Dr Edward Browne recorded a Christmas spent at the palace in 1663:I was at Mr Howard’s, brother to the Duke of Norfolk [the insane Henry, fifth duke, who was living in Padua] who kept Christmas . . . so magnificently that the like hath scarce been seen.
They had dancing every night and gave entertainments to all that would come . . .13
The diarist John Evelyn also visited the palace and described it as ‘an old wretched building and that part of it newly built of brick is very ill understood, so as I was of the opinion it had been much better to have demolished it all and set it up in a better place than to proceed any further, for it stands in the very market-place and though near a river, yet a very narrow one and without any extent’.14
The palace was rebuilt by Henry, sixth Duke of Norfolk (who died in 1684), probably to the designs of Sir Robert Hooke. Thomas Basker-ville, in 1681, referred disparagingly to the new mansion as ‘a sumptuous new-built house not yet finished within but seated in a dung hole place, though it has cost the duke already £30,000 in building, as the gentleman as showed it told us’.15
It was never properly lived in and became something of an opulent embarrassment to the Norfolks. It was pulled down in 1711 by Thomas, eighth duke, after he became piqued with the then mayor of Norwich, over his ‘ill-behaviour’ towards him ‘in not permitting his comedians to enter the city with their trumpets’.16
APPENDIX 2
PEDIGREE OF THE TUDOR DUKES OF NORFOLK
CHRONOLOGY
c. 1422 Birth of John Howard, son of Sir Robert Howard (d. 1436) and his wife, Lady Margaret, elder daughter of Thomas Mowbray, first [Mowbray] Duke of Norfolk, Lord Mowbray and Segrave and Earl Marshal of England (who had died in 1399).
I443 Birth, at Tendring Hall, Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, of Thomas Howard I, son of John Howard and his first wife, Katherine Moleyns (who died 3 November 1465, leaving six children).
I465: 3 November Death of Katherine, wife of John Howard, at Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk.
Late I460s John Howard created Lord Howard.
1467 Lord Howard marries, as his second wife, Margaret Chedworth, the widow of John Norris esquire of Bray, Berkshire, previously the widow of Nicholas Wyfold, Lord Mayor of London, in 1450, and daughter of Sir John Chedworth.
I47I: 14 April Thomas Howard I fights in the Battle of Barnet and is severely wounded.
1472: 30 April Thomas Howard I marries the rich heiress Elizabeth née Tylney, the widow of Sir Humphrey Bourchier (son of the first Lord Berners, who was killed at Battle of Barnet in 1471), and daughter of Sir Frederick Tylney of Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk. They have five children, including Thomas II, later third Duke of Norfolk, Edward, later Lord High Admiral of England (killed 25 April 1513), and Elizabeth, later the mother of Anne Boleyn.
1473 Thomas Howard II (later third Duke of Norfolk), son of Thomas Howard I and Elizabeth Tylney, born at Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk.
1476: 17 January Sudden death of John Mowbray, fourth and last [Mowbray] Duke of Norfolk, at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk. Dukedoms of Norfolk and Earldom of Surrey become extinct.
1481 Lady Anne Mowbray, only daughter and heiress of the fourth [Mowbray] Duke of Norfolk, and wife to Richard, Duke of York, second son of Edward IV, dies aged nine, at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Lord Howard, as Lady Anne’s cousin, is now the senior co-heir to Mowbray estates. York is later murdered in Tower of London.
1483: 9 April Death of the Yorkist King Edward IV. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, seizes throne on 26 June as King Richard III.
1483: 28 June John Howard created first [Howard] Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal of England by Richard III, who grants him the Mowbray estates. His son, Thomas Howard I, is created Earl of Surrey and appointed a member of the Privy Council and Knight of the Garter. The duke officiates as High Steward and Earl Marshal at the king’s coronation on 6 July.
1483: 25 July The first Duke of Norfolk created Lord High Admiral of England, Ireland and Aquitaine and Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster for life.
1484 Thomas Howard II ?betrothed to nine-year-old Lady Anne Plantagenet, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.
1485: 22 August Battle of Bosworth. Richard III killed and royalist army defeated. First [Howard] Duke of Norfolk is killed leading Richard’s vanguard of archers. His body is buried at Thetford, Norfolk. His son, Thomas I, is wounded at Bosworth and taken prisoner. Succeeds his father as second Duke of Norfolk but is imprisoned in the Tower of London.
