REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 141 



of lands in Northumberland. In all probability it was by 

 the latter of these that the Castle was rebuilt on the general 

 lines traceable at the present time. Fi'om this family the 

 lands should have passed to the Crown in fulfilment of a 

 compact made in 1311 with Edward II. by John fitz Robert, 

 who was summoned to parliament under the name of John 

 de Clavering, and died childless, had not Edward III. made 

 over his reversionary interest in them to the second Henry 

 Percy of Alnwick, in lieu of the hereditary custody of Berwick 

 and an annuity of 500 marks out of the customs of that 

 port. On the death of John de Clavering, therefore, in 

 1332, Wark worth and its dependencies became the absolute 

 property of the Percy family, and for some generations it 

 continued to be their favourite place of residence. The long 

 continuance of the Scottish wars proclaimed the need of attach- 

 ing the castles of Northumberland to the royal cause, and if 

 necessary of reducing them to subjection. In some measure 

 this object was attained though only at the cost of the 

 provision of a portion of the garrison by the King ; but in 

 later days, when the Percy influence gained ascendency and 

 the while grew sinister, such strongholds as Alnwick and 

 Warkworth, in place of ministering to the peace and pros- 

 perity of the realm, tended rather to foster a spirit of intrigue, 

 resulting in open acts of disloyalty, such as that of Hotspur in 

 1403, when, in the prosecution of a deeply laid scheme approved 

 by many of the English nobles, he set out for Chester, and 

 expiated his fault at the battle of Shrewsbury. In conse- 

 quence of his father's participation in the conspiracy he was 

 treacherously made prisoner, and the castles of Alnwick, 

 Warkworth, Prudhoe, and Langley, were ordered by the 

 King to be placed in " saveguard and good governance," 

 a demand with which his family and retainers refused to 

 comply. In the autumn of the same year accordingly, when 

 Henry IV. was in Wales, the outcome of the "survey and 

 governance" of the baron's possessions by the r®yal com- 

 missioner revealed the truth, as expressed in a letter from the 

 Earl of Westmoreland to the King, that Warkworth among 

 other fortified places had not been reduced to a pi'oper state 

 of submission, and threw out the suggestion that he should 

 himself proceed Northward, forwarding meanwhile by sea such 



