Short answers, pulled from the story.
John Howard was created Duke of Norfolk by King Richard III on the 28th of June 1483, the two-hundredth anniversary of the Barony of Mowbray. The Howard family has held this dukedom, the senior dukedom in England, ever since, making them Premier Dukes of the Realm.
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, was the grandfather of two of Henry VIII's wives: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Catherine Howard became Henry's fifth wife and Queen consort. The 2nd Duke was also the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I.
The Howards refused to convert to Protestantism after the English Reformation and maintained their Catholic faith despite severe consequences. Four consecutive members were imprisoned or fell from grace for their beliefs. Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel, died in the Tower of London in October 1595 and is venerated as a saint; William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, is regarded as a blessed martyr.
The surname FitzAlan-Howard derives from the marriage of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, to Mary FitzAlan, daughter of Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel. When Mary's brother Henry died in 1556, she became heiress to the Arundel estates. The present Duke of Norfolk uses the hyphenated name and holds Arundel Castle as the family's principal seat.
The Earl Marshal is the eighth Great Officer of State in the United Kingdom and is responsible for organising state funerals and the monarch's coronation at Westminster Abbey. The office has been hereditary in the Howard family, in their capacity as Dukes of Norfolk, since John Howard was made hereditary Earl Marshal by Richard III in 1483.
A pedigree compiled by Sir William Dugdale, dated the 8th of April 1665, traced the Howards to the Howarth family of Great Howarth Hall in Rochdale, Lancashire. The founding figure was Osbert Howard de Howarth, who received Rochdale lands from King Henry I for service as Master of the King's Buckhounds. William Howard de Howard, born in 1237, is identified as the progenitor of the noble line; he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1297.