On the plain of Hedgeley Moor, near Wooler, in the north part of
Northumberland, stands a monolith, commonly known as Percy's Cross
(Fig. 43), because it is alleged to mark the spot where, on 24th April
1464, Sir Ralph Percy fell in a desperate attempt, on the part of
Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI., to recover the throne for her
demented husband. So rude and primitive is this monument that it is
hard to believe that it could have been executed in the technically
skilled period of the fifteenth century. It displays conspicuously,
however, the badges of the house of Percy--the luces, or pike, the
mascles, and the crescents, sculptured on its eight sides. The
pillar stands on a plain, rugged socket. This cross became the
rallying point, where the men of the north, opposed to the religious
innovations of Henry VIII., gathered under the banner of the Five
Wounds, badge of the ill-starred Pilgrimage of Grace, in 1536-7.
Percy's Cross, on Hedgeley Moor, must not be confounded with the Percy
Cross at Otterburn, erected to commemorate the battle of Chevy Chase,
fought on 19th August 1388. The latter cross is a simple monolith,
which has a decided entasis, and is mounted on a pile of masonry,
resembling but roughly a flight of circular steps.
The cross in the churchyard of Blanchland Abbey, Northumberland (Fig.
44), is an interesting example of Gothic design applied to a monolith.
From the style of its head this cross can scarcely date back any
earlier than the late-thirteenth, or early-fourteenth century.
III. THE SHAFT-ON-STEPS TYPE
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