Free The Dukes by Brian Masters

scaffold had fallen apart with dis­use, and a new one had to be constructed. 21 The Duke was beheaded on 2nd June, but spared the indignity of having his bowels ripped out and his head stuck on a spike 011 London Bridge. The Queen
    was seen to be very downcast that day, and unapproachable. 22
     
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    A word must be said about the Howard religion. A chief singu­larity of the Dukes of Norfolk is that they are Roman Catholic. No other ducal family survives from the Wars of the Roses, which depleted the ranks of the English aristocracy to a disastrous degree, so the Dukes of Norfolk may be said to have adhered to the "old" religion by virtue of historical survival, or because they were of the "old" nobility. It is misleading to think of them as always Roman Catholic; for reasons of political expediency, there have been a number of Protestants among them. The 4th Duke of Norfolk lived as a Protestant, but was still regarded as a Catholic. In the months before he was beheaded in 1572 he wrote a long letter to his children, impressive in its dignity and honesty, but containing a disavowal of the Catholic Church which does not quite ring true. "Upon my blessing beware of blind Papistry, which brings nothing but bondage to men's consciences", he wrote. "Perchance you have heretofore heard, or perchance may hereafter hear, false bruits [rumours] that I was a Papist. But trust unto it, I never since I knew what religion meant, I thank God, was of other mind than now you shall hear that I die in." 2S In view of Norfolk's support for the cause of Mary Queen of Scots, and his tacit acquiescence in the proposed invasion of Catholic armies which would rid the country of the Protestant scourge and be welcomed with open arms by the populace (so they thought), Norfolk's eleventh-hour rejection of papistry comes as a surprise. Considering also that his wife and son (Philip, Earl of Arundel) were almost fanatically Catholic, and that this same letter contains exhortations to avoid pride, to eschew worldly gains, to embrace modesty and self-denial, and not to be headstrong (advice he had spent a lifetime rejecting), the exercise appears more like a strategem to avoid reprisals against the Howards. It reads like a letter that is intended for publication. As a denial of the Catholic faith by a Howard, it must be regarded as an aberration.
    Norfolk's son Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel (i 557 -1595), who could not claim the dukedom of Norfolk which now lay dormant owing to his father's attainder, was persecuted for his adherence to Catho­licism, and imprisoned in the Tower for eleven years. He wasted and died there, but not before incurring more odium by openly praying for the success of the Spanish Armada. This man was eventually canonised by the Catholic Church in 1970, and is now known as St Philip Howard. Saint or not, his haughty insolent manner did not endear him to those who knew him casually. His son, too, Thomas Earl of Arundel (n 585-1646), inherited that besetting vanity of rank which has plagued the Howards through centuries. He did not suffer himself to be addressed by any beneath him in status, and went so far as to be sent to the Tower for having insulted a fellow peer, Lord Spencer, in 1621. Spencer had made some reflection upon past events in their families. Arundel interrupted him rudely: "My Lord," he said, "when these things you speak of, were doing, your ancestors were keeping sheep !" to which Spencer replied, "When my ancestors, as you say, were keeping sheep, your ancestors were plotting treason." Arundel was not released from prison until he had made an apology. 24 Clarendon said that "he thought no other part of history consider­able, but what related to his own family", and also that he was "without religion".
    Owing to their more or less constant Catholicism, the Dukes of Norfolk henceforth retired from the political limelight. The first four dukes had played a leading part in the history of the country for nearly