Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (1540 – 1614) was a significant English aristocrat and courtier. He built Northumberland House in London and superintended the construction of the fine house of Audley End.
He founded and planned several hospitals. He was the second son of the famous Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516-1547) at the Tower of London) was an English nobleman and poet. The Earl of Surrey was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Stafford, daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham.
In 1546 he was arrested with his father and unjustly accused of treason. On 19 January 1547 Howard, Earl of Surrey was beheaded. Howard’s poems appeared in 1557 along with those of Thomas Wyatt. At Henry’s famous relatives were among his cousins Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the second and fifth wife of Henry VIII, both of which were executed by her royal husband in the years 1536 or 1542.
