Hotspur

A. W. Boardman reconstructs the life of Henry Percy, the northern lord remembered as Harry Hotspur, separating the historical soldier from Shakespeare’s dramatic rebel. The study follows Percy’s upbringing within an ambitious border dynasty, his campaigns against France and Scotland, his capture at Otterburn and his service to Richard II. It also examines the military reputation and family interests that made him one of the most formidable nobles of his generation.

The second half traces the Percy alliance with Henry Bolingbroke, the deposition of Richard II and the family’s deteriorating relationship with Henry IV. Disputes over ransoms, unpaid expenses, Welsh policy and control of the north culminated in rebellion and Hotspur’s death at Shrewsbury in 1403. Boardman combines chronicles, political evidence and close attention to the battlefields to explain why a celebrated royal servant became a medieval rebel.