This great historical House can only with certainty be traced to Sir William Howard, Judge of Common Pleas in the year 1297, although plausible, and indeed highly probable, connections have been made out to a much earlier period. They inherit much of their Norfolk property from their ancestors, the Bigods. In the fourteenth century, by the match of the then head of the family, Sir Robert Howard, with the heiress of Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, the foundation of the splendour and consequence of the Howards was laid. That lady was Margaret, eldest daughter of the Duke of Norfolk by his wife Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Richard, Earl of Arundel. The said Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, was son and heir to John, Lord Mowbray, by Elizabeth, his wife, daughter and heiress to John, Lord Segrave, and Margaret, his wife, daughter and heiress of Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk and Earl Marshal of England, the eldest son of King Edward I., by his second wife Margaret, daughter to Philip the Hardy, King of France.
By this splendid alliance Sir Robert Howard had an only son and two daughters. The son, Sir John Howard, was created Lord Howard, and afterwards Duke of Norfolk, and had the highest offices bestowed on him—a title and honours which have (excepting the periods of sequestration) remained in the family ever since.
All the present English peers of the noble House of Howard descend from a common ancestor in Thomas, the second Duke of Norfolk of the name of Howard, who died in 1524. Thus the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Suffolk, and the Earl of Carlisle are descended from his first wife, Mary, daughter and heiress to Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel; and the Earl of Effingham from his second wife, Margaret, daughter and heiress of Thomas, Lord Audley of Walden, and widow of Lord Henry Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland. The Howards of Greystoke, in Cumberland, are a younger branch of the present ducal House, as are the Howards of Glossop, &c. The Howards of Corby Castle descend from the Carlisle branch, tracing from “Belted Will Howard.” The titles and dignities now enjoyed by different members of the family of Howard are—Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, and Hereditary Marshal of England; Premier Duke and Earl next to the royal blood; Earl of Norfolk, Earl of Surrey, Earl of Arundel, Baron Fitzalan, Baron Clun, Baron Oswaldestre, and Baron Maltravers; Earl of Suffolk, Earl of Berkshire, Viscount Andover, and Baron Howard; Earl of Carlisle, Viscount Howard of Morpeth (generally called Viscount Morpeth), and Baron Dacre of Gillesland; Earl of Effingham, Viscount Howard of Effingham, and Baron Howard of Effingham; Baron Howard of Glossop; Baron Lanerton of Naworth; Earl of Wicklow, Viscount Wicklow, and Baron Clonmore.
The earldom of Carlisle was originally enjoyed by Ranulph de Meschines, nephew of Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. The earldom appears next to have been given to Andrew de Harcla, who was son of Michael de Harcla, Governor of Carlisle, who afterwards “being condemned for a traytor, he was at first in form degraded, having his knightly spurs hew’d off from his heels; and at last hang’d, drawn, and quartered, 3rd March, 1322.”
The title was next enjoyed by the Plantagenets, and thus again merged into the Crown. In 1620, the title—with those of Viscount Doncaster and Baron Hay—was conferred on Sir James Hay: he was succeeded by his son James, who died without issue. The title thus again became extinct, and so remained until it was conferred on the Howards.
Lord William Howard—third son of the Duke of Norfolk, already spoken of—was the “Belted Will Howard” of history, one of the leading heroes of Border minstrelsy—the hero of whom Sir Walter Scott writes—
“Costly his garb—his Flemish ruff
Fell o’er his doublet, shaped of buff,
With satin slashed and lined;
Tawny his boot, and gold his spur,
His cloak was all of Poland fur,
His hose with silver twined;