Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk Frances de Andía-Irarrazaval, Marchioness of Valparaiso Lord Thomas Howard Lord George Howard Lord James Howard Lord Frederick Henry Howard Lady Catherine Howard Elizabeth Gordon, Duchess of Gordon Lady Philippa Howard
Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (12 July 1628 – 13 January 1684) was an English nobleman and politician. He was the second son of Henry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel, and Lady Elizabeth Stuart. He succeeded his brother Thomas Howard, 5th Duke of Norfolk, after Thomas's death in 1677.
Life
Henry Howard's older brother Thomas contracted a fever while visiting their grandfather Thomas in Padua in 1645 that subsequently left him mentally disabled and unable to administer his own affairs. There was near unanimity in the House of Lords in persuading King CharlesII to revive the Dukedom of Norfolk for the Howard family in 1660 but, as this descended from Henry's great-great-grandfather Thomas to his brother Thomas who was still confined to an asylum in Padua, Henry managed the duchy's affairs in his name.
Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, Henry Howard allowed the Royal Society to meet regularly at Arundel House.[1] Having befriended John Evelyn, he followed Evelyn's guidance to provide some of his grandfather's Grecian statues to Oxford University, principally to get them out of the corrosive London air.[1] He further agreed to bestow his grandfather's collection of manuscripts to the Royal Society, but it initially remained at Arundel House for want of a dedicated library elsewhere.[1]
It being felt desirable to be able to summon Henry to the Lords in his own right, he was created 1st Baron Howard of Castle Rising in 1669 and 1st Earl of Norwich in 1672, on the latter occasion obtaining the restoration of the office of Earl Marshal of England to him and to his family.[2] Henry's career in the Lords began inauspiciously when he announced that he had married Jane Bickerton, who had been his mistress for many years. This caused a violent family quarrel, as a result of which he went abroad for a time. Nonetheless, he wielded considerable political influence and in 1673 was able to find a safe seat in Parliament for Samuel Pepys.
After succeeding to the duchy on his brother Thomas's death in 1677, he began to transfer his manuscript collection to Gresham College for the Royal Society but—having become Earl Marshal in the interim—he also granted a large number of works to the library of the College of Arms overseen by that position.[3] The two separate collections are still preserved as the Arundel Manuscripts.
In January 1678, he took his seat in the House of Lords, but in August the first development of the Popish Plot was followed by an Act for disabling Catholics from sitting in either house of Parliament. As a sincere Roman Catholic, he would not comply with the oath recognizing the King as Head of the Church; at the same time he urged his fellow peers to do so if their consciences permitted, to ensure the survival of the House of Lords as an institution, whereupon the Lords thanked him for his "good service". He withdrew to Bruges for three years. There he built a house attached to a Franciscan convent and enjoyed freedom of worship. He later gave away the greater part of his library, grounds, and rooms to the Royal Society, and the Arundelian marbles to Oxford University.
He was presented as a recusant at Thetford assizes in 1680, and felt obliged to return to England to answer the charge, which was not pursued; a previous accusation by the notorious informer William Bedloe in 1678 that he had been party to, or at least aware of a plot to kill the King, had simply been ignored.
He remained in England long enough to sit as a peer at the trial for treason of his uncle, William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, a fellow victim of the Popish Plot. Unfortunately for Stafford, who was notoriously "a man not beloved by his family", he had quarrelled with most of his relatives, including Norfolk, and with the exception of Norfolk's eldest son, the future 7th Duke of Norfolk, the eight Howard peers present, including the 6th Duke, voted him Guilty. Stafford was beheaded on 29 December; the Duke does not seem to have interceded for his uncle's life. He returned to Bruges for a time.
With the waning of the hysteria, he felt it safe to return home. John Evelyn in his diary for 9 May 1683 records visiting him to discuss buying some of his artworks, and gives the diarist's very low opinion of the Duchess. From Evelyn's description, it is clear that the Duke then had an impressive collection of "cartoons and drawings of Raphael and the Great Masters".
