PERCY, Algernon George, Lord Lovaine, afterwards Earl Percy (1810-1899), of 11 Portman Square, London; Albury Park, Guildford, Surrey and Lovaine, Yorkshire

Described by Punch as ‘a nobleman of some silliness’, Percy, styled Lord Lovaine from 1830 to 1865, was heir to one of the most prestigious dukedoms in the country, and briefly served in the cabinet. Over the course of a long political career in the Commons and Lords, however, he struggled to win the admiration of his colleagues, who thought little of his abilities.1Punch, May 1855, 184. His father, George Percy, had represented the rotten borough of Bere Alston from 1799 until his succession as the 2^nd earl of Beverley in 1830, whereupon he was replaced by Lovaine.2HP Commons, 1820-1832, vi. 745-6. In the Commons, Lovaine opposed the Grey ministry’s reform bills and failed to prevent Bere Alston’s disenfranchisement, which left him without a seat at the 1832 general election.3Ibid., vi. 739-40. Having joined the army in 1829, he continued to serve with the Grenadier Guards until his retirement at the rank of captain in 1837.4The Times, 3 Jan. 1899.

Lovaine’s first two attempts to re-enter the Commons ended in failure. At the 1841 general election he came forward in the Conservative interest at Exeter, close to his father’s Devonshire estates, but following a difficult campaign in which he was portrayed as an unwelcome outsider, he was defeated in third place.5Morning Post, 18 June 1841; Morning Chronicle, 30 June 1841. At the 1847 general election he offered for Northumberland North as a Protectionist, and declared his opposition to the Maynooth grant, secular education and repeal of the navigation laws. As his father’s cousin was the 4^th duke of Northumberland, Lovaine took care to associate himself with ‘the good deeds of the house of Percy’, but following a fierce contest, he was again defeated in third place, this time falling short by just ten votes.6Daily News, 9 Aug. 1847.

Although it was not discussed publicly, there may have been private doubts amongst the leading Northumbrian gentry concerning Lovaine’s religious views.7F.M.L. Thompson, ‘Percy, Algernon George, sixth duke of Northumberland (1810-1899)’, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com. In 1845 he had married Louisa Drummond, the daughter and co-heiress of Henry Drummond, the leading patron of the millenarian sect the Catholic Apostolic church, which, under the leadership of Edward Irving, evolved into a peculiar group of Tory aristocrats who believed that the second coming was imminent.8D.J. Tierney, ‘The Catholic Apostolic church: a study in tory millenarianism’, Historical Research, 63 (1990), 289-313. Lovaine immediately became a follower and donor, and remained so for the rest of his life, much to the bafflement of his political colleagues. Disraeli later informed Queen Victoria that Lovaine surrounded himself with people of ‘very fantastic opinions’.9Disraeli to Queen Victoria, 30 Apr. 1868, quoted in R. Blake, Disraeli (1966), 492.

Following a requisition from tenant farmers and land occupiers, Lovaine offered again for Northumberland North at the 1852 general election. He gave lukewarm support to franchise extension, while stating that he would oppose any change that placed ‘the beggar … above the owner of property, the fool above the wise man, and the faggot voter above the independent farmer’. He appeared to accept the inevitability of free trade, but argued that the policies of the Liberal government gave foreigners an undue advantage. He was particularly opposed to the removal of Jewish disabilities, though he was notably lenient towards Catholics, insisting that ‘as long as the laws are observed, it is no business of mine to inquire into the religious belief of every Englishman’.10Morning Chronicle, 22 July 1852. Given his own private values, the point was a pertinent one. Following a bitter campaign in which he repeatedly traded insults with his Liberal opponent, Sir George Grey, he was returned at the top of the poll.11The poll book of the contested election for the north division of the county of Northumberland (1852); N. McCord and A.E. Carrick, ‘Northumberland in the general election of 1852’, Northern History, I (1966), 96.

