ABSTRACT
Duke of Somerset had succeeded in maintaining his control of the administration, the problems inherent in any situation where a weak monarchy existed were unlikely simply to disappear. On 24 August 1453, Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont, younger son of the 2nd Earl of Northumberland, lay in ambush by Heworth Moor, just northeast of York. Some commentators have seen the Percy-Neville feud as the catalyst which led mere factionalism to degenerate into civil war. The almost princely independence of the Percies confirmed a quasi-regal status in the north: the dominant individual in Northern Society was Henry Percy 4th Earl of Northumberland, a view which persisted even after the end of the immediate conflicts, and when the Nevilles were crushed. The Percy holdings east of the Pennines were interspersed with those of Salisbury and York, though the latter showed scant interest in his northern estates. The young King attempted to take Berwick in 1455 and again two years later.
