The Death of the Earl of Chatham The Death of the Earl of Chatham The Death of the Earl of Chatham is the title of a 1781 oil-on-canvas painting by Boston-born American artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts the collapse of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham on 7 April 1778, during a debate in the House of Lords on the American War of Independence. Chatham is surrounded by peers of the realm, and the painting contains fifty-five portraits. Lord Chatham was the architect of the British victory in the Seven Years' War (1757–1763), in which Britain won supremacy in America. Although sympathetic to American grievances and
Earl of Northumberland Earl of Northumberland The title of Earl of Northumberland was created several times in the Peerage of England and of Great Britain, succeeding the title Earl of Northumbria. Its most famous holders were the House of Percy ("alias" Perci), who were the most powerful noble family in Northern England for much of the Middle Ages. The heirs of the Percys, via a female line, were ultimately made Duke of Northumberland in 1766. <section begin=Percy Family/> William de Percy, 1st Baron Percy, who came from the village of Percy in Normandy, was in the train of William I. After arriving in