Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel (28 June 1557 – 19 October 1595) was an English nobleman. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Howard lived mainly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was charged with being a Roman Catholic, quitting England without leave, and sharing in Jesuit plots. For this, he was sent to the Tower of London in 1585. Howard spent ten years in the Tower, until his death from dysentery.
Philip was born at Arundel House, in the Strand, London in 1557, during the upheaval of the English Reformation. He was the only son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk by his first wife Lady Mary FitzAlan, the youngest daughter of Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel and his first wife, Lady Katherine Grey. He was baptised by the Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York Nicholas Heath at Whitehall Palace with the royal family in attendance, and named after his co-godfather, King Philip II of Spain, husband of the ruling monarch, Mary I. The baby's other godfather was his grandfather, the 12th Earl of Arundel. His godmother was his great-grandmother, Elizabeth Stafford, widow of the 3rd Duke, who held the child over a gold baptismal font which was kept in the Treasury and normally used only for the baptism of royal children.
Shortly after his birth, his mother became seriously ill and died at Arundel House in August of that year. His mother's death was possibly the result to puerperal infection, a common illness that was caused by poor hygiene during childbirth. From the age of seven, Philip lived in a former Carthusian monastery. As the eldest son and heir to the Duke of Norfolk, he was destined to become the 5th Duke. From the moment of his birth, he bore the courtesy title of Earl of Surrey, a subsidiary title of the Dukes of Norfolk.
In 1569 his father arranged a marriage between Philip and his step-sister, Anne Dacre, the daughter of Norfolk's third wife, Elizabeth Leyburne, by the latter's previous marriage. Because both children were only 12 years old at the time, the ceremony was repeated two years later, after both parties had attained the age of consent. Philip's half-brothers Thomas and William, sons of their father by his second wife Margaret Audley, subsequently married Anne's sisters Mary and Elizabeth respectively.
Philip's father was a Roman Catholic with a Protestant education. in 1569 he was arrested for being involved in intrigues against Queen Elizabeth I, mainly because of the Duke's intention to marry Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots. Although he was released in August 1570, a few months later he became involved in the Ridolfi Plot to overthrow Elizabeth, install Mary on the English throne and restore Catholicism. In September 1571, when his participation in the plot was discovered, Norfolk was arrested again. In January 1572, he was tried for high treason, sentenced to death and executed in June of the same year, when Philip was almost fifteen years old. After his father's death, Philip and his surviving half-siblings Thomas, Margaret and William were left in the care of their uncle, Henry Howard, who also took charge of their education. During that time, the Howard children lived with their uncle at Audley End, one of his family's properties. As a result of his father's execution, the dukedom of Norfolk was forfeit, and Philip lost many of his paternal family's estates and the title of Earl of Surrey. Although Howard did not manage to recover the dukedom, a few years later he and his younger half-siblings were able to recover part of the forfeited properties.
During this time, Philip was sent to study at St John's College, Cambridge. While Howard was studying there, his wife came under the protection of Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, Philip's maternal grandfather.
Philip graduated in 1574, when he was seventeen. He began to attend Elizabeth I's court by the time he turned eighteen just a few years after his father had been executed for treason against the Queen. His life at Cambridge had been frivolous and remained so at court, where, despite his troubled family past, he nevertheless became a favourite of the Queen.
In July 1578, his maternal aunt, Jane FitzAlan, died without living descendants, as her three children from her marriage to John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley had all died during infancy. On the death of his aunt, Philip became the sole surviving descendant of his maternal grandfather, and was heir to the earldom of Arundel and its subsidiary titles, and all of FitzAlan's extensive properties in Sussex. These included Arundel Castle, the main residence of the FitzAlan family, which later became the principal home of Philip's descendants. After his grandfather's death in February 1580, Howard received the entire inheritance of his maternal family, and the Queen made him Earl of Arundel. Since then, the Earldom of Arundel has remained linked to the senior line of the Howard family, and with the restoration of the Dukedom of Norfolk in 1660, the title became one of the Dukes' subsidiary (courtesy) titles.
Howard is variously numbered as 1st, 20th or 13th Earl of Arundel. This is due to forfeiture losses and subsequent recreations of the title. If taken in a continuous line from the creation of the Earldom in 1138 by King Stephen for William d'Aubigny (d.1176), Philip's direct ancestor, Howard, would be the 20th Earl.
Received again into Catholic Church and later imprisonment
In 1581, Philip was present at public disputations between Anglican theologians and the imprisoned Catholic priests Edmund Campion and Ralph Sherwin. Campion's vigorous defense of the faith while he was on trial for his life led Philip to return to Arundel to think about reconciliation with the Catholic Church, despite the dangers that would entail.
Philip was originally baptised as a Catholic and, although he received a Protestant education, Catholicism was never far below the surface, mostly because his close relations had remained loyal to the Catholic Church during the Reformation. His maternal grandfather was a staunch Catholic and his father, who had also been a Catholic educated as a Protestant, was disgraced for having conspired against Queen Elizabeth with the intention of replacing her with Mary, Queen of Scots and thus restore Catholicism in England. His paternal grandfather, the Earl of Surrey, also fell out of favour and was executed by Henry VIII, partly because he was a Catholic.
In 1583, the Earl was suspected of complicity in the Throckmorton Plot. He prepared to escape to the Spanish Netherlands, but his plans were interrupted by a visit from Elizabeth to his house in London; she ordered him to confine himself there.
The same year, the Countess of Arundel, without her husband's knowledge and in great fear of his displeasure, secretly returned to the illegal and underground Catholic Church in England. After much effort, she successfully regained her husband's affection.
On 30 September 1584, the Earl was secretly received again into the Catholic Church by the Jesuit priest, Father William Weston. At the same time, the Earl's younger half-brother, Lord William Howard, was also received into Catholicism. While still attending Elizabeth's court, Arundel successfully hid his adherence to Catholicism for a time, before withdrawing to his home and attempting to focus on being a better husband and father. The next year, Howard acted against Father Weston's cautions and attempted to flee to mainland Europe in order to live openly as a Catholic with his wife and children.
His flight abroad was recommended and planned, and later betrayed to Sir Francis Walsingham, by a trusted servant, whom Father Philip Caraman identifies as the Earl's chaplain, underground Catholic priest and agent provocateur Father Edward Grately. Although many other recusants had been able to flee England successfully, the Earl of Arundel, through his kinship to the late Anne Boleyn, was a second cousin once removed of the Queen and was widely considered by persecuted Catholics who were plotting regime change to be a possible heir presumptive to the English throne. On setting sail from Littlehampton, therefore, the Earl's ship was attacked and boarded by English pirates working for the Tudor Navy. The Earl was at first led to believe that the pirate captain only wanted to extort a ransom but, instead, he was arrested and committed to the Tower of London on 25 April 1585.