Authors

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Also Known As Henry Howard

Citation Formats

General Reference

Literature Atlas. "Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://literature.interactiveatlas.org/authors/henry-howard-earl-of-surrey.

APA Style

Literature Atlas. (n.d.). Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://literature.interactiveatlas.org/authors/henry-howard-earl-of-surrey

BibTeX

@misc{literatureatlas-henry-howard-earl-of-surrey,
  author = {Literature Atlas},
  title = {Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://literature.interactiveatlas.org/authors/henry-howard-earl-of-surrey},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (born around 1516 or 1517, executed 1547), was an English courtier and poet who, building on Sir Thomas Wyatt's earlier translations of Petrarch, devised the distinct English sonnet structure of three quatrains followed by a closing couplet, rhymed ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, rather than the Italian octave-and-sestet division. Later poets, above all William Shakespeare, used this structure so extensively and to such lasting effect that it is now generally known as the Shakespearean sonnet rather than by Surrey's own name. Surrey also translated books two and four of Virgil's Aeneid into unrhymed iambic pentameter, the first sustained use of blank verse in the English language. He was executed for treason at Tower Hill in January 1547, days before Henry VIII's own death, after enemies at court accused him of improperly quartering the royal coat of arms as a challenge to the young Prince Edward's succession; his poems, like Wyatt's, reached print only posthumously in Tottel's Miscellany (1557).

Facts

Birth Year

1517 1

No exact birth date is recorded; sources give 1516 or 1517, with 1517 most commonly cited.

Death Year

1547 1

Death Date

1547-01-19 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Blank Verse

Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Wyatt's English Petrarchan translations gave Surrey the foundation on which he devised the distinct English sonnet structure; their poems were collected together, posthumously for both, in Tottel's Miscellany (1557).

Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

The Shakespearean Sonnet

Surrey devised the three-quatrain-and-couplet structure, later used so extensively by Shakespeare that the form now carries his name rather than Surrey's.

Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics