Harry Hotspur
Harry Hotspur, Alnwick Castle's most famous son, lived a life fraught with battle and intrigue. Immortalised by Shakespeare and celebrated in his own time, Hotspur is now remembered as one of England's best and most fearsome medieval warriors.
The Percy Family: c.1364-1403 (Harry Hotspur in more detail)
Cloaked in mystery
O gentlemen, the time of life is short! To spend that shortness basely were too long If life did ride upon a dial’s point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. And if we live, we live to tread on kings, If die, brave death, when princes die with us!... -- Harry Hotspur in Shakespeare’s
Henry IV, Part 1, Act V, Scene 2
Did you know?
Hotspur has a Premiership football club named after him! One of the founders of Tottenham’s team, who played at a Northumberland Park near a Percy House, suggested using Hotspur’s name for the club in 1883.
Henry Percy, son of the 1st Earl of Northumberland, is better known by the name given to him by his enemies due to the eagerness (and impetuousness) with which he would ride into battle: Harry ‘Hotspur’. Hotspur is the most famous character in the history of the Percy family, and is one of the most famous knights in English history. However, he never became Earl of Northumberland due to predeceasing his father.
Many of the details of Hotspur’s life remain a mystery. Even the year and place of his birth are unknown; he may have been born in either Northumberland or Yorkshire, in either 1364 or 1366. He did describe himself as being 'of Alnwick' during his lifetime, however, and it is known that he died at the Battle of Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403.
Hotspur’s Life
… thou makest me sad and makest me sin In envy that my Lord Northumberland Should be the father to so blest a son, A son who is the theme of honour's tongue… -- Henry IV in Shakespeare’s
Henry IV Part 1, Act I, Scene 3
In 1377, the year his father was made 1st Earl of Northumberland by King Richard II, Harry Hotspur was knighted; he would only have been a teenager at this time, if not younger. Two years later, he married Elizabeth Mortimer.
Elizabeth and her family could be considered to have a claim to the throne; her maternal great-grandfather was King Edward III. This fact becomes significant when Hotspur, together with his father and uncle Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, deposed Richard II and replaced him with Henry IV. The elder Percys seemed set on Henry as the new king, but it has been suggested that Hotspur may have believed his brother-in-law, the Earl of March, would be placed on the throne. This did not occur, of course, but may have been a contributing factor in the tension present in the relationship between Henry IV and Hotspur.
Elizabeth and Harry had two children; their son Henry, born in 1393, became the 2nd Earl of Northumberland. Later in his life, Harry became a Knight of the Garter, and due to his reputation for seeking glory, honour and battle, was a celebrity in his own lifetime.
Battles
... I profess not talking; only this- Let each man do his best, and here draw I A sword, whose temper I intend to stain With the best blood that I can meet withal In the adventure of this perilous day. Now Esperance! Percy! And set on. Sound all the lofty instruments of war, And by that music let us all embrace, For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall A second time do such a courtesy.-- Harry Hotspur in Shakespeare’s
Henry IV Part 1, Act V, Scene 2
Hotspur probably witnessed his first combat situation as a child, accompanying his father in France, and led his first siege at Berwick in 1378. There is a story that Harry once met a soothsayer, who told him he would lose his sword in Berwick and die thereafter. This prophecy did apparently come true, but not in a way that Hotspur could have predicted.
Conflict and battle were intertwined with Hotspur throughout his life. He fought the Scots on the Borders and Welsh rebels in Wales, made trouble in Calais with his brother Sir Ralph, and finally died fighting Henry IV in England.
His most famous battle against the Scots was at Otterburn in 1388. Two forces led by members of the Douglas family attacked England’s border regions on the west and the east, one aiming for Carlisle and the other Durham and Newcastle.
When the Earl of Douglas took Newcastle, Hotspur and a force of soldiers rode to meet them. After a skirmish which may have included hand-to-hand fighting between Hotspur and Douglas, Douglas captured Hotspur’s pennant (a flag or standard; an object with great family pride attached to it) before riding west to join the rest of the Scottish army.
Hotspur was advised to wait for reinforcements, but pursued Douglas regardless, marching his men 32 miles before reaching the Scottish camp at Otterburn as night fell. Douglas was killed in the ensuing battle, but the Scots won decisively, and Harry and Sir Ralph Percy were both taken prisoner.
Similarly famous was the Battle of Homildon Hill in 1402, one of Harry’s greatest victories, which took place near Wooler in Northumberland. Like the 2nd Lord of Alnwick’s defeat of the Scots in 1346, archers were essential in obliterating the Scottish forces, allowing Hotspur to take prisoners of his own – a situation that would eventually lead to his rebellion against the king, and his death.
Hotspur’s Final Battle
…thou hast robb'd me of my youth! I better brook the loss of brittle life Than those proud titles thou hast won of me; They wound my thoughts worse than sword my flesh: But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; And time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop. -- Harry Hotspur in Shakespeare’s
Henry IV Part 1, Act V, Scene 4
Before Homildon Hill, Hotspur had been leading a campaign for the king to try to put down the forces of the famous Welsh rebel, Owain Glyndwr. However, Hotspur's soldiers were not being paid. When Hotspur’s letters to Henry IV asking to rectify this were not answered to his satisfaction (the Crown claimed to be short of funds), he returned to Northumberland and Scottish border warfare.
Following Homildon, when Hotspur had taken prisoners for ransom, Henry IV demanded that the ransom money should go to him rather than Harry, which led Hotspur to London to confront the king about the matter. The result of their altercation (which reportedly ended with the king slapping Hotspur across the face and drawing a dagger on him - 'not here, but in the field!' is said to have been Hotspur’s reply) was a full-blown rebellion led by Hotspur against Henry IV.
At the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, which took place partly under a solar eclipse, Henry IV dressed several of his knights in his attire and used them as a form of decoy; each time Hotspur killed one, he would think he had killed the King, only to find he hadn’t. Harry Hotspur was killed by an arrow to his eye during the battle.
He and his men had stayed in a small hamlet the night before, and due to the swift arrival of the king’s son, the Prince of Wales, on the battlefield, Hotspur was effectively rushed into battle not fully prepared, and apparently left his sword behind on the morning of the battle. The name of the hamlet was Berwick; the soothsayer, it seems, had been correct after all.
Hotspur was buried near the battlefield, but then exhumed, and his head was displayed on the walls of York as a warning to other potential rebels of what would happen to those who went against the king. His body was quartered, and the four pieces displayed in Newcastle, London, Bristol and Chester, again as a warning to others.
Hotspur’s final resting place is believed to be an unmarked grave in York Minster.
There are many Spurs fans living in the town who also follow the pod and travel up for games. We take the piss out of the town ourselves at times but don't buy into all the media bollocks and Ricky Gervais baiting of the Town (he comes from Reading FFS) as there are many worse places to live. 
ochsulk:
a loyal Swindon listener.
