House Of Treason: The Rise And Fall Of A Tudor Dynasty (40 page)

c. 1422
Birth of John Howard, son of Sir Robert Howard (d. 1436) and his wife, Lady Margaret, elder daughter of Thomas Mowbray, first [Mowbray] Duke of Norfolk, Lord Mowbray and Segrave and Earl Marshal of England (who had died in 1399).

I443
Birth, at Tendring Hall, Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, of Thomas Howard I, son of John Howard and his first wife, Katherine Moleyns (who died 3 November 1465, leaving six children).

I465: 3 November
Death of Katherine, wife of John Howard, at Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk.

Late I460s
John Howard created Lord Howard.

1467
Lord Howard marries, as his second wife, Margaret Chedworth, the widow of John Norris esquire of Bray, Berkshire, previously the widow of Nicholas Wyfold, Lord Mayor of London, in 1450, and daughter of Sir John Chedworth.

I47I: 14 April
Thomas Howard I fights in the Battle of Barnet and is severely wounded.

1472: 30 April
Thomas Howard I marries the rich heiress Elizabeth
née
Tylney, the widow of Sir Humphrey Bourchier (son of the first Lord Berners, who was killed at Battle of Barnet in 1471), and daughter of Sir Frederick Tylney of Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk. They have five children, including Thomas II, later third Duke of Norfolk, Edward, later Lord High Admiral of England (killed 25 April 1513), and Elizabeth, later the mother of Anne Boleyn.

1473
Thomas Howard II (later third Duke of Norfolk), son of Thomas Howard I and Elizabeth Tylney, born at Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk.

1476: 17 January
Sudden death of John Mowbray, fourth and last [Mowbray] Duke of Norfolk, at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk. Dukedoms of Norfolk and Earldom of Surrey become extinct.

1481
Lady Anne Mowbray, only daughter and heiress of the fourth [Mowbray] Duke of Norfolk, and wife to Richard, Duke of York, second son of Edward IV, dies aged nine, at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Lord Howard, as Lady Anne’s cousin, is now the senior co-heir to Mowbray estates. York is later murdered in Tower of London.

1483: 9 April
Death of the Yorkist King Edward IV. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, seizes throne on 26 June as King Richard III.

1483: 28 June
John Howard created first [Howard] Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal of England by Richard III, who grants him the Mowbray estates. His son, Thomas Howard I, is created Earl of Surrey and appointed a member of the Privy Council and Knight of the Garter. The duke officiates as High Steward and Earl Marshal at the king’s coronation on 6 July.

1483: 25 July
The first Duke of Norfolk created Lord High Admiral of England, Ireland and Aquitaine and Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster for life.

1484
Thomas Howard II ?betrothed to nine-year-old Lady Anne Plantagenet, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.

1485: 22 August
Battle of Bosworth. Richard III killed and royalist army defeated. First [Howard] Duke of Norfolk is killed leading Richard’s vanguard of archers. His body is buried at Thetford, Norfolk. His son, Thomas I, is wounded at Bosworth and taken prisoner. Succeeds his father as second Duke of Norfolk but is imprisoned in the Tower of London.

1485: 30 October
Henry Tudor is crowned at Westminster Abbey as King Henry VII.

1485: 7 November
John Howard, first Duke of Norfolk and his son, Thomas I, Earl of Surrey, attainted for treason by Henry VII’s first Parliament. Earl of Surrey degraded from Order of the Garter.

1486: 18 January
Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV.

1486: 20 September
Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York, born at Winchester.

1489: March
Thomas Howard I freed from Tower, his attainder is later reversed and he is restored as Earl of Surrey.

1489
Appointed Chief Justice in Eyre North of the Trent. Puts down a revolt in the north of England against new taxes imposed by Henry VII.

1490: 20 May
Appointed Vice-Warden of the East and Middle Marches on the Scottish borders and effectively, general of English forces in the region.

