Henry Howard was born in Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, in 1517.  He was the eldest son of  Thomas Howard, and Lady Elizabeth Stafford (daughter of the Duke of Buckingham). Surrey was of regal descent on both sides of his family.  He was brought up at Windsor with Henry VIII's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond. He was given the title "Earl of Surrey" by courtesy in 1524 on the passing away of his grandfather, Thomas, Earl of Surrey Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, when his father was created 3rd Duke of Norfolk.

In 1532, after marrying the Earl of Oxford's daughter, Lady Frances de Vere, Surrey accompanied his first cousin Anne Boleyn, the King, and the Duke of Richmond to France, staying there for over a year as a member of the entourage of Francis I.  In 1536 Surrey's first son, Thomas, was born, Anne Boleyn was executed, and Henry Fitzroy died at just age seventeen. Surrey's childhood friend, who was also his brother-in-law (through marriage to Mary Howard), was buried at one of the Howard homes, Thetford Abbey. Also in 1536, Surrey served with his father against the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion which protested against the King's dissolution of the monasteries.

Surrey was a mighty soldier, like his father and grandfather before him, and the Howards had long been loyal to the crown. But the Howards were in trouble when Jane Seymour became queen in 1536, and the Seymours, a rival faction at court, began their scheming in earnest. In 1537, the Seymours accused the Howards of sympathizing with the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace, and Surrey was imprisoned on that suspicion.  Surrey's famous poem "Prisoned in Windsor", in which he recalls his boyhood days in Windsor, dates from the same year. The accusations were patently false; after all, Surrey and his father had fought to put down the rebellion.

In the Early 1540s, Surrey was back in favor. He was made Knight of the Garter in 1541. This honor did not, however, keep him from occasional bouts of riotous behaviour; he was imprisoned in the Fleet prison twice, in 1542 and 1543. The first time was for quarrelling with a fellow courtier, the second for a drunked riot down the streets of London, resulting in destruction of property, namely broken windows.¹  He did not remain in the Fleet long, but while there, he composed his Satire against the Citizens of London: "London, hast thou accused me."

After his release from the Fleet, Surrey served the king in the war with Scotland, in 1542. In 1543 he fought in Flanders with the English army on the side of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was seeking to acquire the Netherlands. The following year he was wounded at the siege of Montreuil; in 1545-1546 he became Commander of the garrison of Boulogne.

When Henry VIII's health was failing in 1546, Surrey made the mistake of announcing his opinion of the obviousness of his father's becoming Protector to young Prince Edward. The Seymours finally had their day, when Surrey ill-advisedly displayed royal quarterings on his shield. Arrested along with his father on charges of treason, they were imprisoned in the Tower, condemned and executed on January 19, 1547 on Tower Hill.

Surrey continued in Wyatt's footsteps on the English sonnet form.  Wyatt and Surrey, both often titled "father of the English sonnet", established the form that was later used by Shakespeare and others: three quatrains and a couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. Surrey was also the first English poet to publish in blank verse, in his translation of part of Virgil's Aeneid. Book 4 was published in 1554 and Book 2 in 1557.

Surrey's poetry circulated in manuscript form at court. He published his Epitaph on Sir Thomas Wyatt, but most of his poetry first appeared in 1557, ten years after his death, in printer Richard Tottel's Songs and Sonnets written by the Right Honorable Lord Henry Howard late Earl of Surrey and other. Until modern times it was called simply Songs and Sonnets; but now it is generally known as Tottel's Miscellany. Sir Philip Sidney lauded Surrey's lyrics for "many things tasting of a noble birth, and worthy of a noble mind".²