for advice, but before their letter reached Rome circumstances hurried them into action against their better judgment. Marriage and children In 1558 he married Anne Somerset, daughter of Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester. Their children included: Thomas Percy, Baron Percy (died 1560), predeceased his father Elizabeth Percy, wife of Richard Woodroffe of Woolley, son of Francis Woodroffe. Joan Percy, wife of Lord Henry Seymour, a younger son of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset by his wife Anne Stanhope. Lucy Percy, wife of Edward Stanley of Tong Castle, the son of Sir Thomas Stanley by his wife Margaret Vernon Mary Percy (11 June 15701643), a nun, founder of Benedictine Dames in Brussels from which nearly all the existing houses of Benedictine nuns in England are descended. Death Capture and beheading After the Rising of the North failed, Thomas fled to Scotland, where he was captured by the Earl of Morton, one of the leading Scottish nobles. He was held at Lochleven Castle. Margaret Erskine wrote that her son, the Laird of Lochleven, was at Loch Leven, "and it is all frozyn, quha (who) is at greitt charges by resoun of grett company in his houss daylie for the keiping of my Lord of Northumberland". After three years, the Earl was sold to the English Government for two thousand pounds. He was conducted to York and on 22 August 1572 was beheaded at a public execution on Pavement, refusing an offer to save his life by renouncing Catholicism. His headless body was buried at the now demolished St Crux Church, York. Succession His wife survived him, as did four daughters who were his co-heirs. The baronies of Percy and of Poynings and the earldom of Northumberland of the older creation were forfeited, but owing to a clause in the patent the newer earldom of Northumberland and the other honours conferred in 1557 were not. As his only son had predeceased him without male issue, the earldom passed to his younger brother Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland. Beatification He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 13 May 1895 and his festival was appointed to be observed in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle annually on 14 November. References External links Entry in Catholic.org 1528 births 1572 deaths English beatified people 7 Knights of the Garter Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland Executed English people People executed under the Tudors