Thomas Percy Biography and Timeline

Admiral

Appointed Admiral of the Fleet

Peace

Negotiates peace with France

Peerage

Created Earl of Worcester by Richard II

Death of Thomas Percy

Death of Henry Percy, killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury

Battle of Shrewsbury

Death of Henry Percy, killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury

Execution of Sir Thomas Percy

Thomas Percy is executed for renewed rebellion after taking a leading role in northern resistance to Henry VIII.

Role range: 1536-1537

Northern Earls Raise Retainers

Northumberland and Westmorland mobilise retainers after fearing arrest, turning northern Catholic discontent into open armed rebellion.

Role range: 1569

Catholic Mass at Durham

Northumberland's rebels occupy Durham Cathedral, destroy Protestant service books and restore the Catholic Mass as a public declaration of their religious programme.

Role range: 1528-1572 – 1558-1603

Catholic Mass Restored at Durham Cathedral

The rebels restore Catholic worship in Durham Cathedral and publicly reject key elements of Elizabeth I's Protestant religious settlement.

Role range: 1569

Northern Rebellion Raised

Thomas Percy joins the Rising of the North after being summoned to court, leading armed resistance that seeks to reverse Elizabeth's religious settlement.

Role range: 1528-1572 – 1558-1603

Northern Army Marches South

The rebel army moves south from Durham in an effort to broaden support and increase pressure on Elizabeth's government.

Role range: 1569

Northumberland Flees into Scotland

Northumberland crosses into Scotland after the rising collapses under pressure from advancing royal forces.

Role range: 1569

Execution of Northumberland

Thomas Percy is executed at York after being surrendered from Scotland, closing the career of the most prominent surviving leader of the Northern Rebellion.

Role range: 1528-1572 – 1558-1603

Execution of Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland

Thomas Percy is beheaded for leading the Northern Rebellion and supporting a Catholic challenge to Elizabeth I.

Role range: 1569-1572

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Thomas Percy, Catesbys friend and John Wrights brother-in-law, was introduced to the plot

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Thomas Percy meets with Robert Catesby, a religious zealot similarly unimpressed with the new royal dynasty, & joins Catesbys conspiracy to kill the king and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Following James's succession to the English throne in 1603, Percy became disenchanted with the new king, whom he supposed had reneged on his promises of toleration for English Catholics.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Thomas Percy meets with Robert Catesby, a religious zealot similarly unimpressed with the new royal dynasty, and joins Catesby's conspiracy to kill the king and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Thomas Percy, Catesby's friend and John Wright's brother-in-law, was introduced to the plot.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

The first meeting between the five conspirators took place on 20 May 1604, probably at the Duck and Drake Inn, just off the Strand, Thomas Wintours usual residence when staying in London

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Fawkes, Catesby, Wright & Wintour agree the plot at the Duck & Drake in the Strand

Gunpowder Treason Plot

The conspirators returned to London in October 1604, when Robert Keyes, a "desperate man, ruined and indebted" was admitted to the group

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percy is to remain in London and secure the capture of Prince Henry

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percy provided the group with funding and secured the leases to certain properties in London, one of which was the undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords, in which the gunpowder was finally placed.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percys words at the Duck and Drake meeting were "Shall we always, gentlemen, talk and never do anything?".

Gunpowder Treason Plot

The conspirators returned to London in October 1604, when Robert Keyes, a "desperate man, ruined and indebted" was admitted to the group. Fawkes, Catesby, Wright & Wintour agree the plot at the Duck & Drake in the Strand.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

The plotters take a secret oath at the Duck and Drake inn near the Strand in London, they include Thomas Percy, Robert Catesby and his cousin Thomas Winterour, John Wright and Guy Fawkes.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percy obtains the lease for the undercroft directly underneath the first-floor House of Lords, it was into this room that the plotters moved 36 barrels of gunpowder from Catesbys lodgings on the opposite side of the River Thames

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percy hires the cellar beneath Parliament where the gunpowder barrels will be stored

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percys patron, the Earl of Northumberland, appointed him to the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, a mounted troop of 50 bodyguards to the King.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Through Northumberlands agents Dudley Carleton and John Hippesley, Thomas Percy subleased a house in Westminster from Henry Ferrers, a tenant of John Whynniard, and installed Fawkes there as his servant, "John Johnson".

Gunpowder Treason Plot

While the plotters did not yet have a detailed plan, Percys appointment on 9 June as a Gentleman Pensioner gave him a reason to establish a London base.

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Present at the search of the undercroft where the party are told by the owner of the house, John Whynniard, that its tenancy was then held by Thomas Percy, Monteagle then tells Suffolk the letter could be from Thomas Percy. As Fawkes identified himself as John Johnson, servant to Thomas Percy, it was Percys name which appeared on the Governments first arrest warrant

Gunpowder Treason Plot

When the plot was exposed early on 5 November 1605, Percy immediately fled to the Midlands, catching up with the others en route to Dunchurch in Warwickshire

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percys flight ended with some of his fellow conspirators at about 10:00 pm on 7 November, at Holbeche House on the border of Staffordshire

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Their flight ended on the border of Staffordshire, at Holbeche House, besieged early on 8 November by the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men. Percy was reportedly killed by the same musketball as Catesby, his body was later exhumed, and his head exhibited outside Parliament

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Richard Walsh, Sheriff of Worcester, and his company of 200 men besieged the Holbeche House. In the ensuing firefight Percy was reportedly killed by the same musketball as Catesby, fired by a John Streete of Worcester

Gunpowder Treason Plot

On the orders of the Earl of Northampton, the bodies of Percy and Catesby were exhumed, and their heads displayed on spikes at the side of the Parliament House

Gunpowder Treason Plot

Percy hires the cellar beneath Parliament where the gunpowder barrels will be stored. Takes part in the Gunpowder Plot & is mortally wounded