1485: 30 October Henry Tudor is crowned at Westminster Abbey as King Henry VII.
1485: 7 November John Howard, first Duke of Norfolk and his son, Thomas I, Earl of Surrey, attainted for treason by Henry VII’s first Parliament. Earl of Surrey degraded from Order of the Garter.
1486: 18 January Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV.
1486: 20 September Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York, born at Winchester.
1489: March Thomas Howard I freed from Tower, his attainder is later reversed and he is restored as Earl of Surrey.
1489 Appointed Chief Justice in Eyre North of the Trent. Puts down a revolt in the north of England against new taxes imposed by Henry VII.
1490: 20 May Appointed Vice-Warden of the East and Middle Marches on the Scottish borders and effectively, general of English forces in the region.
1491: 28 June Henry, second son of Henry VII, born at Greenwich Palace.
1492 Thomas Howard I suppresses fresh northern riots against taxation.
1494 Death of Margaret, widow of attainted first Duke of Norfolk. Her will is dated 13 May 1490 and is proved 3 December 1494.
1495: 4 February Henry VII allows marriage of Thomas Howard II to Lady Anne Plantagenet, the king’s sister-in-law, at Greenwich. The four children of the marriage all die young - the longest lived being the only son Thomas (c. 1496-August 1508).
1497 Thomas Howard I repels a Scottish attack on Norham Castle, Northumberland, and launches a raid into Scotland to seize Ayton Castle, Berwickshire.
1497: 4 April Death of Elizabeth Tylney, first wife of Thomas Howard I.
1497: 8 November Thomas Howard I marries his second wife, Agnes Tylney, daughter of Hugh Tylney of Skirbeck and Boston in Lincolnshire. They have six surviving children, including William, later first Baron Howard of Effingham, born c. 1510, and Thomas, died 1537.
1501: 16 June Thomas Howard I appointed Lord High Treasurer of England.
1501: 14 November Prince Arthur marries Catherine of Aragon.
1502: 2 April Prince Arthur dies from tuberculosis, aged fifteen, at Ludlow Castle.
1503: 25 June Henry, now Prince of Wales, is formally betrothed to Catherine of Aragon.
1509: 21 April Henry VII dies at Richmond Palace, Surrey. On his deathbed he restores the family estates to Thomas Howard I, Earl of Surrey, who is one of the executors of his will.
1509: 24 April Henry VIII proclaimed king; marries Catherine (11 June). Both are crowned on 24 June when Thomas Howard I serves as Marshal of England.
1510: 10 July Thomas Howard I created Earl Marshal of England for life.
1511: 12 November Anne Plantagenet, wife of Thomas Howard II, dies of consumption, aged thirty-six.
1513 Thomas Howard II marries Elizabeth Stafford, the unwilling fifteen-year-old daughter of Sir Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham, and his wife, Eleanor Percy, daughter of the fourth Duke of Northumberland. They have three children: Henry, later Earl of Surrey, born 1513; Mary, born 1519; and Thomas, born c. 1520, later first Viscount Bindon.
1513: 25 April Admiral Sir Edward Howard drowned in attack on the French fleet at Brest, leaving the care of his two illegitimate sons to Henry VIII and Charles Brandon, later Duke of Suffolk.
1513: 4 May Thomas Howard II succeeds his brother as Lord High Admiral, an office he holds until 1525.
1513: July Thomas Howard I appointed Lieutenant General of English forces in the north.
1513: 9 September Thomas Howard I defeats Scots army at Battle of Flodden Field, Northumberland, killing James IV of Scotland and up to 12,000 of the invading Scots army.
1513 Birth of Henry Howard, later Earl of Surrey, eldest son of third Duke of Norfolk and second wife, Elizabeth Stafford.
1514: 1 February Thomas Howard I created second Duke of Norfolk by a grateful Henry VIII and restored at a ceremony at Lambeth Palace on the feast of Candlemas (2 February). Thomas Howard II made Earl of Surrey for life. Both awarded grants and annuities.
1516: 18 February Birth of Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, at Greenwich Palace.
