Howard family

Among English families, the house of Howard has long held the first place. Its head, the duke of Norfolk, is the first of the dukes and the hereditary earl marshal of England, while the earls of Suffolk, Carlisle and Effingham and the Lord Howard of Glossop represent in the peerage its younger lines.

Its founder was a Norfolk lawyer, William Howard or Haward, who was summoned to parliament as a justice in 1295, being appointed a justice of the common pleas in 1297. Over the parentage of this man genealogists have disputed for centuries. The pedigree-makers have hailed him in turn as the descendant of a Norman "Auber, earl of Passy" and as the heir of Hereward, "the last of the English." But out of the copies of Norfolk deeds and records collected for Thomas, earl of Arundel, in the early part of the 17th century, it seems clear enough that he sprang from a Norfolk family, several of whose members held lands at Wiggenhall near Lynn. These notes from deeds, evidently collected by an honest inquirer, make no extravagant claims of ancient ancestry or illustrious origin for the Howards, although the facts contained in them were recklessly manipulated by subservient genealogists. . .... more

Arms of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk

• A1. Hereward, lvd:960;
  • B1. Leofric;
    • C1. Hereward 'the exile' of Wigenhall;
      • D1. Hereward;
        • E1. Hereward, lvd:1160;
          • F1. Robert Howard of Wigenhall;
            • G1. John Howard of Wigenhall, lvd:1267, m. Lucy Germund;
              • H1. Sir William Howard of Wigenhall, Chief Justice, lvd:1297, m. Alice Fitton;
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  • I1. Sir John Howard of Wigenhall, lvd:1317/1331, m. Joan de Cornwall;  ==>  Plantagenet
    • J1. Anne Howard, m. Sir Robert Pashley;
    • J2. Sir John Howard, Sheriff of Norfolk, Admiral, lvd:1336, m. Alice de Boys;
      • K1. Sir Robert Howard, lvd:1336/1388, m. Margaret Scales;
        • L1. Sir John Howard, Sheriff of Essex, lvd:1366/1436, m1. Alice Tendring, m2. Margaret Plaiz;
          • M1. [m2]: Sir John Howard, m. Joan Walton;
            • N1. Elizabeth Howard, m. John de Vere;  <==  de Vere family
          • M2. [m2]: Margaret Howard, m. Constantine de Clifton;
            • N1. Elizabeth Clifton, m. Sir John Knyvett;  <==  Knyvett family
          • M3. [m1]: Sir Robert Howard, m. Margaret de Mowbray;  ==>  Mowbray family
            • N1. Sir John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, d:1485, m. Katherine Moleyns;
              • O1. Sir Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, d:1524, m1. Agnes Tylney, m2. Elizabeth Tylney;
                • P1. [m1]: Dorothy Howard, m. Sir Edward Stanley;  <==  Stanley family
                • P2. [m2]: Elizabeth Howard, d:1538, m. Sir Thomas Boylen;  <==  Boleyn family
                • P3. [m2]: Edmund Howard, m. Joyce Culpepper;
                  • Q1. Catherine Howard, d:1542, m. King Henry VIII Tudor;