Norfolk: Henry VIII's Enforcer

NORFOLK: HENRY VIII’S ENFORCER norfolk henry viii’s enforcer “HIS MARTIAL ACHIEVEMENTS VARIED WIDELY FROM HUMILIATING DEFEATS TO GLORIOUS VICTORIES” Thomas Howard as he might have appeared in 1513 at the Battle of Flodden. At this stage, Howard would not become Duke of Norfolk for another 11 years and his highest title was as lord high admiral of England. English admirals did not wear naval uniforms in the 16th century and Howard is instead depicted wearing the coat of arms of his father the Earl of Surrey. Howard’s face is based on a portrait that he sat for Hans Holbein the Younger in the late 1530s, but in 1513 he would have been around 40 years of age so he has been given a more youthful look. His armour is typical of high-quality metalwork (usually from Italy or Germany) that was produced in this period and as a Knight of the Garter, Howard wears the symbolic garter on his left leg. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, many English soldiers wielded the unfortunately named ‘English Bastard Sword’. WORDS TOM GARNER Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was an infamous igure at the Tudor court but he was also a proliic soldier who pillaged France, crushed rebellions and helped bring about the demise of a Scottish king n September 1513, a huge army under the command of King James IV of Scotland was wreaking havoc in northern England. James had invaded with more than 30,000 men to uphold the auld alliance with France against their common English foe. The young king of England was campaigning overseas and the defence of the north was left to the aged Earl of Surrey and his son Lord Thomas Howard. There was much to play for. Father and son were actually tainted nobility whose family’s eminent status had been diminished in recent decades, while James IV had easily taken four castles in Northumberland against little resistance. Honour was at stake in the inevitable battle and its outcome would change the course of Scottish history, setting the son of Surrey on the path to greatness. Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk is one of the most prominent igures of Tudor history. For more than half a century, he was an indispensable part of the English court and is most famous for his luctuating career as Henry VIII’s premier nobleman. Norfolk was the uncle of two of Henry’s six wives, Anne Boleyn and I Catherine Howard, and he largely engineered these doomed unions in order to satisfy his personal, as well as his dynastic ambitions. Both women were executed on the orders of the king for inidelity and Norfolk’s open abandonment of his nieces to preserve his own position revealed him to be both lacking in compassion and utterly self-interested. He even presided over the trial of Anne Boleyn, which sealed his notoriety, but Norfolk was more than a ruthless politician. Between 1497-1554, the duke loyally served the Tudors as a soldier and, especially under Henry VIII, served as the military enforcer of the dynasty’s iron rule. His martial achievements varied widely from humiliating defeats to glorious victories and reveal the confused, bloody reality of early 16th century warfare. Far from being a ‘Renaissance man’, Norfolk was arguably the last of England’s Medieval warriors. Serving a new dynasty Born in 1473, it would be many years before Norfolk received his ducal title and it would not be earned via the usual route of mere inheritance, but through the hard graft of campaigning. His family had been prominent supporters of the House of York under Edward IV and Richard III but when the latter was killed at the Battle of Bosworth (along with Norfolk’s grandfather) in 1485, the Howards fell from favour under the new Tudor regime of Henry VII. From that time onwards, the Howards threw themselves into proving their loyalty and restoring the family’s prestige, and the young Thomas Howard played his part by performing conspicuous military service. Howard began serving the Tudors in 1497 aged 24, at opposite ends of the country. He irst took part in suppressing a rebellion in Cornwall and then marched north to ight against the Scots. During the latter campaign, he served under his father, the Earl of Surrey, who knighted him on 30 September 1497. His continued service over the next decade did not go unnoticed and in April 1510, he was made a Knight of the Garter by the new Tudor monarch: Henry VIII. Howard was politically close to the teenage Henry and was even his uncle by marriage, having wed one of the king’s maternal aunts in 1495. After receiving the Garter, Howard was regularly called upon as a soldier in important capacities. varying fortunes howards of the When Norfolk was born in 1473, his family had reached a position of great wealth and power but the future duke would live to see his family fall and rise again in dramatic style thanks to the dynastic squabbles of the