Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon

[3] In late 1546, his father and elder brother, Henry, Earl of Surrey were arrested for high treason, mainly because Surrey had quartering the royal arms of Edward the Confessor on his own coat of arms, which the King Henry VIII interpreted as an attempt by the Howards to usurp the crown of their son and heir, Prince Edward.

[8] The elderly 3rd Duke was released and pardoned shortly after the accession of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I in July 1553.

[11] In the 1560s he further extended his estate in Dorset by acquiring Buckland Newton, Cattistock and Marnhull from Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.

[12] In Elizabeth's reign he apparently adopted a position of outward conformity, but remained under suspicion concerning his religious views.

In 1562 he accompanied Bishop Jewel on the ecclesiastical Visitation of the Western diocese, [13] but was omitted by the Privy Council from the commission set up to search for Jesuits and seminary priests in Dorset.