The earl of Northumberland wins Richard iii bosworth field

But Northumberland's claim sucks. So then what is a realistic reward?
A realistic reward for Northumberland?

He's already got the usual Percy sinecure of Warden of the East March, but Richard could easily add the West and Middle Marches. The West appears not to have been reallocated since Richard usurped the throne, so that one doesn't even require pushing a vassal's nose out of joint. Lord Warden of the Marches follows pretty easily.

Richard could also try to revive the idea that Edward IV had regarding a County Palatine of Cumbria: Richard (As Duke of Gloucester) was going to be given Cumberland as his responsibility to defend from the Scots and crucially pay for that defence. The carrot being that any land taken from the Scots would be his own to add to the fief. Edward died before it could get off the ground, though.

Wholesale land confiscations aren't actually as easy as may people think back then. If there are heirs, then they will not abandon claims. Percy himself had seen his father lose everything in an earlier stage of the Wars of the Roses, it being handed off to the Kingmaker's Brother - John Neville Marquess Montague. Nevertheless, when the dispossessed heir reached the appropriate age, the Percy clan were restored to their old lands. Before I get inundated with counter examples, I know that sometimes kings did ride roughshod over these ideals - Edward IV telling Richard and Clarence that they could take the Salisbury inheritance "as if the Dowager Countess were dead" springs to mind, but such actions come with a price, and Richard probably isn't in a position to act so high-handed, even if both Tudor and Oxford die at this alt-Bosworth.
 
A realistic reward for Northumberland?

He's already got the usual Percy sinecure of Warden of the East March, but Richard could easily add the West and Middle Marches. The West appears not to have been reallocated since Richard usurped the throne, so that one doesn't even require pushing a vassal's nose out of joint. Lord Warden of the Marches follows pretty easily.

Richard could also try to revive the idea that Edward IV had regarding a County Palatine of Cumbria: Richard (As Duke of Gloucester) was going to be given Cumberland as his responsibility to defend from the Scots and crucially pay for that defence. The carrot being that any land taken from the Scots would be his own to add to the fief. Edward died before it could get off the ground, though.

Wholesale land confiscations aren't actually as easy as may people think back then. If there are heirs, then they will not abandon claims. Percy himself had seen his father lose everything in an earlier stage of the Wars of the Roses, it being handed off to the Kingmaker's Brother - John Neville Marquess Montague. Nevertheless, when the dispossessed heir reached the appropriate age, the Percy clan were restored to their old lands. Before I get inundated with counter examples, I know that sometimes kings did ride roughshod over these ideals - Edward IV telling Richard and Clarence that they could take the Salisbury inheritance "as if the Dowager Countess were dead" springs to mind, but such actions come with a price, and Richard probably isn't in a position to act so high-handed, even if both Tudor and Oxford die at this alt-Bosworth.
Intresting. Any other rewards Percy can get maybe somthing in the south?
 
Intresting. Any other rewards Percy can get maybe somthing in the south?
Well, it depends upon if anybody dies without heirs, or somebody blots their copy book sufficiently for Richard to destroy them completely. However, I suspect that the Percies would prefer to add to their holdings in the North. Yorkshire and Northumberland are their base. Adding to that is good. Lands in Devon or Sussex are likely to be swapped about to get land in the North instead (during Edward IV's reign, both Richard and Clarence did this, trying to turn diffuse nationwide holdings into concentrated power blocs). An honorary office a la Chamberlain would be a nice bauble, but he'd be a long way from his support base, so might not be too palatable. I'm far from an expert , so there might be something I'm missing, but I do know a little about the period.

Council of the North might be up for grabs, if Richard wants to move the Earl of Lincoln South. Similarly, if Richard goes after the Scots again, expect Percy to attempt to hoover up anything he can in new gains.
 
Well, it depends upon if anybody dies without heirs, or somebody blots their copy book sufficiently for Richard to destroy them completely. However, I suspect that the Percies would prefer to add to their holdings in the North. Yorkshire and Northumberland are their base. Adding to that is good. Lands in Devon or Sussex are likely to be swapped about to get land in the North instead (during Edward IV's reign, both Richard and Clarence did this, trying to turn diffuse nationwide holdings into concentrated power blocs). An honorary office a la Chamberlain would be a nice bauble, but he'd be a long way from his support base, so might not be too palatable. I'm far from an expert , so there might be something I'm missing, but I do know a little about the period.

Council of the North might be up for grabs, if Richard wants to move the Earl of Lincoln South. Similarly, if Richard goes after the Scots again, expect Percy to attempt to hoover up anything he can in new gains.
Actually the Percy did have estate in the south even in Devon and Sussex. While northern rewards would be perferable don't count of the Percy's not keeping southern estates. Hell by the 5th earls death 1800 pounds or over 1/3 of the family's gross income came from south of Lincolnshire.
 
Top