age. The Howards’ English pedigree was impeccable and their most prized ancestor was Hereward the Wake, who led Anglo-Saxon resistance against William the Conqueror. However, the family’s rise to prominence had been startlingly recent and was entirely due to the Wars of the Roses. Norfolk’s grandfather, John Howard, had been born a mere knight but he emerged as a staunch Yorkist who loyally served both Edward IV and Richard III as a soldier against the Lancastrians. It was Richard who created Howard as 1st Duke of Norfolk and hereditary Earl Marshal of England upon his dubious accession to the throne in 1483. Despite this rapid rise, the family would soon fall from grace two years later when Richard and the 1st Duke were both killed at the Battle of Bosworth. The duke was killed when an arrow struck him in the face and his son Thomas, Earl of Surrey was wounded and taken prisoner by the victorious Henry VII. 66 As prominent Yorkists, the Howards initially received no favours from the Tudors and Surrey was stripped of his titles and lands by an act of Parliament before being imprisoned in the Tower of London for three years. When a rebellion broke out in 1487, Surrey was offered a chance to escape imprisonment but he refused. This act convinced Henry VII of the earl’s loyalty and he was released with his title restored in 1489. From that point on, both Surrey and his eldest son Thomas strove to restore the family honour by serving in military and diplomatic capacities that culminated in their victory at Flodden. The duchy of Norfolk was returned to them and the pride of the Howards was restored. Right: John Howard 1st Duke of Norfolk established many of the family’s traditional military functions, including naval duties and acting as Earl Marshal of England Illustration: Joe Cummings NORFOLK’S FAMILY WERE STAUNCH YORKISTS DURING THE WARS OF THE ROSES AND CONSEQUENTLY FELL FOUL OF THE NEW DYNASTY 67 NORFOLK: HENRY VIII’S ENFORCER On 22 May 1512, he was appointed lieutenant general of an army sent to Spain to cooperate with Ferdinand of Aragon in an AngloSpanish invasion of southern France. However, like many coalition campaigns of the period, it quickly fell apart and Howard was forced to return home. Nevertheless, he was promoted the following year to the ofice of Lord Admiral, a position he held until 1525. By 1513, Henry VIII was getting into his stride as king and wanted to emulate his hero, Henry V, by invading France and recovering what he considered to be his ‘rightful’ possessions in the country. Many senior English advisors were troubled by Henry’s aggressive stance and argued that a French war would very likely damage relations with France’s old ally, Scotland. This was particularly worrying as James IV was Henry’s brother-in-law and years of tactful diplomacy were at risk. Nevertheless, a group of younger councillors, including Howard, argued enthusiastically in favour of war and in the same year, Henry invaded France in a campaign that yielded little. It was a different story on home territory, as James IV responded to Henry’s invasion by launching his own into England. For weeks, the large Scottish army wreaked havoc in Northumberland but the Howards, under the Earl of Surrey, assembled an army and fought the Scots at Flodden Field on 9 September. NORFOLK: HENRY VIII’S ENFORCER With Lord Thomas Howard leading the vanguard, the English were victorious over the Scots, who suffered one of the most catastrophic defeats in their history. James IV was killed alongside more than 10,000 of his men and Scotland was condemned to three generations of minors inheriting the throne. Ascendency Flodden was arguably the greatest English land battle of the Tudor Age and Howard’s stock rose immeasurably as a result of his involvement. With his father now Duke of Norfolk, Howard became the Earl of Surrey and was promoted to key roles in Henry’s government, including becoming a member of the Privy Council and Lord Treasurer, a position he would hold until 1546. His triumph at Flodden made Howard a trusted man to enforce security whenever trouble arose and this came in useful in 1517 during what became known as the ‘Evil May Day Riots’. The ominously named uprising took place in London where tensions had been rising among the local population against the many foreigners who had made the capital their home, with some becoming wealthy. The pressure burst when a broker called John Lincoln preached near Saint Paul’s Cathedral that England’s economic woes were caused by foreigners and called for, “…all Englishmen “FLODDEN WAS ARGUABLY THE GREATEST ENGLISH LAND BATTLE OF THE TUDOR AGE AND HOWARD’S STOCK ROSE IMMEASURABLY AS A RESULT OF HIS INVOLVEMENT” 68 to cherish and defend themselves, and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common weal.” This xenophobic speech led to a mob rampaging through the city and looting and destroying property