William, 1st Lord Howard of Effingham, was the son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and his second wife, Agnes Tilney. He was constantly employed, in the latter years of King Henry VIII's reign, both in diplomacy and war. In the reign of Edward VI, William was, for one year, Captain of Calais and was the protector of Princess Mary against the wiles of the Duke of Northumberland in the Summer of 1553. That Queen created him High Admiral and he defended the City of London valiantly against Sir Thomas Wyatt for her. He was sent, in command of the English fleet, to fetch the Prince of Spain to marry Mary, and would have been more trusted by the Queen than he was in her later years had he not been such a resolute champion of the rights of succession of the Princess Elizabeth. He was so disgusted with the bloodshed of the last year of Mary's reign that he resigned his office of Admiral. Under Elizabeth I, he negotiated the peace with France in 1559 and, though a faithful Catholic, valiantly took the Royal side against the rebel earls in 1569, thus closing a public life of unblemished loyalty by a supreme exercise of that virtue.