HENRY HOWARD, earl of Northampton (154o-1614), was the second son of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, the poet, and of Lady Frances Vere, daughter of the 15th earl of Oxford, and younger brother of Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk. After discovery of his brother's plot to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, and of his own correspondence with her, he was arrested more than once on suspicion of harbouring treasonable designs. In 1583 he published a work entitled A Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies, an ostensible attack upon astrology, which, being declared to contain heresies and treason, led to his im prisonment for a short time. After the accession of James I. he received many honours, and became Lord Privy Seal (1604) and a commissioner of the treasury (1612): He was one of the judges at the trials of Raleigh and Lord Cobham in 1603, of Guy Fawkes in 1605, and of Garnet in 1606, in each case pressing for a conviction. In 1604 he was one of the commissioners who corn posed the treaty of peace with Spain, and from that date he re ceived from the Spanish Court a pension of ii,000. Northamp ton died on June 15, 1614. His title died with him. North ampton built Northumberland house in London and superin tended the construction of the fine house of Audley End. He
founded and planned several hospitals. Bacon included three of his sayings in his "Apophthegms," and chose him as "the learnedest councillor" in the kingdom to present to the king his Advance ment of Learning.
Northampton's works are: a Treatise of Natural and Moral Philoso phy (1569; ms. in the Bodleian library) ; a pamphlet supporting the union between Elizabeth and the duke of Anjou (1580; Harleian mss. i8o) ; A Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies (1583); a reply to a pamphlet denouncing female government (1589; Harleian ms. 7021) ; Duello Foiled, printed in T. Hearne's Collection of Curious Discourses (1775), and ascribed there to Sir Edward Coke; Translation of Charles V.'s Last Advice to Philip II., dedicated with a long epistle to the queen (Hari. 836, 1506 and elsewhere in Stowe 95, King's mss. 106) ; devotional writings (Arundel mss. 300) ; speeches at the trials of Guy Fawkes and Garnet in State Trials, vol. i. In Somers Tracts (ed. 1809), ii. 136, his opinions on the union between England and Scotland are recorded.
See the life in Surrey's and Wyatt's Poems, ed. by G. F. Nott (1815), and Sidney Lee's article in the Dict. Nat. Biog.