Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham

Early life: 1536–1558

Few details of Charles Howard's early life are known. He was born in 1536, and was the cousin of Queen Elizabeth. He was son of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham (c. 1510–1573) and Margaret Gamage (d. 18 May 1581), daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage. He was a grandson of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. He was also the cousin of Anne Boleyn (Anne's mother was half-sister to Charles' father), and held several prominent posts during the reign of Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I.

It is believed that Charles Howard was taught French and some Latin at the house of his uncle, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk. He was also educated in penmanship, chivalric exercises, and some legal traditions. He served as a page to his cousin Thomas who later became the 4th Duke of Norfolk. He also fished and hunted fervently throughout his life.

In his childhood he was educated by John Foxe, the famous Protestant martyrologist and tutor in charge of the education of the children of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a first cousin of Charles who was executed for treason in January 1547. During that time Howard lived with his cousins at Reigate Castle, one of the estates belonging to his uncle, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk.

Howard served at sea under his father's command as a youth. In 1552, he was sent to France to become well-educated in the French language, but was soon brought back to England at the request of his father because of questionable or unexpected treatment.

Early political career: 1558–1585

Howard went to the peace negotiations between England and France which led to the Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis of 1559. He personally informed Queen Elizabeth of its ratification.

He served as ambassador to France in 1559. In December 1562, he became the keeper of the Queen's house and park at Oatlands. In his early years he and five other gentlemen bore the canopy of state when Queen Elizabeth opened her second Parliament on 11 January 1563. He is recorded as having been a regular participant in jousts and tournaments, but despite his relationship to the Queen it is said that it took some time before he was able to gain any personal benefit from his situation.

Howard was also a member of the House of Commons, representing Surrey in the Parliament of 1563 and again in 1572.

In 1564 he became a member of Gray's Inn, and received his Master of Arts degree at Cambridge in 1571. This was not because he had any legal ambitions, but because it was the normal thing for men of his status to do.

He served as General of the Horse in 1569 and was involved that year in the suppression of the Catholic rebellion in northern England. He commanded a squadron of ships escorting the Queen of Spain on a state visit in 1570.

Howard was knighted in 1572, and then became Lord Howard of Effingham following his father's death in 1573. From 1576 to 1603 he was patron of a playing company, Nottingham's Men, later called the Admiral's Men.

On 3 April 1575, Howard was elected to the Order of the Garter to replace his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, who had been executed in 1572. He was installed at Windsor on 8 May 1575.

Lord High Admiral: 1585–1619

Howard was named Lord High Admiral in 1585. The French ambassador wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham, saying Elizabeth's appointment of Howard was "a choice worthy of her virtue and prudence and very necessary for the Admiralty. I pray you tell her that the King [of France] has written to me by an express to thank her for having elected so good an admiral, from whom he hopes great things for the peace of his subjects".

Trial and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots: 1587

Howard regularly attended the Privy Council during the Babington Plot. He was named as one of the commissioners to try Mary, Queen of Scots but is not subsequently mentioned as one of those who sat on the trial. William Davison later alleged that Howard spoke to Elizabeth on 1 February 1587 "of the great danger she continually lived in" as there were rumours of new plots against her life and spoke of the stories that Mary had escaped from prison. Elizabeth was "moved by his lordship to have some more regard to the surety of herself and the state than she seemed to take" and finally made up her mind, telling Howard to send for Davison and Mary's death warrant. Howard then met Davison and informed him that Elizabeth was now "fully resolved" and ordered him to bring forth the warrant to be signed, "that it might be forthwith despatched and deferred no longer". Elizabeth would later blame Davison for breaking orders that no-one must be told of what had happened. The Privy Council met the next day and decided to take responsibility for the execution of Mary.

Spanish Armada: 1588

In early December 1587 orders were drawn up for Howard to take the English fleet to sea. On 21 December Howard's commission was signed, requiring Howard "according as there shall be occasion, and wherever and whenever he shall deem it fitting, to invade, enter, spoil and make himself master of the kingdoms, dominions, lands, islands, and all other places whatever belonging to the said Spaniards". He was furthermore given full authority over the navy and army at sea.

Between 15 December and 1 April 1588 he sat on the Privy Council only four times and attended court briefly every five or six days to meet with Walsingham. Writing on 27 January 1588, Howard believed the peace negotiations with Spain were a trap and expressed his dismay in a letter to Walsingham:I have made of the French King, the Scottish King, and the King of Spain, a Trinity that I mean never to trust to be saved by; and I would others were, in that, of my opinion. Sir, there was never, since England was England, such a stratagem and mask made to deceive England withal as this is of the treaty of peace. I pray God we have not cause to remember one thing that was made of the Scots by the Englishmen; that we do not curse for this a long grey beard with a white head, witless, that will make all the world think us heartless. You know whom I mean.

The next day he wrote again to Walsingham that if there was going to be a "surcease of arms" then "it shall be but folly and to no purpose for me to lie here" as if he was in arms whilst Elizabeth was negotiating peace it would make him "a jest to many, and they have reason". Peace negotiations continued until the Armada was sailing for England.

On 1 February Howard wrote to Walsingham: "It doth appear no less by your letter but that we may assure ourselves that Scotland is the mark which they shoot at to offend us, and therefore most necessary to provide for that...for my own part, had rather be drawn in pieces with wild horses than that they should pass through Scotland and I lie here".