Marriages and issue
Portrait of Henry Howard by Gilbert Soest, c. 1670–1675. This portrait was once part of the Lenthall collection and is now owned by the Tate Gallery.
Philip Howard (ancestor of the Baron Mowbray, considered heir general of the Howard family and Talbot family)
His second wife was Jane Bickerton. She had been his mistress for many years prior to the marriage in 1676 or 1677, and its announcement caused a violent quarrel with his eldest son and heir. They had four sons, all of whom died childless, and three daughters:
Lady Philippa Howard (1678–1731), married Ralph Standish (died in 1755), who had a daughter
Lord George Howard, married but childless
Lord James Howard, drowned unmarried in August 1702
The peerages created for him died out with his grandson the 9th Duke in 1777, though the current Baron Mowbray descends from the 9th Duke's brother. The 10th and 11th Dukes of Norfolk, who inherited the associated peerages and office of Earl Marshal, descended from his brother Lord Charles Howard of Greystoke, and the 12th and later Dukes from his brother Lord Bernard Howard of Glossop.
Thomas Howard (1627–1677) 5th Duke of Norfolk, 21st/14th/2nd Earl of Arundel, 4th/6th Earl of Surrey, 16th Baron Mowbray 1660–1677 18th Baron Strange of Blackmere, 15th Baron Talbot, 14th Baron Furnivall 1654–1677
Henry Howard (1628–1684) 6th Duke of Norfolk, 22nd/15th/3rd Earl of Arundel, 5th/7th Earl of Surrey, 1st Earl of Norwich and Baron Howard of Castle Rising, 18th Baron Strange of Blackmere, 17th Baron Mowbray, 15th Baron Talbot, 14th Baron Furnivall 1672–1684
Henry Howard (1655–1701) 7th Duke of Norfolk, 22nd/15th/3rd Earl of Arundel, 5th/7th Earl of Surrey, 2nd Earl of Norwich and Baron Howard of Castle Rising, 18th Baron Mowbray, 19th Baron Strange of Blackmere, 15th Baron Talbot, 14th Baron Furnivall, 1684–1701
Lord Thomas Howard (1662–1689)
Henry Charles Howard (d. 1720)
Thomas Howard (1683–1732) 8th Duke of Norfolk, 23rd/16th/4th Earl of Arundel, 6th/8th Earl of Surrey, 3rd Earl of Norwich and Baron Howard of Castle Rising, 18th Baron Strange of Blackmere, 15th Baron Talbot, 14th Baron Furnivall, 19th Baron Mowbray 1701–1732
Edward Howard (1685–1777) 9th Duke of Norfolk, 24th/17th/5th Earl of Arundel, 7th/9th Earl of Surrey, 4th Earl of Norwich and Baron Howard of Castle Rising, 20th Baron Mowbray, 20th Baron Strange of Blackmere, 15th Baron Talbot, 14th Baron Furnivall 1732–1777
Philip Howard (1688–1750)
Bernard Howard (1674–1735)
Earldom of Norwich (3rd creation) and Barony of Howard of Castle Rising extinct and Baronies of Furnivall, Mowbray, Segrave, Strange of Blackmere, and Talbot abeyant, 1777
Henry Fitzalan-Howard (1847–1917) 15th Duke of Norfolk, 30th/23rd/11th Earl of Arundel, 13th/15th Earl of Surrey, Lord Maltravers, Earl of Arundel and Surrey 1860–1917
Charles Edward Stourton (1923–2006) 27th Baron Segrave, 24th/26th Baron Mowbray, 23rd Baron Stourton
Miles Fitzalan-Howard (1915–2002) 17th Duke of Norfolk, 32nd/25th/13th Earl of Arundel, 15th/17th Earl of Surrey, 4th Baron Howard of Glossop 1975–2002
