Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton
Encyclopedia
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (25 February 1540 – 15 June 1614) was a significant English aristocrat and courtier. He was suspect as a crypto-Catholic throughout his life, and went through periods of royal disfavour, in which his reputation suffered greatly. He was distinguished for learning, artistic culture and his public charities. He built Northumberland House
in London
and superintended the construction of the fine house of Audley End. He founded and planned several hospitals. Francis Bacon included three of his sayings in his Apophthegms, and chose him as "the learnedest councillor in the kingdom to present to the king his Advancement of Learning." Although he died before it went to trial it was discovered that he had been involved in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.
, on 25 February 1540, the second son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
, the poet, and of his wife, the former Lady Frances de Vere
, daughter of the 15th Earl of Oxford
. He was the younger brother of the 4th Duke of Norfolk
, and uncle of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. On the death of his father in 1547 he and his brother and sisters were entrusted to the care of his aunt, Mary FitzRoy, Duchess of Richmond and Somerset
, who employed John Foxe
as their tutor. With Foxe Howard remained at Reigate
, a manor belonging to the Duke of Norfolk, throughout Edward VI's reign. On Mary
's accession, the children's grandfather, the Duke of Norfolk, was released from prison, and he dismissed Foxe.
Afterwards Henry Howard studied with John White
, Bishop of Lincoln
; when White was translated to Winchester in 1556, Henry went with him. While with White, Howard read largely in philosophy, civil law, divinity, and history, and seems to have acquired a strong sympathy with Roman Catholicism. On Mary's death and Queen Elizabeth
's accession, White was deprived of his bishopric, and Elizabeth undertook the charge of Howard's education. He was restored in blood 8 May 1559. At the queen's expense he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge
, where he graduated M. A. in 1564. He afterwards joined Trinity Hall
, read Latin lectures on rhetoric and civil law in public, and applied to a friend in London for a master to teach him the lute
. Subsequently in 1568 he was incorporated M.A., at Oxford
.
, dated from Trinity Hall 6 August 1569; she supported him in some hard times. It was rumoured that he contemplated taking holy orders in the vague hope of succeeding Thomas Young
as Archbishop of York
. He came to court about 1570 at a low ebb, but the intrigues of which his brother the Duke of Norfolk was suspected at the time further depressed his prospects. When in 1572 Norfolk was charged with conspiring to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, Banister, Norfolk's confidential agent, declared in his confession that Henry Howard was himself first proposed as husband. He was arrested, but, after repeated examinations, established his innocence to Elizabeth's satisfaction, was readmitted to court, and was granted a yearly pension. It was generally reported, however, that he had by bad advice brought about his brother's ruin.
After the Duke his brother's execution Howard retired to Audley End, and directed the education of his brother's children. He tried by frequent letters to Burghley and to Christopher Hatton
to keep himself in favour with the queen's ministers, and managed to offer satisfactory explanations when it was reported in 1574 that he was exchanging tokens with Mary, Queen of Scots. He supplied her for many years with political information, but, according to his own account, gave her prudent advice. Howard sought to regain Elizabeth's favour by grossly flattering her in long petitions. About 1580 he circulated a manuscript tract in support of the scheme for the marriage of Elizabeth with François, Duke of Anjou
, in answer to John Stubbe's Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf (1579), and at Burghley's request began a reply to a pamphlet denouncing female government, which he completed in 1589. In 1582 his cousin Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
, quarrelled with him, and revived the charges of heresy and of treasonable correspondence with Mary. He was again arrested, and defended himself at length in a letter to Elizabeth, in which he admitted that he had taken part in Roman Catholic worship owing to conscientious difficulties on the sacramentary, but denied that he could win Mary Stuart's favour. He was soon set free, and, retiring to St. Albans, spent a year (1582-3) in writing his Preservative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies, a learned attack on judicial astrology
, dedicated to Francis Walsingham
, and said to have been suggested by the astrological exploits of Richard Harvey. The book was suspected of apparent heresies and concealed treason, and in 1583, after the discovery of the Throckmorton Plot
, Howard was sent to the Fleet Prison
. He complained to Hatton of harsh treatment. Mary, it was now asserted, had sent him a ring with a message. Burghley declined to intervene in his behalf, but by the favour of Burghley's son Robert Cecil
he was sent on parole to the house of Sir Nicholas Bacon
at Redgrave
, Suffolk. On 19 July 1585 he wrote from there to Burghley, begging permission to visit the wells at Warwick
for the benefit of his health. He was said to have travelled in Italy
, visiting Florence
and Rome
. In 1587 his repeated requests to take an active part in resisting the threatened Spanish attack were refused. He was at the time without any means of livelihood, except his irregularly-paid pension.
