HOUWAERT, Jean Baptista (1533-1599), Flemish poet, was the most prominent of the rhetoricians of his day. He held the title of " Counsellor and Master in Ordinary of the Exchequer to the Dukedom of Brabant." As a patriot and a friend of the prince of Orange hs played a prominent part in the revolution of the Low Countriesagainst Spain, and when the prince entered Brussels victoriously, September 23, 1577, Houwaert met him in pomp at the head of the two chambers of rhetoric, the " Book " and the " Garland of Mary." He died at Brussels, March 11, 1599.
His existing works are of an allegorical and highly fantastic order, and prove him to have been a disciple of Matthys de Castelyn. He. wrote the Commerce of Amorosity (Den Handel der Amonrensheyt), consisting of tour plays or moralities in. verse, namely, ^E;icas ami Dido, Narcissus and Echo, Mars and Venus, and Lc aider and Hero. His other principal poem is a didactic epic on the vanity of human love, Pegasides Pleijn, of den Lusthof dcr ^[ lccll lc ll. These and other laborious and exemplary pieces gained him the title of the " Homer of Brabant " from his contemporaries. Houwaert prided himself ou the introduction of classical and mythological names into his poems, but he had little or nothing of the antique spirit.
HOVEDON, Roger of, an old English chronicler, was in all probability born at H jwden, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and was possibly a member of a family which hid taken its name from the place. The date neither of his birth n >r his death is known, and the first notice we hive of him is as being sent in 1174 by Henry II., on whom he was in attendance in France, to endeavour to induce tho lords of Galloway to withdraw from their allegiance to the king of Scotland. He appears to have been recom mended to the notice of Henry from his knowledge of law, and to have occupied a place in his household. It has baen conjectured, but without much evidence, that he was a student of Oxford; and the ascription to him of a volume of lectures is also without ground to support it. From the interest manifested in his history regarding the dispute between Archbishop Roger of York and Bishop Hugh of Durham, in regard to synodal fees, it has been supposed that he himself held for some time the living of Howden, but this is likewise wholly devoid of direct corroboration. In 1175 he was employed by Henry in the delicate mission of inducing the monastic houses to send deputations to Woodstock for tha purpose of choosing their rulers. In 1189, the last year of Henry’s reign, he was appointed a justice itinerant for the forests in Northumberland, Cum berland, and Yorkshire; and it is probable that after Henry’s death he retired to Howden, since from the number of his references to Yorkshire disputes it is evident that lie must have been living in that county during the time that he compiled the latter portion of his Chronicle. As the Chronicle closes abruptly in 1201, it is probable that lie did not live long beyond that date.
The work of Roger of Hovedon, which commences with the close of the Chronicle of Bede in 732, is divided by Professor Stubbs into four parts : the 1st ending with 1148, and consisting chiefly of the Ilifttoria post B -dam, with a few alterations and additions; the 2d ending with 1169, based principally v on the Mclrosc Chronicle, and from 1163 composed mainly of the A Beckett letters contained in the collection made by John of Salisbury and Alan of Tewkcsbury; the 3d ending with 1192, and virtually a condensation of Benedict’s Chronicle, with the occasional addition of unimportant details and several variations, many of which are inaccurate and of such a kind as to show that he wrote from memory; the 4th ending in 1201, and evidently a narrative of contemporary events. The work of Roger of Hovedon was cited in 1291 by Edward I., when claiming the lordship of Scotland, as one of the authorities in regard to the homage done by the earlier kings to his ancestors. The independ ent value of the work belongs almost wholly to the last portion, although various documents of interest to be found nowhere else are incorporated in the 2d and 3d portions.
The Chronicle vas first printed in 1. r OG in Sir Henry Saville’s collection of the Scriplores post Bedam, and was reprinted at Frankfort in lf>01. A translation of >t by H. F. Riley, B.A., appeared in 1852, and forms part of Bohn’s Antiquarian Library; and it has been published in 4 vols., 1868-71, in the series of the Master of the Rolls, under the editorship of Professor Stubbs, whose preface con tains an elaborate criticism of the work and a full account of the various MSS.
HOWARD, Henry. See Surrey, Earl of.
