William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham

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William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham bigraphy, stories - English admiral

William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham : biography

– 12 January 1573

William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham (c. 1510 – 12 January 1573), was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk by his second wife, Agnes Tilney.; . Howard served four monarchs, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, in various official capacities, most notably on diplomatic missions and as Lord Admiral and Lord Chamberlain of the Household.

Final years

After Queen Elizabeth’s accession on 17 November 1558, Howard succeeded Edward Hastings as Lord Chamberlain and was appointed to the Privy Council. In early 1559 he was among those who negotiated the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis.. In August 1564 he accompanied the Queen on a visit to Cambridge, where he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts; on 6 October 1566 he was awarded a similar degree by the University of Oxford.. According to McDermott, he was a ‘near constant attendee at privy council meetings during the 1560s’, but by the latter part of 1572 he could no longer discharge his duties as Lord Chamberlain because of ill health, and the Queen appointed his nephew, the Earl of Sussex, to replace him, appointing Howard as Lord Privy Seal. Howard died at Hampton Court Palace on 12 January 1573, and was buried on 29 January at Reigate.; .

Whitgift School currently stands on the site of the former Howard estate at Effingham. There is a full-length portrait of Lord Howard by Daniël Mijtens at Nostell Priory.

Career

Lord William Howard was born about 1510, the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk by his second wife, Agnes Tilney, the daughter of Hugh Tilney of Skirbeck and Boston, Lincolnshire and a daughter of Walter Tailboys.. Howard was thus the half brother of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, the 2nd Duke’s eldest son and heir by his first marriage to Agnes Tilney’s cousin, Elizabeth Tilney.

Howard was brought to court at a young age after completing his education at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.; . In 1531 he was sent on an embassy to Scotland by King Henry VIII, and accompanied the King to Boulogne in October 1532. In May 1533, as deputy to his stepbrother, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, he served as Earl Marshal at the coronation of his niece, Anne Boleyn, the daughter of his half sister, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire. On 10 September 1533, Howard bore the canopy over his great-niece princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth 1). In 1534 Howard went to Scotland. His instructions including getting the measurements of James V of Scotland from the Bishop of Aberdeen, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland. Then Howard’s tailor would make Henry VIII’s nephew a new suit of clothes as a present. Howard would then broach the subject of the two Kings meeting in person.State Papers Henry VIII, vol 5, part IV part 2 (1836), 1-6, instruction for William Howard. In February 1535 he was sent again to Scotland to invest James V with the Order of the Garter and brought a present of ‘great horses.’ Howard met James V at Stirling Castle on Good Friday. They discussed a possible meeting of the two Kings at Newcastle at Michaelmas. Margaret Tudor praised his abilities and wrote that her son James V, "lykkis hym right weill."State Papers Henry VIII, vol 5, part IV part 2 (1836), 19-20, 38-42: Diurnal of Occurents, Bannatyne Club, (1830)

In June 1535 he was in France as a member of the English embassy authorized to negotiate with the French Admiral, Philippe de Chabot. In February 1536 he was again in Scotland, this time for the purpose of persuading the Scottish King to adopt Henry VIII’s religious policy. He returned to Scotland again in April. He was again in France in 1537. On 11 December 1539 he was among those who welcomed King Henry VIII’s fourth bride, Anne of Cleves at Calais.; .

While on an embassy to France in 1541 Lord Howard was charged with concealing the sexual indiscretions of his young niece, Katherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth Queen, and was recalled to England to stand trial. On 22 December 1541 Lord Howard, his wife, and a number of servants who had been alleged witnesses to the Queen’s misconduct were arraigned for misprision of treason, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods. Howard and most of the others were pardoned after Queen Katherine’s execution on 13 February 1542.; ; .