Catherine Howard Lord Edmund Howard ( – 1539) and Joyce Culpeper ( – ). Her father's sister, Elizabeth Howard, was the mother of Anne Boleyn. Therefore, Catherine Howard was the first cousin of Anne Boleyn, and the first cousin once removed of Lady Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I), Anne's daughter by Henry VIII. As a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524), Catherine had an aristocratic pedigree. Her father was not wealthy, being a younger son among 21 children and disfavoured in the custom of primogeniture, by which the eldest son inherits all his father's estate. When Catherine's parents married,
William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham (27 December 1577 – 28 November 1615) was an English nobleman, the eldest son of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham (who as Lord Howard of Effingham famously led the English fleet against the Spanish Armada) and Catherine Carey, Lady of the chamber to Queen Elizabeth who died 25 Feb 1603 at Arundel House, Strand, Middlesex, ENG. As Sir William Howard, he was elected Member of Parliament for Surrey in 1597. However, two days before the Parliament met his father was raised to an Earldom. This