Percy was educated at Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history, and Reading University, where he studied land management.

[5] Ralph Percy was ranked at number 285 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2024, with an estimated wealth of £509 million.

[7][8][9] The 12th Duke's sale on the open market, rather than at a lower price to The National Gallery, of Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks in 2003 was subject to some criticism.

[10] At much the same time, in response to a foot-and-mouth disease crisis, the Duke cut the rents of tenant farmers by 10 percent.

In 2015 the Percy family outraged users of allotments in Hounslow, West London, when they revoked a lease which had existed since the First World War, with the intent of developing the land for profit.