Lord Edmund Howard

Tournament scene, Jörg Breu the Elder c. 1510-1515

Lord Edmund Howard (ca. 1478 – 19 March 1539) was the third son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and first wife Elizabeth Tilney. His sister, Elizabeth, was the mother of Henry VIII's second Queen, Anne Boleyn, and he was the father of the King's fifth Queen, Katherine Howard.

Biography

Howard was born about 1478. He spent his early years at court, and in 1509 he was listed as one of the noblemen who organized the jousts for the joint coronation of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Although his brother Edward was a close companion of the King and his eldest brother, Thomas, became a dominating figure at court, Edmund did not appear to have shared the King's favor and seemed to have been considered inneffectual.

Biographers have described Howard as 'a spendthrift who soon dissipated his wife's lands in Kent and Hampshire and fled abroad to avoid his creditors, leaving his numerous children to be brought up by relatives'.

He was Marshal of the Horse at the Battle of Flodden Field on 9 September 1513, and attended the King at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, where he was one of the challengers in the tournaments. In 1530 or 1531, with the assistance of Thomas Cromwell, Howard was made Controller of Calais. He was dismissed from the post in 1539, possibly due to ill health.^{[citation needed]}

Howard died on 19 March 1539, a year before his daughter, Katherine, became the fifth Queen of Henry VIII. His widow, Margaret Jennings, was among the ladies appointed to serve her stepdaughter when her household was formed in August 1540. Margaret later married Henry Mannock. Some historians conjecture that this man was the Henry Manox who had been music master to Katherine Howard in her youth and had been involved in sexual indiscretions with her which later contributed to her downfall. Others historians, however, dispute this, saying that there is no reason to connect the two men. Margaret was buried at Streatham on 22 January 1565.

Marriages and Issue

Edmund Howard married firstly Joyce Culpeper (died c. 1531), widow of Ralph Leigh of Stockwell (in Lambeth), Surrey, and daughter of Richard Culpeper of Oxenhoath, West Peckham, Kent, sometime after 1509. They had the following issue:

• Margaret Howard (c. 1515 - 10 October 1572), who married Sir Thomas Arundell, had issue.
• Mary Howard (b. after 1515), who married Edmund Trafford.
• Henry Howard (b. after 1515)
• Charles Howard (b. after 1515)
• Sir George Howard (c. 1519 - 1580)
• Katherine Howard (c. 1521 - 13 February 1542), who married Henry VIII, had no issue.

Howard married secondly Dorothy Troyes, daughter Thomas Troyes of Hampshire, had no issue. He married thirdly Margaret Jennings, the widow of Nicholas Jennings and daughter of Sir John Mundy, Lord Mayor of London, had no issue.

References

• Bindoff, S.T. (1982). The House of Commons 1509-1558. II. London: Secker & Warburg. 
• Head, David M. (2008). Howard, Thomas, second duke of Norfolk (1443–1524), magnate and soldier. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 
• Loades, David (2008). Howard, Sir Edward (1476/7–1513), naval commander. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 
• Richardson, Douglas (2004). Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc.. 
• Steinman, G. Steinman (1869). Althorp Memoirs. Printed for Private Circulation. pp. 55–57. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Ec4LAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%2Bsteinman+%2B%22althorp+memoirs%22&source=bl&ots=rUTxiSk9-b&sig=kyOtn4Js0KTklEU4WVt2ll3nvUo&hl=en&ei=aK92TcXMLIu8sQPV59HTBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 8 March 2011. 
• Warnicke, Retha M. (2008). Katherine [Catherine; nee Katherine Howard] (1518x24-1542), queen of England and Ireland, fifth consort of Henry VIII. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 
• Weir, Alison (2001). Henry VIII, King and Court. Random House.