They had originally sprung from the circle of lawyers who rose to wealth and honour through their employment by the Crown.

Their earliest known ancestor was a judge under Edward the First; and his descendants remained wealthy landowners in the eastern counties till early in the fifteenth century they were suddenly raised to distinction by the marriage of Sir Robert Howard with a wife who became heiress of the houses of Arundel and Norfolk, the Fitz-Alans and the Mowbrays.

John Howard, the issue of this marriage, was a prominent Yorkist and stood high in the favour of the Yorkist kings.

He was one of the councillors of Edward the Fourth, and received from Richard the Third the old dignities of the house of Mowbray, the office of Earl Marshal and the Dukedom of Norfolk.

But he had hardly risen to greatness when he fell fighting by Richard's side at Bosworth Field.