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EARL OF HENRY HOWARD SURREY (1518?-1547)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 139 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EARL OF See also:HENRY See also:HOWARD See also:SURREY (1518?-1547)  , See also:English poet, son of See also:Lord See also:Thomas See also:Howard, afterwards 3rd See also:duke of See also:Norfolk, and his wife See also:Elizabeth See also:Stafford, daughter of the duke of See also:Buckingham, was See also:born probably in 15181 He succeeded to the See also:courtesy See also:title of See also:earl of See also:Surrey in 1524, when his See also:father became duke of Norfolk . His See also:early years were spent in the various houses belonging to the Howards, chiefly at Kenning-See also:hall, Norfolk . He had as See also:tutor See also:John See also:Clerke, who, beside instructing him in the See also:classics, inculcated a See also:great admiration for See also:Italian literature . The duke of Norfolk was proud of his son's attainments (Chapuys to the See also:emperor, See also:December 9; 1529) . The duke was See also:governor of See also:Henry See also:Fitzroy, duke of See also:Richmond, the natural son of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth See also:Blount . Surrey was a little more than a See also:year older than Fitzroy, and became his See also:companion and friend . Fitzroy was at See also:Windsor from 1 530 to 1532, and it must be to these years that Surrey refers in the lines written in See also:prison at Windsor, " where I, in lust and joy, with a See also:king's son, my childish years did pass." See also:Anne See also:Boleyn tried to arrange a See also:marriage between the princess See also:Mary and her kinsman, Surrey . The See also:Spanish See also:ambassador, in the See also:hope of detaching the duke of Norfolk's See also:interest from Anne Boleyn in favour of See also:Catherine 1 The only authority for the date of his See also:birth is the See also:legend Sat. superest . Aetatis See also:XXIX. on a portrait of Henry Howard at See also:Arundel See also:Castle.of See also:Aragon, seems to have been inclined to favour the project; but Anne changed her mind, and as early as See also:October 1530 arranged a marriage for Surrey with See also:Lady Frances de See also:Vere,. daughter of the 15th earl of See also:Oxford . This was concluded at the earliest possible date, in See also:February 1532, but in consequence of the extreme youth of the contracting parties, Frances did not join her See also:husband until 1535 . In October Surrey accompanied Henry VIII. to See also:Boulogne to meet See also:Francis I., and, rejoining the duke of Richmond at See also:Calais, he proceeded with him to the See also:French See also:court, where the two Englishmen were lodged with the French royal princes . Surrey created for himself a reputation for See also:wisdom, soberness and See also:good learning, which seems curious in view of the events of his later See also:life .

Meanwhile in spite of his marriage with Frances de Vere, the project of a See also:

contract between him and the princess Mary was revived in a See also:correspondence between See also:Pope See also:Clement VII. and the emperor See also:Charles V., but definitely rejected by the latter . Surrey only returned to See also:England in the autumn of 1533, when the duke of Richmond was recalled to marry his friend's See also:sister, Mary Howard . Surrey made his See also:home at his father's See also:house of Kenning-hall, and here was a See also:witness of the final separation between his parents, due to the duke's relations with Elizabeth See also:Holland, who had been employed in the Howards' nursery . Surrey took his father's See also:side in the See also:family disputes, and remained at Kenning-hall, where his wife joined him in 1535 . In May 1536 he filled his father's functions of earl See also:marshal at the trial of his See also:cousins Anne Boleyn and Lord See also:Rochford . In the autumn of that year he took See also:part with his father in the bloodless See also:campaign against the rebels in See also:Yorkshire and See also:Lincolnshire, in the " See also:Pilgrimage of See also:Grace." Although he had supported the royal cause, insinuations were made that he secretly favoured the insurgents . Hasty in See also:temper, and by no means friendly to the See also:Seymour See also:faction at court, he struck a See also:man who repeated the See also:accusation in the See also:park at See also:Hampton Court . For breaking the See also:peace in the king's domain he was arrested (1537), but thanks to See also:Cromwell, who had yielded to the See also:petition of the See also:young man's father, he was not compelled to appear before the privy See also:council, but was merely sent to reside for a See also:time at Windsor . During this imprisonment and the subsequent retirement at Kenninghall, he had leisure to devote himself to See also:poetry . In 1539 he was again received into favour . In May 1540 he was one of the champions in the jousts celebrated at court . The fall of Thomas Cromwell a See also:month later increased the See also:power of the Howards, and in See also:August Henry VIII. married Surrey's See also:cousin, Catherine Howard .

