Norfolk, CATHOLIC DUKES OF, SINCE THE REFORMATION.—Under this title are accounts only of the prominent Catholic Dukes of Norfolk (since the Reformation); a list of the Dukes, from the time the title passed to the Howard family, is prefixed.
1. John (1430-1485), created first duke of the Howard line in 1483, died in battle in 1485.
2. Thomas (1443-1524), son. Became duke in1514.
3. Thomas (1473-1554), son. Succeeded in 1524.
4. Thomas (1536-1572), grandson. Succeeded in 1554. Beheaded in 1572.
5. Thomas (1627-1677), great-great-grandson. Dukedom restored in 1660.
6. Henry (1628-1684), brother. Succeeded in 1677.
7. Henry (1655-1701), son. Succeeded in 1684.
8. Thomas (1683-1732), nephew. Succeeded in 1701.
9. Edward (1685-1777), brother. Succeeded in 1732.
10. Charles (1720-1786), descendant of seventh duke. Succeeded in 1777.
11. Charles (1746-1815), son. Succeeded in 1786.
12. Bernard Edward (1765-1842), third cousin. Succeeded in 1815.
13. Henry Charles (1791-1856), son. Succeededin 1842.
14. Henry Granville (1815-1860), son. Succeeded in 1856.
15. Henry Fitzalan (1847-1817), son. Succeeded in 1860.
THOMAS, THIRD DUKE, was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, the second duke, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir F. Tilney of Ashwellthorpe Hall, Norfolk. In 1495 he was married to Lady Anne, daughter of Edward IV. He fought as captain of the van-guard at Flodden Field in 1513. In 1514 he was created Earl of Surrey, and joined his father in opposing Wolsey’s policy of depressing the old nobility. In 1520-21 he endeavored to keep peace in Ireland; recalled, he took command of the English fleet against France, and successfully opposed the French in Scotland. In 1524 he became duke, and was appointed commissioner to treat for peace with France. With peace abroad came the burning question of Henry’s divorce. Norfolk, uncle of Anne Boleyn, sided with the king and, as president of the privy council, hastened the cardinal’s ruin. He became Henry’s tool in dishonorable purposes and he acquiesced in his lust for the spiritual supremacy. With Cromwell, he obtained a grant of a portion of the possessions of the Priory of Lewes and other monastic spoils. He was created earl-marshal in 1533. In 1535 Norfolk was a leading judge in the trial of Sir Thomas More. In 1536 he disbanded the “Pilgrimage of Grace” with false assurances, but returned next year to do “dreadful execution”. In 1536 he hanged in chains, at York, Fathers Rochester and Walworth, two Carthusians. Drastic measures of devastation marked his whole career as a military leader. He shared the King’s zeal against the inroads of German Protestantism. In 1534 he had “staid purgatory” and was always in favor of the old orthodoxy, as far as he might be allowed to support it. In 1539, when the bishops could not agree concerning the practices of religion, Norfolk proposed the Six Articles to the Lords, theology thus becoming matter for the whole House. As an old man he served against a rising in Scotland, and in the French wars of 1544. In 1546 he was accused of high treason. Evidence, however, was not conclusive against him until Hertford, and other keen enemies, prevailed upon him, as a prisoner in the Tower, to sign his confession and throw himself on the King’s mercy. A bill of attainder was passed in Parliament, and orders for his immediate execution would have been carried into effect had not Henry died on the previous evening. He remained a prisoner in the Tower the whole of Edward VI’s reign but was released on Mary’s accession, and restored to the dukedom in 1553.
His long experience as lord high steward and lieutenant-general made him useful to the queen, but he lost favor by his rashness and his failure to crush Wyat’s rebellion. [See Gairdner, “Lollardy and the Reformation” (London, 1908); Gairdner, “Hist. of Engl. Church in XVIth Century” (London, 1902); “Letters and Papers, Henry VIII“, various volumes; Creighton, “Dict. of Nat. Biog.”, X (London, 1908).]
THOMAS, FOURTH DUKE, was the son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Frances Vere, daughter of John, Earl of Oxford. After the execution of his father, in 1547, he was, by order of privy council, committed to the charge of his aunt, and Foxe, “the Labanoff, “Lettres, etc. de Marie Stuart” (1844), earlier ed. tr. (1842); Anderson, “Collections relating to Mary” (Edinburgh, 1727); Creighton in “Dict. of Nat. Biog.”, X (London, 1908).
