William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham bride, Anne of Cleves at Calais. While on an embassy to France in 1541 William Howard was charged with concealing the sexual indiscretions of his young niece, Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, and was recalled to England to stand trial. On 22 December 1541 Howard, his wife, and a number of servants who had been alleged witnesses to the Queen's misconduct were arraigned for misprision of treason, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods. He and most of the others were pardoned after Queen Catherine's execution on 13 February 1542. In 1544 Howard accompanied the Earl
Hans Holbein the Younger money from him. He painted Denny's portrait in 1541 and two years later designed a clock-salt for him. Denny was part of a circle that gained influence in 1542 after the failure of Henry's marriage to Catherine Howard. The king's marriage in July 1543 to the reformist Catherine Parr, whose brother Holbein had painted in 1541, established Denny's party in power. Holbein may have visited his wife and children in late 1540, when his leave-of-absence from Basel expired. None of his work dates from this period, and the Basel authorities paid him six months salary in advance. The state of