Thomas Howard, 3d Duke of Norfolk, (1473-1554), English nobleman and court intriguer during the reign of Henry VIII. The eldest son of Thomas Howard, 2d duke of Norfolk, he commanded the English vanguard at Flodden Field and was made Earl when his father regained the family dukedom. On the death of his father, he succeeded to the dukedom and became the most powerful peer in England. Norfolk led the party opposed to the policies of the lord chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He favored Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragón and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, who was Norfolk's niece and future mother of Elizabeth I. As Henry's pliant tool, however, he also presided at Anne's trial and execution in 1536. That same year he repressed the rebellion of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a protest against the confiscation of monastic properties, from which he profited handsomely.

In 1540 Norfolk arrested Henry's secretary, Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who had lost favor with the king. With the execution of his niece, Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife, in 1542, Norfolk lost his influence at court. When his son, the poet Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, was arrested for treason, Norfolk was charged with complicity; and was condemned and attainted with his son. His son was executed in 1547, but the subsequent death of the king prevented Norfolk's execution. He remained a prisoner until the accession of Mary I in 1533, when his lands and titles were restored.

"Norfolk, Thomas Howard, 3d Duke of," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation