Henry Howard

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is a nobleman who never lets anyone forget it. Proud of his ancient bloodline and disdainful of self-made men like Cromwell, he moves through Henry VIII's court as a poet, soldier and schemer, working to secure his family's power and status by any means his rank affords him.

David O'Hara plays Surrey's arrogance like a blade kept visibly sheathed — courteous on the surface, contemptuous underneath, always ready to draw. The writing uses him as the court's purest expression of aristocratic entitlement, and O'Hara gives that entitlement real menace, making Surrey one of the show's most quietly dangerous men.