owned by foreigners. In response, Howard and his father led 1,300 retainers of their private army into London to quell the riot and when they saw him approach, the rioters, “…scattered by sudden fright, just like sheep at the sight of a wolf.” Thanks to Howard’s intervention, nobody was killed during the ighting but 13 leading rioters, including Lincoln, were later executed. After Evil May Day, Howard was appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on 10 March 1520 and spent months trying to pacify the country. The royal policy of the time was to subjugate Ireland by friendship rather than force but the bullish Howard remained unconvinced stating: “This land will never be brought to obeisance but only with compulsion and conquest.” After 18 unfruitful months attempting to reconcile feuding Irish families and repeatedly requesting more money and troops, Howard was recalled in late 1521 after he contracted dysentery. By September 1522, he had recovered suficiently to launch sudden attacks on what he considered to be England’s most traditional enemy: France. Wasteful warfare Despite the fact that Henry VIII could never realistically conquer France, he still craved military glory. When the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V visited England in Below: King James IV of Scotland desperately ighting at Flodden. The sword-wielding Scots unsuccessfully clashed with English troops who fought with bill hooks 1522, an alliance was concluded where each monarch would contribute tens of thousands of soldiers to invade France. These armies were to be commanded by the Count of Buren and Howard, with the plan being to march on Boulogne and cause the maximum possible damage to the French king. Whatever the outcome, Howard was to remain in the ield for three months and carry on the war without interruption. Events did not go according to plan. Howard commanded a leet to Brittany and proceeded to sack the town of Morlaix. He then immediately sailed home laden with booty, including three captured galleons, but subsequently returned to French shores. Between August-September 1522, Howard led an Anglo-Burgundian force from English-held Calais into Picardy and Artois, on an expensive and destructive march that served no military purpose. The raid had to be abandoned in October as winter approached and Howard had achieved nothing but squander money that Henry’s chief minister Cardinal Wolsey had raised by forced loans. Wolsey was forced to summon Parliament when Henry requested more subsidies but ighting in France was severely reduced. Despite the waste, Howard was praised by the court’s poet laureate John Skelton in an inferior poem “…the good Earl of Surrey/The French men he doth fray/And vexeth them day by day/ With all the power he may. Of chivalry he is the lower/Our lord be his succour.” Howard’s lack of real success in France went unnoticed by Henry, who appointed him Warden General of the Scottish marches the following year, as well as lieutenant general of the army against Scotland. The reason for this sudden promotion was that the Scots had taken advantage of the English invasion of France and marched a huge army across the border. Nonetheless, they were still chastened by their experiences at Flodden and when Howard himself moved to relieve the besieged Wark Castle, the Scots hurriedly retreated. The earl was once again praised by Skelton who declared him “our strong captain,” but Howard was starting to feel the strain of campaigning and reported that he was, “… decayed in body, as well as worn out in purse, by these four years during which he has been continually in the wars.” He temporarily retired to his estates and in 1524, he became Duke of Norfolk when his elderly father, the victorious commander at Flodden, died. Soon afterwards, Norfolk (as he was now styled) had to put down another rebellion, and this time it was closer to home. In 1525, Wolsey attempted to impose a heavy tax on the clergy and laity to pay for the war in France, which was ironically known as the ‘Amicable Grant’. The result was an uprising across several counties and included a march of 10,000 on the trading town of Lavenham. Norfolk, along with the Duke of Suffolk, quickly raised troops but unlike his actions on Evil May Day and in Ireland, the two dukes decided to resolve the crisis by negotiations rather than by force. Using a sense of tact that was uncharacteristic, the uprising was resolved and the rebels publicly submitted to the king’s authority. It was recognised that the dukes, battle of flodden “i expect no quarter and i will give none.” THIS HUGE CLASH SEALED THE FATE OF SCOTLAND FOR GENERATIONS AND CATAPULTED THE HOWARDS TO POLITICAL DOMINANCE IN ENGLAND Flodden was the culmination of perhaps the largest Scottish invasion of England and the Howards’ leading role in defeating King James IV changed the course of Scottish history and