Profile of a Poet-Howard.

So, we've just analysed 'Love that doth reign and live within my thought' as the poem of the week, and therefore we need to know who Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey was. It is important to know the backgrounds of poets and what happened in their time periods in order to fully understand every part of their poetry. If someone's writing about the plague, and you don't know what the plague is, you're going to be a bit confused there aren't you.

Name- Henry- Howard, Earl of Surrey
Date of Birth- c.1517
Place of Birth- Hunsdon, England
Time Period- Renaissance
Date of Death- 19th January 1547
Occupation- Aristocrat, poet, Earl
Parents- Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Norfolk
Siblings- Mary Howard, Duchess of Richmond, Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon, Katherine Howard
Children- Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, Jane Neville

Henry was descended from King Edward III on his mother's side and Edward I on his mother's side, so he was never going to be anything lower than an aristocrat! He was raised at the wonderful Windsor Castle alongside King Henry VIII's (and his mistress Elizabeth Blount's) illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy, First Duke of Richmond and Somerset. They became best friends and were also brothers-in-law later in life when Henry Howard's sister married Henry FitzRoy.

Howard became a soldier in Henry VIII's French wars as 'Lieutenant General of the King on Sea and Land', although he was in and out of imprisonment in the army for 'rash' behaviour, such as hitting a courtier and also walking through London at night and smashing people's windows.

In 1524, Henry Howard became Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey following the death of his grandfather, and his father becoming Duke of Norfolk. A lot later, in 1532, he, his cousin Anne Boleyn, the King and Henry FitzRoy went to France, where they stayed for over a year, he was a member of the entourage of Francis I of France.

Henry married Frances de Vere and they had two sons and three daughters together, until she left him for Thomas Staynings, with whom she had another child. In 1536, Howard's first son, Thomas (Fourth Duke of Norfolk) was born on the 10th March. Sadly, Anne Boleyn was executed. She had married Henry VIII on the 25th January 1533, and she became Queen of England on the 1st June that year. On the 7th September 1533, Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth I) was born, and the King was annoyed that it was a girl. After 3 miscarriages, the King began seeing Jane Seymour. The reason for telling you about Anne's life is because she was executed on King Henry VIII's order on the 19th May 1536 for high treason, adultery and witchcraft. Basically, King Henry just needed her out of the way so that he could marry his sixth and final wife, Jane Seymour.

Her execution obviously upset Howard, especially as Henry FitzRoy also died in this year, aged 17 years. He was buried at Thetford Abbey. Adding to Howard's troubles in 1536, the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion against the Dissolution of the Monasteries began. Howard fought with his father against the rebels, and eventually won.

Howard was also good friends with poet Thomas Wyatt, and together they were the first English writers to write in the sonnet form that was later adopted by Shakespeare. He was also the first English poet to publish blank verse poetry, and he and Wyatt translated Petrarch's poems excellently. They are now known as 'The Fathers of the English Sonnet'.

Meanwhile, Henry VIII was growing extremely ill, paranoid and wild. He was convinced that Howard was planning to take the crown from his son, Edward. Henry Howard and his father were both imprisoned on this theory, and sentenced to death by beheading. Henry was beheaded on the 19th of January, 1547. His father narrowly avoided his fate, as he was due to be beheaded ten days later on the 29th of January, but Henry VIII died first on the 28th. Thomas Howard remained imprisoned until 1553, when Queen Mary pardoned him.



Helpful Howard sites:
http://timesoftudors.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/henry-howard-earl-of-surrey.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Howard,_Earl_of_Surrey