Matilda de Percy
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Matilda de Percy | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Warwick | |
 Fountains Abbey One of the principal beneficiaries of Matilda's patronage | |
| Born | c. 1140 Catton |
| Died | c. October 1204 |
| Noble family | Percy |
| Spouse | William de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Warwick |
| Father | William de Percy |
| Mother | Alice of Tonbridge |
Matilda de Percy, Countess of Warwick (died c. October 1204), was a 12th-century noblewoman and heiress. She was the wife of William, earl of Warwick (died 1184) and, in 1174 became a co-heir of her father's large Yorkshire barony with her younger sister Agnes.
Matilda was born to the Yorkshire nobleman William II de Percy, lord of Topcliffe and Seamer, son of Alan de Percy. She herself recalls in one of her charters that she was born in the Percy manor of Catton where she was baptised.[1] William was a loyalist in the civil wars of the reign of King Stephen and occupied the office of sheriff of York through most of the reign.[2] He made a prestigious marriage to Alice of Tonbridge, daughter of Richard de Clare. At her father's death in 1174, closely following on that of her brother Alan, Matilda was co-heir to the Percy estate with her sister Agnes. Both women were very attractive marriage prospects and there were complex negotiations between King Henry II, their potential husbands and the ladies themselves as to their fate. This involved an arbitration in 1175 to divide the Percy barony, the text of which survives. From this it appears that Agnes did better, securing a larger number of the lowland Percy manors in the Vale of York, while Matilda had the Percy centres of Tadcaster and Spofforth but more of the less valuable upland estates in Craven.[3] Agnes was married to Joscelin of Louvain and from her is descended the second line of Percy, as her children by Joscelin took Agnes's surname. Matilda's marriage went to Earl William of Warwick from which she acquired only a modest dower, the manor of East Knoyle in Wiltshire.
one of Matilda's castles