Henry Howard

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, an early Tudor poet more commonly referred to by his title rather than his name, was born around 1517 in Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, England. The eldest son of Thomas Howard, Third Duke of Norfolk, Surrey was well educated as a child, and, in the humanist tradition, gained a strong command of classical literature. He was raised at Windsor Castle alongside Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII, with whom he became good friends. In 1532, Surrey married Lady Frances de Vere, the fourteen-year-old daughter of the Earl of Oxford, but, on account of their ages, the two did not live together until 1535.

From 1537 to 1539, Surrey was confined at Windsor for having struck a courtier. It is speculated that this is the time during which he wrote the majority of his poetry. Like much of Tudor court poetry, Surrey’s work circulated privately in manuscript and it was not until after his death that his poems were published. Songs and Sonettes (1557)—commonly known as Tottel’s Miscellany—was the first printed anthology of English poetry, collected and published by Richard Tottel, and was comprised primarily of the works of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt.

Along with Wyatt, Surrey is commonly credited with introducing the sonnet into English. Influenced by the work of Petrarch, Surrey’s sonnets helped to popularize the form, adapting it to the rhythms and stresses of the English language. Additionally, Surrey is credited with introducing blank verse into English poetry. His translation of Books II and IV of Virgil’s Aeneid, published in 1557 as Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aenaeis, is the earliest known example of blank verse in English.

Free from his period of confinement, Surrey fell back in favor of the court in the early 1540s. He participated in the jousts held at Westminster in honor of the marriage of King Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves, was made Knight of the Garter in 1541, and was appointed steward of the University of Cambridge in September of the same year. Despite his arrests for drunken misbehavior, Surrey went on to serve in the English army, serving in the French Flanders between 1543 and 1546. However, shortly following his return home, Surrey was arrested and charged with treason due to accusations heralded by the Seymours, the Howards’ rival faction. He was executed on Tower Hill in London on January 19, 1547.