Howard was born at
Shottesham,
Norfolk, on 25 February 1540, being the third of five children born to
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and his wife, Lady
Frances de Vere. His paternal grandparents were
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and
Elizabeth Stafford. His maternal grandparents were
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, and
Elizabeth Trussell. His older siblings were
Thomas born 1536 or 1538 and
Jane, born 1533 or 1537 and his younger sisters were Katherine, born 1543 and Margaret, born in 1547 shortly after her father's execution. Between his maternal and paternal families, the religious differences were notable: his maternal grandfather was a supporter of the
Reformation and was the first Protestant earl of Oxford, whereas his paternal grandfather was the premier
Roman Catholic nobleman of England although he had complied with the changes in the governance of the Church of England brought about by
Henry VIII, and served the King in suppressing
rebellion against those changes. Howard's father, the Earl of Surrey, a Catholic but with reformist leanings, was heir to the 3rd Duke, and thereby destined to become the future 4th Duke; but that changed at the end of 1546 when Surrey
quartered the
royal arms of
Edward the Confessor on his own coat of arms, incurring the fury of
Henry VIII. Through his great-grandfather
John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (1483 creation), Surrey was a descendant of
Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, the sixth son of King
Edward I; and the arms of the Howard ancestor
Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk (1397 creation) show that Surrey was entitled to bear Edward the Confessor's arms but to do so was an act of pride, and provocative in the eyes of the Crown. Henry was also possibly influenced by the
Seymours, who were enemies of the Howard family, supporters of Protestantism and related to Henry's son
Prince Edward because the Prince was the son of
Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife. Henry, who was increasingly unwell, became convinced that Surrey and his father planned to usurp the crown from Edward in order to reverse the Reformation and thus return the English Church to papal jurisdiction. He ordered the arrest of the Duke and his son, both of them being tried for high treason and later sentenced to death; Surrey was executed on 19 January 1547. The Duke's execution was scheduled for 28 January but did not take place because Henry VIII died in the early hours of the same day. The
Privy Council made a decision not to inaugurate the new reign with bloodshed, but Howard remained a prisoner in the
Tower of London for the next six years, with most of his property and titles
forfeit to the Crown. Surrey initially entrusted the education of his children to the Dutch physician and classical scholar
Hadrianus Junius (the 3rd Duke and Surrey were patrons of the Dutchman), but following his patron's fall from grace, Junius lost his work as tutor to the Howard children. After Surrey's death, his sister
Mary Howard, Dowager Duchess of Richmond took over the care of his children and
John Foxe, the Protestant
martyrologist was employed to be their tutor, at the suggestion of
Lord Wentworth. During that time, they lived in
Reigate Castle, one of the residences belonging to the 3rd Duke. From Foxe, the children learned Greek and Latin to a level where they "could compete with the most learned men of the age". Despite being educated by Foxe, both Henry and his siblings were Catholics, as were most of his paternal family, who remained loyal to the Roman Church during the turmoil of the
Reformation. His father fell out of favor in part because he had been a Catholic, and his grandfather remained a prisoner in the
Tower throughout the reign of Edward VI, being released and pardoned in August 1553, shortly after the Catholic Queen
Mary I ascended the throne. As soon as the 3rd Duke was released, he took over the upbringing of Henry and his siblings, dismissing Foxe, who soon had to go into exile in various countries of Continental Europe to escape the anti-Protestant measures taken by Queen Mary. Subsequently both Henry and his older brother Thomas studied with
John White,
Bishop of Lincoln; when White was elected
Bishop of Winchester in July 1556, Henry followed his tutor to Winchester. While with White, Howard read largely in philosophy, civil law, divinity, and history. On Mary's death and
Queen Elizabeth's accession, White was deprived of his bishopric, and Elizabeth undertook the charge of Howard's education. Henry was a second cousin of Elizabeth through her maternal grandmother,
Lady Elizabeth Howard, sister of the 3rd Duke and mother of
Anne Boleyn. He was restored in blood 8 May 1559, following a Bill in the House of Lords in April that year. At the queen's expense he proceeded to
King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M. A. in 1564. He afterwards joined
Trinity Hall, read Latin lectures on rhetoric and civil law in public, and applied to a friend in London for a master to teach him the
lute. ==Under suspicion==