#52 Ancestors 2021 Week 1 Beginnings: My Royal Ancestors Part II

Thomas Howard

 So, genealogy fans, following Cousin Eleanor's proposed lineage for our family, we left off last time at Sir Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Surrey (1443-1524).  As a young man, Thomas entered the service of King Edward IV as a "henchman" i.e. loyal supporter and in 1478, Edward knighted him. 

At Edward's death, Thomas supported Richard III's claim to the throne and carried the Sword of State at Richard's coronation and was rewarded with the Earldom of Surrey.  When Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth (along with Thomas's father, who was also a loyal supporter), Thomas was arrested and thrown in the tower.  But a couple of years later, the new king, Henry Tudor (Henry VII), restored his earldom and eventually Thomas became one of the king's most trusted advisors. That seems to be a thing with kings and nobility, a lot of on-again, off-again relationships, depending on who is in power and who wants to be in power. Doesn't do a lot for building trust.  

James IV

Thomas was involved in the negotiations for the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to Prince Arthur and escorted the king's daughter Margaret to Scotland for her marriage to King James IV.  

Thomas was the executor of Henry VII's will and played a prominent role in the coronation of Henry VIII. While Henry VIII was off fighting in France, the Scots took the opportunity to attack England, and Thomas was instrumental in their defeat at the Battle of Flodden, killing the Scots King James IV.  See Above.  (Further example of that on-again, off-again thing.  Apparently even marrying the king's sister doesn't really guarantee anything.)  

As a reward, Thomas was made Duke of Norfolk and added a snarky little detail to his coat of arms showing the lion of Scotland pierced with an arrow.  Way to rub it in.

Amazingly enough, Thomas lived to a ripe old age, dying in 1524 at age 82, one of the richest and most powerful peers in England. 

Somewhere in the midst of all that activity, Thomas managed to marry, twice, and through these marriage became the grandfather of both Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of Henry VIII's six wives.  It is through his son Edmund Howard that our family line continues. 

Edmund Howard

Edmund (1478-1539) was the third son of Thomas and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney.  Naturally enough, he spent his early years hanging around at court and helped organize the jousts for the wedding of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Although he got some royal posts, his biographers generally characterize him as "a spendthrift who soon dissipated his first wife's lands in Kent and Hampshire and fled abroad to avoid his creditors, leaving his numerous children to be brought up by relatives."  

Sigh!  I guess all the ancestors can't be heroic. In any case, Edmund's first wife was Joyce Culpepper, with whom he had three sons and three daughters, including Catherine Howard, who became Queen a year or so after her father's death. Our family is supposed to descend from Catherine's sister Margaret Howard (1515-1572), who married Sir Thomas Arundel of Wardour Castle. 

Arms of Arundel

Thomas Arundel began his career in the household of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's right-hand man, and was a contemporary of Thomas Cromwell. He held a number of administrative positions in Henry's court, including being a commissioner for the dissolution of the monasteries, which allowed to acquire quite a few properties belonging to the religious houses. Unfortunately for Thomas, he ended up on the wrong side of the power struggle after Henry VIII's death and was arrested, convicted and beheaded on charges of attempting to overthrow the government in 1552.  However, the crown eventually restored his property to his son, Matthew Arundel, through whom our family line continues. Phew!

Sir Matthew Arundel (1532-1598) held several administrative posts including Sheriff and was twice a member of Parliament, but for the most part, he kept to his estates in the west country, perhaps having learned a lesson about the dangers of hanging around at court. In 1559, her married Margaret Willoughby and they had several children, the eldest of whom was Thomas Arundel (1560-1639), through whom our family was said to continue. 

According to his biographers, Thomas was "gifted and scholarly," but seemed to find court life rather boring.  Eventually his father gave him the funds to go off and fight the Turks, where he was apparently very successful.  He was named a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1595 and became known as "the Valiant."  However, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished.  His foreign title made him very unpopular both with his father and with Queen Elizabeth, who had him imprisoned, saying "I would not have a sheep branded with another man's mark." At various times, Thomas was suspected of Catholic espionage and of participation in the Gunpowder Plot. He managed to gain favor with King James I, who created him Baron Arundel of Wardour. In 1605, Thomas was part of a venture to found a colony in Virginia. Later, he engaged in acrimonious religious disputes with his bishop and died in 1639.

