Frances Howard

David Lindley (University of Leeds)

Ed. by J A Roe, University of York
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

Born 1590
Died 1632
Activity 1615-1632

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Other

Man/ Woman of Letters

Resources

Frances Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, was born at some point between 1590 and 1593. A surviving astrological chart suggests May 31^st, 1590, but testimony given at annulment hearings (see below) implies a later date. Her subsequent career generated one of the greatest scandals of the seventeenth century, but she merits a place in this literary encyclopaedia because of the writings of very varied kinds that attended each stage of her eventful life.

Frances Howard first appeared on a public stage when, in January 1606, she was married to Robert Devereux, son of the executed Second Earl of Essex. It was an alliance arranged as an attempt to heal the factional divide that had figured in Essex’s …

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2124 words

Citation: Lindley, David. "Frances Howard". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 June 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13534, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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