Lovaine, a steady attender who was ‘never a brilliant speaker’, made frequent, if rather uninspiring, contributions to debate, principally on military and naval issues.12The Times, 3 Jan. 1899. In the 1853 session he was present for 62 out of 257 divisions; in 1856 he was present for 56 out of 198: Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; J.P. Gassiot, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck: with a full analysis of the divisions of the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament (1857), 13. In his maiden speech, he moved the address in answer to the Queen’s speech, confirming that it was ‘impolitic and impossible to retrace our steps in our commercial policy’, 11 Nov. 1852, a statement that was subsequently mocked by Sir James Graham, who quipped that he ‘could not believe that if protection was to be abandoned, it was a Percy that was to perform that operation in this House’, 25 Nov. 1852. Nevertheless, Lovaine, after opposing Villiers’s motion championing the repeal of the corn laws, backed Palmerston’s motion in praise of free trade principles, 26 Nov. 1852. Thereafter, he followed Disraeli into the division lobby on most major issues, including the latter’s motion condemning the government’s handling of the Crimean war, 25 May 1855. Despite his earlier criticism of the endowment of Catholic education, he voted for the continuance of the Maynooth grant, 15 Apr. 1856. He supported Cobden’s censure motion on Canton, 3 Mar. 1857. He was also active on select committees, including those on the police, criminal destitute children, and Sandhurst military college,13PP 1852-53 (603), xxxvi. 2; PP 1852-53 (674), xxiii. 2; PP 1854-55 (317), xii. 321. and a number of election petitions.14New Windsor election, PP 1852-53 (289), xix. 372; Durham election, PP 1852-53 (649), xii. 480; Barnstaple election, PP 1854-55 (100), vii. 62.

In his first Parliament, the majority of Lovaine’s contributions to debate reflected his concern for the state of the British army and the reform of British policing. He called for an increase in the number of officers serving in the Crimea in order to better manage the ‘trying conditions’ there, 24 Feb., 5 May 1854, and strenuously opposed the government’s militia bill, which proposed to send volunteers abroad, 13, 14 Dec. 1854. He doggedly pressed Palmerston for the precise details of the bill, and moved an amendment to ensure that if volunteers were sent abroad, the ‘remaining portion at home should be kept on duty to add vigour to the regiment’, but it was withdrawn owing to a lack of support, 18 Dec. 1854. He subsequently condemned the ‘total misapprehension’ behind the government’s militia policy, arguing that the volunteers were not ‘a nursery for the army, but rather for the defence of the country itself’, 3 Mar. 1856. He also intervened frequently in the debates on the police (counties and boroughs) bill, 5 Feb., 2 May 1856. Believing that some members of watch committees were too closely tied with local beer houses, he pressed for a greater scrutiny of their powers, but his clause to give greater responsibilities to chief constables (which would have weakened the influence of watch committees), came to nothing, 23 May 1856.

Returned unopposed at the 1857 general election, Lovaine attacked the Liberal ministry’s foreign policy in China and condemned the bombardment of ‘the defenceless city of Canton’, 17 July 1857. He saved his greatest invective for the divorce and matrimonial causes bill. Aligning himself with Gladstone in opposition to the legislation, he attacked the premise that the clergy would have to allow ‘an adulteress … to marry in the same way as the person whom she had wronged’ and that they ‘would be obliged to pronounce the blessings of the Church upon parties convicted of heinous sin’, something Lovaine felt ‘would be nothing less than rank blasphemy’, 31 July 1857. In committee, his attempts to shape the legislation were frustrated; his amendment that it should be obligatory rather than discretionary for a court to order payment of alimony from a husband to a wife who had dissolved the marriage was defeated, 17 Aug. 1857.

Following the fall of the Liberal ministry in February 1858, Lovaine was appointed lord of the admiralty in the newly formed Derby administration. At the subsequent by-election when he was returned unopposed, he criticised Palmerston’s conspiracy to murder bill, arguing that although good relations with France were important, it was ‘the first duty of England to preserve the right of asylum’.15Newcastle Courant, 12 Mar. 1858. As lord of the admiralty, he oversaw an increase in the Channel fleet, and promoted the building of ships in royal rather than private dockyards, believing that they represented better value for money. When Derby reshuffled his cabinet in February 1859, Lovaine, who according to a contemporary was ‘very sulky’ and ‘bent on going’ if he did not receive a promotion, was placated with the post of vice-president of the board of trade.16Quoted in A. Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th earl of Derby. Vol. II: achievement, 1799-1851 (2008), 204-5. Returned unopposed at the following by-election, he had little time to make an impact in his new position before the dissolution in April 1859.

