56 THE HISTOEY OF THE ROYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



latter ; and he was at this period accused of acquiring consider- 

 able wealth by the plunder of the Church. On October 11, 



1551, he was advanced to the dignity of Duke of Northumber- 

 land, a peerage, which, by the death of the last Earl of 

 Northumberland, without heirs, and the attainder and execu- 

 tion of his brother, Sir Thomas Percy, the Percy estate 

 became vested in the Crown. His grace had previously been 

 constituted Earl Marshal of England. 



Having now attained the highest honour in the peerage, and 

 power the most unlimited, the Duke proceeded, with scarcely 

 the semblance of restraint, in his ambitious projects ; and the 

 Protector Somerset, one of his earliest and steadiest patrons, 

 soon fell a victim to their advancement. That distinguished 

 personage was arraigned, through the intrigue of Northumber- 

 land, before his peers, and, though acquitted of high treason, 

 was condemned for felony, and sentenced to be hanged. The 

 eventual fate of the Lord Protector Somerset is well known, 

 and, considering his own conduct to his brother, not deplored. 

 He was executed by decapitation on Tower Hill, on February 22, 



1552, upon which day the Duke of Northumberland succeeded 

 him as Chancellor of Cambridge. From the death of Somerset 

 the Duke of Northumberland became so unremitting in his 

 attentions upon Edward VI., and had so much influence over 

 him, that he prevailed upon the King to sign and seal a 

 patent, conferring the succession upon Lady Jane Grey 

 (grand-niece to King Henry VIII.), the wife of his third son 

 Lord Guildeford Dudley. His subsequent efforts, after the 

 decease of Edward VI., to establish this patent by force of 

 arms proved abortive. On the accession of Mary a proclama- 

 tion was issued by the new Queen, offering land to the value 

 of 1,000^. to any nobleman, 500?. to any knight, 500 marks to 

 any gentleman, or 100?. to any yeoman that might be so 

 fortunate as to arrest the ex-Master of this branch of the Royal 

 Buckhounds, and deliver him up to the Queen. He was soon 

 after arrested upon the charge of high treason at Cambridge, 

 and being condemned thereof, was beheaded on Tower Hill 

 on August 22, 1558, when all his honours became forfeited 