afirmed their dominance at Henry VIII’s court for the next 34 years. In 1502, James IV and Henry VII had signed a treaty that James believed guaranteed Scottish independence. However, when Henry VIII became king he tore up the treaty and declared that James owed him homage. James was insulted and when Henry invaded France in 1513, the Scottish upheld an ancient alliance with the French and invaded England with more than 30,000 men. This army was disproportionately large compared to the small Scottish population, and made the invasion a national venture. James initially took several major fortresses in Northumberland, and the Earl of Surrey and his son, Lord Admiral Thomas Howard, had to hastily assemble a smaller army of around 26,000 men. The two armies met on Flodden Hill with the Scots seizing the high ground. Surrey sent a message to James requesting to ight evenly on latter terrain but the king bluntly refused, stating it was “not itting for an earl to seek to command a king.” Surrey then moved his army to block the Scottish northern route home and the battle began on 9 September 1513. Although Surrey commanded the English army, Howard would lead the vanguard with a personal force of 5,000 experienced sea ighters. Before hostilities commenced, Howard sent a provocative message to James. Howard had killed a valued Scottish sea captain called Sir Andrew Barton in 1511 and he now bombastically wrote to James, “As Lord High Admiral… I have come to justify the death of that pirate… I expect no quarter and will give none.” The opening stages of the battle involved an artillery bombardment and although the Scots had better-quality pieces, they made minimal impact thanks to inclement weather. James then launched a pikeman attack against the English right lank, which almost crumbled, but Surrey deployed his reserve and held the line. This was signiicant for Howard who was highly exposed to ighting in the centre but he rallied to confront a second Scottish attack. The Scots now abandoned their pikes in favour of swords but the English infantrymen fought with ‘bills’. At 2.5 metres long, these shortened pikes were adapted scything tools that gave the English a distinct advantage over the sword-wielding Scots. Now ighting on boggy ground, James and his troops still pushed the English back but they were subsequently attacked on three sides, including by archers who ired from the rear. The result was a devastating defeat. 10,000 Scots, including James and the lower of his nobility were killed compared to as little as 1,500 English casualties. James was the last British king to be killed in battle and Scotland was politically crippled for years. The victors reaped the rewards with Surrey regaining his title of Duke of Norfolk and Howard assuming his father’s previous title. Howard was praised by the Bishop of Durham who said, “My Lord Howard, the admiral, behaved nobly,” at Flodden while his material rewards were an annuity of £20, two castles and 18 manors. Meanwhile, Scotland was so devastated by the defeat that even the harvest was temporarily abandoned. Before the battle starts, Howard sends a provocative message to King James IV defending his murderous actions against Scottish seamen and pledging to ight to the death. James’s response is unknown. When the Scots irst advance, the English right lank almost collapses, which then severely threatens Howard in the centre. The Earl of Surrey closes the gap with his reserve and the line holds. BRANX BRIG STANLEY DACRE SURREY THOMAS HOWARD EDMUND HOWARD H PACE ILL ARGYLL LENNOX JAMES BOTHWELL & D’AUSSI HUME & HUNTLY ERROL CRAWFORD MONTROSE F LOD D EN HILL INITIAL SCOTTISH DEPLOYMENT SCOTTISH ADVANCE SCOTTISH DEPLOYMENTS SCOTTISH ATTACK ENGLISH DEPLOYMENTS ENGLISH ADVANCE ENGLISH ATTACK 69 NORFOLK: HENRY VIII’S ENFORCER The Pilgrimage of Grace From the late 1520s, England went through a tumultuous period as the Reformation took hold. Although continental protests against the Roman Catholic Church were largely based on the development of Lutheran Protestantism, the English equivalent was centred around Henry’s desire to divorce his irst wife, Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Norfolk’s niece Anne Boleyn. The king went to extraordinary lengths to satisfy his lust and produce a male heir with the result being an unprecedented break with the Papacy and the establishment of an independent Church of England. Not surprisingly, this seismic uncoupling of nearly 1,000 years of close papal inluence provoked Protestant ideas in England but the irony was that Henry, Norfolk and the vast majority of the English population were traditionally Catholic. Henry’s radical chief minister Thomas Cromwell saw things differently and began dissolving the monasteries in order to diminish papal authority in England and also line Henry’s pockets with their vast revenues. This was highly approved of by the king but