Henry of Northumberland Synopsis

The Corvey Novels Project at the University of Nebraska

— Studies in British Literature of the Romantic Period —

Helen Craik

[anon.]. Henry of Northumberland, or The Hermit's Cell. A Tale of the Fifteenth Century

London: Printed at the Minerva-Press, for William Lane, 1800

Synopsis of Henry of Northumberland

This novel opens with a preface describing, in typical Gothic fashion, the discovery of the manuscript upon which the novel is founded. The manuscript Craik has discovered contains a narrative that "bore a strong similitude to the principal events mentioned in the modern and very beautiful poem of the ‘Hermit of Warkworth'" (1: x-xi). And, indeed, the major outlines of Craik's plot follow the narrative of this poem, a three-canto ballad imitation published in 1771 by Thomas Percy.

The story begins with the Earl of Northumberland pacing his castle, waiting for "intelligence from the fatal field of Shrewsbury" (1:2). A messenger arrives, informing the Earl that the king and prince Henry have been killed by the Earl's son, and "Monmouth's worthy favourite, Sir John Falstaff, is prisoner to my Lord your son" (1:8). Clearly Shakespeare rather than Rapin or Hume has been Craik's primary historical source. This intelligence turns out to have been false, and the Earl's son Henry Percy (Hotspur) has, in fact, been killed in battle. Percy's wife goes mad with grief.

Hotspur's only son, also named Henry Percy, must go into hiding. Disguised as a peasant's son, he travels towards Scotland under the protection of Lord Bartolp, who dresses as a minstrel. While en route, Percy and Bartolp traverse various gothic milieux, such as dungeons, secret passages, and convents. They are watching a funeral procession in a convent when they see "a pale, emaciated spectre-like, female figure, with disheveled hair, and long black flowing garments" (1: 135). She springs forward, and here the manuscript breaks off, in an imitation of Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron.

The story resumes nineteen years later, in 1424, "in a deep and romantic valley, near Warkworth castle, in Northumberland" (1:138). On a dark and stormy night, a hermit encounters an unconscious woman and brings her in to shelter. Shortly thereafter, he encounters a young man looking for that woman, whose name is Eleanor. The lovers are reunited, and the man turns out to be the grown-up Henry Percy.

The hermit shares a tale with the pair, the long interpolated "Hermit's Tale." Bertram, the friend of Percy's grandfather the Earl of Northumberland, loves Isabel. When she is kidnapped, he goes in search of her, and in the process of rescuing her he mistakenly murders her and his brother, who was aiding her escape. The hermit's tale very closely follows the narrative of Percy's poem.

Back in 1424, Percy is still in hiding from King Henry IV. Percy goes on to relate to the hermit his story of what has happened in the nineteen years since the narrative broke off. The reader learns that the female figure in the convent was Percy's mother, the mad widow of Hotspur. Percy and Bartolp continued on to Scotland, where Percy is placed under the protection of the Duke of Albany, the Scottish regent. As Percy relates his adventures in Florence, Bologna, and Milan, the historical elements of the novel drop out to give prominence to a sentimental love story.

Eleanor and Percy suffer some trials and tribulations, but ultimately are united in marriage. In the end, "the young, the elegant, the accomplished Henry Percy was at length publicly acknowledged as the son of Hotspur, and the legal heir of the once mighty Northumberland" (3:249).