He attached himself both to Lord Essex
and to Robert Cecil
, and through the influence of the latter was in 1600 again received by Elizabeth. At the close of the Queen's reign he joined with Cecil in courting James, the heir to the English throne who was reigning in Scotland (in fact James suggested Howard as a trusted intermediary with Cecil). He sent long letters of advice
, which James termed "Asiatic and endless volumes". He had success in intriguing against Sir Walter Raleigh and other rivals. On the 1603 accession of James as James I of England
, Howard received a multitude of favours.
In 1603 he was made a Privy Counsellor
, on 1 January 1604 Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
, and on 13 March Earl of Northampton and Baron Marnhull, of Marnhull
in the County of Dorset
; on 24 February 1605 he was given the Garter and on 29 April was appointed Lord Privy Seal
. In 1609 he was elected High Steward of the University of Oxford
, and in 1612 Chancellor
of the University of Cambridge
. The same year he was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Treasury. He was one of the judges at the trials of Walter Raleigh
and Lord Cobham
in 1603, of Guy Fawkes
in 1605, and of Henry Garnet
in 1606, in each case pressing for a conviction. In 1604 he was one of the commissioners who composed the treaty of peace with Spain, and from that date he received from the Spanish Court a pension of £1000. In 1604, Howard called playwright Ben Jonson
before the Privy Council
, accusing him of popery and treason in Sejanus
. In 1610 he received a royal grant of territory in Newfoundland, and the London and Bristol Company
(Newfoundland Company) was set up around him for its commercial exploitation.
, in obtaining her divorce from her husband (son of the 2nd Earl of Essex whom Northampton had followed in the 1590s) in order to marry the favourite Somerset
, whose mistress she already was. While Northampton may have treated this as routine intrigue, the outcome was a major murder scandal. Both Northampton and her father Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
represented her in an interview with Essex
held at Whitehall
in May 1613, in the hope of obtaining his assent to a divorce. Essex proved uncompliant, and Northampton contrived that the case should be brought before a special commission. When, however, the divorce was obtained, Somerset's intimate acquaintance, Sir Thomas Overbury
, dissuaded him from pursuing the project of marriage with Lady Frances. Northampton recommended, on slender grounds, Overbury's imprisonment in the Tower of London
, and contrived that a friend of the Howard family, Sir Gervase Helwys
, should be appointed Lord Lieutenant of the Tower. Helwys frequently wrote to Northampton about Overbury's conduct and health. In his extant letters to Helwys Northampton writes with contempt of Overbury and expresses a desire that his own name should not be mentioned in connection with his imprisonment, but he introduced to Helwys John Craig
, one of the royal physicians, to report on the prisoner's health. When, in 1615, after Northampton's death, the matter was judicially investigated, and his political enemies credited him with a direct hand in the murder. Overbury died from the effects of poison administered by the direction of Lady Essex; the discovery of the crime was not made till some little time after Overbury had succumbed, and meanwhile Northampton's own death had occurred.
in 1614, and then fomented disputes to compel James to dissolve it. He died unmarried on 15 June 1614, when his title became extinct, and was buried in the chapel of Dover Castle
, the monument erected above his grave being subsequently removed to the chapel at Trinity Hospital, Greenwich. His will, in phrasing that has been considered equivocal, can be reasonably interpreted to say that he died a Roman Catholic.
(on the site of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
), and his London residence, afterwards Northumberland House, was built at his cost from the designs of Moses Glover
. He supervised John Thorpe
's designs for Audley End, the residence of his nephew Suffolk. He planned and endowed three hospitals: Clun Hospital at Clun, Shropshire; Trinity Hospital at Castle Rising, Norfolk, for twelve poor women; and a third Trinity Hospital at Greenwich, later called Norfolk College, for twelve poor natives of Greenwich, and for eight natives of Shottesham, Northampton's birthplace. He laid the foundation-stone of the college at Greenwich, 25 February 1614, and placed its management under the Mercers' Company. His connection to the Mercers was principally through Lionel Cranfield
.