1517: 1 May Second Duke of Norfolk, as Earl Marshal, leads a private army of East Anglian retainers to suppress apprentice riots in London.
1519: June Birth of Henry Fitzroy, later Duke of Richmond and Somerset, the bastard son of Henry VIII and his mistress, Elizabeth Blount, at priory of St Lawrence, Blackmore, near Ingatestone, Essex.
1520: 10 March-end 1521 Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey, serves as Lord Deputy of Ireland, based in Dublin.
1520: 31 May-18 July Second Duke of Norfolk appointed Guardian of England during Henry VIII’s absence in France.
1521: May Second Duke of Norfolk, as Lord High Steward, presides over trial of Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham (his son’s father-in-law) for treason. Buckingham is beheaded on 17 May 1521 on Tower Hill.
1522: September Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey, serves as Lieutenant General of Anglo-Burgundian army in France.
1522: 4 December Second Duke of Norfolk resigns as Lord High Treasurer in favour of his son, Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey.
1523: 26 February-1524 Thomas Howard II, Earl of Surrey, serves as Lieutenant General of English forces on the Scottish border.
1524: 21 May Death of Thomas Howard I, second Duke of Norfolk, aged eighty-one, at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk. He is buried at the Cluniac abbey of Our Lady, Thetford on 24 June. Thomas Howard II succeeds as third Duke of Norfolk and his eldest son, Henry, becomes Earl of Surrey.
1525: July Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, appointed Lord High Admiral in place of Thomas Howard II, third Duke of Norfolk.
1527: Summer Henry VIII decides to seek annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
1529: 18 October Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor, delivers Great Seal of England to third Duke of Norfolk and Duke of Suffolk at York Place.
1530: November Wolsey arrested on treason charges (4 November) and dies, probably from dysentery, on 29 November at Leicester Abbey, en route to the Tower of London.
1532: April Third Duke of Norfolk arranges the marriage of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, to Lady Frances de Vere (1517-77), daughter of John de Vere, fifteenth Earl of Oxford. They are married in the spring of the following year, although are too young to live together.
1533: 25 January Henry secretly marries Anne Boleyn, the third Duke of Norfolk’s niece, in the high chamber over the Holbein Gate in the Palace of Westminster. She is crowned Queen on 1 June at Westminster Abbey.
1533: 23 May Archbishop Thomas Cranmer grants divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon at Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
1533: 28 May Third Duke of Norfolk created Earl Marshal of England.
1533: 7 September Birth of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, at Greenwich Palace.
1533: 26 November Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, marries Mary, younger daughter of third Duke of Norfolk. Marriage never consummated.
1535: 1 July Trial for treason of former Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in Westminster Hall. He is executed on 6 July on Tower Hill.
1536: 7 January Death of Catherine of Aragon at Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire.
1536: 26 January Henry VIII injured in a jousting accident at Greenwich. Five days later, Anne Boleyn miscarries of a male child when told of the accident by her uncle, the third Duke of Norfolk.
1536: March Act for the Dissolutions of Minor Monastic Houses passed.
1536: 15 May Third Duke presides over trial, at Tower of London, of Anne Boleyn and her brother George, Viscount Rochford, for incest and adultery. Rochford beheaded on Tower Hill on 17 May and Anne beheaded by a French executioner with a two-handed sword in the Tower of London, on 19 May.
1536: 30 May Henry marries his third wife, Jane Seymour, in the Queen’s Closet in the Palace of Westminster.
1536 Birth of Charles, eldest son of William Howard, first Baron Effingham (c. 1510-73), and his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage.
1536: 10 March Thomas Howard III (later fourth Duke of Norfolk) is born to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and his wife, Frances.
1536: 18 July Bill of Attainder for high treason passed against Lord Thomas Howard, half-brother of the third Duke of Norfolk, for making a private marriage contract with Lady Margaret Douglas, niece to Henry VIII. Both he and Lady Margaret are imprisoned in the Tower of London.
1536: 23 July Death of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, at St James’s Palace, London. Buried among the Howard tombs at the Cluniac abbey of Our Lady, Thetford, Norfolk.
1536: 2 October Beginning of rebellions in Lincolnshire, spreading to Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland - the Pilgrimage of Grace - later suppressed by third Duke of Norfolk as High Marshal.
