Family and Education

3rd s. of Lord Edmund Howard by his 1st w. Joyce, da. and coh. of Sir Richard Culpepper of Kent; bro. of Queen Catherine Howard. Kntd. 1547.1

Offices Held

Equerry of the stable to Henry VIII; warden or master of the henchmen 1550-3; master of the armoury 1560-d.; j.p. Kent 1562; steward of crown lands at Blackheath 1571, Deptford, Greenwich, etc. 1572; gent. usher, privy chamber by 1579.2

Biography

As a relative of Queen Elizabeth through Anne Boleyn, Howard achieved on her accession the favour denied him during Mary’s reign. In May 1559 he served on the embassy from Elizabeth to Henri II of France to convey Elizabeth’s ratification of the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. Between November 1558 and 1561 he received patents covering grants of concealed lands in 19 counties. Seemingly without any strong religious convictions, he served the Crown throughout the changes of the 1550s and under Elizabeth gave steady support to the church settlement, being listed by Archbishop Parker in 1564 as a justice favourable to sound religion. In 1560 he was captain-general of the demi-lances in the expedition to help the protestants in Scotland.3

He was one of the first two MPs returned by Newton, possibly recommended to Sir Thomas Langton, owner of the borough, by Sir William Cecil. The names of both Sir Ambrose Cave and William Fleetwood I are on the return. In 1563 he sat for Reigate, where elections were controlled by his relatives, the Howards of Effingham. His home in later years was in Kent, where in 1570 he purchased a 30-year lease of the manor of Kidbrooke. As steward of crown lands at Blackheath, he was also lord of the manor of Old Court in the same county.4

The exact date of Howard’s death is not known, but the Privy Seal docquet book5 records a payment to him as master of the armoury in May 1580, and the appointment of his successor in June that year. Sir Christopher Hatton succeeded him as steward of Blackheath 9 June. There is no evidence that Howard ever married. The marriage attributed to him in Statham and Brenan is irreconcilable with the known facts of the lady’s history.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: H.G.O.

Notes

• 1. Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxiv), 81; Statham and Brenan, House of Howard, 341-4; PCC 9 Dyngeley.
• 2. CPR, 1549-51, p. 179; 1553-4, p. 277; 1558-60, pp. 307, 395; 1569-72, pp. 422-3; E. K. Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 109; Eliz. Stage , iii. 399; Drake, Hundred of Blackheath, 279-80; Lansd. 29, f. 161; 104, f. 41.
• 3. CPR , 1558-60, pp. 87, 307, 395, 427; 1560-3, pp. 10, 81-2, 160-1; CSP Dom. 1547-80, pp. 200, 242; CSP For. 1558-9; Guildford Mus. Loseley 1331/2; Cam. Misc. ix(3), p. 58; Lansd. 4, ff. 126 seq.
• 4. Neale, Commons , 189-90; Chambers, Lee , 45, 64 n, 105, 136; Lansd. 29, f. 161; 104, f. 41; Drake, 279-80.
• 5. PRO Index 6743, ex inf. Mr. C. Blair, Victoria and Albert Museum.