inquiry. Six months later, on 21 June 1585, he was found dead in his bed in his cell, having been shot through the heart. A jury was at once summoned, and returned a verdict of suicide. He was buried in the church of St. Peter ad Vincula, within the Tower. Suspicions were voiced. It was stated that the day before the earl died the lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Owen Hopton, was ordered by Sir Christopher Hatton, the vice-chamberlain, to place the prisoner under the care of a new warder named Bailiffe. A report spread that Hatton had contrived Northumberland's death, and some years later Sir Walter Raleigh, in writing to Sir Robert Cecil, referred to Hatton's guilt as proved. Immediately after his death there was published at Cologne a tract, entitled Crudelitatis Calvinianae Exempla duo recentissima ex Anglia, in which the English government was charged both with Northumberland's murder and with the enforcement of the penal statutes passed in the previous year. The tract was reprinted in French, German, English, Italian, and Spanish. To allay the public excitement, a Star Chamber inquiry was ordered, and it was held on 23 June; A True and Summarie Reporte of the proceedings was published, and the verdict of suicide upheld. Family By 25 January 1562, he had married Lady Katherine Neville (1546–1596), the daughter of John Nevill, 4th Baron Latimer and Lady Lucy Somerset. They had the following children: Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564–1632), married Lady Dorothy Devereux Thomas Percy William Percy, poet and playwright Sir Charles Percy, of Dumbleton, Gloucestershire, where survives his monument; Lucy Percy, married Sir John Wotton and then Sir Hugh Owen Richard Percy Sir Joscelyne Percy Anne Percy Sir Alan Percy (died 1613), married Mary Fitz Eleanor Percy (1583–1650), married William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis Sir George Percy (1580–1632), married Anne Floyd. Their daughter Anne Percy married John West. His wife Katherine was buried in St Paul's Chapel within Westminster Abbey. Ancestry References Attribution: 1532 births 1585 deaths Knights of the Garter 8 16th-century English nobility High Sheriffs of Northumberland 16th-century Protestants English Protestants Henry Percy, 08th Earl of Northumberland Deaths by firearm in London Prisoners in the Tower of London English MPs 1554–1555 English MPs 1571 Burials at the Church of St Peter ad Vincula People from Tyne and Wear Suicides in the Tower of London Suicides by firearm in England