Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, became 3rd Duke of Norfolk upon his father’s death on 21st May 1524.
He was the brother of Elizabeth Boleyn and uncle to Queen Anne Boleyn, on whom he famously passed a sentence of death’.
During his career at the Tudor court, Howard gained the reputation of an unscrupulous, ruthless man. He was personally involved in bringing down the King’s two chief ministers, Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell, as well as Anne Boleyn.
Howard started his career as a soldier fighting in the battle of Flodden against the Scots in 1513. The victory at Flodden saw the Howards regain some of the lands they had lost after their ill-judged support of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
Howard was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1521 and was sent there to regain control of the Paleshire (the land around Dublin) that had become ungovernable after the Earl of Ormonde’s death. The Irish Earl of Ormonde, Thomas Butler, great-grandfather to Anne Boleyn, had died without a male heir, and his cousin, Piers Butler, had stolen the title from Thomas Boleyn. The latter inherited it through his mother, Margaret Butler, the earl’s daughter.
Hating the conditions in Ireland, Thomas Howard used his niece Anne Boleyn to broker a deal with the Irish lords that would extricate him from Ireland. He proposed the marriage of Anne and Pier’s son, James Butler. This later fell through, but his cunning behaviour was a sign of what was to come.
In November 1533, Howard seized the opportunity to get near the throne by marrying his daughter, Mary, to King Henry VIII’s only son, the illegitimate Henry Fitzroy, whom the King had created Duke of Richmond.
Howard also saw it to that his son, Henry Howard, became Fitzroy’s companion.
The Duke married twice. First to Anne Plantagenet, the fifth daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. After Anne died, he made an advantageous marriage to Elizabeth Stafford, daughter of the Duke of Buckingham and twenty years his junior. Buckingham was one of the country’s leading noblemen with a claim to the throne should Henry VIII die childless. Elizabeth bought him a dowry of 2000 marks, and Howard promised her a joint share of 500 marks a year. Instead, he treated Elizabeth with sadistic cruelty. He locked her up, confiscated her jewels, threw her out of the Howard household and moved in Bess Holland, his mistress, in her place.
Thomas Howard is best remembered for pronouncing the death sentence on his sister’s children, Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother, George, Lord Rochford, in May 1536. Sources of the time say he did so with tears running down his face. It is hard to know how genuine his emotion was. When her uncle arrests her, Anne is quoted as saying, ‘I was cruelly handled.’ As she spoke to the king’s council, she said that her uncle shook his head, saying, ‘Tut, tut, tut.’
A year after the deaths of Anne Boleyn and her brother, Norfolk assisted the King in the uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. Thirty thousand men had gathered in the north of England, outraged at the King and Cromwell’s dissolution of the monasteries, and demanding they be restored. Hopelessly outnumbered, Norfolk talked them round with false promises of pardons and the restoration of their religious houses. But, once they had laid down their arms, he arrested the leader Robert Aske and several hundred of the rebels. On the king’s instruction, they were all executed.
The King rewarded Norfolk, making him godfather to his long-awaited son Prince Edward. When Edward’s mother Jane Seymour died weeks after giving birth, Norfolk was a commissioner at her funeral.
After the death of Jane, Thomas Cromwell persuaded Henry to marry Anne of Cleves to strengthen his alliance with the protestants of Germany against Catholic France and Spain. But the marriage rested solely on a portrait, and when the King saw Anne in person, he was outraged by her appearance. Norfolk seized upon the King’s anger to bring down his long-standing rival and advance the Catholic position by helping Henry annul his marriage.
Norfolk brought his niece, the young Catherine Howard, to court as a possible candidate to be the next queen. Henry was instantly smitten and married Catherine on 28th July 1540, just three weeks after his marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled. Catherine, although pretty, was a giddy teenager, and an unsuitable candidate to help her cunning uncle.
When in 1541 Catherine’s adultery and sexual past came to light, the king turned on Norfolk, believing he had tricked him into marrying his niece by conspiring to keep her history secret. Norfolk then wrote a grovelling letter to the king, blaming Catherine for everything. It is said that in a bid to convince Henry of his innocence, the Duke declared his niece deserved to be burnt alive. He then interrogated Catherine, with Archbishop Cranmer, on behalf of the king. In February 1542, Catherine was beheaded and buried alongside her cousin Anne Boleyn. Norfolk then demonstrated his support for Henry by fighting for the crown against the Scots in October 1542.
But, on 12th December 1546, he and his son Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were arrested for treason and taken to the Tower of London after it was alleged that Surrey had displayed the royal arms and insignia in his own heraldry. Surrey was found guilty on 13th January 1547 at a common inquest at Guildhall, and Norfolk was attainted on 27th January.
Surrey was executed on 19th January 1547. Norfolk was lucky; the King died before his execution date. In 1553, Norfolk was pardoned by Mary I and released. He died of natural causes at Kenninghall on 25th August 1554 and was laid to rest in St Michael’s Church, Framlingham.