| Elizabeth Stafford | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Norfolk Countess of Surrey |
|
| Spouse(s) | Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk |
| Issue | |
| Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey Mary Howard, Duchess of Richmond Catherine Stanley, Countess of Derby Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon |
|
| Noble family | Stafford |
| Father | Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham |
| Mother | Lady Eleanor Percy |
| Born | 1494 England |
| Died | 30 November 1558 (aged 63-64) Lambeth, London, England |
Elizabeth Howard (nee Stafford) (1494 – 30 November 1558) was the eldest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and the wife of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She was of royal lineage as she was a direct descendant of Edward III of England.
On 10 September 1533, she stood as one of the two godmothers of Princess Elizabeth.
Contents |
Elizabeth was born in 1494, the eldest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (3 September 1478-1521) and Eleanor Percy. Her paternal grandparents were Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Catherine Woodville, and her maternal grandparents were Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland and Maud Herbert. Her grandfather, the Duke of Buckingham, was executed in 1483 by King Richard III for treason, and in 1521, her own father suffered the same fate when he was beheaded on Tower Hill for treason against his king, Henry VIII. Elizabeth had two sisters, Mary, Lady Bergavenny and Catherine, Countess Westmoreland, and a brother, Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford.[1]
Elizabeth was betrothed to her father's ward Ralph Neville, fourth Earl of Westmorland. The couple seemed to be in love and devoted to each other.
He and I had loved together two year, and I had married him before Christmas,“ if the widowed Thomas Howard, the earl of Surrey's heir, had not made vigorous suit to my father.[2]
Elizabeth first came to court in the train of Catherine of Aragon in 1509, and soon became her devoted friend for life. She also accompanied her husband to Ireland when we was sent on a mission there in 1520-22 and then again in 1524, when he gained the dukedom of Norfolk.
On 8 January 1513, Elizabeth married Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who in 1524, would become the 3rd Duke of Norfolk. The marriage was his second. Elizabeth was against it from the start as her father Buckingham had promised her in marriage to Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland his ward whom Elizabeth was in love with. Howard however wouldn't accept any of Elizabeth's sisters as a wife and wanted her. Howard's first wife had been Anne of York, the daughter of Edward IV, but none of their children had lived beyond early infancy. According to some letters Elizabeth wrote about the early days of the marriage, when the two seemed to have been bound together by mutual love and loyalty.
I was daily waiter in the Court sixteen years together, when he hath been from me more than a year on the King's wars.
Elizabeth bore her husband four surviving children but their marriage was unhappy in the later days. He had taken in 1527[3] as his mistress Elizabeth Holland, whom, Elizabeth described as "a churl's daughter who was but a washer in my nursery for eight years"[4] , though this was far from accurate, as Holland belonged to a family of local gentry and even served Anne Boleyn as a lady-in-waiting.[5] The Duke's infatuation caused the marriage to decay, and resulted eventually in Elizabeth leaving the family home[6], in 1533. She was then relocated to Redbourne, Hertfordshire, from where she wrote many letters to Thomas Cromwell, accusing her husband and his servants of various ill-treatment, some of which appears extreme and possibly implausible.[7]In March 1534 she wrote:
the duke locked me up in a chamber and took away my jewels and apparels.[8].
She complained that she lived as a virtual prisoner and only got a paltry sum of 200 pounds as allowance, and even asserted her husband had exhorted her servants to sit on her while she had been pregnant. An accusation he strenuously denied as being preposterous, claiming no decent man would treat a "woman in child-bed" in such a way. A suggestion that her accusations of brutality are possibly exaggerated, if not invented, might lie in the fact that the records show her husband was desperately seeking divorce and was offering her return of her jewels and clothes if she would agree, implying it would have made little sense to alienate her in some of the ways she describes. Even when urged by Cromwell and others, Elizabeth refused either to give Norfolk an official divorce,[9], or to reconcile with him and live under his roof. According to a letter she wrote to Thomas Cromwell on 3 March 1539, she was determined
They shall not rule me as long as I offend not the King; I am of age to rule myself, as I have done these five years, since my husband put me away. It were better I kept my own house; for he will be angry with those I "suggyn" with, if they cannot bring their purpose about, just as he said those who wrote to me in his cause gave me ill-counsel, "but I have letter to show contrary." Be not displeased that I have not followed your counsel to come home again, which I will never do during my life.[10]
In January 1547, her husband and eldest son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were arrested on charges of treason. Elizabeth was interrogated, as were Elizabeth Holland, and other members of the family, but not imprisoned, possibly saved by her estrangement from her husband. Her son was subsequently beheaded, but her husband was rescued from imminent execution by the death of Henry VIII the night before he was due to die. Norfolk remained in the Tower until 1554, and on his release appears to have been reconciled with Elizabeth. She lived with him until his death the same year.[11]
In 1533, Howard's niece, Anne Boleyn, was crowned Queen of England. Elizabeth did not like Anne and was staunchly partisan in favour of Catherine of Aragon. In 1530, Elizabeth smuggled letters received from Italy to Catherine concealed in oranges.[12] In 1531, Elizabeth was exiled from the court for talking too freely against her niece by marriage and siding with Catherine openly.[13] Elizabeth also later told the Spanish Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, that Howard had confided in her that "Anne would be the ruin of all her family".[14] Anne, however, managed to win the favour of Elizabeth by arranging brilliant matches for the Howard children. Henry was married to the daughter of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, while Mary married the King's illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset. Appeased, Elizabeth stopped plotting against Anne and returned to Court.[15] On 10 September 1533, she stood as one of the two godmothers of Princess Elizabeth.
She died on 30 November 1558 in Lambeth, London at the age of sixty-four. Elizabeth was the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk at the time of her death, her estranged husband, the Duke, having died four years earlier. She was buried on 7 December 1558 in Lambeth.