Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

The Earl of Surrey
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Painting in the Mannerist style possibly attributed to the Dutch artist William Scrots. c. 1546.
Personal details
Bornc. 1517
Hunsdon, Hertfordshire
Died19 January 1547 (aged 29 or 30)
Tower Hill, London, England
Resting placeFirst at the Church of All Hallows, Tower Street, London and then at Church of St Michael the Archangel, Framlingham, Suffolk
SpouseFrances de Vere
ChildrenThomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton
Jane Howard, Countess of Westmorland
Katherine Howard, Lady Berkeley
Margaret Howard, Lady Scrope
Parent(s)Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Lady Elizabeth Stafford
ReligionRoman Catholicism
Writing career
LanguageEarly Modern English
Period16th century
Genres
SubjectsBeautiful lady, other
Literary movementEnglish Renaissance, Petrarchism

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, KG (1516/1517–19 January 1547) was an English nobleman, politician and poet. He was one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry and was the last known person to have been executed at the insistence of King Henry VIII. His name is usually associated[clarification needed] in literature with that of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. Owing largely to the powerful position of his father Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Henry took a prominent part in court life, and served as a soldier both in France and in Scotland. He was a man of reckless temper, which involved him in many quarrels, and finally brought upon him the wrath of the ageing Henry VIII. He was arrested, tried for treason and beheaded on Tower Hill.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, painted by Hans Holbein. c. 1542/1543. The painting is currently exhibited at the São Paulo Museum of Art, in São Paulo, Brazil.
Arms of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, KG: Quarterly of 4: 1: Gules, on a bend between six cross-crosslets fitchy argent an escutcheon or charged with a demi-lion rampant pierced through the mouth by an arrow within a double tressure flory counterflory of the first (Howard, with augmentation of honour); 2: Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or armed and langued azure a label of three points argent (Plantagenet, arms of Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk); 3: Chequy or and azure (de Warenne, Earl of Surrey); 4: Gules, a lion rampant argent (Mowbray)