1491: 28 June
Henry, second son of Henry VII, born at Greenwich Palace.

1492
Thomas Howard I suppresses fresh northern riots against taxation.

1494
Death of Margaret, widow of attainted first Duke of Norfolk. Her will is dated 13 May 1490 and is proved 3 December 1494.

1495: 4 February
Henry VII allows marriage of Thomas Howard II to Lady Anne Plantagenet, the king’s sister-in-law, at Greenwich. The four children of the marriage all die young - the longest lived being the only son Thomas (c. 1496-August 1508).

1497
Thomas Howard I repels a Scottish attack on Norham Castle, Northumberland, and launches a raid into Scotland to seize Ayton Castle, Berwickshire.

1497: 4 April
Death of Elizabeth Tylney, first wife of Thomas Howard I.

1497: 8 November
Thomas Howard I marries his second wife, Agnes Tylney, daughter of Hugh Tylney of Skirbeck and Boston in Lincolnshire. They have six surviving children, including William, later first Baron Howard of Effingham, born c. 1510, and Thomas, died 1537.

1501: 16 June
Thomas Howard I appointed Lord High Treasurer of England.

1501: 14 November
Prince Arthur marries Catherine of Aragon.

1502: 2 April
Prince Arthur dies from tuberculosis, aged fifteen, at Ludlow Castle.

1503: 25 June
Henry, now Prince of Wales, is formally betrothed to Catherine of Aragon.

1509: 21 April
Henry VII dies at Richmond Palace, Surrey. On his deathbed he restores the family estates to Thomas Howard I, Earl of Surrey, who is one of the executors of his will.

1509: 24 April
Henry VIII proclaimed king; marries Catherine (11 June). Both are crowned on 24 June when Thomas Howard I serves as Marshal of England.

1510: 10 July
Thomas Howard I created Earl Marshal of England for life.

1511: 12 November
Anne Plantagenet, wife of Thomas Howard II, dies of consumption, aged thirty-six.

1513
Thomas Howard II marries Elizabeth Stafford, the unwilling fifteen-year-old daughter of Sir Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham, and his wife, Eleanor Percy, daughter of the fourth Duke of Northumberland. They have three children: Henry, later Earl of Surrey, born 1513; Mary, born 1519; and Thomas, born c. 1520, later first Viscount Bindon.

1513: 25 April
Admiral Sir Edward Howard drowned in attack on the French fleet at Brest, leaving the care of his two illegitimate sons to Henry VIII and Charles Brandon, later Duke of Suffolk.

1513: 4 May
Thomas Howard II succeeds his brother as Lord High Admiral, an office he holds until 1525.

1513: July
Thomas Howard I appointed Lieutenant General of English forces in the north.

1513: 9 September
Thomas Howard I defeats Scots army at Battle of Flodden Field, Northumberland, killing James IV of Scotland and up to 12,000 of the invading Scots army.

1513
Birth of Henry Howard, later Earl of Surrey, eldest son of third Duke of Norfolk and second wife, Elizabeth Stafford.

1514: 1 February
Thomas Howard I created second Duke of Norfolk by a grateful Henry VIII and restored at a ceremony at Lambeth Palace on the feast of Candlemas (2 February). Thomas Howard II made Earl of Surrey for life. Both awarded grants and annuities.

1516: 18 February
Birth of Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, at Greenwich Palace.

1517: 1 May
Second Duke of Norfolk, as Earl Marshal, leads a private army of East Anglian retainers to suppress apprentice riots in London.

1519: June
Birth of Henry Fitzroy, later Duke of Richmond and Somerset, the bastard son of Henry VIII and his mistress, Elizabeth Blount, at priory of St Lawrence, Blackmore, near Ingatestone, Essex.

1520: 10 March-end 1521
Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey, serves as Lord Deputy of Ireland, based in Dublin.

1520: 31 May-18 July
Second Duke of Norfolk appointed Guardian of England during Henry VIII’s absence in France.

