and speedily taken 50 horse to join the forces supporting Queen Mary. On her accession the Queen at first treated Howard with suspicion, but in January 1554 granted him an annuity of £200. Howard further demonstrated his allegiance by serving with his uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, in putting down Wyatt's rebellion in that year. When Norfolk died on 25 August 1554, Howard was chief mourner. Howard was appointed carver to Queen Mary's husband, Philip II of Spain, but was unable to take up the position when the King arrived in England in 1554 with his own entourage of Spanish servants. He was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Emperor in the same year, and later sat as a member of Parliament for Rochester in Kent. In 1558 he sat as member for Winchelsea. Howard's cousin Elizabeth acceded to the throne in November 1558. Howard was with the court at Kenilworth Castle when the Queen's favourite, the Earl of Leicester, entertained the Queen there in lavish splendour in July 1575. In the Langham Letter, which describes the Kenilworth entertainment in lively detail, the author refers to Howard as someone with whom he is on friendly terms: 'In afternoons and a nights, sumtime am I with the right woorshipfull Syr George Howard, az good a Gentlman as ony lyves: And sumtime at my good Lady Sydneyz chamber, a Noblwooman, that I am az mooch boound untoo, az ony poor man may be untoo so gracious a Lady'. He is one of the few courtiers mentioned by name in the Letter. In 1560 he was given the position of Master of the Armouries for life and by 1579 the Queen had appointed him a Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber. In his latter years Howard lived in Kent, where he served as a Justice of the Peace and was certified by Archbishop Matthew Parker as 'favourable to sound religion'. Howard died in 1580. Footnotes References External links Mention of George Ferrers' production of Sir George Howard's The Triumph of Cupid 1510s births 1580 deaths George Howard (courtier) Culpeper family 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers English knights Year of birth uncertain English MPs 1547–1552 English MPs 1555 English MPs 1558 English MPs 1559 English MPs 1563–1567 English courtiers Court of Henry VIII Court of Mary I of England Court of Elizabeth I