Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/79

Howard  and Suffolk. He died on 28 May 1626 at his house at Charing Cross, and was buried at Saffron Walden. He married, first, Mary, daughter and coheiress of Thomas, fourth lord Dacre of Gillesland, who died on 7 April 1578 without issue. In 1583 he married, secondly, Catherine, daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Knevet, knt., of Charlton, Wiltshire, and widow of Richard, eldest son of Robert, lord Rich. She had a great ascendency over her husband, and undoubtedly used his high office to enrich herself. Bacon, in his speech in the Star-chamber against the earl, compared the countess to an exchange woman, who kept her shop, while her creature, Sir J. Bingley, cried ‘What d'ye lack?’ Her beauty was remarkable, but in 1619 an attack of small-pox did it much injury (ib. Dom. 1619-23, p. 16). Pennant, in his ‘Journey from Chester to London’ (ed. 1782, pp. 227-8), has given an engraved portrait of the countess from a painting at Gorhambury. By her Suffolk had seven sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Theophilus, second earl of Suffolk, the fifth, Sir Robert Howard (1598-1653), and the seventh, Edward (d. 1675), are separately noticed.

The fourth son, Sir Charles Howard, was knighted 13 Feb. 1610-11, and died 22 Sept. 1622, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, by his wife, whom he married in 1612, Mary (1596-1671), daughter of Sir John Fitz of Fitzford, Devonshire. This high-spirited lady had previously been married to Sir Allan Percy (d. 1611), and after Howard's death married as third husbandand [sic] Thomas Darcy, son of Lord Darcy of Chiche (afterwards Earl Rivers). In 1628 she married a fourth husband, Sir Richard Grenville (1600-1658) [q.v.] Her portrait by Van dyck was engraved by Hollar (see Lady Howard of Fitzford, by Mrs. G. H. Radford, repr. from Trans, of Devonshire Assoc. 1890, xxii. 66-110).

 HOWARD, THOMAS, second (1586–1646), art collector, called by Walpole the 'Father of Vertu in England,' only son of Philip Howard, earl of Arundel [q. v.], by Anne, coheiress of Dacre and Gillesland, was born at Finchingfield in Essex, 7 July 1586 (see will, Harl. MS. 6272, ff. 29-30). When he was nearly ten his father died in the Tower (19 Oct. 1595), and by his attainder the son was deprived of his lands and titles, though called Lord Maltravers by courtesy. He was carefully brought up by his mother, ‘a lady of great and eminent virtues,’ with his only sister, who died aged 16 (manuscript life in Harl. MS. 6272, f. 152). After attending Westminster School, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge (Memoirs, ed. 1668, p. 284). On the accession of James I, Howard was granted his father's titles of Arundel and Surrey, but the king retained the family property, so that he remained in embarrassed circumstances. On 18 April 1604 he was restored in blood, and in 1605 first introduced at court. At the age of twenty he married (30 Sept. 1606) Alathea, third daughter and ultimately heiress of Gilbert Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, and, with the help of her fortune, gradually bought back some of the family property, including Arundel House, London, for 4,000l. in 1608. For the next few years the earl led a gay life at court, and his name constantly appears among the performers in masques and jousts. On 17 July 1607 the king stood godfather to his eldest son James, who died at Ghent in 1624. He went abroad for his health in 1609, travelling in the Low Countries, France, and Italy, and seems to have there first acquired a love of art. On his return he was installed KG. at Windsor (13 May 1611). At the marriage of Princess Elizabeth (February 1613) Arundel carried the sword of state, and was afterwards appointed one of the four noblemen to escort her abroad. He proceeded to Heidelberg at the elector's request, and returned to England in June. Soon after he and the countess paid a visit to Italy, where they were received with all honour and respect. They returned in November 1615.

Arundel was, like his wife, brought up as a Roman catholic, but on 25 Dec. 1615 he entered the English church, and took the sacrament in the king's chapel, Whitehall, to the great grief of his mother, who vainly tried to persuade him to return to the Romish faith. Arundel has been accused of becoming a protestant only from policy, but there is no doubt that he had a natural leaning to a simple and unadorned ritual. On 16 July 1616 he was admitted to the privy council, and in the next year was made a privy councillor of Scotland and Ireland. He supported Raleigh's expedition of 1617, but had some doubts of Raleigh's sincerity, and visited Raleigh's ship the Destiny as it was leaving the Thames to obtain the explorer's promise that he would return to England however the enterprise might turn out. On 3 Nov. 1620 he became a member of a committee for the plantations of New England. His love of etiquette is illustrated by a quarrel with De Cadenet, the French ambassador, in