many commoners saw this as the irst step to destroying their spiritual way of life. The result “THE KING WENT TO EXTRAORDINARY LENGTHS TO SATISFY HIS LUST AND PRODUCE A MALE HEIR” was a political powder keg that exploded in the north of England in 1536. The rebellion spread through six counties in northern England with as many as 40,000 people involved. The rebels were organised like an army and based their headquarters at Pontefract Castle. They presented themselves as a crusade and called themselves the ‘Pilgrimage of Grace for the Commonweal’. Their demands included reconciling with Rome, the restoration of the monasteries and the removal of Henry’s lowborn radical councillors, including Cromwell. This was a major uprising as the rebels controlled most of northern England but Henry offered no concessions. He ordered Norfolk to inlict direct military action and wreak vengeance, particularly after the rebels reopened some monasteries. During this crisis, it was Norfolk, not Henry, who held the balance of power in England. Unlike Henry, he knew that he could not beat the rebels by force as his numerically inferior army would have been destroyed. This would have opened the road south to a rebellion that would not back down, particularly in the face of an unyielding king. Norfolk guaranteed the rebels a full pardon if they dispersed and promised that Henry would listen to their grievances. Because Henry and Norfolk were both religiously conservative, the rebels believed the duke and they dispersed in good faith. This tense truce did not last and when an unstable northern knight rebelled a dramatic fall NORFOLK NEARLY LOST HIS LIFE IN THE DYING DAYS OF HENRY VIII’S REIGN THANKS TO HIS SON’S DABBLING IN HERALDRY By the mid-1540s, Henry VIII was becoming increasingly unwell and mentally unstable and in this climate of uncertainty, his courtiers jostled for a toxic blend of inluence and survival. The king’s reputation for destroying Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Norfolk’s heir destroyed his own life and almost his father’s by simply redesigning the family coat of arms. 70 any signs of opposition were now well founded and in 1546, Norfolk felt the full force of Henry’s terrible wrath. The duke’s eldest son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was an arrogant and provocative character that quartered his coat of arms with symbols that displayed his Plantagenet ancestry on his mother’s side. This appeared to imply monarchic ambitions and the paranoid Henry arrested both Surrey and Norfolk on 12 December 1546 and imprisoned them in the Tower of London. Norfolk, who was no stranger to engineering the downfalls of other courtiers, begged to “have some word of comfort from his Majesty.” When no comfort was forthcoming, Norfolk gambled on confessing his guilt to save his skin despite the fact that there were no real grounds for his treachery. No mercy was given and, in a bad relection on his character, all of his family gave evidence against him. Surrey was executed on 19 January 1547 and Henry approved Norfolk’s execution, but the king died on 28 January before the sentence could be carried out. The Privy Council belatedly spared Norfolk’s life but he remained imprisoned and his estates were plundered. in 1537, Henry pounced – not only executing the rebel leaders but also ordering hundreds more executions across northern England, which Norfolk supervised. By deceiving the rebels, Norfolk had saved Henry’s throne and prevented civil war, but he had broken his word and it was highly apparent that the duke only paid lip service to the word ‘honour’. Diminishing power For ive years after the Pilgrimage of Grace, Norfolk’s position was unassailable and he even managed to help eliminate his powerful rival, Thomas Cromwell, who he considered to be a common upstart. Renewed outbreaks of war also secured his position but these turned out to be poisoned chalices. Fighting on the Scottish border had intensiied and Norfolk was declared captaingeneral, tasked with chastising the Scots. In October 1542, he razed and pillaged the Scottish Borders without encountering serious resistance, but it was an unrewarding campaign that cost the English exchequer and yielded little results. The duke’s stock fell and Henry now looked to others for military leadership in Scotland. Norfolk was rattled and sought to have a prominent place in what would be Henry’s last campaign in France. In the early 1540s, the alliance between Henry VIII and Charles V was restored against France. Despite now being overweight and in declining health, Henry was determined to invade France again and in June 1543, Norfolk declared war in the king’s name. Henry himself was no longer able to lead his men on campaign and the English army was split in two. Norfolk commanded one force while the Duke of Suffolk commanded the other. Suffolk successfully besieged