Alnwick for more than a century. The castle thus illustrates how a great Catholic house of the North was crushed between revolt and plot. To see: the ten-towered shell keep, the Romanesque arch and the medieval towers, the state apartments (later refitted), the ramparts dominating the river Aln.
Did you know?
It was a constable of Alnwick who rented the fatal cellar: Thomas Percy, cousin of the Earl of Northumberland and keeper of the castle from 1594, was the conspirator charged with renting, beneath the Parliament of London, the cellar where Guy Fawkes piled thirty-six barrels of powder. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, one of the most famous conspiracies in history, thus had one of its threads held from this fortress of the far North — further proof of the tragic destiny of the Percys under the early Stuarts.
Notes
Alnwick Castle lies at Alnwick, Northumberland; a castle (Percy family, Dukes of Northumberland) open to the public, a famous film set (Harry Potter). Seasonal hours to check.
Quiz
- Which family is seated at Alnwick?
- The Percys, Earls/Dukes of Northumberland
- The Nevilles
- The Greys
- What became of the 7th Earl after the revolt of 1569?
- He was executed in 1572
- He was crowned
- He went on crusade
- What role did the constable Thomas Percy play in 1605?
- He rented the cellar beneath Parliament (Gunpowder Plot)
- He defeated the Armada
- He translated the Bible