Some ancestors went under the axe, including Henry Howard, a Tudor poet much admired by the duke.

ECONOMIST: Duke of Norfolk

He has to cheat a bit to engineer this result: neither Thomas Cranmer nor Thomas Wriothesley died in the reign of Henry VIII, and Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, although condemned, was miraculously reprieved.

ECONOMIST: Tudor history

The survival of the Howard family in Protestant England dating from Henry VIII is regarded by historians as an example of tenacity and by many Catholics as miraculous.

ECONOMIST: Duke of Norfolk