Catherine Howard, Countess of Suffolk

Catherine was born in Charlton Park, Wiltshire, the oldest child of Sir Henry Knyvet (or Knyvett) and his wife, Elizabeth Stumpe.{{cite ODNB|last=Payne|first=Helen|year=2004|title=Howard, Katherine, countess of Suffolk (b. in or after 1564, d. 1638)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/70618|access-date=3 May 2016|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/70618 }} Her uncle was Sir Thomas Knyvet (or Knyvett), who foiled the "Gunpowder Plot".

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Early in her life, Catherine married Richard Rich, son of Robert Rich, 2nd Baron Rich, and grandson of Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich. After his death in 1580, she married Sir Thomas Howard, who, twenty years later, was named the Earl of Suffolk.

On the death of her father in 1598, Catherine inherited Charlton Park, Wiltshire, which thereafter became the seat of the Earls of Suffolk.{{cite web|title=VCH 14, Malmesbury Hundred:Brokenborough|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol14/pp25-35|access-date=10 November 2023}}

Howard gained a place in Queen Elizabeth I's bedchamber and the title of Keeper of the Jewels in 1599. She continued to hold comparable positions after the Union of the Crowns in the reign of James VI and I. On 8 June 1603, she received some of Elizabeth's jewels from the Tower of London for Anne of Denmark.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 15 (London, 1936), p. 380. Howard became a lady of drawing chamber to Anne of Denmark, and keeper of her jewels until 1608.Nadine Akkerman, 'The Goddess of the Household', Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2014), pp. 305-306.John Leeds Barroll, 'The court of the first Stuart queen', Linda Levy Peck, The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (Cambridge, 1991), p. 204.

Lady Anne Clifford wrote that the Countess of Suffolk, the young Lady Derby, and Audrey Walsingham were at Dingley, among the courtiers greeting Anne of Denmark on 23 June. Clifford said these three were great favourites of the statesman Sir Robert Cecil.Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writings (Manchester, 2018), p. 19: John Nichols, [https://archive.org/details/progressesproce01nichgoog/page/174/mode/2up The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 174] According to Arbella Stuart, Anne of Denmark asked the Countess of Suffolk and Audrey Walsingham to select some of Elizabeth's old clothes from a store in the Tower of London for a masque in January 1604, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses.Sara Jayne Steen, The letters of Lady Arbella Stuart (Oxford, 1994), p. 197: Ethel C. Williams, Anne of Denmark (London: Longman, 1970), p. 96.Clare McManus, Women on the Renaissance stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court (Manchester, 2002), p. 107.Ann Rosalind Jones & Peter Stallybrass, Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge, 2000), p. 26. Anne of Denmark appeared as Pallas, flanked by Lady Rich as Venus and the Countess of Suffolk as Juno.Mark Hutchings & Berta Cano-Echevarría, 'Between Courts: Female Masquers and Anglo-Spanish Diplomacy', Early Theatre, 15:1 (2012), p. 95.

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When the Spanish ambassador Juan Fernández de Velasco y Tovar, 5th Duke of Frías came to London to sign a peace treaty, Anne of Denmark and the Countess observed his arrival at Somerset House from a barge on the Thames on 14 August 1604.Ethel C. Williams, Anne of Denmark (London: Longman, 1970), p. 96. The barge carried no insignia and they wore black masks.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), 209.[https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10512581?page=22 Relación de la Jornada del Condestable de Castilla (Antwerp, 1604), p. 22]Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610, 141, SP 14/9A/f.12r.

