Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey and 1st Earl of Norfolk (7 July 1585–4 October 1646) was a prominent
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
courtier during the reigns of
King James IJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
and
King Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculpture, books, prints, drawings, and antique jewellery.
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey and 1st Earl of Norfolk (7 July 1585–4 October 1646) was a prominent
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
courtier during the reigns of
King James IJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
and
King Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculpture, books, prints, drawings, and antique jewellery. Most of his collection of marble carvings, known as the
Arundelian MarblesThe Arundelian Marbles are a collection of Greek marbles collected by Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel in the early seventeenth century, the first such comprehensive collection of its kind in England...
, was eventually left to the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
.
He is sometimes referred as the 2nd Earl of Arundel; it depends on whether one views the earldom obtained by his father as a new creation or not. He was also 2nd or 4th Earl of Surrey, and later, he was created 1st Earl of Norfolk. Also known as 'the Collector Earl'.
Biography
Arundel was born in relative penury, his
aristocratic familyThe House of Howard is a noble house founded by John Howard who was created Duke of Norfolk by Plantagenet monarch Richard III of England. The Howards have been part of the nobility since the 15th century and are to this day Premier Dukes of the Realm in the peerage of England, acting as Earl...
having fallen into disgrace during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth IElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
owing to their religious conservatism and involvement in plots against the Queen. He was the son of
Philip Howard, 20th Earl of ArundelSaint Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel was an English nobleman. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales...
and
Anne DacreAnne Howard, née Dacre, was the Countess of Arundel. She lived from 1557 to 1630 and was a Catholic conspirator. Her husband was imprisoned and became a Catholic saint.-Family background:...
, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Dacre, 4th Baron Dacre of Gilsland. He never knew his father, who was imprisoned before Arundel was born.
Arundel's great-uncles returned the family to favour after James I ascended the throne, and Arundel was restored to his titles and some of his estates in 1604. Other parts of the family lands ended up with his great-uncles. The next year he married
Lady Alatheia (or Alethea) TalbotAlethea Howard, Countess of Arundel , née Lady Alethea Talbot, was the wife of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel...
, a daughter of
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of ShrewsburyGilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford KG , was the son of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, by the latter's first marriage to Gertrude Manners, daughter of the first Earl of Rutland....
, and a granddaughter of
Bess of HardwickElizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury , known as Bess of Hardwick, was the third surviving daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire...
. She would inherit a vast estate in
NottinghamshireNottinghamshire is an English county in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire...
,
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
, and
DerbyshireDerbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains...
, including
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
, which has been the principal part of the family fortune ever since. Even with this large income, Arundel's collecting and building activities would lead him heavily into debt.
During the reign of Charles I, Arundel served several times as special envoy to some of the great courts of Europe. These trips encouraged his interest in art collecting.
In 1642 he accompanied Princess Mary for her marriage to William II of Orange. With the troubles that would lead to the Civil War brewing, he decided not to return to England, and instead settled first in Antwerp and then into a villa near
PaduaPadua is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice , in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, having a population of c...
, in Italy. He died there in 1646, having returned to Roman Catholicism he nominally abandoned on joining the Privy Council, and was succeeded as Earl by his eldest son Henry Frederick Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel who was the ancestor of the Dukes of Norfolk and
Baron MowbrayBaron Mowbray is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ for Roger de Mowbray in 1283. It was held for a long time by the Mowbray and Howard Dukes of Norfolk. The title was united with the Barony of Segrave in 1368, when John Mowbray, 1st Earl of Nottingham and 5th Baron Mowbray...
. His youngest son
William Howard, 1st Viscount StaffordBlessed William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and his wife, the former Alethea Talbot. He is regarded as a Roman Catholic martyr....
-the ancestor of what was first the Earl of Stafford and later
Baron StaffordThe title Baron Stafford has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The first creation was by writ in 1299 for Edmond de Stafford. His successor, the second baron, was made an earl, and the sixth earl was made Duke of Buckingham. The second Duke of Buckingham was executed for treason...
.
