142 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 



ordnance and siege-engines as would suffice to strike terror 

 into the breasts of the disaffected. Impossible though it was 

 for Henry to do so at the moment, he addressed a writ to Sir 

 Henry Percy requiring him at once to deliver up the castles 

 of Alnwick and Warkworth, and without further delay to 

 present himself at court. Continued non-compliance and a 

 daring act of insubordination in imprisoning a royal mes- 

 senger, at last moved the King in the summer of 1405 to 

 lead an army iato Northumberland, with which he laid 

 siege to Prudhoe and Warkworth, the latter capitulating 

 without offering any sustained resistance. It was thereafter 

 along with the other forfeited baronies of the Earl conferred 

 by the King upon his third son, John, who, in his capacity 

 of warden of the East March, had early occasion to complain 

 of the defenceless state of the Border in consequence of the 

 paltry funds placed at his disposal. In 1415 his title was 

 exchanged for that of Duke of Bedford by his brother, 

 Henry V., who awarded him an annuity of 3,000 marks in 

 compensation for the loss of the lands of Warkworth which 

 according to compact he agreed to restore to Henry Percy, the 

 son of Hotspur, who was about to be surrendered at Berwick 

 by the Duke of Albany in exchange for his son Murdoch, 

 taken prisoner in 1402 at the battle of Homildon. The same 

 Henry Percy did homage to the King in parliament, and 

 was restored to the title of Earl of Northumberland. It 

 would occupy too much space further to follow in detail 

 the fortunes of this noble house, or review at length the 

 many scenes in which this Border fortress played a part ; 

 but it may suffice to add that on the death in 1670 of Josceline, 

 the eleventh holder of this title, without male issue, the 

 earldom became extinct, and Warkworth with the other 

 baronies through the marriage of Elizabeth his only sur- 

 viving daughter, became the possession of Algernon Seymour, 

 eldest son of the Duke of Somerset, who was created baron 

 of Warkworth and Earl of Northumberland, with remainder 

 to his son-in-law, Sir Hugh Smithson, from whom the Duke 

 of Northumberland is descended. The Castle itself suffered 

 greatly at the hands of friends and of foes alike, and seems to 

 have fallen into decay about the middle of the 16th century. 

 In 1603 the lead was stripped from the roof of the towers j 