The ambassador, known as the Constable of Castile, gave gifts to several English courtiers.Cynthia Fry, Perceptions of Influence: The Catholic Diplomacy of Queen Anna and her Ladies, Nadine Akkerman & Birgit Houben, The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2014), p. 283: Gustav Ungerer, 'Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and the Circulation of Gifts', Shakespeare Studies, vol. 26 (1998), p. 151. The Countess of Suffolk told the resident ambassador Juan de Tassis, 1st Count of Villamediana that she deserved jewels, cash, and a pension for her services.Óscar Alfredo Ruiz Fernández, England and Spain in the Early Modern Era: Royal Love, Diplomacy, Trade and Naval Relations (London, 2019), p. 62: Albert J. Loomie, 'Toleration and Diplomacy: The Religious Issue in Anglo-Spanish Relations, 1603–1605', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 53:6 (1963), pp. 36, 53, 55. Spanish agents discussed the possibility of "liberty of conscience" with her, a plan that Catholics might be allowed to worship in private in Protestant England.Albert J. Loomie, 'Toleration and Diplomacy: The Religious Issue in Anglo-Spanish Relations, 1603–1605', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 53:6 (1963), pp. 19, 25–27, 32–34, 36.Linda Levy Peck, Northampton: Patronage and Policy at the Court of James I (London, 1982), pp. 70–71.

The Countess of Suffolk received a pension from Spain.Óscar Alfredo Ruiz Fernández, England and Spain in the Early Modern Era: Royal Love, Diplomacy, Trade and Naval Relations (London, 2019), pp. 30, 99, 111–12, 134: Mark Hutchings & Berta Cano-Echevarría, 'Between Courts: Female Masquers and Anglo-Spanish Diplomacy, 1603–5', Early Theatre, 15:1 (2012), p. 95. Spanish diplomats referred to her and her pension by an alias or codename, successively using Roldán, Príamo, and Amadís.Óscar Alfredo Ruiz Fernández, England and Spain in the Early Modern Era: Royal Love, Diplomacy, Trade and Naval Relations (London: Bloomsbury, 2020), p. 101. The English ambassador in Madrid Sir John Digby uncovered details of some payments and kept King James informed.Sheila R. Richards, Secret Writing in the Public Records (London: HMSO, 1974), p. 80.

According to the 1650 satirical history The Court and Character of King James, the Countess received gifts of great value and Spanish bounty payments that contributed to the costs of building Audley End. The author, possibly Anthony Weldon, also asserts that she benefitted as a "double sharer" as a mistress or close associate of Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State.Pauline Croft, 'The Religion of Robert Cecil', The Historical Journal, 34:4 (December 1991), p. 785: The Court and Character of King James, 1650 (London: Smeeton, 1817), 9.

Howard danced in another of Anne of Denmark's masques, The Masque of Blackness written by Ben Jonson.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 488. Anne of Denmark wanted the actors to look African so the actors painted their faces black.Mara R. Wade, 'Anna of Denmark and her Royal Sisters', Clare McManus, Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 60–61. In 1611, the poet Emilia Lanier chose to make her one of dedicatees of her poem Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum.Erin A. McCarthy, Doubtful Readers: Print, Poetry, and the Reading Public in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2020), p. 111.{{cite book|editor=Susanne Woods|last=Lanyer|first=Aemilia|title=The Poems of Aemilia Lanyer: Salve Dues Rex Judaeorum|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1993|url=http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/ameilia_lanyer.htm|access-date=11 October 2011}}

She was granted authority over the lodgings at Greenwich Palace where Anne gave birth to the Princess Sophia in 1606. She was in such a position of high esteem within the court, she would have been given the honour of being a godmother if the child had not perished.

Howard strove successfully to gain rank in court but proved to be corrupt. She served as a liaison between Spain and the Earl of Salisbury, and demanded bribes for doing so. Her husband Thomas Howard was appointed Lord Treasurer, which allowed her more opportunity for financial gain. She was beautiful in her younger years, and during her time at court had many suitors and a string of alleged love affairs, using the position her husband achieved in the government to extort kickbacks from her lovers.

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When the Earl of Northampton died in 1614, the Suffolks inherited Northampton House on London's Strand.Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 541. The Countess of Suffolk paid £5000 for the furnishings, detailed in a surviving inventory.Manolo Guerci, London's Golden Mile: The Great Houses of the Strand, 1550–1650 (Yale, 2021), p. 207: Linda Levy Peck, 'Building, Buying and Collecting in London', Lena Cowen Orlin, Material London (Philadelphia, 2000), p. 274.Evelyn Philip Shirley, [https://archive.org/details/sim_archaeologia-tracts-relating-to-antiquity_1869_42/page/346/mode/2up 'Inventory of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton', Archaeologia, 42 (1869), pp. 347–78] She raised the money with the royal favourite, the Earl of Somerset, who was married to her daughter Frances. A loan for a part of the sum secured improperly on crown money by Sir Arthur Ingram.Anthony F. Upton, Sir Arthur Ingram c. 1565–1642; a study of the origins of an English landed family (Oxford, 1961), p. 80.

