Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, oil painting by Hans Holbein the Elder. J. , 1542

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (* 1516 in Hunsdon , Hertfordshire , † January 19, 1547 in the Tower of London ) was an English nobleman and poet .

Life

Howard was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk , and his second wife, Lady Elisabeth Stafford, daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham . Since his father inherited the Duketitel in 1521, he carried the courtesy title Earl of Surrey as his heir ( apparent marriage ) . When his father exercised decisive influence at the court of the English king Henry VIII , he was appointed governor of Boulogne in France . In 1546 he and his father were arrested and unjustifiably charged with high treason . He and his father allegedly planned to take over the guardianship of Prince Edward VI after the death of Henry VIII . to take over and finally, after his assassination, to have themselves elevated to kings of England, since they also had royal blood through their ancestors. As an indication of this claim, the coat of arms of Edward the Confessor (from which he was descended), which Howard took up in his personal coat of arms, was used, however, the use of which was considered a privilege "only to the king of this empire". However, one of Howard's ancestors was expressly permitted to use the coat of arms in 1473. Nevertheless, father and son were sentenced to death for high treason. Howard was beheaded on January 19, 1547. His father was to suffer the same fate on January 28, 1547, but by chance Henry VIII died on that day. His successor, Edward VI, converted the death penalty into a prison sentence.

Howard's poems appeared in 1557 along with those of Thomas Wyatt . His translation of Virgil's "Aeneid" was published at the same time.

Remarks

• Henry's famous relatives also included his cousins Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard , the second and fifth wives of Henry VIII, who were both executed by their royal spouses in 1536 and 1542, respectively.
• In 1614 his son Henry had a magnificent monument erected in St Michael Church in Framlingham . There he had his father put up next to the remains of his grandfather and mother. Here they rested for over 120 years, until an amateur archaeologist and historian had the coffin opened out of curiosity while repairing the monument and the attached church. Henry Howard's bones turned to dust in the process, leaving only bits of clothing and skull.

progeny

Henry Howard's marriage to Frances de Vere had five children.

• Jane Howard (around 1536/37, † 1593), ∞ Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland
• Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (10 March 1538, † 1572 executed)
• Katherine Howard (* 1539; † 1596), ∞ Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley
• Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (February 1540; † 1614)
• Margaret Howard (* 1543; † 1591), ∞ Henry Scrope, 9th Baron Scrope of Bolton

Pedigree

literature

• Susan Brigden: Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 28: Hooppell - Hutcheson, 2004 Oxford University Press
• Jessie Childs: Henry VIII's Last Victim. The Life and times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Vintage Books, London 2008, ISBN 9780712643474 (English)
• Hester W. Chapman: Two Tudor Portraits: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Lady Katherine Gray Jonathan Cape 1960
• Dennis Keene: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey: Selected Poems Fyfield Books 2006
• Werner von Koppenfels : Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of . In: Metzler Lexicon of English-Speaking Authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, p. 563f.

Web links

Commons : Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Family tree of the Howard family in: Jessie Childs: Henry VIII's Last Victim. The Life and times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Vintage Books, London 2008
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jessie Childs: Henry VIII's Last Victim. The Life and times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Vintage Books, London 2008, pp. 133f