Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, KG (c. 1502 – 1537) was an English nobleman, active as a military officer in the north.

[1] He is now primarily remembered as the betrothed of Anne Boleyn, whom he was forced to give up before she became involved with and later married King Henry VIII.

On hearing the news, Wolsey scolded Lord Percy before his household, as permission for the marriage had not been sought from his father nor from the King.

While Cavendish claimed that the King already had a personal interest in Anne at this point, driving Wolsey's angry reaction, this has been debated.

Besides the proposed Talbot match, another serious obstacle was that Anne was intended to wed James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond (who was then a page in Wolsey's household).

Another significant reason for Percy's father's refusal to permit the match was that he believed Anne Boleyn, a mere knight's daughter, not a high enough rank for his son and heir.

Percy's father reportedly scolded him, saying "thou hast always been a proud, presumptuous, and unthrift waster," and he was quickly and unhappily married to Lady Mary Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, by early 1524[6] or in 1525, with earlier legal stages.

Northumberland suspected his wife of spying on him for Norfolk, while her father worried that the young husband was abusing her and might even poison her.

The couple may have separated shortly thereafter, at least temporarily, since Mary delivered a stillborn child at her father's home in April 1529.

At about the same time, Northumberland announced that he was bequeathing his entire inheritance to the King since he had no children, and he and his wife were not likely to have a legitimate heir.

On 19 May 1527 he succeeded his father as sixth Earl of Northumberland; he was made steward of the honour of Holderness on 18 June.

He sent his prisoner south in the custody of Sir Roger Lascelles, while he remained to make an inventory of the Cardinal's goods.

He was one of the peers who signed the letter to the Pope in July 1530 asking that the divorce might be hurried on, was a friend of Sir Thomas Legh, and possibly was a reformer.

[1] Northumberland took part in the trial of Lord Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre, who at first pleaded ‘not guilty.’ to charges of treason.

Northumberland's brothers and mother were open sympathisers with the rebels, but the Earl himself remained loyal to the Crown.

[1] Writing in the early seventeenth century, the antiquarian John Weever recorded Percy's original epitaph in the church, which read: 'Here lieth interred, Henry lord Percy, earl of Northumberland, knight of the most honourable order of the Garter, who died in this town the last of June 1537, the 29th of HEN VIII.'

[14] A (presumed Victorian era) memorial plaque was discovered during the 2020 refurbishment of St John at Hackney, and was re-installed inside the church.

He married, in 1524, Mary Talbot, daughter of George, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, but left no surviving issue.