1521: May
Second Duke of Norfolk, as Lord High Steward, presides over trial of Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham (his son’s father-in-law) for treason. Buckingham is beheaded on 17 May 1521 on Tower Hill.

1522: September
Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey, serves as Lieutenant General of Anglo-Burgundian army in France.

1522: 4 December
Second Duke of Norfolk resigns as Lord High Treasurer in favour of his son, Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey.

1523: 26 February-1524
Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey, serves as Lieutenant General of English forces on the Scottish border.

1524: 21 May
Death of Thomas Howard I, second Duke of Norfolk, aged eighty-one, at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk. He is buried at the Cluniac abbey of Our Lady, Thetford on 24 June. Thomas Howard II succeeds as third Duke of Norfolk and his eldest son, Henry, becomes Earl of Surrey.

1525: July
Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, appointed Lord High Admiral in place of Thomas Howard II, third Duke of Norfolk.

1527: Summer
Henry VIII decides to seek annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

1529: 18 October
Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor, delivers Great Seal of England to third Duke of Norfolk and Duke of Suffolk at York Place.

1530: November
Wolsey arrested on treason charges (4 November) and dies, probably from dysentery, on 29 November at Leicester Abbey, en route to the Tower of London.

1532: April
Third Duke of Norfolk arranges the marriage of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, to Lady Frances de Vere (1517-77), daughter of John de Vere, fifteenth Earl of Oxford. They are married in the spring of the following year, although are too young to live together.

1533: 25 January
Henry secretly marries Anne Boleyn, the third Duke of Norfolk’s niece, in the high chamber over the Holbein Gate in the Palace of Westminster. She is crowned Queen on 1 June at Westminster Abbey.

1533: 23 May
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer grants divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon at Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

1533: 28 May
Third Duke of Norfolk created Earl Marshal of England.

1533: 7 September
Birth of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, at Greenwich Palace.

1533: 26 November
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, marries Mary, younger daughter of third Duke of Norfolk. Marriage never consummated.

1535: 1 July
Trial for treason of former Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in Westminster Hall. He is executed on 6 July on Tower Hill.

1536: 7 January
Death of Catherine of Aragon at Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire.

1536: 26 January
Henry VIII injured in a jousting accident at Greenwich. Five days later, Anne Boleyn miscarries of a male child when told of the accident by her uncle, the third Duke of Norfolk.

1536: March
Act for the Dissolutions of Minor Monastic Houses passed.

1536: 15 May
Third Duke presides over trial, at Tower of London, of Anne Boleyn and her brother George, Viscount Rochford, for incest and adultery. Rochford beheaded on Tower Hill on 17 May and Anne beheaded by a French executioner with a two-handed sword in the Tower of London, on 19 May.

1536: 30 May
Henry marries his third wife, Jane Seymour, in the Queen’s Closet in the Palace of Westminster.

1536
Birth of Charles, eldest son of William Howard, first Baron Effingham (c. 1510-73), and his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage.

1536: 10 March
Thomas Howard III (later fourth Duke of Norfolk) is born to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and his wife, Frances.

1536: 18 July
Bill of Attainder for high treason passed against Lord Thomas Howard, half-brother of the third Duke of Norfolk, for making a private marriage contract with Lady Margaret Douglas, niece to Henry VIII. Both he and Lady Margaret are imprisoned in the Tower of London.

1536: 23 July
Death of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, at St James’s Palace, London. Buried among the Howard tombs at the Cluniac abbey of Our Lady, Thetford, Norfolk.

1536: 2 October
Beginning of rebellions in Lincolnshire, spreading to Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland - the Pilgrimage of Grace - later suppressed by third Duke of Norfolk as High Marshal.

1537: January
New rebellion in Yorkshire, quickly suppressed. Third Duke of Norfolk wreaks brutal royal vengeance on the rebels.