Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland

Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland, 2nd Baron Percy (1532 – 21 June 1585) was an English nobleman and conspirator.

He was born in about 1532 at Newburn Manor (Northumberland), the second of two sons of Sir Thomas Percy (c.1504-1537) (2nd son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland), by his wife Eleanor Harbottle. His father was executed in 1537 as a chief actor in the Pilgrimage of Grace.

Brought up with his elder brother Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland (1528-1572), he took part as a youth in border warfare, and on Queen Mary's accession was appointed governor of Tynemouth Castle. He was returned to the House of Commons in 1554 as Member of Parliament for Morpeth, Northumberland, was knighted in 1557, and became deputy warden of the east and middle marches.

Queen Elizabeth continued him in his chief offices. He was temporarily transferred from the governorship of Tynemouth to the captaincy of Norham Castle, but was reappointed in February 1561 to Tynemouth. When war broke out in Scotland in 1560, he was given the command of a body of light horse, to be equipped like the Schwartze Ritter with corselets and two pistols each, and at the head of these troops he distinguished himself before Leith (April 1560). The French commander D'Oyzelle, when defeated, asked permission, in compliment to Percy's valour, to surrender his sword to Percy rather than to the commander-in-chief, Lord Grey. Unlike other members of his family, he had Protestant sympathies, and was directed in 1561 to report on the doctrines adopted by the Scottish congregations. Both John Knox and Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange, with whom he corresponded, seem to have been convinced of his sympathy with presbyterianism. He had already (24 June 1559) been commissioned, together with Thomas Young, Archbishop of York, to administer the oath of supremacy to the clergy of the northern province. His position in the north was improved at the end of 1561 by his marriage with Catherine Neville, daughter and co-heiress of John Neville, 4th Baron Latimer. He was appointed Sheriff of Northumberland for 1562-63.