Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland

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Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland (1602-1668) was an English military leader.

The son of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, the so-called 'Wizard Earl,' who was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged involvement or complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, Algernon as heir to the earldom was educated in the Tower by the circle of intellectuals who were drawn to his father. On the model of King James I, the 9th earl wrote an essay of advice to his son. Algernon became a peer in his father's lifetime, as Baron Percy in 1626. His sister, Lucy Percy Hay, dowager countess of Carlisle, and his younger brother, Henry Percy, were members of the household of Charles I's queen, Henrietta Maria. Another sister, Dorothy, was married to Robert Sidney, second earl of Leicester. Algernon's first wife was Anne Cecil, daughter of William Cecil, second earl of Salisbury, "in spite of his father's deep disapproval, who said that 'the blood of a Percy would not mix with the blood of a Cecil if you poured it on a dish" (Percy family history). The marriage, however, produced five daughters and the wife died.

During the years immediately preceding the Civil War he served as an admiral, making earnest but unsuccessful efforts to reform the navy and force fishing licenses upon the Dutch. In 1637 he was made lord high admiral of England. In 1639 during the Second Bishops' War, King Charles I appointed him general of the forces north of the Trent and a member of the council of regency. Algernon did not serve in the field during this short conflict due to a bout of the recurrent illness that affected him throughout his life.

Northumberland played a distinguished and honourable part in the troubled times of the Civil War. He was a friend of Strafford, and gave evidence at his trial which, though favourable on the important point of bringing the Irish army to England, was on the whole damaging. His brother Henry Percy was involved in the First Army Plot of 1641, an attempt to break Strafford out of the Tower and forcibly dissolve the Long Parliament. Algernon afterwards tended more towards the popular party, of which he soon became leader in the House of Lords. He was a member of the committee of safety, and later of the committee of both kingdoms; and he took an active part in the attempts to come to terms with the king, whom he visited at Oxford for that purpose in 1643 and at Uxbridge two years later.

Northumberland helped to organize the New Model Army; and in 1646 he was entrusted by parliament with the charge of the king's younger children. He led the opposition in the House of Lords to the proposal to bring Charles I to trial, and during the Commonwealth he took no part in public affairs. At the Restoration he became a member of Charles II's privy council, and with his habitual moderation he ameliorated the harsh proceedings against the regicides. His second wife, Elizabeth (d. 1705), daughter of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, brought him Northumberland House in The Strand, which was demolished in 1874 to make room for Northumberland Avenue.

Political offices
Preceded by William Juxon	Lord High Admiral 1638–1643	Succeeded by Francis Cottington
Peerage of England
Preceded by Henry Percy	Earl of Northumberland 1632–1668	Succeeded by Joceline Percy