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Harry Hotspur - Home grown hero of Alnwick |
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'Hotspur's Seat' is a bower that sits to the west of the Record Tower at Alnwick. The first Duchess of Alnwick erected the bower in the 18th Century on the site of an old garret.
It was the Duchess's love of the gothic tradition and her immense pride in her ancestry that lead her to build the bower and to name it after one of the Percys' more colourful characters.
The Percys arrived in England from Normandy with William the Conqueror and were the uncrowned kings of the Northeast. Ever increasing border disputes with the Scottish, who were constantly trying to push into northern England, ensured that the Percys had their hands full.
Hotspur was Alnwick's very own home-grown hero. Born in the castle in 1364, he quickly became a legend, helped some say, by dashing good looks and fearlessness in battle. Raised in hostile and violent times, Hotspur first went into battle at the tender age of eight and had been knighted by the time he was eleven.
But it was at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388 that Hotspur firmly cemented his infamous reputation, killing the Earl of Douglas, leader of a Scottish army, in hand to hand combat. Once he had despatched the leader, Hotspur went in pursuit of the retreating Scottish army. However, this rash behaviour proved to be his downfall and Hotspur was captured by the Scots, later to be ransomed back.
This slight glitch in his career did little to dampen Hotspur's spirits and with one enemy slain, the Percys turned their attention closer to home.
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