Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, (1449 - 1489) son of the 3rd earl, was the only one of the family to appear to take the Yorkist side. His father's earldom was forfeited at the Battle of Towton by the victorious Yorkists, and Percy was imprisoned. After swearing fealty to Edward IV he was released (1469). The earldom was restored in 1473, and Percy held many of the important government posts in the north of England which were traditional in his family. He commanded the Yorkist reserve at the Battle of Bosworth Field, but never committed his forces to the battle, which played an important part in Richard III's defeat. Percy was again imprisoned by the new king, Henry VII, but was soon released and returned to his old posts. He was killed 28 April 1489 by a mob enraged by his efforts to collect some new and higher taxes. {| border="2" align="center" |- |width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by: Henry Percy |width="40%" align="center"|Earl of Northumberland |width="30%" align="center"|Followed by: Henry Algernon Percy |} This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.