THOMAS HOWARD (c. 1585-1646), 2nd earl of Arundel, and earl of Surrey and of Norfolk, son of Philip, 1st earl of Arundel and of Lady Anne Dacre, was born in 1585 or 1586 and educated at Westminster school and at Trinity College, Cambridge. At the accession of James I. he was restored to his father's earldoms of Arundel and Surrey, and to the baronies of his grandfather, Thomas, 4th duke of Norfolk. He had a chequered career under James I. and Charles I., holding many high offices and being more than once imprisoned. In 1641 as lord high steward he presided at the trial of Strafford. This closed his public career. He again became estranged from the court, and in 1641 he escorted home Marie de' Medici, remaining abroad, with the exception of a short visit to England in 1642, and taking up permanent residence at Padua. He contributed a sum of £34,000 to the king's cause, and suffered severe losses in the war. On June 6 1644, he was created earl of Norfolk. He died at Padua, when on the point of returning home, on Sept. 14 1646, and was buried at Arundel.
Lord Arundel's claim to fame rests upon his patronage of arts and learning and his magnificent collections. He employed Hollar, Oughtred, Francis Junius and Inigo Jones; included among his friends Sir Robert Cotton, Spelman, Camden, Selden and John Evelyn, and his portrait was painted by Rubens and Vandyck. He is called the "Father of vertu in England," and was admired by a contemporary as the person to whom "this angle of the world oweth the first sight of Greek and Roman statues." He was the first to form any considerable collection of art in Great Britain. His acquisitions, obtained while on his travels or through agents, and including inscribed marbles, statues, fragments, pictures, gems, coins, books and manuscripts, were deposited at Arundel House, and suffered considerable damage during the Civil War; and, owing to the carelessness and want of appreciation of his successors, nearly half of the marbles were destroyed. After his death the treasures were dispersed. The marbles and many of the statues were given by his grandson, Henry, 6th duke of Norfolk, to the university of Oxford in 1667, became known as the Arundel (or Oxford) Marbles, and included the famous Parian Chronicle or Marmor Chronicon, a marble slab on which are recorded in Greek events in Grecian history from 1582 B.c. to 354 B.c., said to have been executed in the island of Paros about 263 B.C. Its narration of events differs in some respects from the most trust worthy historical accounts, but its genuineness, challenged by some writers, has been strongly supported by Porson and others, and is considered fairly established.
Other statues were presented to the university by Henrietta Louisa, countess of Pomfret, in 17 5 5. The cabinets and gems were removed by the wife of Henry, 7th duke of Norfolk, in 1685, and after her death found their way into the Marlborough Collection. The pictures and drawings were sold in 1685 and 1691, and Lord Stafford's moiety of the collection in 17 2o. The coins and medals were bought by Heneage Finch, 2nd earl of Winchelsea, and dis persed in 1696; the library, at the instance of John Evelyn, who feared its total loss, was given to the Royal Society, and a part, consisting of genealogical and heraldic collections, to the College of Heralds, the manuscript portion of the Royal Society's moiety being transferred to the British Museum in 1831 and forming the present Arundel Collection. The famous bust of Homer reached the British Museum after passing through various hands.
Lord Arundel married in i 6o6 Lady Alethea, daughter and heir of Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl of Shrewsbury, by whom, besides three sons who died young and one daughter, he had John, who pre deceased him, Henry Frederick, who succeeded him as 3rd earl of Arundel and earl of Surrey and of Norfolk, and William, Viscount Stafford, executed in 1680. In 1849 the Arundel Society for pro moting artistic knowledge was founded in his memory. Henry Frederick's grandson Thomas, by the reversal (166o) of the at tainder of 1572, succeeded to the dukedom of Norfolk, in which the earldom has since then been merged.