Bienheureux Guillaume
Howard
Martyr en
Angleterre (+ 1680)
Fils de Thomas, comte d'Arundel,
né en 1616 et élevé dans la religion catholique, petit-fils de saint Philippe Howard, il
avait le titre de vicomte Stafford, il fut fait chevalier de l'Ordre du Bain
par le roi Charles 1er et épousa Marie Stafford en 1637. Il devint baron de
Stafford en 1640 (un comté de Virginie aux États-Unis porte son nom). Il fut
arrêté sur la fausse information de complicité dans le complot dit polonais,
emprisonné pendant deux ans puis décapité. Il a été béatifié en 1929.
À Londres, en 1680, le
bienheureux Guillaume Howard, martyr. Vicomte de Stafford, petit-fils de saint
Philippe Howard, élevé dans la foi catholique, il fut arrêté sur la fausse
accusation de complot contre le roi Charles II, enfermé à la tour de Londres,
déclaré coupable et décapité.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/11310/Bienheureux-Guillaume-Howard.html
Profile
Son of Thomas, earl of Arundel,
England.
Grandson of Saint
Philip
Howard. Raised Catholic
in England
in a time when the faith was being persecuted.
Married
Mary Stafford in 1637.
Viscount of Stafford in England.
Baron Stafford in 1640.
Exiled
in 1642
for political reasons, and lived in the Netherlands.
Undertook diplomatic
missions in Flanders
and Switzerland
for Emperor Ferdinand. His family was impoverished
when the English Parliment impounded his lands. Arrested
in Heidelberg in 1653
and Utrect in 1656
for apparently political reasons, but he was acquitted of all charges.
In 1660
his family property was reinstated, the fortunes of his family turned around,
and they returned to England.
Accused of complicity in the “Popish Plot”, he was sent to the Tower of London
on 25
October 1678.
Imprisoned
for two years before they bothered to try him, he was condemned before the
trial started. Though he had no involvement in the “Plot”, he was martyred
for being an influential, high-profile Catholic.
Born
30
November 1614
in Strand, London,
England
beheaded
on 29
December 1680
on Tower Hill, London,
England
8 December
1929
by Pope
Pius
XI (decree of martyrdom)
15
December 1929
by Pope
Pius
XI
Additional
Information
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001
edición
sites
en français
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005
edition
nettsteder
i norsk
MLA
Citation
‘Blessed William Howard‘.
CatholicSaints.Info. 16 December 2025. Web. 24 September 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-william-howard/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-william-howard/
Bl. William Howard
Feastday: December 29
Death: 1680
Martyr of England. He was
born the son of Thomas, earl of Arundel, in 1616 and raised a Catholic. The
grandson of Blessed Philip Howard and a member of the noble family of the
Howards, William held the title of Viscount Stafford. He was made a Knight of
the Bath by King Charles I (r.1624-1649), and married Mary Stafford in
1637. In 1640, William was named Baron Stafford. A county in Virginia in
the United States bears his name. He was arrested on the false accusation of
complicity in the so-called Popish Plot and imprisoned for two years before
finally being beheaded on Tower Hill on December 29. He was beatified in 1929.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2128
Blessed William Howard M
(AC)
Born 1616; died in
London, England, in 1680; beatified in 1929. Viscount William of Stafford was
the grandson of Saint Philip Howard. He was accused of complicity in the
"Popish Plot" and after being imprisoned for two years was beheaded
on Tower Hill (Benedictines).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1229.shtml
Ven. William Howard
Viscount Stafford, martyr;
born 30 November, 1614; beheaded Tower-Hill, 29 December, 1680. He was grandson
of the Venerable
Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, mentioned above, fifth son of Earl Thomas
(the first great art collector of England),
and uncle ofThomas
Philip, Cardinal Howard. Brought up as a Catholic,
he was made a knight of
the Bath, at the coronation of
Charles I, 1 February, 1626, and married Mary, sister of the last Baron
Stafford, October, 1637; the title was revived for him 12 September, 1640, and
he was immediately afterwards created a viscount. He is said to have joined the
royal army during the Civil War, but perhaps erroneously,
for in 1642 he was in Holland,
attending the exiled royal family and his mother and father. He was also
employed by the Emperor Ferdinand in missions to Flanders and Switzerland.
After his father's death,
4 October 1646, many painful quarrels with his nearest relatives ensued. The
Howard properties in England having
been sequestrated by Parliament, thefamily was
much impoverished, and William's eldest surviving brother, Earl Henry
Frederick, was induced to commence a series ofunjust and
vexatious suits against his mother, and practically robbed her of her dowry.
William, as her representative, was involved in these painful and prolonged
quarrels, and even after both mother and brother had passed away, his cousins
and their agents continued against him a quasi-persecution for several years.
The details of these
transactions are obscure, but it would seem that the viscount was, under
foreign law twice actually arrested, at Heidelberg,
July to September, 1653, and at Utrecht in
January, 1656, in the latter case he was acquitted with honour,
though the charges, of which the particulars are not now known were insulting
and vexatious (Stafford Papers, 15 January, 1656, see below). In these troubles
his most dangerous opponents were perhaps Junius and other literary adherents
of his father,
who were claiming manuscripts and
rarities from the Arundel Collections in payment of their debts,
while Lord William successfully proved that
those collections were not liable to such charges. Though they lost, they
continued to write bitterly of him, and these complaints have found a permanent
record in the diaries and other writings of Evelyn, Burnet, Dugdale, etc. After
the Restoration, 1660, his rightswere
firmly established and his life within his large family circle
must have been extremely happy.
