His uncle was William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, who was an influential man during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. Herbert was responsible for the costly restoration of Cardiff Castle.

[1] In the court intrigues of Elizabeth's reign, Pembroke was regarded as a partisan of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and was certainly in very intimate relations with him.

From thenceforth, he spent much time at Ludlow Castle, the official residence of the president of Wales where he actively discharged the duties of his office.

[1] During the 1590s, Herbert was patron of Pembroke's Men, a theatre company who were the first group to perform a number of plays including The Isle of Dogs by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson.

[1] He was married to Lady Katherine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, on 25 May 1553,[3] in a political match arranged by their parents in the hopes of assisting the Duke of Northumberland with his plan to secure the succession of Jane who on the same day alongside her sister married the Duke's younger son, Lord Guildford Dudley.

[1][5] The armour of Henry Herbert is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the Arms and Armor galleries.