HENRY, SIXTH DUKE, the second son of Henry Frederick Howard, third Earl of Arundel and Lady Elizabeth Stuart, was educated abroad, as a Catholic. In 1669 he went as ambassador extraordinary to Morocco. In 1677 he succeeded his brother as duke, having previously been made hereditary earl-marshal. During the Commonwealth and Protectorate he lived in total seclusion. In January, 1678, he took his seat in the House of Lords, but in August the first development of the Titus Oates Plot was followed by an Act for disabling Catholics from sitting in either house of Parliament. He would not comply with the oath and, suspected of doubtful loyalty, withdrew to Bruges for three years. There he built a house attached to a Franciscan convent and enjoyed freedom of worship and scope for his munificence. He was a man of benevolent disposition and gave away the greater part of his splendid library, and grounds and rooms to the Royal Society, and the Arundelian marbles to Oxford University. Jealous of the family honor, he compounded a debt of £200,000 contracted by his grandfather. [See Evelyn’s “Miscellaneous Writings” (London, 1825).]
HENRY, SEVENTH DUKE, son of Henry, sixth Duke, and Lady Anne Somerset, was at first a good Catholic and for four months held out against subscribing to the oath as a peer in the House of Lords. Afterwards he became a pervert.
THOMAS, EIGHTH DUKE, was brought up a Catholic but perverted on succeeding to the dukedom.
EDWARD, NINTH DUKE, did much to promote a more liberal treatment of Catholics by offering a home at Norfolk House to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his wife at the time of the birth of their son, afterwards George III.
CHARLES, TENTH DUKE, son of Charles Howard of Greystoke, Cumberland, and Mary Paylward, was brought up a Catholic. Though he signed a petition for relief from the pressure of the penal laws, he led a very retired life. In 1764 he published “Considerations of the Penal Laws against the Roman Catholics in England and the new-acquired colonies in America“; and in 1768, “Thoughts, Essays, and Maxims, chiefly Religious and Political”.
CHARLES, ELEVENTH DUKE, educated at the English College at Douai, was a man of dissolute life and had conformed to the State religion by 1780.
BERNARD EDWARD, TWELFTH DUKE, eldest son of Henry Howard of Glossop, and Juliana, daughter of Sir William Molyneux of Willow, Nottinghamshire. In 1789 he married Elizabeth Bellasis, daughter of Henry, Earl of Fauconberg, but was divorced, by Act of Parliament, in 1794. On the death of his third cousin, in 1815, he succeeded to the dukedom. Although a Catholic, he was allowed, by Act of Parliament in 1824, to exercise the hereditary office of earl-marshal. After the Relief Bill of 1829 he was admitted to the full exercise of his ancestral privileges; he took his seat in the House of Lords, where he was a steady supporter of the Reform Bill, and in 1830 was nominated as privy councillor. [See Gent. Mag., I (1842), 542.]
HENRY CHARLES, THIRTEENTH DUKE, only son of Bernard Edward and Elizabeth Bellasis. He was baptized a Catholic but did not practice his religion. In 1814 he married Lady Charlotte Leveson-Gower, daughter of George, Duke of Sutherland, and in 1815 he became, as heir, Earl of Arundel and Surrey. In 1829, after the Catholic Emancipation Act, he took the oath and his seat in the House of Commons (the first Catholic since the Reformation). In 1841 he sat in the House of Lords. In politics he was a stanch member of the Whig party. In 1842 he succeeded his father as Duke of Norfolk. He died at Arundel in 1856. Canon Tierney was chaplain at the time of his death. [See London Times (February 19, 1856); Gent. Mag. (April, 1856), 419.]
HENRY GRANVILLE FITZALAN, FOURTEENTH DUKE, eldest son of Henry Charles Howard and Charlotte, daughter of the Duke of Sutherland, was educated privately, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered the army but retired on attaining the rank of captain. In 1839 he married the daughter of Admiral Sir Edmund (afterwards Lord) Lyons, the ambassador at Athens. From 1837 to 1842 he was a member of the House of Commons, a Whig, until he broke with his party on the introduction of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill of 1850. In 1856, as Duke of Norfolk, he took his seat in the House of Lords. In 1839 he attended the services of Notre-Dame in Paris and made the acquaintance of Montalembert. This resulted in his conversion to Catholicism, and Montalembert describes him as “the most pious layman of our times”. Cardinal Wiseman, in a pastoral letter, at the time of his death in 1860, referred to his benevolent nature: “There is not a form of want or a peculiar application of alms which has not received his relief or cooperation”. He wrote: “Collections relative to Catholic Poor Schools throughout England“, MS. folio, 134, pp. 1843; “A few Remarks on the Social and Political Condition of British Catholics” (London, 1847); Letter to J. P. Plumptre on the Bull “In Coena Domini” (London, 1848); “Observations on Diplomatic Relations with Rome” 1848. He edited from original MSS. the “Lives of Philip Howard and Anne Dacres” (London, 1857 and 1861). [See “Gent. Mag.” (January, 1861); “London Times” (November 27 and December 4, 1860); “London Table” (December 1, 1860); H. W. Freeland, “Remarks on the Letters of the Duke of Norfolk” (1874); Montalembert, “Le Correspondant” (December 25, 1860), 766-776, tr. by Goddard at the end of his Montalembert, “Pius IX and France” (Boston, Mass., 1861).]
S. ANSELM PARKER