Howard
Norman guardian-name, and Howard ducal house.
- Origin
- East of England, England
- Motto
- Sola virtus invicta
- Famous bearer
- John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (c.1425-1485), creation of the dukedom
- Register
- English family
Ranked of all time
The 15 Most Powerful English Houses of All Time
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Howard
Seat vacantChief
No one leads the Howard community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.
Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once Howard has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
The Howard clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.
Help rebuild the Howard clan →Motto
Sola virtus invicta
“Virtue alone is unconquered”
What does the Howard name mean?
Norman patronymic from Huard / Anglo-Scandinavian Hávarðr; or fused with Howard place-names in Norfolk.
The history of Howard
The Howard family rose to the front rank of English nobility in the late 15th century when John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (c.1425-1485), was created Duke by Richard III in 1483, becoming the premier subject duke of England. The senior line has held the Dukedom of Norfolk continuously since 1483 (with brief attainder periods), the longest-running non-royal English dukedom and the senior peer of England by precedence outside the royal family. The hereditary office of Earl Marshal of England, granted to the family in 1672 and continuing in the dukedom today, carries the duty of organising every coronation, royal funeral and state opening of Parliament; the current 18th Duke organised both the funeral of Elizabeth II and the coronation of Charles III.
From their seats at Arundel Castle in Sussex, Norfolk House in London, and historically at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, the Howards filled the great state offices through every century. Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1536-1572), was the most powerful subject of Elizabeth I in the early years of her reign. The 16th-century cadet branches produced Lord Howard of Effingham, who commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the Earls of Surrey and Suffolk. The 11th Duke (Charles Howard, 1746-1815) was the first Catholic to sit in the House of Lords after the 1829 Catholic Relief Act; the Howards remained the senior Catholic family of England through the centuries when that faith was barred from public office.
Cadet branches of the Howard line include the Earls of Suffolk (created 1603), the Earls of Carlisle (created 1661 and seated at Castle Howard in Yorkshire), the Earls of Effingham, and the Howards of Audley End in Essex. The Norfolk dukedom carries with it Arundel Castle, Carlton Towers in Yorkshire, and the historic Catholic primacy of England.
American actor Ron Howard descends from a different Irish-American pool of the surname; the connection is etymological rather than genealogical.
Champions of the Howard name
The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has their own page, biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.
Historic Places, Rebuilt
Explore the streets and seats the Howard name knew, rebuilt with AI as they stood in history.
Castles the Howard held
Strongholds this name held for a decade or more, look one up, or rebuild it to explore.
- Arundel Castle
Passed to the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, in 1555, their seat ever since.
- Naworth Castle
Under the control of the Duke of Norfolk from the late 16th century; now the seat of the Howard Earls of Carlisle, cognatic descendants of the Dacres.
- Greystoke Castle
In Howard hands from the 4th Duke of Norfolk's marriage into the Dacres, by 1571; still the family's private residence.
- Castle Rising Castle
Sold by Henry VIII to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk; the current owner is Baron Howard of Rising.
- Corby Castle
Ancestral home of a cadet branch of the Howards from Lord William Howard's purchase in 1611 until the sale of 1994.
- Featherstone Castle
Acquired by Sir William Howard in the 17th century; sold back by the Earl of Carlisle in 1711.
- Reigate Castle
Among the Lords of the Manor of Reigate who owned the castle from 1397.
- Morpeth Castle
The last of the great families to hold Morpeth, receiving it by female-line descent from the Dacres.
- Acton Burnell Castle
Granted by Henry VII to Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, after 1487.
- Henderskelfe Castle
Came to the Howards after Lord William Howard's 1577 marriage to Elizabeth Dacre; Castle Howard now stands on the site.
Landmarks the Howard held
Palaces, houses and great buildings tied to this name, look one up, or rebuild it to explore.
- Castle Howard
Home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for more than 300 years; commissioned by the 3rd Earl of Carlisle.
- Audley End House
Built 1605-1614 as the prodigy house of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk; the Howard Earls of Suffolk held it either side of a spell as Charles II's palace.
The castles of the homeland
The great strongholds of the homeland, look one up, see what it looked like in its prime, and recreate it to explore.
Windsor CastleRestored · prime 1820
Tower of LondonRestored · prime 1285
Bamburgh CastleRestored · prime 1904All castles in England → · Strongest castles in England → · Castles of Europe
Play As Your Clan
Pick any year from 500 to 1945 and any place on earth, the Howard country, or a shore no Howard ever reached. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.
Notable bearers of the Howard name
- John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (c.1425-1485), creation of the dukedom
- Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (1536-1572), the most powerful subject of Elizabeth I
- Lord Howard of Effingham (1536-1624), commander of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada
- Catherine Howard (c.1523–1542), queen consort
- Michael Howard (b. 1941), politician
- Edward Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk (b.1956), current Earl Marshal of England
Stories of Howard
Catherine Howard's last night
1542Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, was the niece of the Duke of Norfolk and a cousin of Anne Boleyn, who had been executed for treason at the same end of the same Tower yard six years earlier. She had been queen for fifteen months. She was, by the historical balance, between sixteen and twenty years old, and very probably nineteen. Charges of pre-marital intercourse with Francis Dereham and adulterous intent with Thomas Culpeper had been brought before the Council in November 1541. She was attainted by Parliament in February 1542 without a trial. On the evening of the twelfth of February 1542, by Eustace Chapuys's account written to Charles V, she asked the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir John Gage, to have the executioner's block brought to her room so that she might rehearse the laying of her head upon it. The request was, by the practice of the Tower, granted. She was beheaded the next morning at seven o'clock on Tower Green by a single stroke of the axe.
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Effingham and the Armada
1588On the evening of the seventh of August 1588, while the Spanish Armada under Medina Sidonia lay at anchor off Calais waiting for the Duke of Parma's army to come down from Flanders, the English fleet of Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral, sent eight fireships into the anchored line at midnight. The Spanish cut their cables and ran north before a south-westerly. The English fleet under Howard, with Drake on the Revenge, Hawkins on the Victory, Frobisher on the Triumph, gave chase up the Channel through the morning of the eighth. At the action off Gravelines that day they broke the Spanish line, drove four ships ashore on the Flemish coast, and pushed the rest into a North Sea where the wind would carry them around the top of Scotland and break a third of them on the Irish coast. Charles Howard, second Baron Howard of Effingham, was fifty-two years old, a Catholic in religion in a Protestant fleet, the cousin of the queen, and the man whose decision not to anchor inshore at the Isle of Wight on the third of August had kept the Spanish from a deepwater harbour in southern England.
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