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Northumberland House
Northumberland House was a large Jacobean mansion in London, which was so called because for most of its history it was the London residence of the Percy family, who were the Earls and later Dukes of Northumberland, and one of England's richest and most prominent aristocratic dynasties for many...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and superintended the construction of the fine house of Audley End. He founded and planned several hospitals. Francis Bacon included three of his sayings in his Apophthegms, and chose him as "the learnedest councillor in the kingdom to present to the king his Advancement of Learning." Although he died before it went to trial it was discovered that he had been involved in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.
Early life
He was born at Shottesham, NorfolkNorfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, on 25 February 1540, the second son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Henry Howard, KG, , known as The Earl of Surrey although he never was a peer, was an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry.-Life:...
, the poet, and of his wife, the former Lady Frances de Vere
Frances Howard, Countess of Surrey
Frances Howard, , Countess of Surrey was the daughter of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth Trussell, Countess of Oxford. Frances married twice, first to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Stafford, by whom she had five children...
, daughter of the 15th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford was an English peer and courtier.-Biography:John de Vere was the son of John de Vere and Alice Kilrington , and the great-grandson of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, succeeding his second cousin, John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford.Oxford was Esquire of the...
. He was the younger brother of the 4th Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was an English nobleman.Norfolk was the son of the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. He was taught as a child by John Foxe, the Protestant martyrologist, who remained a lifelong recipient of Norfolk's patronage...
, and uncle of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. On the death of his father in 1547 he and his brother and sisters were entrusted to the care of his aunt, Mary FitzRoy, Duchess of Richmond and Somerset
Mary FitzRoy, Duchess of Richmond and Somerset
Mary FitzRoy, Duchess of Richmond and Somerset , formerly Lady Mary Howard, was the only daughter-in-law of King Henry VIII of England, being the wife of his only acknowledged illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset.-Biography:Mary Fitzroy was the second daughter of...
, who employed John Foxe
John Foxe
John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
as their tutor. With Foxe Howard remained at Reigate
Reigate
Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
, a manor belonging to the Duke of Norfolk, throughout Edward VI's reign. On Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
's accession, the children's grandfather, the Duke of Norfolk, was released from prison, and he dismissed Foxe.
Afterwards Henry Howard studied with John White
John White (bishop)
John White was an English bishop, a Catholic who was promoted in the reign of Mary Tudor.-Life:He was born in Farnham, Hampshire and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1529, M.A. in 1534, and D.D. in 1555.He was Warden of Winchester College from...
, Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
; when White was translated to Winchester in 1556, Henry went with him. While with White, Howard read largely in philosophy, civil law, divinity, and history, and seems to have acquired a strong sympathy with Roman Catholicism. On Mary's death and Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
's accession, White was deprived of his bishopric, and Elizabeth undertook the charge of Howard's education. He was restored in blood 8 May 1559. At the queen's expense he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
, where he graduated M. A. in 1564. He afterwards joined Trinity Hall
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
, read Latin lectures on rhetoric and civil law in public, and applied to a friend in London for a master to teach him the lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
. Subsequently in 1568 he was incorporated M.A., at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
Under suspicion
He protested in 1568 to Lord Burghley that his religious views were needlessly suspected, and wrote a treatise on natural and moral philosophy for his youngest sister, Catharine, wife of Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron BerkeleyHenry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley
Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley was an English peer and politician. He was the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and Vice-Admiral of Gloucestershire as well as Baron Berkeley....
, dated from Trinity Hall 6 August 1569; she supported him in some hard times. It was rumoured that he contemplated taking holy orders in the vague hope of succeeding Thomas Young
Thomas Young (archbishop)
Thomas Young was a Bishop of St David's and Archbishop of York .-Life:He was the son of John Young and Eleanor his wife, and was born at Hodgeston, Pembrokeshire, in 1507. He became a student at Broadgates Hall, Oxford, and graduated B. A. 14 June 1529, M. A. 19 March 1533, as secular chaplain,...
as Archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
. He came to court about 1570 at a low ebb, but the intrigues of which his brother the Duke of Norfolk was suspected at the time further depressed his prospects. When in 1572 Norfolk was charged with conspiring to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, Banister, Norfolk's confidential agent, declared in his confession that Henry Howard was himself first proposed as husband. He was arrested, but, after repeated examinations, established his innocence to Elizabeth's satisfaction, was readmitted to court, and was granted a yearly pension. It was generally reported, however, that he had by bad advice brought about his brother's ruin.