As the Thomas Overbury scandal was revealed in November 1615, King James commanded that the Countess of Suffolk leave London for the country at Audley End.G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC Downshire, 5 (London: HMSO, 1988), pp. 371 no. 763, 387 no. 805. In March 1616, she made plans to visit Spa in Belgium, a health resort.G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC Downshire, 5 (London: HMSO, 1988), p. 459 no. 968.

Lady Anne Clifford mentions visiting the Suffolks at Northampton House in December 1616.Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), p. 46. There, in 1619, at the age of 55, Catherine, Countess of Suffolk was the victim of an attack of smallpox. According to Lady Anne Clifford, this "spoiled that good face of hers, which had brought to other much misery and to herself greatness which ended with much unhappiness".Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), pp. 75–76.

Details of corrupt practices came out in the Suffolk's Star Chamber trial in February 1619. The main charges against the Earl were embezzling royal jewels, diverting money provided for artillery, exporting artillery, abuse in the alum works, and misuse of crown money. Sir John Bingley was their broker for the "misemployment of the King's treasure".James Spedding, Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon, vol. 7 (London, 1874), p. 56–59: Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, 2 (London: Colburn, 1849), pp. 130–31.

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The Suffolks claimed to have received perks and gifts, rather than bribes, but the judge Francis Bacon said "New Year's gifts do not last all the year".Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England (Routledge, 1990), p. 184: Felicity Heal, The Power of Gifts: Gift-exchange in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2014), p. 201. Sir John Finet alleged "to be spared a bond of £500, a citizen gave £83 and a sable muff to the countess".Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury, vol. 22 (London, 1971), p. 99. It was alleged that the Countess obtained a rake-off from money owed to the silkman Benjamin Henshawe for supplies to the royal wardrobe. Henshawe was Bingley's brother-in-law.[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/bingley-john-1572-1638 Bingley, John (c.1572-1638), of Chester, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010]

The Suffolks were found guilty of corrupt practices, and the Countess and her family were banned from court.A. Perceval Keep, [https://archive.org/details/sim_english-historical-review_1898-10_13_52/page/716/mode/2up 'Star Chamber Proceedings against the Earl of Suffolk and Others', English Historical Review, 13:52 (1898), 716–728] They faced heavy fines and imprisonment at the Tower of London.Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writings (Manchester, 2018), p. 92: Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England (Routledge, 1990), p. 184. The couple were released late in 1619, partly due to the intercession of the Duke of Buckingham.Roger Lockyer, Buckingham (London: Longman, 1981), p. 64.

Peers generally sympathised with the Earl for being caught in her web of corruption, and she endured the brunt of the blame for their fall from grace. After being expelled from court, she continued to write letters on behalf of others seeking court positions.

Catherine's children included:

• Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (1582–1640), who married Elizabeth Home, daughter of George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar
• Elizabeth Howard (c. 1583–1658); married firstly William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury, then Edward Vaux, 4th Baron Vaux of Harrowden
• Sir Robert Howard (1598–1653); married Catherine Nevill, a daughter of Henry Nevill, 9th Baron Bergavenny
• Sir William Howard (1586–before 1672)
• Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire (1587–1669), who married Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter in 1614. He inherited the Wiltshire estates and Charlton Park that had passed on to his mother after her father's death.
• Catherine Howard (c. 1588–1673) who married William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury.Manolo Guerci, London's Golden Mile: The Great Houses of the Strand, 1550–1650 (Yale, 2021), p. 207.
• Frances Howard (1590–1632); married firstly Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex then Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
• Sir Charles Howard (1591–21 June 1626); married Mary Fitzjohn
• Henry Howard (1592–1616); married Elizabeth Bassett
• Edward Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Escrick (d. 24 April 1675)
• Margaret Howard (c. 1599 – 1608)

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