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Duke of Norfolk

Dukedom in the Peerage of England

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ521109 ↗
Source-derived summary

Duke of Norfolk is a title in the Peerage of England. The premier non-royal peer, the Duke of Norfolk is additionally the premier duke and earl in the English peerage. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the title refers to the county of Norfolk. The current duke is Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk. The dukes have historically been Catholic; during the 16th-19th centuries, therefore, members of the family were amongst the most prominent of English Catholic recusants.

All past and present dukes have been descended from Edward I. The son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; the earl was descended from Edward III. As all subsequent dukes after Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk are descendants of the Earl of Surrey, this means they are also descended from Edward III.

The 2nd Duke of Norfolk was the grandfather of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard and the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I.

History

Before the Dukes of Norfolk, there were the Bigod Earls of Norfolk, starting with Roger Bigod from Normandy (died 1107). Their male line ended with Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk, who died without an heir in 1306, so their titles and estates reverted to the crown. Edward II then granted his brother, Thomas of Brotherton, the title of Earl of Norfolk in 1312. It passed to Thomas's daughter (and granddaughter of Edward I), Margaret, and then to her grandson, Thomas Mowbray.

When Richard II made Thomas Mowbray the Duke of Norfolk in 1397, he conferred upon him the estates and titles (including Earl Marshal) that had belonged to the Earls of Norfolk.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Duke of Norfolk” as dukedom in the Peerage of England. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1107, 1306, 1312, 1397—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Duke, Norfolk and Dukedom can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as dukedom in the Peerage of England. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q521109. The Library of Congress control number is sh85092410. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1107, 1306, 1312 and 1397.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Duke of Norfolk”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Duke of Norfolk primary sources, Duke of Norfolk archive and Duke research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Duke of Norfolk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.