Thomas Percy

Thomas Percy was a member of the northern Percy family and a Catholic convert whose employment by Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, gave him access to court and administrative circles. By 1604 he had joined Robert Catesby and the group planning to destroy the king and Parliament, and he helped secure property used by the conspirators in Westminster.

After the discovery of the gunpowder beneath the House of Lords in November 1605, Percy fled London with other plotters. He was killed with Catesby at Holbeche House in Staffordshire during the final confrontation with government forces. His role made him one of the central operational figures of the conspiracy.

In John Pilkington’s Marbeck and the Gunpowder Plot, Religious division remains acute under James I, and government spy Martin Marbeck is ordered to watch the Catholic gentleman Thomas Percy.