1537: January New rebellion in Yorkshire, quickly suppressed. Third Duke of Norfolk wreaks brutal royal vengeance on the rebels.
1537: 12 October Birth of Prince Edward, legitimate son and heir of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, at Hampton Court.
1537: 24 October Death of Jane Seymour at Hampton Court from complications after birth of Prince Edward.
1537: 31 October Lord Thomas Howard, half-brother of the third Duke of Norfolk, dies inside the Tower of London. He is buried ‘without pomp’ at Thetford. His love Lady Margaret is pardoned and freed.
1539: 28 June Royal Assent granted to the Act Abolishing Diversity in Opinions - the so-called Statute of Six Articles - against Protestant practices.
1539: July Dissolution of major religious houses begins.
1540: 6 January Henry VIII marries, as his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, at Greenwich Palace.
1540: 24 February Birth of Henry Howard, second son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and his wife, Lady Frances de Vere, at Shottesham, Norfolk.
1540: 10 June King’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, arrested by third Duke of Norfolk at meeting of Privy Council at Westminster Palace.
1540: 9 July Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne of Cleves is annulled by Clerical Convocation. The annulment is confirmed by Parliament on 13 July.
1540: 28 July Cromwell beheaded at Tower Hill. Henry VIII marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, another niece of the third Duke of Norfolk, at Oatlands, near Weybridge, Surrey.
1541: 22 December Third Duke of Norfolk’s half-brother, Lord William Howard, and his wife, Norfolk’s half-sister, Katherine, Countess Bridgewater, found guilty of misprision of treason over Queen Catherine Howard’s adultery with Thomas Culpeper and of not disclosing her earlier affair with Francis Dereham. The Howards are sentenced to imprisonment in perpetuity and their possessions confiscated - but are later released. The queen’s brother, Charles, is banished from court.
1541: 10 December Execution of Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham, lovers of Queen Catherine Howard, at Tyburn, for treason.
1542: January Agnes, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, found guilty under Act of Attainder, of misprision of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment, but later released with the other jailed Howards.
1542: 13 February Execution of Queen Catherine Howard by beheading on Tower Green, witnessed by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.
1542: July Earl of Surrey imprisoned in the Fleet Prison for challenging John Leigh to a duel but released on 7 August on sureties for good behaviour.
1542: 22 October Third Duke of Norfolk leads
English forces in a punitive expedition to lay waste Scottish lands just north of the border.
1542: 24 November English victory over the Scots at Solway Moss.
1543: 12 July Henry VIII marries his sixth and final wife, the twice-widowed Katherine Parr, at Hampton Court.
1543: 4 October Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, joins the English contingent with Imperial Emperor Charles V’s forces besieging Landrecies, which had been captured by the French the previous month.
1544: June Third Duke of Norfolk appointed Captain of the Vanguard of English forces in France. Surrey is also appointed Marshal of the Field and both are sent to capture the French fortress of Montreuil. Surrey is wounded on 19 September during an unsuccessful attempt to breach the town’s gates.
1545: late August Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, appointed Lieutenant of Boulogne and aims to subdue the French fortress of Chatillon.
1546: 7 January Earl of Surrey is defeated at a skirmish with French forces at St Etienne and is replaced as lieutenant general by the Earl of Hertford. He is summoned back to court on 21 March.
1546: June Third Duke of Norfolk proposes a series of marriages between the Seymours and Howards.
1546: 2 December Sir Richard Southwell makes allegations to the Privy Council about a conspiracy involving Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Howard is arrested as he finishes dinner at the Palace of Westminster and held at the Lord Chancellor’s house at Ely Place, in Holborn, on the outskirts of London.
1546: 12 December Third Duke of Norfolk is summoned to London, is arrested, stripped of his offices and taken to the Tower of London by river. The same day, his son is led on foot through the streets of London to the Tower.
1547: 13 January The Earl of Surrey is found guilty of treason at a commission of oyer and terminer at the Guildhall, London, after a day-long trial, and is beheaded six days later.
1547: 24 January Bill of Attainder for treason passed against third Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Surrey by Parliament.
House Of Treason: The Rise And Fall Of A Tudor Dynasty Page 31