Surrey was knighted early in 1541, and soon after he received the See also:

order of the Garter, was made See also:chancellor of the duchy of See also:Lancaster, and, in See also:con-junction with his father, See also:grand See also:seneschal of the university of See also:Cambridge . He apparently preserved the royal favour after the See also:execution of Catherine Howard (at which he was See also:present), for in December 1541 he received the See also:grant of certain manors in Norfolk and See also:Suffolk . In 1542 he was imprisoned in the See also:Fleet for a See also:quarrel with a certain John See also:Leigh, but on See also:appeal to the privy council he was sent to Windsor Castle, and, after being See also:bound over to keep the peace with John Leigh under a See also:penalty of 1o,000 marks, he was soon liberated . Shortly after his See also:release he joined his father on the Scottish expedition . They laid See also:waste the See also:country, but retreated before the earl of See also:Huntly, taking no part in the victorious operations that led up to Solway See also:Moss . To this year no doubt belong the poems in memory of See also:Sir Thomas See also:Wyat . His ties with Wyat, who was fifteen years his See also:elder and of opposite politics, seem to have been rather See also:literary than See also:personal . He appears to have entered into closer relations with the younger Wyat . In See also:company with " Mr Wyat," he amused himself by breaking the windows of the citizens of See also:London on the 2nd of February 1543 . For this he was accused by the privy council, a second See also:charge being that he had eaten See also:meat in See also:Lent . In prison probably he wrote the See also:satire on the See also:city of London, in which he explains his escapade by a See also:desire to rouse Londoners to a sense of their wickedness . In October he joined the English See also:army co-operating with the imperial forces in See also:Flanders, and on his return in the next month brought with him a See also:letter of high See also:commendation from Charles V .

In the campaign of the next year he served as See also:

field marshal under his father, and took part in the unsuccessful See also:siege of See also:Montreuil . In August 1J45 he was sent to the See also:relief of See also:Edward See also:Poynings, then in command of Boulogne, and was made See also:lieutenant-See also:general of the English possessions on the See also:Continent and governor of Boulogne . Here he gained considerable successes, and insisted on the retention of the See also:town in spite of the desire of the privy council that it should be surrendered to See also:France . A See also:reverse on the 7th of See also:January at St See also:Etienne was followed by a See also:period of inaction, and in See also:March Surrey was recalled . Surrey had always been an enemy to the Seymours, whom he regarded as upstarts, and when his sister, the duchess of Richmond, seemed disposed to accept a marriage with Sir Thomas Seymour, he wrote to her insinuating that this was a step to-wards becoming the See also:mistress of Henry VIII . By his See also:action in thwarting this See also:plan he increased the enmity of the Seymours and added his sister to the already See also:long See also:list of the enemies which he had made by his haughty manner and brutal frankness . He was now accused of quartering with his own the arms of Edward the See also:Confessor, a proceeding which, it was alleged, was only permissible for the See also:heir to the See also:crown . The details of this accusation were false; moreover, Surrey had long quartered the royal arms with his own without offence . The charge was a pretext covering graver suspicions . Surrey had asserted in the presence of a certain See also:George Blage, who was inclined to the reforming See also:movement, that on Henry's See also:death, his father, the duke of Nor folk, as the premier duke in England, had the obvious right of acting as See also:regent to See also:Prince Edward . He also boasted of what he would do when his father had attained that position . All of this was construed into a See also:plot on the part of his father and himself to See also:murder the king and the prince .

Phoenix-squares

The duke of Norfolk and his son were sent to the See also:

Tower on the 12th of December 1J46 . Every effort was made to secure See also:evidence . The duchess of Richmond was one of the witnesses (see her depositions in See also:Herbert of Cherbury, Life and Reign of Henry VIII., 1649) against her See also:brother, but her statements were too doubtful to add anything to the formal See also:indictment . On the 13th of January 1547 Surrey defended himself at the See also:guildhall on the charge of high See also:treason for having illegally made use of the arms of Edward the Confessor, before See also:judges selected for their known hatred of himself . He was condemned by a See also:jury, packed for the occasion, to be hanged, See also:drawn and quartered at See also:Tyburn . This See also:sentence was not carried out . Surrey was beheaded on Tower See also:Hill on the ,9th of the month, and was buried in the See also:church of All See also:Saints, See also:Barking . His remains were afterwards removed by his son the earl of See also:Northampton to See also:Framlingham, Suffolk . His father, who was charged with complicity in his son's See also:crime, was, as a peer of the See also:realm, not amenable to a See also:common jury . The consequent delay saved his life . He was imprisoned during the whole of the reign of Edward VI., but on Mary's See also:accession he was set See also:free, by an See also:act which also assured the right of the Howards, as descendants of the See also:Mowbray family, to See also:bear the arms of the Confessor . Surrey's name has been long connected with the " See also:Fair Geraldine," to whom his love poems were supposed to be addressed .

