Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Uncommon card · No. 83194

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/1517 – 19 January 1547), was an English nobleman, politician and poet. He was one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry and was the last known person to have been executed at the insistence of King Henry VIII. As a fellow translator and imitator of classical Latin authors, his name is closely linked in literature with that of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, about whom he wrote an elegy, the only poem published in his life. Owing largely to the powerful position of his father Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Henry took a prominent part in court life, and served as a soldier both in France and in Scotland. He was a man of reckless temper, which involved him in many quarrels, and finally brought upon him the wrath of the ageing Henry VIII. He was arrested, tried for treason and beheaded on Tower Hill. Howard, along with Thomas Wyatt, is regarded as a pioneer of the English sonnet. Notable sonnets by him include "Alas, so all things now do hold their...

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