Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Norfolk - Family

Family

Elizabeth Stafford, born about 1497, was the eldest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, and Eleanor Percy (d. 1530). Her grandparents on her father's side were Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Woodville, and on her mother's, Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, and Maud Herbert. Her paternal grandfather, the 2nd Duke, was executed for treason in 1483 by King Richard III, and in 1521 her own father suffered the same fate when he was beheaded on Tower Hill for treason against King Henry VIII.

Elizabeth had a brother and two sisters:

• Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford (18 September 1501 – 30 April 1563), who married Ursula Pole, daughter of Sir Richard Pole by his second wife, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence.

• Katherine Stafford (c. 1499 – 14 May 1555), who married Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland.

• Mary Stafford, the youngest daughter, who married, about June 1519, as his third wife, George Neville, 5th Baron Bergavenny.

Elizabeth's father is also said to have had three illegitimate children, who would have been Elizabeth's siblings of the half blood:

• George Stafford.
• Henry Stafford.
• Margaret Stafford (c. 1511 – 25 May 1537), whom Elizabeth's father married to his ward, Thomas Fitzgerald of Leixlip, half-brother to the Earl of Kildare.