Arundel had petitioned the king for restoration of the ancestral
Dukedom of NorfolkThe Duke of Norfolk is the Premier Duke in the peerage of England, and also, as Earl of Arundel, the Premier Earl. The Duke of Norfolk is, moreover, the Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal of England. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the title refers to the...
. While the restoration was not to occur until the time of his grandson, he was created Earl of Norfolk in 1644, which at least ensured the title would stay with his family. Arundel also got Parliament to entail his earldoms to the descendants of the 4th Duke of Norfolk.
Collector and art patron
Arundel commissioned portraits of himself or his family by contemporary masters such as Daniel Mytens,
Peter Paul RubensSir Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality...
,
Jan LievensJan Lievens was a Dutch painter, usually associated with Rembrandt, working in a similar style.-Biography:In his early years he was a student of Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. After two years he began his career as an independent artist at age of fourteen in Leiden.Lievens collaborated and shared a...
, and
Anthony Van DyckSir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of King Charles I of England and Scotland and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English...
. He acquired other paintings by
Hans HolbeinHans Holbein may refer to two German painters:* Hans Holbein the Elder father of Hans the Younger* Hans Holbein the Younger , better known of the two, court artist to King Henry VIII of England...
,
Adam ElsheimerAdam Elsheimer was a German artist working in Rome who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century. His relatively few paintings were small scale, nearly all painted on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light...
, Mytens, Rubens, and Honthorst.
He collected drawings by
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
, the two Holbeins, Raphael, Parmigiano, Wenceslaus Hollar, and
DürerAlbrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
. Many of these are now at the
Royal LibraryThis office, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of books and manuscripts owned by the Sovereign in an official capacity - as distinct from those owned privately and...
at
Windsor CastleWindsor Castle, in Windsor in the English country of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation...
or at
ChatsworthChatsworth House is a large country house at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England 3½ miles north east of Bakewell . It is the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, and has been home to their family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549.Standing on the east bank of the...
.
He had a large collection of antique sculpture, the
Arundel MarblesThe Arundelian Marbles are a collection of Greek marbles collected by Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel in the early seventeenth century, the first such comprehensive collection of its kind in England...
mostly Roman, but including some he had excavated in the Greek world, which was then the most important in England, and was later bequeathed to Oxford University. It is now in the
Ashmolean MuseumThe Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
.
The architect
Inigo JonesInigo Jones is regarded as the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
accompanied Arundel on one of his trips to Italy 1613-14, a journey which took both men as far as Naples. In the Veneto Arundel saw the work of
PalladioAndrea Palladio , was a Italian Renaissance architect from Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential architect in the history of Western architecture...
which was to become so influential to Jones's later career. Soon after the latter's return to England he became Surveyor to the King's Works.
Amongst Arundel's circle of scholarly and literary friends were
James UssherJames Ussher was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–1656...
,
William HarveyWilliam Harvey was an English physician who was the first to describe correctly and in exact detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped around the body by the heart.- Early years:...
,
John SeldenJohn Selden was an English jurist, scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law...
and Francis Bacon.
Children
- James Howard, Lord Maltravers (1607-1624)
- Henry Frederick Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel (1608-1652)
- William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford
Blessed William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and his wife, the former Alethea Talbot. He is regarded as a Roman Catholic martyr....
(1614-1680)
- Lady Mary Anne Howard
Lady Mary Anne Howard was born into what once was one of the most powerful families in England the Howards.-Birth and Early Life:...
(c. 1615-1658)
External links
References:
- Mary Hervey, The Life, Correspondence and Collections of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (Cambridge, 1921).
- David Howarth, Lord Arundel and his Circle (New Haven and London, 1985).
- Edward Chaney, The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion (Geneva, 1985).
- Edward Chaney, The Evolution of the Grand Tour, 2nd ed (London, 2000).
- Ernest B. Gilman, Recollecting the Arundel Circle (New York, 2002).
- Edward Chaney ed., The Evolution of English Collecting (New Haven and London, 2003)
- Edward Chaney, Inigo Jones's 'Roman Sketchbook', 2 vols (London, 2006).
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