At the 1859 general election Lovaine defended the Derby ministry’s reform bill and trumpeted his own efforts in securing the defence of England’s shores. He was re-elected without opposition.17Newcastle Courant, 6 May 1859. He voted with the Conservative opposition on most major issues, and opposed the abolition of church rates, 14 May 1862, and the tests abolition (Oxford bill), 16 Mar. 1864. He backed Disraeli’s censure of the government’s handling of the Danish war, 8 July 1864. He continued to make regular but short interventions on military matters. He opposed any reduction in naval armaments, 29 July 1859, called for an increase in able seamen in the merchant navy, 16 Apr. 1860, and rejected the notion that flogging was widespread on naval ships, 1 May 1860. By 1862, though, his views on military and naval expenditure appeared to have softened: in private he informed Disraeli that the opposition had not done enough to check expenditure, especially concerning the army and navy, ‘which are the two great leaks in the coffers of the state’.18Lovaine to Disraeli, 22 May 1862, in Benjamin Disraeli letters, 1860-64 (2009), ed. M.G. Wiebe, M.S. Miller and A.P. Robson, viii. 186. He later called for a reduction in militia funding, 20 Mar. 1863. His expertise on naval matters was also evident when he sat on select committees on the merchant navy and gun and mortar boats.19PP 1860 (530), xiii. 2; PP 1860 (545), viii. 2.

Following the death without issue of the 4^th duke of Northumberland in February 1865, Lovaine’s father succeeded to the dukedom. Consequently, at the 1865 general election Lovaine (who was now styled Earl Percy) resigned his seat, citing ‘the pressure of new duties’.20Newcastle Courant, 7 July 1865. His absence from parliamentary life did not last long. In August 1867 he succeeded his father as the 6^th duke of Northumberland and took his seat in the Lords. He declined, however, to actively support the Conservative party, believing that, by pressing ahead with the Second Reform Act, Derby and Disraeli had ‘let the mob in upon us’.21Thompson, ‘Percy, Algernon, sixth duke of Northumberland’; Northumberland to Lord Hylton, 4 Nov. 1868, quoted in H.J. Hanham, Elections and party management: politics in the time of Disraeli and Gladstone (1959), 26. In return, Disraeli refused to recommend him for the Garter, much to Northumberland’s chagrin.22Blake, Disraeli, 641.

In the Lords, Northumberland did little to persuade his colleagues of his abilities. Disraeli revealed to Queen Victoria that:

The Duke of Northumberland is very unpopular, and has the reputation of being the proudest man in yr majesty’s dominions. He is proud, but he is more shy; and suffering under a morbid feeling that he has never been appreciated.23Disraeli to Queen Victoria, 30 Apr. 1868, quoted in ibid., 492.

Disraeli did, however, appoint him lord privy seal in 1878, though this was probably more to do with the former’s ‘romantic penchant’ for the great noble houses than a belief in Northumberland’s abilities.24Ibid., 656-7. Certainly, Lord Cranbrook, the new secretary of state for India, thought him ‘a strange choice’ for the post, and following Northumberland’s first cabinet meeting, Cranbrook found him ‘rather deaf and slow and will not I fear add strength to our deliberations’.25Diary of Gathorne Hardy, later Lord Cranbrook, 1866-1892 (1981), ed. N. E. Johnson, 354-5. Cranbrook’s fears appeared to have been borne out. At the 1880 state opening of Parliament, Disraeli wrote in private that Northumberland ‘was consoled for his never having anything to do, by bearing the Crown – rather a weighty and difficult office’.26The letters of Disraeli to Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield (1929), ed. Marquis of Zetland, i. 261. Unfortunately for Northumberland, doubts about his fitness for government were not confined to private correspondence. In 1884 an article in Vanity Fair, which alluded to his membership of the Catholic Apostolic church, was scathing, cruelly quipping that ‘in religion he is reputed to be an Irvingite, and to possess the gift of tongues. This gift he has never displayed in public’.27Vanity Fair, 14 June 1884, 339.

Although mocked as a politician, Northumberland’s philanthropic efforts were widely praised. In addition to being president of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (1866-99) and the Royal Institution (1873-99), he promoted the foundation of the Durham College of Science in Newcastle (which became the University of Newcastle) and despite his continuing devotion to Irvingism, he contributed £10,000 to the establishment of the see of Newcastle, and built the church of St. George in the new ecclesiastical district.28The Times, 3 Jan. 1899.

Northumberland died from angina pectoris at Alnwick Castle in January 1899. At the time of his death he was the second to last surviving person to have sat in the pre-Reform Commons.29Ibid. He was succeeded in the dukedom by his eldest son, Henry George Percy, who had represented Northumberland North as a Conservative from 1868 to 1885, and in 1887 had entered the Lords through a writ in acceleration of his father’s barony. The return of Northumberland’s grandson, Lord Warkworth, for South Kensington in 1895 had produced the rare sight of father, son, and grandson sitting simultaneously in the Houses of Parliament.30Ibid.