The See also:

story is founded on the romantic fiction of Thomas See also:Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller , or Life of See also:Jack See also:Wilton (1594), according to which Surrey saw in a magic See also:glass in the See also:Netherlands the See also:face of Geraldine, and then travelled throughout See also:Europe challenging all corners to deny in full field the charms of the lady . At See also:Florence he held a See also:tournament in her See also:honour, and was to do the same in other Italian cities when he was recalled by order of Henry VIII . The legend, deprived of its more glaring discrepancies with Surrey's life, was revived in See also:Michael See also:Drayton's Englands Heroicall Epistles (1598) . Geraldine was the daughter of the earl of See also:Kildare, Lady Elizabeth See also:Fitzgerald, who was brought up at the English court in company with the princess Elizabeth (see See also:James See also:Graves, a Brief Memoir of Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, 1874) . She was ten years old when in 1537 Surrey addressed to her the See also:sonnet " From Tuskane came my ladies worthy See also:race," and nothing more than a passing admiration of the See also:child and an imaginative anticipation of her beauty can be attributed to Surrey . " A See also:Song ... to a ladie that refused to daunce with him," is addressed to Lady See also:Hertford, wife of his See also:bitter enemy, and the two poems, " 0 happy dames " and " Good ladies, ye that have your pleasures in See also:exile," are addressed to his wife, to whom, at any See also:rate in his later years, he seems to have been sincerely attached . His poems, which were the occupation of the leisure moments ofhis See also:short and crowded life, were first printed in Songs and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable Lorde Henry Howard See also:late See also:Earle of Surrey, and other (apud Richardum Tottel, 1557) . A second edition followed in See also:July 1557, and others in 1559, 1565, 1567, 1574, 1585 and 1587 . Although Surrey's name, probably because of his See also:rank, stands first on the title-See also:page, Wyat was the earlier in point of time of Henry's " courtly makers." Surrey, indeed, expressly acknowledges Wyat as his See also:master in poetry . As their poems appeared in one See also:volume, long after the death of both, their names will always be closely associated . Wyat possessed strong individuality, which found expression in rugged, forceful See also:verse . Surrey's contributions are distinguished by their impetuous eloquence and sweetness .

He revived the principles of See also:

Chaucer's versification, which his predecessors had failed to grasp, perhaps because the value of the final e was lost . He introduced new smoothness and fluency into English verse . He never allowed the See also:accent to fall on a weak syllable, nor did he permit weak syllables as rhymes . His See also:chief innovation as a metrician lies outside the See also:Miscellany . His See also:translation of the second and See also:fourth books of the Aeneid into See also:blank verse—the first See also:attempt at blank verse in English—was published separately by Tottel in the same year with the title of Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis turned into English See also:meter . It has been suggested that in this See also:matter Surrey was influenced by the translation of See also:Virgil published at See also:Venice by Ippolito de' See also:Medici in 1541, but there is no See also:direct evidence that such was the See also:case . His sonnets are in various schemes of verse, and are less correct in See also:form and more loosely constructed than those of Wyat . They commonly consist of three quatrains with See also:independent rhymes, terminating with a rhyming See also:couplet . But his sonnets, his See also:elegy on the death of Wyat, his See also:lover's complaint See also:cast in See also:pastoral form, and his lyrics in various See also:measures, served as See also:models to more than one See also:generation of court poets . Both in form and substance Surrey and his See also:fellow poets were largely indebted to Italian predecessors; most of his poems are in fact adaptations from Italian originals . The See also:tone of the love sentiment was new in English poetry, very different in its earnestness, See also:passion and fantastic extravagance from the lightness and gaiety of the Chaucerian school . See See also:Professor E .

See also:

Arber's reprint of Songs and Sonettes (English Reprints, 1870) the See also:Roxburghe See also:Club reprint of Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis (1814); Dr G . F . See also:Nott, The See also:Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (,815) ; and The Poetical Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (Aldine edition, i866) . The best See also:account of Surrey's life is in Edmond Bapst's Deux Gentilhommes-poctes de la tour de Henry VIII . (1891), which rectifies Dr Nott's memoir in many points . See also See also:Brewer and See also:Gairdner, Letters and See also:State Papers of Henry VIII . ; Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Life and Raigne of Kinge Henry the Eighth (1649); J . A, See also:Froude, See also:History of England (chs. xxi. and xxii.); W . J . See also:Courthope, History of English Poetry (1897), vol. ii. ch. iii., where the extent and value of Surrey's innovations in English poetry are estimated; F . M . Padelford, The MS .

Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1906);0 . Fest, "Uber Surreys Virgilubersetzung," in Palastra, vol. xxxiv . (See also:

Berlin, 1903) .

End of Article: EARL OF HENRY HOWARD SURREY (1518?-1547)
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SURROGATE (from Lat. surrogare, to substitute for)

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