Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/16

 ' and Dallaway's 'Sussex.' He was elected president of the Society of Arts on 22 March 1794.

His portrait was painted by Gainsborough in 1783, and by Hoppner in 1800. The former was engraved by J. K. Sherwin. An etched portrait is of earlier date.



HOWARD, EDWARD (1477?–1513), lord high admiral, second son of, earl of Surrey, and afterwards second duke of Norfolk [q. v.], served, when about fifteen, in the squadron which, under the command of [q. v.], co-operated with the troops of the Archduke Maximilian in the reduction of Sluys in 1492. In 1497 he served under his father in the army in Scotland, and was then knighted. At the jousts held at the coronation of Henry VIII he was one of the 'enterprisers.' On 20 May 1509 he was appointed standard-bearer, with the yearly pay of 40l. (, xiii. 251). In July 1511 he is said to have commanded, in company with his elder brother Thomas, the ships which captured the two Scotch pirates, Robert and [q. v.] Of the circumstances of the action, round which much legend has grown, we have no contemporary account. It is not mentioned in the State Papers. Later chroniclers speak of Howard as commanding by virtue of his rank as lord-admiral, and relate that the king received the news of the Bartons' piracies while at Leicester, a place which it is certainly known he did not visit in the early years of his reign (information from Mr. J. Gairdner). Moreover, Howard was not lord-admiral in 1511, and it is not recorded that he had before that date any command at sea; and it seems not improbable that the names of the Howards were introduced without justification, on account of their later celebrity ( (1548), Henry VIII, fol., where the Christian name is given as Edmond; , Hist. of Scotland, Bannatyne Club, p.82). The details given in the ballad of 'Sir Andrew Barton,' which were adopted by Sir Walter Scott (Tales of a Grandfather, chap. xxiv.), are unquestionably apocryphal.

On 7 April 1512 Howard was appointed admiral of the fleet fitting out for the support of the pope and of Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and to carry on hostilities against the French (, xiii. 326, 329). By the middle of May the fleet was collected at Portsmouth, to the number of twenty large ships, and, going over to the coast of Brittany, ravaged the western extremity with fire and sword. On Trinity Sunday he landed in Bertheaume Bay, drove the French out of their bulwarks, defeated them in several skirmishes, and marched seven miles inland. On Monday, 23 May, he landed at Conquet, burnt the town and the house of the Sieur de Portzmoguer. On 1 June he landed again, apparently in Crozon Bay. The neighbouring gentry sent a challenge, daring him to stay till they could collect their men. He replied that 'all that day they should find him in that place, tarrying their coming.' He had with him about 2,500 men, but these he posted so strongly that when the French levies, to the number of 10,000, came against him, they did not venture to attack, and resolved to wait till Howard was compelled to move out of his entrenchments, and so take him at a disadvantage on the way to his boats. But while waiting, a panic seized the Breton militia; they fled; and Howard was left free to re-embark at his leisure. He declined 'to surcease his cruel kind of war in burning of towns and villages,' at the request of the lords of Brittany, or to grant them a truce of six days; and having done as much harm as he could, he went along the coast of Brittany and Normandy, and returned to the Isle of Wight.

In the beginning of August he sailed again for Brest with twenty-five great ships. The French had meantime prepared a fleet of thirty ships. It is impossible to form any correct estimate of the relative strength. Several of the French ships were large, especially the Marie la Cordelière, which is said to have had a crew of a thousand men. The largest of the English ships, the Regent and the Sovereign, seem to have had crews of seven hundred. Howard's own ship, the Mary Rose, was somewhat smaller. On 10 Aug. the French put to sea, under the command of Hervé, Sieur de Portzmoguer, known to French chroniclers as Primauguet, and to the English as Sir Piers Morgan. They had just got clear of the Goulet when the English fleet arrived, and at once attacked them. The fight was fiercely contested, especially among the larger ships; the Cordelière, commanded by Portzmoguer in person, in avoiding the onslaught of the Sovereign, fell on board the Regent, which was commanded by Howard's brother-in-law, Sir [q.v.] The two grappled each other, and while the fight was still raging caught fire, and burnt together. Of the seventeen hundred men on board very few escaped. The disaster struck a panic into the French, who fled confusedly into the harbour. The English pursued; anchored in Bertheaume Bay; ravaged the coasts of Brittany, Normandy, and Picardy, and, taking and burning many French ships, returned to