Bindon, a title which became extinct in 1611. His only daughter Mary (d. 1557) married Henry, duke of Richmond, the natural son of Henry VIII.
Thomas Howard, 4th duke (1536–1572), son of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, was born on the 10th of March 1536. His tutor was John Foxe, the martyrologist. Soon after Elizabeth became queen in 1558 she sent the young duke to take part in the war against the Scots and their French allies, but the conclusion of the treaty of Edinburgh in July 1560 enabled him to return to the court in London. Having married and lost three wives, all ladies of wealth and position, Norfolk was regarded as a suitable husband for Mary queen of Scots, who had just taken refuge in England. He presided over the commission appointed by Elizabeth to inquire into the relations between the Scottish queen and her subjects; and although he appears to have believed in Mary’s guilt he was anxious to marry her. Among the Scots Maitland of Lethington favoured the proposed union; Mary herself consented to it; but Norfolk was unwilling to take up arms, and while he delayed Elizabeth ordered his arrest and he was taken to prison in October 1569. In August 1570, after the suppression of the rising in the north of England, the duke was released; but he entered into communication with Philip II. of Spain regarding the proposed invasion of England by the Spaniards. After some hesitation Norfolk placed himself at the head of the conspirators; and in return for his services he asked the king of Spain “to approve of my own marriage with the Queen of Scots.” But the plot failed; Norfolk’s treachery was revealed to Lord Burghley, and in September 1571 he was arrested. He was beheaded on the 2nd of June 1572. It is noteworthy that he always regarded himself as a Protestant. Norfolk’s first wife, Mary (1540–1557), daughter and heiress of Henry Fitzalan, 12th earl of Arundel, bore him a son, Philip, who in consequence of his father’s attainder was not allowed to succeed to the dukedom of Norfolk, but became 13th earl of Arundel in succession to his maternal grandfather in 1580. Norfolk left two other sons, Thomas Howard, created earl of Suffolk in 1603, and Lord William Howard (q.v.).
In 1660 the dukedom was restored by act of parliament to Thomas Howard, 4th earl of Arundel (1627–1677), a descendant of the 4th duke. The 5th duke was succeeded by his brother Henry (1628–1684), the friend of John Evelyn, who had been already created earl of Norwich; in 1672 he was made earl marshal, and this dignity was entailed on his male heirs.
Charles Howard, 11th duke (1746–1815), was the son of Charles Howard (1720–1786), who succeeded his cousin, Edward Howard (1686–1777), as 10th duke of Norfolk in 1777, and who wrote Historical Anecdotes of some of the Howard Family (1769 and 1817). Born in March 1746, the earl of Surrey, as Charles was called from 1777 until he became duke of Norfolk in 1786, represented Carlisle in the House of Commons, Where he acted with the Whigs; unlike his father he was a Protestant. In 1780 he was a lord of the treasury. In 1789 at a dinner held in London the duke gave the toast “Our sovereign’s health—the majesty of the people”; this greatly offended George III., who deprived him of some of his public offices.
When he died on the 16th of December 1815 he left no sons, and the dukedom passed to his kinsman, Bernard Edward Howard (1765–1842), a descendant of the 4th duke.
Bernard’s only son, Henry Charles Howard (1791–1856), became 13th duke in 1842. As earl of Surrey he was the first Roman Catholic since the Reformation to sit in the House of Commons, of which he was a member from 1829 to 1841; as duke of Norfolk he was master of the horse from 1846 to 1852 and lord steward from 1853 to 1854. The second of his three sons, Edward George Fitzalan (1818–1883), was a member of the House of Commons from 1848 to 1868, and was created Baron Howard of Glossop in 1869. Lord Howard rendered great service to the cause of Roman Catholic education.
The 13th duke’s eldest son, Henry Granville Fitzalan Howard (1815–1860), succeeded to the title. He was a devoted Roman Catholic, left the Liberal party and resigned his seat in parliament rather than support the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill of 1850. He edited the Lives of Philip Howard, earl of Arundel, and of Anne Dacres, his wife (1857 and 1861). He was succeeded by his son Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th duke (b. 1847), who was postmaster-general from 1895 to 1900, first Lord Mayor of Sheffield in 1895, went out to the South African War in 1900, and whose position as head of the English Roman Catholics and as premier duke and Earl Marshal made him for many years conspicuous in public life. His only son by his first wife, a daughter of Baron Donington, died in early life; but by his second marriage (1904) to the daughter and heiress of Lord Herries he had a son born in 1908.
NORFOLK, an eastern county of England, bounded N. and E. by the North Sea, S.E. and S. by Suffolk and W. by Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. The area is 2044·4 sq. m., the county being the fourth in size in England. The surface falls into two divisions. The eastern and central portions consist of an undulating plain with rising ground skirting the river valleys and low chalk downs in the north. For the most part this section is fertile and well wooded, but there are some expanses of heath land. The principal rivers are the Yare and its tributaries the Wensum, Bure and Waveney, the last forming a large part of the boundary with Suffolk. In the west the county includes part of the Fen country (q.v.), where the principal rivers are the Great Ouse and its tributaries the Little Ouse or Brandon river, which also forms part of the Suffolk boundary, the Wissey and the Nar. The flat fens are crossed by innumerable drainage channels. They are comprised within that portion of the whole district known as the Bedford Level, and extend from Welney and Hilgay Fens near the junction Of the Great and Little Ouse northward to the Wash.
The watershed is nearly in the centre of the county. The middle eastern portion is a low-lying flat area lifted slightly towards the coast in such a way that some of the tributary streams of the Bure rise very near the sea but flow at first inland or parallel to the coast. Here occur the well-known Norfolk Broads, shallow meres, having their low banks massed with luxuriant reeds and other water-plants, and possessing much quiet beauty of an individual character. Most of them abound with pike, bream and other coarse fish, and harbour innumerable waterfowl, including the water-hen, heron, bittern, king-fisher, mallard, teal and snipe. They are thus frequented by sportsmen, but still more by boating parties, and at Yarmouth, Wroxham Bridge, Acle and elsewhere sailing boats with cabins, and other boats, are hired in large numbers. Annual regattas are held on several Broads. The Broads are generally not widenings of the main river, but are connected with it by short channels. Their formation is probably due to a slight uprising of the land, whereupon the depressions in the undulated surface continued to carry water. The average depth of the Broads is only some eight feet, and their tendency is to become choked with sedges and bulrushes and to decrease in size. The Bure joins the Yare at Yarmouth, at the seaward end of Breydon Water, which does not rank among the Broads. Following the Bure upwards, a small stream is found uniting it with Filby, Rollesby and Ormsby Broads to the north, which form one sheet of water of irregular shape. The Thurne stream then enters from the same direction, draining Heigham Sound, Hickling Broad, Horsey Mere and Martham Broad. The second of these is the largest of all, measuring some 3 m. in length by one at its widest part. The next tributary, the Ant, drains Barton and Stalham Broads. Closely adjoining the upper Bure itself, there are Ranworth Broad, Horning Broad, and Salhouse, Hoveton and Wroxham Broads almost adjoining. South of Ranworth, on a tributary, is South Walsham Broad. Adjacent to the Yare towards Norwich is Rockland Broad. Between the Waveney and Lowestoft Oulton Broad is formed (in Suffolk; see Lowestoft).
Nearly two-thirds of the boundary of the county is formed by tidal water. There are few bays or inlets, and on the northern coast no river mouths. For the most part the coast-line is flat and low, and has been greatly encroached on by the sea, several villages having been engulfed since the Conquest. From the