Boulogne, capturing it in September 1544, but Norfolk struggled to take Montreuil. Henry never speciied what he wanted Norfolk to achieve and the duke repeatedly complained about the lack of provisions and munitions in his army. He was eventually forced to raise the Siege of Montreuil and withdrew to Calais. For his failure, Norfolk received a stinging rebuke from Henry and his position never truly recovered. By now he was realistic about the extent of English military power abroad and although Boulogne was successfully occupied, he commented that he, “…knoweth the realm of England is not possible to bear the charges” of holding the town for long. His prediction was proved correct when Boulogne was returned to France in 1550, only six years after its capture. Henry now became increasingly unhealthy and mentally unstable and by the time he died in 1547, Norfolk had fallen so far from royal favour he was imprisoned in the Tower of London on tenuous charges of treason. His life was spared only because Henry died before the duke’s warrant was signed and Norfolk spent the entire reign of Edward VI incarcerated. In 1553, Norfolk was inally released and pardoned by Mary I. He was restored as a privy councillor and as Earl Marshal even bore the crown at the queen’s coronation. By now, he was 80 years old but he still had one last service to perform for the Tudors. Norfolk supervised the executions of hundreds of defeated rebels in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace In January 1554, Sir Thomas Wyatt led a rebellion from Kent that opposed Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain. Having been appointed lieutenant general, the octogenarian Norfolk led an army that included around 500 Londoners to confront Wyatt’s force at Rochester. However, the Londoners in Norfolk’s army defected to the rebels at Rochester Bridge and the duke hastily retreated. His army was now, “…both void of men and victory, leaving behind six pieces of ordnance and treasure.” Other captains eventually crushed the rebellion but Norfolk was now in poor health. One contemporary as described him, “…by long imprisonment diswanted from the knowledge of our malicious world.” Norfolk died on his estate at Kenninghall in August 1554 at the age of 81. Although he was ruthless, reactionary, ambitious and by all accounts quite fearsome, Thomas Howard was above all loyal to his Tudor masters throughout his long life. His personality was well suited to serve his bloodthirsty overlords, as it contained a dark undercurrent with a capacity for violence and even brutality. This was markedly evident at Flodden, his raids into both Scotland and France and his clampdown on the Pilgrimage of Grace. In this sense he was a perfect henchman for Henry VIII, who himself famously displayed a vicious streak that possibly bordered on psychosis. For men like Norfolk, knightly notions of chivalry in warfare meant nothing and it is not unreasonable to state he was a thug in ducal robes. Consequently, in both victory and defeat, the brutal duke channelled the Tudors’ relentless efforts to exert the royal supremacy of England, regardless of the dire results. henry viii’s armour Contrary to legend, Henry VIII was not obese for much of his life and in the 1510s he cut an athletic igure. This is demonstrated in this suit of armour that he commissioned in the late 1510s. With the advent of gunpowder, armour was becoming increasingly irrelevant on the battleield but it was reaching its zenith in terms of quality. This particular suit was made for Henry in time for the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Its design includes a distinctive skirt that followed contemporary court fashions. It is a deliberate show of grandeur that a blacksmith can recreate every crease and fold of fabric clothes. The armour was produced for tournament jousting and unlike previous suits it fully enclosed the wearer. The craftsmanship of this piece was so good that NASA used it to provide inspiration for their space suits. This suit of armour was inished in just three months, with the metal skirt or tonlet carrying detailed embellishments FURTHER READING ✪ THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WARFARE, (AMBER BOOKS, 2014) ✪ THOMAS CROMWELL. SERVANT TO HENRY VIII, DAVID LOADES (AMBERLEY PRESS, 2013) ✪ TUDORS. THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, RICHARD REX (AMBERLEY PRESS, 2014) ✪ KATHARINE OF ARAGON, PATRICK WILLIAMS (AMBERLEY PRESS, 2014) Images: Alamy “…so wisely handled themselves, that the commons were appeased” and they received praise for their “wisdom and gentleness.” In some ways the bloodless suppression of the Amicable Grant Rebellion was a great lesson for Norfolk. The enthusiastic warrior was learning that compromise could achieve the same ends as force and he used this experience to signiicant effect 11 years later. NORFOLK: HENRY VIII’S ENFORCER 71