Northumberland, Algernon Percy, 10th earl of

▪ English noble

also called  (1627–32) Baron Percy 

      (baptized Oct. 13, 1602, London—d. Oct. 13, 1668), English Roman Catholic moderate during the turbulent reign of Charles I of England.

      He became a peer as Baron Percy in 1627 and succeeded his father, the 9th earl, as earl of Northumberland in 1632. During the years immediately preceding the English Civil War he served as an admiral, making earnest but unsuccessful efforts to reform the navy, and in 1637 he was made lord high admiral of England. In 1639 Charles I appointed him general of the forces north of the Trent and a member of the council of regency.

      Northumberland played a distinguished and honourable part in the troubled times of the Civil War. He was a friend of the Earl of Strafford, and gave evidence at his trial which, though favourable on the important point of bringing the Irish army to England, was on the whole damaging; and he afterward leaned more and more toward the Parliamentary party, of which he soon became leader in the House of Lords. He was a member of the Committee of Safety and later of the Committee of Both Kingdoms (England and Scotland), and he took an active part in the attempts to come to terms with the King, whom he visited at Oxford for that purpose in 1643 and at Uxbridge two years later.

      Northumberland helped to organize the New Model Army; and in 1646 he was entrusted by Parliament with the charge of the King's younger children. He led the opposition in the House of Lords to the proposal to bring Charles I to trial, and during the Commonwealth he took no part in public affairs.

      At the Restoration he was called to the privy council by Charles II and with his habitual moderation he deprecated harsh proceedings against the regicides. On the death of his son Joceline, the 11th earl, in 1670, the male line of Percy earls of Northumberland became extinct.

* * *