Childs Jessie - Henry VIIIs last victim: the life and times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

CONTENTS

Jessie Childs was born in 1976 and took a first in Modern History at Brasenose College, Oxford. She reviews for several national publications and lives in London. Henry VIIIs Last Victim is her first book. It won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, 2007.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey was one of the most flamboyant and controversial characters of Henry VIIIs reign. A pioneering poet, whose verse had a profound impact on Shakespeare, Surrey was nevertheless branded by one contemporary as the most foolish proud boy that is in England. He was the heir of Englands premier nobleman, first cousin to two of Henry VIIIs wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard and best friend and brother-in-law to the Kings illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. Celebrated for his chivalrous deeds both on and off the battlefield, Surrey became, at only twenty-eight, the Kings Lieutenant General in France. But his confident exterior masked insecurity and loneliness. A man of intriguing contradictions, Surrey was both law enforcer and law breaker, political conservative and religious reformer and his life, replete with drunken escapades, battlefield heroics, conspiracy and courtroom drama, sheds new light on the opulence and artifice of a dazzling, but deadly, age.

O what a noble mind is here oerthrown!

The courtiers, soldiers, scholars, eye, tongue, sword,

Thexpectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

Thobserved of all observers, quite, quite, down!

Hamlet, Act 3, scene 1, lines 1537

. Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk by Hans Holbein the Younger. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, artist unknown. (Reproduced by kind permission of His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle)

. The surviving wing of Kenninghall. (Photographed by the author, by kind permission of Mr and Mrs John Brown)

. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey by Hans Holbein the Younger. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Frances Howard, Countess of Surrey by Hans Holbein the Younger. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond by Lucas Hornebolte. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Hunting scene, from Le Livre de la Chasse de Gaston Phbus. (Bibliothque nationale de France, MS fr. 616, fo. 85v)

. Engraving of a game of real tennis, from Illustrissimi Wirtembergici Ducalis Novi Collegii Quod Tubinge... Delineatio. Ludwig Ditzinger sculpsit; Jo. Chrystoff Neyffer pinxit. (Permission British Library, 10261.e.3)

. Knights-in-training learning to joust, from the Romance of Alexander. (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Bodl. 264, fo. 82v [detail])

. The Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover, artist unknown. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Antoine Macault presents his translation to Francis I from Books I, II and III by Diodorus Siculus, c. 1532. French school. (Muse Cond, Chantilly, France, MS 721/1672, fo. 1; Lauros / Giraudon; / Bridgeman Art Library)

. Anne Boleyn, artist unknown. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

. Thomas Cromwell (slightly cropped) after Hans Holbein the Younger. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

. Henry VII and Henry VIII, cartoon for the Whitehall Mural by Hans Holbein the Younger. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey by Hans Holbein the Younger. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Thomas Wyatt by Hans Holbein the Younger. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. The first two stanzas of Surreys poem O happy dames, inscribed by his sister Mary into the Devonshire Manuscript. (Permission British Library, Add. MS 17492, fo. 55r)

. Mary, Duchess of Richmond by Hans Holbein the Younger. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Title-page of The fourth boke of Virgill... by Henrye late Earle of Surrey, published by John Day, 1554. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Pforzheimer Collection: PFORZ 510)

. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey by Hans Holbein the Younger. (Museu de Arte de So Paulo, Assis Chateaubriand, So Paulo, Brazil)

. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, artist unknown. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey by William Scrots. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, artist unknown. (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York)

. Henry VIII jousting before Catherine of Aragon in 1511, from The Great Tournament Roll of Westminster, artist unknown. (College of Arms, London)

. The Siege of Boulogne engraved by James Basire from the Cowdray House mural. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Arundel Portrait after William Scrots. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

. Henry VIII by Cornelis Matsys. (The Royal Collection 2006 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

. William Paget (slightly cropped) attributed to the Master of the Sttthalterin Madonna. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

. Thomas Wriothesley, artist unknown. (Reproduced by kind permission of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu)

. Edward Seymour, artist unknown. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat House)

. John Dudley, artist unknown. (Reproduced by kind permission of Viscount De LIsle from his private collection at Penshurst Place)

. Anthony Denny, artist unknown. (Private Collection. Photograph: Photographic Survey, Courtauld Institute of Art)

. Richard Southwell by Hans Holbein the Younger. (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy; / Bridgeman Art Library)

. Extract from the charges drawn up by Lord Chancellor Wriothesley against the Earl of Surrey and Duke of Norfolk, with annotations by Henry VIII. (The National Archives, SP 1/227, fo. 123r)

. Heraldic drawing entitled Howard Earle of Surry, for which he was attainted. (Permission British Library, Harl. MS 1453, fo. 69r)

. Arms of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. (Permission British Library, Cotton MS Julius C VII, fo. 238r)

. Detail of Surreys tomb at St Michaels Church, Framlingham. (Photographed by the author, by courtesy of Reverend Graham Owen and the Framlingham Parochial Church Council)

. The Tower of London by Anthonis van den Wyngaerde. (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

. The west wall of St Thomas Tower, the Tower of London, photographed during re-presentation work in 1992. (Crown Copyright: Historic Royal Palaces; reproduced by permission of Historic Royal Palaces under licence from the Controller of Her Majestys Stationary Office)

. Surreys tomb at St Michaels Church, Framlingham. (Photographed by the author, by courtesy of Reverend Graham Owen and the Framlingham Parochial Church Council)

. The family of the Earl of Arundel by Philip Fruytiers, 1643. (Reproduced by kind permission of His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle)

Endpapers: Procession of the Knights of the Garter, from the Liber Niger, c. 1534, DOC 25. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Dean and Canons of Windsor)

p. 227: Map of the Pas de Calais by Nicholas de Nicolay, 1558, from