Howard, Philip Thomas, Cardinal of Norfolk (1629 -1694)

Philip Howard was the third son of Henry Frederick Howard, Earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Norfolk and Elizabeth Stuart, eldest daughter of Esmé, Duke of Lennox. Though his father was a conforming member of the Church of England, he brought up Philip and his brothers as members of the Church of Rome, and though they were entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, they were shortly afterwards sent to the University of Utrecht. While on the Continent, Philip declared his vocation to be a priest, and entered a monastery. Despite the appeal of his father to the Pope himself, the Church upheld this call, and he was allowed to found a College for Englishmen at the House of the Holy Cross at Bornhem in East Flanders, and was appointed the first Prior of the house in 1657. After the Restoration he was in the confidence of Charles II, was greatly involved in the negotiations and was one of the five witnesses to the private marriage of Charles II to Catherine of Braganza in 1662. He was appointed Chaplain, and Almoner to the new Queen and moved to the English court, though still making frequent visits to his convent at Bornhem. In 1672 he was made Vicar General for England, a Bishop in partibus, and Bishop elect of Heliopolis. He fell foul of the Dean and Chapter of Windsor over indulgences and had to take refuge abroad, returning to Bornhem in September 1674. In 1675 he was made a Cardinal by Clement X.