SURREY, HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF (1518?-1547), English poet, son of Lord Thomas Howard, afterwards 3rd duke of Norfolk, and his wife Elizabeth Stafford, daughter of the duke of Buckingham, was born probably in 1518. He succeeded to the courtesy title of earl of Surrey in 1524, when his father became duke of Norfolk. His early years were spent in the various houses of the Howards, chiefly at Kenninghall, Norfolk; he used also to stay at Windsor with young Henry Fitzroy, duke of Rich mond, of whom his father was guardian. Anne Boleyn tried to arrange a marriage between the princess Mary and her kinsman, Surrey. The Spanish ambassador, in the hope of detaching the duke of Norfolk's interest from Anne Boleyn in favour of Cath erine of Aragon, seems to have been inclined to favour the project, but Anne changed her mind, and as early as October i53o arranged a marriage for Surrey with Lady Frances de Vere, daughter of the I 5th earl of Oxford. This was concluded at the earliest possible date, in February 1532, but in consequence of the extreme youth of the contracting parties, Frances did not join her husband until 1535. In October Surrey accompanied Henry VIII. to Boulogne to meet Francis I., and, rejoining the duke of Richmond at Calais, he proceeded with him to the French court, where the two Englishmen were lodged with the French royal princes. Surrey created for himself a reputation for wisdom, soberness and good learning. Meanwhile in spite of his marriage with Frances de Vere, the project of a contract between him and the princess Mary was revived in a correspondence between the pope and the emperor, but rejected by the latter. Surrey returned to England in the autumn of 1533, when the duke of Richmond was recalled to marry his friend's sister, Mary Howard. Surrey made his home at his father's house of Kenninghall, and took his father's side in a dispute which led to a separation between the duke and duchess.
In May 1536 he filled his father's functions of earl marshal at the trial of his cousins Anne Boleyn and Lord Rochford. In the
autumn of that year he took part with his father in the bloodless campaign against the rebels in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, in the "Pilgrimage of Grace." Hasty in temper, and by no means friendly to the Seymour faction at court, Surrey struck a man who insin uated that he had secretly favoured the insurgents. For breaking the peace in the king's domain he was arrested ( 1537), but thanks to Cromwell, he was merely sent to reside for a time at Windsor. During this retirement he had leisure to devote himself to poetry. In 1539 he was again received into favour. In May 5540 he was one of the champions in the jousts celebrated at court.
The fall of Thomas Cromwell a month later increased the power of the Howards, and in August Henry VIII. married Sur rey's cousin, Catherine Howard. Surrey was knighted early in 1541, and soon after he received the Garter and was made chan cellor of the duchy of Lancaster. In 1542 he was imprisoned again for quarrelling, but was soon liberated. Shortly after his re lease he joined his father on the Scottish expedition. They laid waste the country, but retreated before the earl of Huntly, taking no part in the victorious operations that led up to Solway Moss.
Surrey's ties with Wyat, who was fifteen years his elder and of opposite politics, seem to have been rather literary than personal. He appears to have entered into closer relations with the younger Wyat, with whom he got into trouble for breaking the windows of the citizens of London on Feb. 2, 1543. In prison for this offence be probably wrote the satire on the city of London, in which he explains his escapade by a desire to rouse Londoners to a sense of their wickedness. In October he joined the English army co-operating with the imperial forces in Flanders, and in the cam paign of the next year he served as field marshal under his father, and took part in the unsuccessful siege of Montreuil. In August 1545 he was again serving in France.