The brightest hours were perhaps those spent in conducting his nephew Philip to
receive the cardinal's hat
in Rome (1675).
Three years later Oates
(q.v.) and his abetters included Lord Stafford in their list of Catholic lords
to be proscribed, and eventually he was put first upon the list. It has been
supposed that this was done because his age, simplicity, and the previous
differences with other members of his family suggested
that he would prove comparatively easy prey. On 25 October, 1678, he was
committed to the Tower, and it was more than a year before it was decided to
try him. Then the resolution was taken so suddenly that he had little time to
prepare. The trial, before the House of Lords, lasted from 30 November to 7
December, and was conducted with great solemnity. But no attempt was made to
appraise the perjuries of
Oates, Dugdale, and Tuberville, and the viscount was of course condemned by 55
votes to 31. It is sad to read that all his kinsmen but one (that one, however,
the Lord Mowbray, with whom he had had many of the legal conflicts above here
noticed) voted against him. His last letters and speeches are marked by a quiet
dignity and a simple heroism, which give us a high idea of
his character. His fellow prisoner and
confessor, Father
Corker, O.S.B., says: "He was ever held to be of a generous
disposition, very charitable, devout, addicted to sobriety, inoffensive in
words, a lover ofjustice."
A portrait of him by Van
Dyck belongs to the Marquess of Bute.
Pollen, John
Hungerford. "Ven. William Howard." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1910. 29 Dec.
2017 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07504a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael C. Tinkler.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07504a.htm
Beato Guglielmo Howard
Visconte di Stafford, martire
Festa: 29 dicembre
>>> Visualizza la
Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
30 novembre 1614 - 29
dicembre 1680
Martirologio Romano: A
Londra in Inghilterra, beato Guglielmo Howard, martire, che, visconte di
Stafford, professò la fede cattolica e, falsamente accusato per questo di
cospirazione contro il re Carlo II, morì per Cristo con un colpo di scure.
William Howard era il nipote di San Filippo Howard, già trattato in data 19 ottobre. Nel 1675 fu arrestato ed imprigionato nella celebre Torre di Londra, accusato di aver protetto dei cattolici, ed infine condannato a morte e giustiziato dopo cinque anni.
William diventò visconte di Stafford nel 1637, in seguito al matrimonio con l’ultima erede del casato. Il re inglese Carlo I nominò baroni William e la moglie. Nella guerra civile che scoppiò poco dopo, appoggiò il partito monarchico e perse così tutte le sue proprietà terriere, restituitegli poi nel 1660 con l’ascesa al trono di Carlo II. William si sentì però non sufficientemente compensato per la sua lealtà alla corona e da quel momento inizò a provare un sentimento di rancore verso il nuovo sovrano. Nel 1678 litigò pubblicamente con il conte di Peterborough nel corso di un dibattito alla Camera dei Lord, episodio che gli guadagnò non pochi nemici.
Nello stesso anno William fu denunciato per sospetta complicità nel “complotto papista” ideato da Tito Oates, accusato di aver progettato l’assassinio del re Carlo II. In tal modo sarebbe succeduto infatti al trono inglese il fratello Giacomo II, di religione cattolica. Il complotto si rivelò però assolutamente fittizio e difficilmente William Howard avrebbe potuto esserne un complice vista la sua età ormai avanzata. Tuttavia, regnando un’atmosfera generale di sospetto ed apprensione, la sua semplice appartenenza alla Chiesa Cattolica fu sufficiente per incriminarlo. Imprigionato nella Torre, fu poi processato dai suoi pari nella Westminster Hall.
Secondo la testimonianza del cronista John Evelyn, persino alcuni suoi parenti
votarono contro di lui. Evelyn, che lo conosceva personalmente, escluse a
priori che un uomo maturo ed esperto come Howard avesse potuto prendere parte
al complotto, dando l’incarico a degli estranei di uccidere il sovrano. Lo
colpì l’impressionante compostezza di William, che “parlò molto poco... e si
comportò molto umilmente, come al solito” ma fu comunque ritenuto colpevole. Il
29 dicembre 1680, prima di essere decapitato, invocò: “Signore, perdona colore
che hanno giurato il falso contro di me”.
William Howard fu beatificato il 15 dicembre 1929.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/93211
Den salige William Howard
( -1680)
Minnedag:
29. desember
Den salige William Howard
var barnebarn av den salige Philip Howard, og ble gjort til grev Stafford etter
at han giftet seg med Mary, søster av den siste baronen av Stafford, i 1637.
Han var en tro, men ikke særlig fremtredende, tilhenger av kong Charles I, og
noe hengiven til rettsstrider. Da han var over 60 år gammel, ble han anklaget
for delakrtighet i Oates' fiktive såkalte «popish plot», og etter to år i
fengsel ble han halshugd på Tower Hill. Saligkåret 1929. Minnedag 29. desember.
Kilder:
Attwater/Cumming - Sist oppdatert: 1998-02-21 17:48
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/whoward
~ Martyrs of England and
Wales († 1535-1680) ~ (III) : http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/England03.htm
