With their cousin Lord Henry Howard (later created Earl of Northampton), he was briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London at Christmas 1580, after both had been denounced by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as traitors and spies of Philip II of Spain.
Northampton | James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Earl | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Earl of Derby | Earl Warren | Earl of Pembroke | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Earl of Shrewsbury | William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham | Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick | Earl of Leicester | John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex | Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester | Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Devon | Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig | My Name Is Earl | Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon | Earl Scruggs | Earl of March | Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe |
In 1630 he inherited the Earldom on the death of his father in 1630 and assumed his duties as Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire.
The youngest of the brothers, William de Bohun (d. 1360), became the leading commander of the early part of the Hundred Years War, devising the tactics that won English victories at the Battle of Morlaix (1342), the Battle of Crecy (1346), and the Siege of Calais (1347), and was created Earl of Northampton.
There is also a painting by Pompeo Batoni entitled Portrait of Charles Compton, 7th Earl of Northampton which features a similar Whippet-like dog.
In Bernard Cornwell's series the Grail Quest, the Earl of Northampton plays a minor role as Thomas of Hookton's lord.