Lord Edmund Howard was the third son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk

Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk

Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal , styled Earl of Surrey from 1483 to 1514, was the only son of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk by his first wife, Katherine Moleyns...

 and first wife Elizabeth Tilney

Elizabeth Tilney

Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey was an English heiress and lady-in-waiting to two queens. She became the first wife of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey....

. His sister, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire , born Lady Elizabeth Howard, was the eldest of the two daughters of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney. Through her marriage, she held the titles of Countess of Wiltshire, Countess of Ormond and Viscountess Rochford...

, was the mother of Henry VIII's

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 second Queen, Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...

, and he was the father of the King's fifth Queen, Katherine Howard.

Biography

Howard was born about 1478. He spent his early years at court, and in 1509 he was listed as one of the noblemen who organized the jousts for the joint coronation of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...

. Although his brother Edward

Edward Howard (admiral)

Sir Edward Howard, KG , son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney, and a younger brother of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. He was the first of the Howards to win fame as an admiral, participating in his first naval battle while in his teens...

 was a close companion of the King and his eldest brother, Thomas

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was a prominent Tudor politician. He was uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of the wives of King Henry VIII, and played a major role in the machinations behind these marriages...

, became a dominating figure at court, Edmund did not appear to have shared the King's favor and seemed to have been considered inneffectual.

Biographers have described Howard as 'a spendthrift who soon dissipated his wife's lands in Kent and Hampshire and fled abroad to avoid his creditors, leaving his numerous children to be brought up by relatives'.

He was Marshal of the Horse at the Battle of Flodden Field

Battle of Flodden Field

The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field or occasionally Battle of Branxton was fought in the county of Northumberland in northern England on 9 September 1513, between an invading Scots army under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey...

 on 9 September 1513, and attended the King at the Field of the Cloth of Gold

Field of the Cloth of Gold

The Field of Cloth of Gold is the name given to a place in Balinghem, between Guînes and Ardres, in France, near Calais. It was the site of a meeting that took place from 7 June to 24 June 1520, between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France. The meeting was arranged to increase...

 in 1520, where he was one of the challengers in the tournaments. In 1530 or 1531, with the assistance of Thomas Cromwell, Howard was made Controller of Calais

Calais

Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

. He was dismissed from the post in 1539, possibly due to ill health.

Howard died on 19 March 1539, a year before his daughter, Katherine, became the fifth Queen of Henry VIII. His widow, Margaret Jennings, was among the ladies appointed to serve her stepdaughter when her household was formed in August 1540. Margaret later married Henry Mannock. Some historians conjecture that this man was the Henry Manox who had been music master to Katherine Howard in her youth and had been involved in sexual indiscretions with her which later contributed to her downfall. Others historians, however, dispute this, saying that there is no reason to connect the two men. Margaret was buried at Streatham

Streatham

Streatham is a district in Surrey, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

 on 22 January 1565.

Marriages and Issue

Edmund Howard married firstly Joyce Culpeper (died c. 1531), widow of Ralph Leigh

Ralph Leigh

Ralph Alexander Leigh CBE FBA was a modern languages scholar, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Professor of French in the University of Cambridge from 1973 to 1982, later Sandars Reader in Bibliography, in 1986–87...

 of Stockwell (in Lambeth), Surrey, and daughter of Richard Culpeper of Oxenhoath, West Peckham

West Peckham

West Peckham is a village in the local government district of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The River Bourne flows through the extreme west of the parish, and formerly powered a paper mill and corn mill . The Wateringbury Stream rises in the parish...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, sometime after 1509. They had the following issue:

• Margaret Howard (c. 1515 - 10 October 1572), who married Sir Thomas Arundell, had issue.
• Mary Howard (b. after 1515), who married Edmund Trafford.
• Henry Howard (b. after 1515)
• Charles Howard
  Charles Howard (courtier)
  Charles Howard was a gentleman at the court of Henry VIII of England. He was the second son of Lord Edmund Howard and the elder brother of Sir George Howard. As a scion of the mighty Howard family, his uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk was able to find him a position at court. Charles'...
  
   (b. after 1515)
• Sir George Howard
  Sir George Howard (courtier)
  Sir George Howard was an English courtier, politician, author and diplomat. He was a younger brother of King Henry VIII's fifth Queen, Katherine Howard. Howard held offices at court under four monarchs, namely Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, most notably Master of the Armoury, and...
  
   (c. 1519 - 1580)
• Katherine Howard
  Catherine Howard
  Catherine Howard , also spelled Katherine, Katheryn or Kathryn, was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, and sometimes known by his reference to her as his "rose without a thorn"....
  
   (c. 1521 - 13 February 1542), who married Henry VIII
  Henry VIII of England
  Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
  
  , had no issue.

Howard married secondly Dorothy Troyes, daughter Thomas Troyes of Hampshire, had no issue. He married thirdly Margaret Jennings, the widow of Nicholas Jennings and daughter of Sir John Mundy

John Mundy (mayor)

Sir John Mundy was a London goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London.He was born in Wycomb, son of William Munday He purchased the manor of Markeaton in 1516 as well as Mackworth and Allestree, which are all now parts of Derby from Lord Audley....

, Lord Mayor of London

Lord Mayor of London

The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

, had no issue.