Thomas married twice and through his second marriage to Ann Phillipson, our line is said to continue. Unfortunately, here is where Cousin Eleanor's research makes a wrong turn.  To be fair, she isn't the only one who made this wrong turn. 

Thomas and Ann had a son Matthew born about 1609.  For many years, genealogists, including Maryland's own premier researcher, Harry Wright Newman, theorized that this Matthew Arundel emigrated to Virginia where he took the name Matthew Howard. It was an interesting assumption given Thomas's efforts at colonization. In 1939, though, another researcher turned up definitive proof that this was not the case.  Thomas's son Matthew died in 1620 and was buried in London without ever crossing the Atlantic. Newman later updated his work in Anne Arundel Gentry to reflect this new information and thus deprive us of a direct link to this family. 

Ann Arundel, Lady Baltimore

However, all is not lost for my family line.  One of the daughters of Thomas Arundel and Ann Phillipson was Ann Arundel 1615-1649 (yes, THAT Ann Arundel!).  Ann married Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Although she herself never set foot in the New World, she is definitely the namesake of Anne Arundel County MD.  

And our family is definitely related to the Calverts.  Cecil's father, George Calvert, is my 9th great-grandfather. His son Leonard is my 8th great grandfather.  So Cecil and Ann are 8th great aunt and uncle respectively.

Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore

9X Grandfather George Calvert

  

So, for this line at least, I'm not a direct descendant of royalty, but I am at least a distant cousin.  However, Cousin Eleanor traced another line of descent from King Edward I through the Brooke family, which I will pursue in another entry.  

#52 Ancestors 2021, Week 1, Beginnings: My Royal Lineage

 

As a child, long before I had any formal notion of genealogy, I was fascinated by a large chart that hung in the stairwell of Grandmother Summers' house.  It was decorated with colorful shields across the top and showed a long hand-written list of our family's descent from famous kings including Alfred the Great and Charlemagne, ending with a tiny list of my grandparents' children. I don't know what happened to the original after my grandmother's death, but at some point, someone made copies of the chart, shrunken in size and in black and white, and I do have a copy of that.  So, I've decided to explore some of those royal connections.

I'm not sure who did this work originally.  My best guess is that the author was my grandmother's cousin, Eleanor Brooke Perrie.  Cousin Eleanor, as she was known in the family, was very into family history, especially if it connected to royalty.  This chart seems like something she would have done. So, I'm not vouching for the accuracy of the lineage, just enjoying the interesting possibilities.

Edward I

The main lineage on this chart begins with Edward I of England (1239-1307), who, according to Cousin Eleanor, would have been my too-many-greats-to-count grandfather.  He was the son of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence and named because of his father's devotion to Edward the Confessor. He was also called Edward Longshanks because of his unusual height and "the Hammer of the Scots"  because of his fierce wars against his neighbor to the north. Edward has a mixed record as king.  He is credited with establishing Parliament as a permanent institution and reforming much of English law.  On the other hand, he is criticized for his cruel treatment of the Welsh and Scots and for expelling Jews from the kingdom in 1290.  He was said to be feared and respected rather than loved by his people. 

In 1254, 15-year-old Edward made a political marriage with 13-year-old Eleanor of Castile. They had at least 14 children before Eleanor's death in 1290.  For purposes of this lineage, however, the important one is the 8th and youngest daughter, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (1282-1316).  

Humphrey

Elizabeth's first marriage to John of Holland lasted only a year or so and was childless.  My family is apparently descended from her second marriage to Humphrey de Bohun, the 4th Earl of Hereford (1276-1322), whom Elizabeth married in 1302. Under his father-in-law, Humphrey took part in several campaigns against the Scots.  Humphrey was apparently well-educated, a book collector and a scholar and he saw to it that all his children, including his daughters, received an education in the classics.  

Even though he was the brother-in-law of King Edward II, Humphrey, like the other barons, was insistent that the king keep to the provisions of the Magna Carta and when Edward II began to exert what they considered excessive power, the barons revolted.  Humphrey died in one battle of rebellion in Yorkshire in 1322.

