Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton (1540-1614) was the second son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and younger brother of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. Born at the zenith of his family's influence under Henry VIII, he suffered the trauma of his father's execution for treason in 1547, and his grandfather's imprisonment. Under Edward VI he was tutored by the Protestant martyrologist, John Fox, but a much deeper influence on both his religious outlook and his penchant for learning proved to be John White, the ardently Roman Catholic bishop of Lincoln, in whose household he was placed after the accession of Queen Mary and restoration of his grandfather as Duke of Norfolk. Under Elizabeth I, Henry Howard studied at Cambridge, graduating in 1564 and going on to read civil law, and to gain a reputation as a scholar. To his familiarity with Latin and Greek, he added a knowledge of French, Spanish and Italian. Uniquely for an Elizabethan nobleman, he taught for a time at the university, lecturing both on rhetoric and on civil law. His classical and legal education, and his training in rhetoric, are strongly apparent in the contents and organisation of his commonplace books.
Around 1570 Howard was drawn to court, but his career was blighted by his brother's execution in 1572 for plotting to put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne, and by continuing suspicions about other members of his family, and about his own religious allegiance and contacts with Mary. These led to his arrest and imprisonment five times under Elizabeth. Frequently banished from court during the 1570's and 1580's, Howard resorted to scholarship to reingratiate himself, producing a flow of compositions upholding orthodoxy and royal authority, designed to flatter Elizabeth and win favour with her ministers. Few of his works appeared in print, however. The execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 ended recurrent suspicions that Howard was engaging in treasonable correspondence with her, and his position at court improved in the 1590's with the emergence of his cousin, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, as Elizabeth's favourite, and the polishing of his own skills as a trimmer, maintaining good relations with both Essex and Robert Cecil. Under James I, with whom he had conducted a long secret correspondence, Howard's fortunes brightened. He achieved a leading role at court - he has been well described as the consummate Jacobean courtier - and became an active privy councillor, playing a prominent part in affairs of state from 1603 until his death in 1614. He was made Earl of Northampton in 1604.
From the guide to the Howard Library Manuscripts, ca.1580 - ca.1790 (predominantly ca.1580 - ca.1589), (Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections)
