h family
property of his great-great-grandfather Richard Perceval (1550-1620),
Burghley's secret agent, and author of a Spanish dictionary published in
1591, whose son Sir Philip Perceval (1605-1647) acquired the Irish
estates by judicious use of his opportunities as commissioner for land
titles and of his interest at court. Sir Philip's son John, grandfather
of the 1st earl, was made a baronet in 1661. The first earl of Egmont
(who had been made Baron Perceval in 1715, and Viscount Perceval in
1723) is chiefly important for his connexion with the colonization of
Georgia, and for his voluminous letters and writings on biography and
genealogy.

John Perceval, 2nd earl of Egmont (1711-1770), his eldest son, was an
active politician, first lord of the admiralty (1763-1766), and
political pamphleteer, and like his father an ardent genealogist. He was
twice married, and had eight sons and eight daughters. One of his
younger sons was Spencer Perceval, prime minister of England. His eldest
son succeeded as 3rd earl, and the eldest by his second marriage (with
Catherine Compton, baroness of Arden in Ireland) was in 1802 created
Baron Arden of the United Kingdom, a title which subsequently became
merged in the Egmont earldom.

EGMONT (EGMOND), LAMORAL, COUNT OF, prince of Gavre (1522-1568), was
born in Hainaut in 1522. He was the younger of the two sons of John IV.,
count of Egmont, by his wife Francoise of Luxemburg, princess of Gavre.
On the death of his elder brother Charles, about 1541, he succeeded to
his titles and estates. In this year he served his apprenticeship as a
soldier in the expedition of the emperor Charles V. to Algiers,
distinguishing himself in the command of a body of cavalry. In 1544 he
married Sabina, sister of the elector palatine Frederick III., and the
wedding was celebrated at Spires with great pomp in the presence of the
emperor and his brother Ferdinand, afterwards emperor. Created knight of
the Golden Fleece in 1546, he accompanied Philip of Spain in his tour
through the Netherland towns, and in 1554 he went to England at the head
of a special embassy to ask the hand of Mary of England for Philip, and
was afterwards present at the wedding ceremony at Winchester. In the
summer of 1557 Egmont was appointed commander of the Flemish cavalry in
the war between Spain and France; and it was by his vehement persuasion
that the battle of St Quentin was fought. The victory was determined by
the brilli