After the Duke his brother's execution Howard retired to Audley End, and directed the education of his brother's children. He tried by frequent letters to Burghley and to Christopher Hatton
Christopher Hatton
Sir Christopher Hatton was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England.-Early days:...
to keep himself in favour with the queen's ministers, and managed to offer satisfactory explanations when it was reported in 1574 that he was exchanging tokens with Mary, Queen of Scots. He supplied her for many years with political information, but, according to his own account, gave her prudent advice. Howard sought to regain Elizabeth's favour by grossly flattering her in long petitions. About 1580 he circulated a manuscript tract in support of the scheme for the marriage of Elizabeth with François, Duke of Anjou
François, Duke of Anjou
Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon was the youngest son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.-Early years:...
, in answer to John Stubbe's Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf (1579), and at Burghley's request began a reply to a pamphlet denouncing female government, which he completed in 1589. In 1582 his cousin Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, and is currently the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works....
, quarrelled with him, and revived the charges of heresy and of treasonable correspondence with Mary. He was again arrested, and defended himself at length in a letter to Elizabeth, in which he admitted that he had taken part in Roman Catholic worship owing to conscientious difficulties on the sacramentary, but denied that he could win Mary Stuart's favour. He was soon set free, and, retiring to St. Albans, spent a year (1582-3) in writing his Preservative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies, a learned attack on judicial astrology
Judicial astrology
Judicial astrology is the art of forecasting future events by calculation of the planetary and stellar bodies and their relationship to the Earth...
, dedicated to Francis Walsingham
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...
, and said to have been suggested by the astrological exploits of Richard Harvey. The book was suspected of apparent heresies and concealed treason, and in 1583, after the discovery of the Throckmorton Plot
Throckmorton Plot
The Throckmorton Plot was an attempt by English Roman Catholics in 1583 to murder Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with her second cousin Mary, Queen of Scots...
, Howard was sent to the Fleet Prison
Fleet Prison
Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...
. He complained to Hatton of harsh treatment. Mary, it was now asserted, had sent him a ring with a message. Burghley declined to intervene in his behalf, but by the favour of Burghley's son Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil may refer to:*Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury , statesman, spymaster and minister to Elizabeth I of England and James I of England...
he was sent on parole to the house of Sir Nicholas Bacon
Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet, of Redgrave
Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet , of Redgrave in Suffolk, English Member of Parliament, and in 1611 was the first man to be created a baronet, making his successors Premier Baronets of England....
at Redgrave
Redgrave, Suffolk
Redgrave is a civil parish and a small village in the Rickinghall and Walsham ward in the Mid Suffolk district in Suffolk county in eastern England....
, Suffolk. On 19 July 1585 he wrote from there to Burghley, begging permission to visit the wells at Warwick
Warwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
for the benefit of his health. He was said to have travelled in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, visiting Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. In 1587 his repeated requests to take an active part in resisting the threatened Spanish attack were refused. He was at the time without any means of livelihood, except his irregularly-paid pension.
In favour under James I
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...
and to Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC was an English administrator and politician.-Life:He was the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Mildred Cooke...
, and through the influence of the latter was in 1600 again received by Elizabeth. At the close of the Queen's reign he joined with Cecil in courting James, the heir to the English throne who was reigning in Scotland (in fact James suggested Howard as a trusted intermediary with Cecil). He sent long letters of advice
Secret correspondence of James VI
The secret correspondence of James VI of Scotland was communication between the Scottish King and administrators of Elizabeth I of England between May 1601 and the Queen's death in March 1603. In this period it was settled that James VI would succeed Elizabeth as James I of England, but the...
, which James termed "Asiatic and endless volumes". He had success in intriguing against Sir Walter Raleigh and other rivals. On the 1603 accession of James as James I of England
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, Howard received a multitude of favours.