Isabella, the She-Wolf

Humphrey and Elizabeth had at least ten children, including twins Edward and William.  William de Bohun (1312-1360), became the first Earl of Northampton in 1337. King Edward II, who would have been William's uncle, was overthrown in 1326 by the machinations of his Queen, Isabella (also known as the She-Wolf of France) and her lover, Roger Mortimer, an English baron. Mortimer himself was overthrown a few years later by Edward III with help from his cousin William de Bohun.  (Isn't family history exciting? Never know which relative will want to assassinate you, especially if you happen to be king.) William's assistance earned him the Earldom and he became a lifelong friend and confidante of Edward III. In addition to his skill as a warrior, William was a renowned diplomat who negotiated several treaties with France and was appointed Admiral of the Northern Seas in 1352. 

William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, married Elizabeth de Badlesmere and had a daughter with her, Elizabeth de Bohun (1350-1385), from whom my family line continues. 

She married Richard Fitzalan (1346-1397), the 4th Earl of Arundel. At the coronation of Richard II, Richard Fitzalan carried the crown. But Fitzalan had a kind of on-again, off-again relationship with Richard II.  In 1387, the Earl was one of the leaders of a rebellion against Richard and Richard never really forgave him for that. In 1397, the king had Richard Fitzalan arrested and imprisoned for his opposition.  He was beheaded later that year. 

Arundel (in red) and Mowbray (white collar) meet with Richard II

Richard Fitzalan  and Elizabeth de Bohun had seven children, including Elizabeth Fitzalan (1366-1425), who married five times.  My family appears to descend from her second marriage to Thomas Mowbray (1366-1399), the first Duke of Norfolk. He was also caught up in the nobility's power struggle with Richard II and died in exile in Venice of the plague. He had also managed to quarrel with Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV) which resulted in the loss of his title of Duke of Norfolk, although the family did retain his other titles.  

Mowbray Arms

As an aside, Mowbray's quarrel with Henry Bolingbroke and his subsequent banishment appear in the first act of Shakespeare's Richard II.  Thomas Mowbray prophetically replies to King Richard's : Lions make leopards tame." [reference to their respective coats of arms] with the retort, "yea, but not to change his spots." Mowbray's death in exile is announced later in the play by the Bishop of Carlisle.  

Thomas Mowbray and Elizabeth Fitzalan had two sons and three daughters, including Margaret Mowbray (1391-1459), from whom my family descends. Margaret married Robert Howard (1398-1436), about whom I know very little.  However, they were the parents of John Howard (1425-1485) in whom my family line continues. You may remember above that Thomas Mowbray lost the title of Duke of Norfolk.  His grandson, John Howard, was given the title again after he supported Richard III's usurpation of his brother Edward's throne (and also managed the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. You remember that story!) 

The title of Duke of Norfolk is a big deal, considered the premier dukedom in the kingdom and also includes the title of Earl of Arundel.  The seat of the dukedom is at Arundel Castle in West Sussex. Since John Howard's accession in 1483, the title has stayed in the Howard family. 

Arundel Castle (2017)

John Howard was a staunch adherent of the House of York during the War of the Roses and was knighted by King Edward IV in 1461 and became part of the royal household as the King's carver.  By 1468, he had advanced to Treasurer of the Royal Household. In 1483, John Howard carried the royal banner at the funeral of Edward IV.  As mentioned above, Howard supported Richard III's ascension to power and was rewarded with the powerful dukedom.  He carried the crown at Richard III's coronation. He died with his friend and patron, Richard III, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. 

About 1442, John married Catherine Moleyn and had two sons and four daughters with her.  His eldest and only surviving son, Thomas Howard, (1443-1524) is the ancestor of my family.  

Thomas, the second Duke of Norfolk and also the Earl of Surrey, was also the grandfather of both Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the second and fifth wives respectively of Henry VIII.  He served four Kings: Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII, and Henry VIII. 

And that is about all the royal intrigue I can handle for today, so I will leave Thomas's career as courtier, diplomat and soldier as well as the rest of the line for another entry.  

Isn't it fun to connect yourself to all that far away history?  To Be Continued.