On 14 February, Howard again wrote to Walsingham that Elizabeth would be "no good housewife for herself" if she refused to grant James VI a pension for his support for England rather than Spain. Howard wrote on 21 February: "I have been aboard every ship that goeth out with me, and in every place where any may creep, and I do thank God that they be in the estate they be in; and there is never a one of them that knows what a leak means...there is none that goeth out now but I durst go to the Rio de la Plata in her". On 29 February he wrote to Burghley:I doubt not but to make her Majesty a good account of anything that shall be done by the Spanish forces, and I will make him wish his galleys at home again. If the Commissioners bring peace it is the happiest thing that can be; but if they come without it, look for great matters to ensue presently upon it; for the charge is so great that the King is at, both in Spain and here, in the Low Countries, that is cannot continue long, if he had five times the treasure he hath...I protest before God, and as my soul shall answer for it, that I think there were never in any place in the world worthier ships than these are, for so many. And as few as we are, if the King of Spain's forces be not hundreds, we will make good sport with them.

Cádiz expedition: 1596

Howard was created Earl of Nottingham in 1596 and was appointed Lord Lieutenant General of England [a unique and unprecedented title] in 1599. In 1596, when another Spanish invasion was feared, Howard was again appointed to defend England. Howard and the Earl of Essex jointly led an attack against the Spanish base at Cádiz on 20 June.

3rd Spanish Armada

During the Spanish armada of 1597, Essex was sent home in disgrace after the failed Azores Voyage having left the English coast unguarded. Adverse winds frustrated the Spanish fleet however and the English fleet was able to return safely. Howard took charge and sent out the fleet to intercept the Spanish and one of the ships captured a flyboat from which information was given about the Armada and its retreat back to Spanish ports. Howard was rewarded soon after by the Queen and was created Earl of Nottingham.

Trial and execution of the Earl of Essex: 1601

When Essex rebelled in 1601, Howard took command of the soldiers massed to defend London and defeated him in the field. Howard served as a commissioner at Essex's trial and examined him at least once.

Death of Elizabeth I: 1603

The death of Howard's wife affected Elizabeth; she remained in "a deep melancholy, with conceit of her own death", complaining "of many infirmities suddenly to have overtaken her". Howard was at Elizabeth's deathbed and pressed her on the succession, receiving Elizabeth's reply that it should be "our cousin of Scotland". Elizabeth died on 24 March.

Reign of James I

Nottingham served as Lord High Steward at the coronation of the new king, James I.

The king appointed Howard to the English delegation that negotiated the peace treaty with Spain, and the subsequent ratification of the treaty at Valladolid. He presented a diamond jewel depicting the Habsburg emblems of the double eagle and golden fleece to Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain in Madrid. The King of Spain, Philip III gave him a diamond and gold feather jewel for his hat, a gold collar set with diamonds, and other jewellery and gilt plate, with gifts for his sons, his wife Margaret Stewart. His retinue in Spain including seven trumpeters and eight musicians.

Howard served on the commission of union between England and Scotland and served as commissioner at the Gunpowder Plot trial in 1605.

Later life: 1619–1624

Howard died in 1624 at the age of 88. None of his three sons (two of whom succeeded him in the earldom) left heirs, and shortly after the last died the Nottingham earldom was recreated for a close relative of the Earl of Winchilsea; the Howard of Effingham barony passed to descendants of his brother, the Earl of Effingham being the modern heir.

Legacy

William Bourne dedicated his 1578 book Inventions or Devices. Very Necessary for all Generalles and Captaines, as wel by Sea as by Land to Howard and Robert Norman dedicated to Howard his 1584 translations of two Dutch guides to North Sea coastlines. Richard Hakluyt's 1598 edition of The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation was also dedicated to Howard.

During a debate on the American Revolutionary War in the House of Lords on 18 November 1777, Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk (a descendant of Howard) defended the war against the American colonists. Lord Chatham in response made his appeal:

From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble Lord frowns with indignation at THE DISGRACE OF HIS COUNTRY! In vain he led your victorious fleets against the boasted Armada of Spain; in vain he defended and established the honour, the liberties, the religion, the Protestant religion of his country, against the arbitrary cruelties of Popery and the Inquisition.

Effingham has often been identified with the character Marinell from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. He is one of the principal characters in the opera Roberto Devereux by Gaetano Donizetti, though referred to inaccurately as the "Duke of Nottingham".

There is now a mixed comprehensive school, Howard of Effingham School, named after him. It is located in the village of Effingham in Surrey. He was portrayed by John Shrapnel in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age. The site of his estate in south Croydon is now the location of Whitgift School.

Children

He was married first to Catherine Carey, daughter of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and Ann Morgan. They had five children:

Frances Howard (buried 11 July 1628). She was married first to Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare. She was secondly married to Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham.

William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham (27 December 1577 – 28 November 1615). Summoned to the Lords as 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham. He was married on 7 February 1596/1597 to Anne St John.

Charles Howard, 2nd Earl of Nottingham (17 September 1579 – 3 October 1642). He was married first on 19 May 1597 to Charity White (d. 18 December 1618), daughter to Robert White. Secondly on 22 April 1620 to Mary Cokayne, daughter of Sir William Cokayne, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1619 and Mary Morris.

Margaret Howard, married in 1587 Sir Richard Leveson, no issue.

Elizabeth Howard (buried 31 March 1646). Maid of honour to Elizabeth I of England. She was married first to Sir Robert Southwell. One of their daughters, Elizabeth, was a lover and eventually a third wife of Robert Dudley (explorer). Another daughter, Frances, married Edward Rodney. Elizabeth Howard was secondly married to John Stewart, 1st Earl of Carrick.

He was married secondly to Margaret Stuart, daughter of James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Moray and Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray. She was more than 50 years younger than he was. They had two children:

Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Nottingham (1610–1681)

Anne Howard (born c. 1612). She was married on 29 December 1627 to Alexander Stewart, Baron Garlies, son of Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Galloway and Grizel Gordon.