Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland

Algernon Percy

Throughout the early 1630s, the 10th Earl attempted to ingratiate himself with Charles I's court, initially unsuccessfully, although his family connections in the queen's household did manage to get him admitted to the Order of the Garter in 1635. By 1636–1637, he was in good enough standing at court to be appointed admiral of the ship money fleet. Northumberland attempted to initiate naval reforms, often bypassing the lords of the admiralty and submitting his proposals directly to Charles I and the Privy Council. Although most historians would not consider Northumberland a Puritan, he did enforce the Oath of Supremacy on his fleet and removed three Catholic officers who refused to take the oath.[3]

Northumberland's first expedition as admiral in 1636 was to force Dutch ships fishing in waters claimed by England to purchase English fishing licences, in exchange for which the English fleet would offer protection from the Dunkirkers. If Dutch sea captains refused to purchase the licences, their nets were cut.

Northumberland was less enthusiastic about his second expedition as admiral, which was to transport Spanish money to the Netherlands in 1637. His political faction was strongly pro-French and anti-Spanish, so he rankled at the thought of aiding the Spaniards.[3]

In 1638, two of Northumberland's prominent supporters at court — Thomas Wentworth and Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud — used their influence at court to have him made Lord High Admiral of England, a position which had been vacant since the assassination of the 1st Duke of Buckingham in 1628. At the time he was appointed, it was understood that Charles I's son James would become Lord High Admiral upon attaining his majority, although the Civil Wars occurred before this could happen and Charles removed Northumberland from the post in 1642.[3]

In response to the rise of the Scottish Covenanters, who opposed the attempt to introduce the Book of Common Prayer in Scotland in 1637, Charles I appointed an eight-man subcommittee of the Privy Council to deal with the issue. Northumberland's patron, Thomas Wentworth, favoured war with Scotland, while Northumberland did not want to go to war, and feared that his estates in northern England would be occupied during the hostilities. As such, when Wentworth had Northumberland appointed general of the English forces during the second of the Bishops' Wars in January 1640, Northumberland was happy to let illness prevent him from joining the army in the field, and Northumberland was entirely defeatist about the prospect of defeating the Covenanters militarily. In May 1640, Northumberland was one of only two members of a subcommittee of the Privy Council who opposed the dissolution of the Short Parliament, a move that confirmed his break with Wentworth (whom Charles had recently named Earl of Strafford) and earned him the displeasure of the king.[3]

When the Long Parliament met, Northumberland became one of the leading critics of royal policy. During Strafford's trial for high treason and the subsequent bill of attainder against him, Northumberland gave evidence at his trial which, though favourable on the important point of bringing the Irish army to England, was on the whole damaging.[3]

Northumberland's brother Henry was involved in the First Army Plot of 1641, an attempt to rescue Strafford from the Tower of London and to forcibly dissolve the Long Parliament. Northumberland encouraged his brother to write a letter exposing the royalist plot to rescue Strafford, and then, at John Pym's urging, agreed to allow Denzil Holles and John Hampden to publish this letter.[3]

With the coming of the English Civil War, Northumberland became the highest-ranking member of Charles I's government to side with the Parliamentarians.[3]

His first action in open defiance of royal authority came in November 1641, when he obeyed Parliament's instruction to prepare four ships to take men and arms under parliamentary control to Ireland to suppress the rebellion there. He did not, however, support the Grand Remonstrance. However, when James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond suggested in January 1642 that the parliament adjourn for six months, Northumberland led a protest which favoured sanctioning Richmond for breach of privilege. In February, Parliament named Northumberland Lord Lieutenant of Sussex, Pembrokeshire, and Anglesey.[3] Northumberland subsequently voted in favour of the Militia Ordinance. During the subsequent fighting between royalist and parliamentary forces, Northumberland's control of the navy was a crucial factor in securing parliamentary victory. As a result, Charles I removed Northumberland from the post of Lord High Admiral in late June 1642 and Northumberland relinquished the position. In July, he accepted a position on the parliamentary committee of public safety.[3]

Northumberland's support for the war wavered shortly thereafter, however, in the wake of setbacks faced by parliamentary forces in 1642–1643; he was also disappointed that Parliament chose Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick rather than himself as the new Lord High Admiral. He was apparently appalled by the violence of the Battle of Edgehill and the Battle of Turnham Green, and became the leader of a party favouring peace by early-to-mid-1643.[3]

Northumberland's first wife died of smallpox in 1637. In October 1642, he remarried, to Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk and thus his first wife's cousin.[3]

In April 1643, Northumberland headed the parliamentary delegation to negotiate with Charles I at Oxford, but Charles was willing to grant little. Returning to London, Northumberland's peace party was increasingly attacked by the party favouring continued war: for example, in June, he was accused of complicity in Waller's Plot, though he was never prosecuted. In August, a leading hawk, Isaac Penington, the Lord Mayor of London instigated a plot whereby a number of lords were physically threatened, in the hopes that he would be able to have Northumberland arrested. After Northumberland was unable to convince his cousin, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex to support further peace negotiations with the royalists, he retired to his estates at Petworth—unlike other "peace lords", who joined the king at Oxford at this time.[3]

Northumberland did not remain at Petworth for long, though. Although he had opposed an alliance between parliament and Scotland against the king, following the passage of the Solemn League and Covenant in September 1643, Northumberland returned to the capital and took the Covenant. He was soon appointed to the newly created Committee of Both Kingdoms, serving as its first chairman. Northumberland would gain a reputation as a supporter of the Scots on the committee – many speculated that this was because Scottish forces were occupying his lands in the north. Thus, although he continued to favour negotiations with Charles I, he was quickly coming around to the war party's position. Northumberland was one of only four lords to vote in favour of the Self-denying Ordinance. Soon, he would prove to be one of the greatest supporters of the New Model Army, with his servant Robert Scawen chairing parliament's army committee.[3]

In March 1645, Parliament made Northumberland guardian of Charles' two young children, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Gloucester (and also the Duke of York in July 1646), and there was talk that Northumberland might be made king if negotiations with Charles failed. Following the failure of the negotiations at Uxbridge, Northumberland was thoroughly behind the war party, now known as the Independents. In spite of Northumberland's political conversion, he did not vote in favour of the bill of attainder against his old patron, Archbishop Laud.[3]

In early 1647, Northumberland sided with Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester and the Presbyterian party against the Independents as they attempted to draw up terms acceptable to the king.[3]

In the emerging dispute between parliament and the army, Northumberland sided with the army, and in July 1647, he was one of nine peers who left Parliament for the army following riots around Westminster. Meetings were subsequently held between Northumberland and the army at his property, Syon House.[3]

Northumberland led a final attempt to negotiate with Charles I in December 1647, but this failed.[3]

Following the Second English Civil War, most parliamentarians became increasingly disillusioned with Charles I and began to favour his execution. Northumberland attempted to halt this movement, opposing the Vote of No Addresses in January 1648, and attempting to negotiate terms with the king at Newport until the end of 1648.[3]

Northumberland would prove to be one of Charles I's greatest supporters in the Rump Parliament. When Parliament moved to try Charles I for treason in January 1649, Northumberland was the leader of the forces in the House of Lords opposed to trying the king.[3]