a suitable match for her own young half-brother Joceline of Louvain.  The marriage took place; and thereafter followed the long line of Henry Percies (Henry being a favourite name of the Counts of Louvain) who played such a large part in the history of both England and Scotland; for, as nearly every Percy was a Warden of the Marches, Scottish doings concerned them more or less intimately—­indeed, often more so than English affairs.

It was the third Henry Percy who purchased Alnwick in 1309 from Antony Bec, Bishop of Durham and guardian of the last De Vesci, and from that time the fortunes of the Percies, though they still held their Yorkshire estates, were linked permanently with the little town on the Aln, and the fortress which alike commanded and defended it.  The fourth Henry Percy began to build the castle as we see it now; but to call him “the fourth” is a little confusing, as he was the second Henry Percy, Lord of Alnwick.  On the whole, it will be clearer to begin the enumerations of the various Henry Percies from the time they became Lords of Alnwick.  It was, then, Henry Percy the second, Lord of Alnwick, who began the re-building of the castle; he also was jointly responsible for the safety of the realm during the absence of Edward III. in the French wars, and in this official capacity, no less than in that of a Border baron whose delight it was to exchange lusty blows with an ever-ready foe, he helped to win the battle of Neville’s Cross.  His son, Henry, married a sister of John of Gaunt, and their son, the next Henry Percy, was that friend who stood John Wycliffe in such good stead, when he was cited to appear before the Bishop of London.  Henry Percy, who had been made Earl Marshal of England, and the Duke of Lancaster took their places one on each side of Wycliffe, and accompanied him to St. Paul’s, clearing a way for him through the crowd.  It does not belong to this story to tell how their private quarrels with the Bishop prevented Wycliffe’s interrogation, and how he left the Cathedral without having uttered a word; we are concerned at the moment with his North-country friend, who, the same year, was created Earl of Northumberland, which title he was given after the coronation of Richard II.  Nor was this all, for he was that Northumberland whose doings in the next reign fill so large a part of Shakespeare’s Henry IV., and he was the father of the most famous Percy of all, the gallant Henry Percy the fifth, better known as “Harry Hotspur.”  Hotspur never became Earl of Northumberland, being slain at Shrewsbury in the lifetime of his father, whose estates were forfeited under attainder on account of the rebellion of himself and his son against King Henry IV.