In 1603 he was made a Privy Counsellor
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
, on 1 January 1604 Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is a ceremonial official in the United Kingdom. The post dates from at least the 12th century but may be older. The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports was originally in charge of the Cinque Ports, a group of five port towns on the southeast coast of England...
, and on 13 March Earl of Northampton and Baron Marnhull, of Marnhull
Marnhull
Marnhull is a village in the Blackmore Vale area of north Dorset, England. It is north of Sturminster Newton, between Shaftesbury and Sherborne and about north of Bournemouth and Weymouth...
in the County of Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
; on 24 February 1605 he was given the Garter and on 29 April was appointed Lord Privy Seal
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state...
. In 1609 he was elected High Steward of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, and in 1612 Chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. The same year he was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Treasury. He was one of the judges at the trials of Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
and Lord Cobham
Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham
Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham was an English peer who was implicated in the Main Plot against the rule of James I of England.- Life :...
in 1603, of Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.Fawkes was born and educated in York...
in 1605, and of Henry Garnet
Henry Garnet
Henry Garnet , sometimes Henry Garnett, was a Jesuit priest executed for his complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Born in Derbyshire, he was educated in Nottingham and later at Winchester College, before moving to London in 1571 to work for a publisher...
in 1606, in each case pressing for a conviction. In 1604 he was one of the commissioners who composed the treaty of peace with Spain, and from that date he received from the Spanish Court a pension of £1000. In 1604, Howard called playwright Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
before the Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
, accusing him of popery and treason in Sejanus
Sejanus
Lucius Aelius Seianus , commonly known as Sejanus, was an ambitious soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius...
. In 1610 he received a royal grant of territory in Newfoundland, and the London and Bristol Company
London and Bristol Company
The London and Bristol Company came about in the early 17th century when English merchants had begun to express an interest in the Newfoundland fishery. Financed by a syndicate of investors John Guy, himself a Bristol merchant, visited Newfoundland in 1608 to locate a favourable site for a colony...
(Newfoundland Company) was set up around him for its commercial exploitation.
The Overbury case
He assisted his great-niece, Lady EssexFrances Carr, Countess of Somerset
Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset was an English noblewoman who was the central figure in a famous scandal and murder during the reign of King James I...
, in obtaining her divorce from her husband (son of the 2nd Earl of Essex whom Northampton had followed in the 1590s) in order to marry the favourite Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, , was a politician, and favourite of King James I of England.-Background:Robert Kerr was born in Wrington, Somerset, England the younger son of Sir Thomas Kerr of Ferniehurst, Scotland by his second wife, Janet, sister of Walter Scott of Buccleuch...
, whose mistress she already was. While Northampton may have treated this as routine intrigue, the outcome was a major murder scandal. Both Northampton and her father Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
Admiral Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, KG, PC was a son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk by his second wife Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk, the daughter and heiress of the 1st Baron Audley of Walden....
represented her in an interview with Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex was an English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the seventeenth century. With the start of the English Civil War in 1642 he became the first Captain-General and Chief Commander of the Parliamentarian army, also known as the Roundheads...
held at Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
in May 1613, in the hope of obtaining his assent to a divorce. Essex proved uncompliant, and Northampton contrived that the case should be brought before a special commission. When, however, the divorce was obtained, Somerset's intimate acquaintance, Sir Thomas Overbury
Thomas Overbury
Sir Thomas Overbury was an English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history...
, dissuaded him from pursuing the project of marriage with Lady Frances. Northampton recommended, on slender grounds, Overbury's imprisonment in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, and contrived that a friend of the Howard family, Sir Gervase Helwys
Gervase Helwys
Sir Gervase Helwys , also known as Jervis Yelwys, was a Lieutenant of the Tower of London found guilty of complicity in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and hanged in 1615. The scandal provoked much public and literary conjecture and irreparably tarnished King James I's court with an image of...
, should be appointed Lord Lieutenant of the Tower. Helwys frequently wrote to Northampton about Overbury's conduct and health. In his extant letters to Helwys Northampton writes with contempt of Overbury and expresses a desire that his own name should not be mentioned in connection with his imprisonment, but he introduced to Helwys John Craig
John Craig (physician)
John Craig M.D. was a Scottish physician, known also as an astronomer. He was physician to James VI of Scotland, and accompanied him to England. He also corresponded with Tycho Brahe, and associated with John Napier.-Physician:...
