Norfolk was godmother to the Princess Mary, and in the same year Norfolk was a commissioner for forming a league with the emperor and Spain in defence of the church. In May 1517 he showed his old vigour in putting down a riot of the London apprentices against foreigners, which, from the summary punishment it received, was known as 'Evil May day.' When the king went to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, Norfolk was left guardian of the kingdom. But a painful task was in store for him: in May 1521 he was appointed lord high steward for the trial of Edward, duke of Buckingham, on the charge of treason. Buckingham was his friend, and father of the wife of his eldest son; and few incidents are more characteristic of the temper of the time than that Norfolk should have consented to preside at such a trial, of which the issue was a foregone conclusion. With tears streaming down his face Norfolk passed sentence of death on a man with whose sentiments he entirely agreed, but had his reward in a grant of manors from Buckingham's forfeitures (Brewer, Calendar, iii. No. 2382). In spite of his great age Norfolk still continued at court, and was present at the reception of Charles V in May 1522. In December, however, he resigned the office of treasurer, but was present at parliament in April 1523. After that he retired to his castle of Framlingham, where he died on 21 May 1524, and was buried at Thetford Priory, of which he was patron (Martin, History of Thetford, p. 122). A tomb was raised over him, which at the dissolution of the monasteries was removed to the church of Framlingham. It is said that his body finally remained in the Howard Chapel at Lambeth, where his second wife was also buried (see 'The Howards of Effingham,' by G. Leveson Gower, in Surrey Arch. Coll. ix. 397).
The career of Howard is an excellent example of the process by which the Tudor kings converted the old nobility into dignified officials, and reduced them into entire dependence on the crown. Howard accepted the position, worked hard, abandoned all scruples, and gathered every possible reward. Polydore Vergil praises him as 'vir prudentia, gravitate et constantia præditus.' By his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney, he had eight sons [see Howard, Thomas II, and Howard, Sir Edward (1477 ?-1513)], of whom five died young, and three daughters; by his second wife, Agnes, daughter of Sir Philip Tilney, he had three sons, including William Howard, first lord Howard of Effingham [q. v.], and four daughters. By the marriages of this numerous offspring the Howard family was connected with most of the chief families of England, and secured a lasting position.
[An interesting biography of Howard was written on a tablet placed above his tomb at Thetford; it has been preserved in Weever's Funerall Monuments, pp. 834-40. This has been amplified by Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 67-71. Blomefield's History of Norfolk, i. 451-5; Hawes and Loder's History of Framlingham, pp. 66-75; Cartwright and Dallaway's History of the Western Division of Sussex, ii. 194-8; Collins's Peerage, pp. 40, &c.; Doyle's Official Baronage, ii. 289-91; Howard's Memorials of the Howards. These are supplemented by Hall's Chronicle; Polydore Vergil's Historia Anglicana; Herbert's Reign of Henry VIII; Brewer's Letters and Papers, and Reign of Henry VIII; Bergenroth's Spanish Calendar; Brown's Venetian Calendar, and Despatches of Giustinian; Sanford and Townsend's Great Governing Families of England, ii. 315-23.]
HOWARD, THOMAS II, Earl of Surrey and third Duke of Norfolk
of the Howard house (1473–1554), warrior and statesman, was eldest son of Thomas Howard I [q. v.] by his wife Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Frederick Tilney of Ashwellthorpe Hall, Norfolk. He was born in 1473, and, as a sign of the close alliance between Richard III and the Howard family, was betrothed in 1484 to the Lady Anne (born at Westminster 2 Nov. 1475), third daughter of Edward IV (Buck,
History of Richard III, p. 574). The lady had been
betrothed by her father by treaty dated
5 Aug. 1480 to Philip, son of Maximilian,
archduke of Austria, but Edward IV's death
had brought the scheme to nothing. After the
overthrow of Richard, despite the change in
the fortunes of the Howards, Lord Thomas
renewed his claim to the hand of the Lady
Anne, who was in constant attendance on
her sister, Queen Elizabeth, and Henry VII
permitted the marriage to take place in 1495
(the marriage settlement is given by Madox, Formulare Anglicanum, pp. 109-10). The queen settled upon the bride an annuity of 120l. (confirmed by acts of parliament 11 and 12 Hen. VII), and the marriage took place in Westminster Abbey on 4 Feb. 1495. Howard subsequently served in the north under his father, by whom he was knighted in 1498. In 1511 he joined his younger brother, Edward [q. v.], the lord admiral, as captain of a ship in his encounter with the Scottish pirate, Andrew Barton [q. v.] In May 1512 he was made lieutenant-general of the army which was sent to Spain under the command of the Marquis of Dorset, with the intention of joining the forces of Ferdinand for the in-
