William Howard, Viscount Stafford was born in 1612 to the noble Howard family. Amongst his great uncles was St Philip Howard, Early of Arundel who died in the Tower under sentence of death in 1595.

In 1642, at the outbreak of the Civil War, Howard and his family moved to Holland and spent much of the next 20 years abroad where his children received Catholic educations. He returned, making England his home, in 1660 at the time of the restoration of the monarchy.

Anti-Catholic forces came together in the 1670s, culminating in 1678 with the ‘revelation’ of the supposed Popish Plot. Lord Stafford was arrested together with four other Catholic peers, and sent to the Tower. Perjured evidence was presented to suggest Stafford’s involvement in, or at least awareness of, a plot to kill the King. The King sent a message to him saying he had been convinced of his guilt but would pardon him if he would confess, an offer Stafford refused.

After two years imprisonment in the Tower, Stafford was brought to formal trial in Westminster Hall. After four days he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. Later at the request of the Lords the sentence was commuted to beheading.

The sentence was carried out on Tower Green on 29 December and buried within the Tower.

The memorial of Blessed William Howard is kept on 11th October.

Heavenly Father,
You gave to Blessed William Howard
the strength to bear false accusation, trial and martyrdom.
Through his prayers may we be given the same courage
so as to witness to you in all the trials and tribulations of our lives.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, you Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

• Blessed WIlliam's execution was carried out on Tower Hill, London, beside the Tower of the London. The site can be visited.
• During the time of persecution many Catholics were imprisoned in the Tower of London, (including St Thomas More and St Philip Howard); many were tortured (including St Nicholas Owen, and St Edmund Campion); and some executed on Tower Green, in the Tower (including Blessed Margaret Pole). A vist to the Tower allows for visits to cells used by the martyrs, some of which still bear inscriptions that they made.

Illustration of Bd WIlliam Staffor at the scaffod. From 'Memoirs of Missionary Priests' by Bishop Challoner (Jack, 1878).

The Tower of London