, one of the royal physicians, to report on the prisoner's health. When, in 1615, after Northampton's death, the matter was judicially investigated, and his political enemies credited him with a direct hand in the murder. Overbury died from the effects of poison administered by the direction of Lady Essex; the discovery of the crime was not made till some little time after Overbury had succumbed, and meanwhile Northampton's own death had occurred.
Last days
He advised against the summoning of ParliamentParliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
in 1614, and then fomented disputes to compel James to dissolve it. He died unmarried on 15 June 1614, when his title became extinct, and was buried in the chapel of Dover Castle
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
, the monument erected above his grave being subsequently removed to the chapel at Trinity Hospital, Greenwich. His will, in phrasing that has been considered equivocal, can be reasonably interpreted to say that he died a Roman Catholic.
Works
He was the author of:- A Treatise of Natural and Moral Philosophy (1569; manuscript in the Bodleian LibraryBodleian LibraryThe Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
) - A pamphlet supporting the union between Elizabeth and the duke of Anjou (1580; Harleian MSS. 180)
- A Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies (1583)
- A reply to a pamphlet denouncing female government (1589; Harleian Manuscript 7021)
- Duello Foiled, printed in Thomas HearneThomas HearneThomas Hearne or Hearn , English antiquary, was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire.-Life:...
's Collection of Curious Discourses (1775), ii.225, and ascribed there to Sir Edward CokeEdward CokeSir Edward Coke SL PC was an English barrister, judge and politician considered to be the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Born into a middle class family, Coke was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge before leaving to study at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the... - Translation of Charles VCharles V, Holy Roman EmperorCharles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
's Last Advice to Philip IIPhilip II of SpainPhilip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
, dedicated with a long epistle to the queen (Harl. 836, 1506 and elsewhere in Stowe 95, Kings Manuscripts 106) - Devotional writings (Arundel Manuscripts 300)
- Speeches at the trials of Guy Fawkes and Garnet in State Trials, vol. I.
- In Somers' Tracts (ed. 1809), ii.136, his opinions on the union between England and Scotland are recorded.
Building
He enlarged Greenwich CastleGreenwich Castle
Greenwich Castle was a castle used during the reign of Henry VIII, located in Greenwich Park, in Greenwich, England. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich now stands on the land. Greenwich Castle was apparently a favourite place for Henry VIII to house his mistresses, as it was within easy travelling...
(on the site of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich , in London, England played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and is best known as the location of the prime meridian...
), and his London residence, afterwards Northumberland House, was built at his cost from the designs of Moses Glover
Moses Glover
Moses Glover , was an English cartographer. He described himself as "paynter And Architectur", although very little is known about him apart from his maps and the church records. Glover's marriage licence, issued in 1622, described him as "painter-stainer of Isleworth"...
. He supervised John Thorpe
John Thorpe
John Thorpe or Thorp was an English architect. Little is known of his life, and his work is dubiously inferred, rather than accurately known, from a folio of drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum, to which Horace Walpole called attention, in 1780, in his Anecdotes of Painting; but how far these...
's designs for Audley End, the residence of his nephew Suffolk. He planned and endowed three hospitals: Clun Hospital at Clun, Shropshire; Trinity Hospital at Castle Rising, Norfolk, for twelve poor women; and a third Trinity Hospital at Greenwich, later called Norfolk College, for twelve poor natives of Greenwich, and for eight natives of Shottesham, Northampton's birthplace. He laid the foundation-stone of the college at Greenwich, 25 February 1614, and placed its management under the Mercers' Company. His connection to the Mercers was principally through Lionel Cranfield
Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex
Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex was a successful merchant in London, England.-Life:He was the second son of Thomas Cranfield, a mercer at London, and his wife Martha Randill, the daughter and heiress of Vincent Randill of Sutton-at-Hone, Kent. He was apprenticed in to Richard Sheppard, a...
.
External links
- Lord Henry Howard (1540-1614): an Elizabethan Life, by D.C. Andersson, D. S. Brewer, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2009
- Mercer Connections (PDF)
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