“ | Give us the names! The names, Crane! | „ |
~ Howe coercing Ichabod to give him the names of other Patriot spies. |
“ | I will never retreat until every last colonial dog lies in a grave. Do what you came to do, or leave before I have you clapped in irons! | „ |
~ Howe rejected Ichabod's mercy. |
General William Howe is the overarching antagonist in Season 3 of Sleepy Hollow.
He was portrayed by Nicholas Guest, who portrayed General Marder in Titanfall 2.
Overview[]
Wiliam Howe was a general of British Army who was in charge of Manhattan in Colonial America during the Revolutionary War (based on his real-life counterpart). He was the former mentor of Ichabod Crane until the latter's betrayal.
Notably, Howe was one of the few enemies Ichabod truly respected, and one of the even fewer enemies to drive Ichabod into fear because of his instant temptation into selling his comrades when Howe pushed him, even though he held back in the last moment and betrayed Howe, causing them to become firm enemies ever since.
History[]
Originally, Ichabod was a lieutenant and subordinate under Howe's regime before he defected to the colonial Patroits. After discovering Ichabod was a spy, Howe pressed him to give in the names of other spies so that he could be spared. Even though with one instant tempt to give in, Ichabod held back and immediately refused to follow the British tyranny once more, before escaping.
Later, before the Manhattan fire, Howe had received a Draguar Stone that would grant him an unstoppable army of zombie redcoats, revived as Draguars (a Nordic variation of undead), before Ichabod arrived under Washington's order to kill him. Ichabod intended to spare Howe and tried to dissuade Howe from starting his bloodshed in New York, but Howe refused to yield. Failing to assassinate Howe, Ichabod had to escape to evade capture, whilst Betsy Ross arrived with countermeasures of Greek Fire to eliminate Howe's undead army, though causing the Great Fire of New York in the process.
In the modern era, after a surprising discovery near Halloween, 2015, Howe's corpse was discovered in Sleepy Hollow by the Jeffersonians, and it never matched with the original official files of Howe's burial site because of George Washington's secret order. After solving a murder that associated with Howe's skull, the Jeffersonians sent the corpse back to Sleepy Hollow, so that Ichabod could investigate on it.
Nevertheless, the corpse was stolen by Pandora, who used a Draguar Stone to revive Howe and granted him an opportunity to eliminate Ichabod Crane for revenge. At night, Howe resurrected his army as undead and killed a teenager who was trapped in the cemetery. Ichabod and Abbie, heard about Howe's corpse being missing, arrived at the tombstone and saw Howe and his undead army marching towards them. However, before Howe could have a chance to strike Ichabod down, the sun rose and Howe was forced to retreat with his army.
Ichabod soon discovered that the Draguar army's weakness, which was Greek Fire deployed within a chamber beneath the Congress. With the help of Temperance Brennan and Seely Booth, Ichabod and Abbie retrieved the Greek Fire. To avoid destroting the town, Ichabod soon deployed Cheirosiphones (a special flamethrower in Byzantine era to emit Greek Fire) for Jenny and Joe, whilst he himself would serve as a bait to lure Howe and his army down into the underground tunnels.
At night, Howe and his army arrived in town for an attack, but was intervened by Ichabod and Abbie. Ichabod lured Howe's army into the tunnels, where Jenny and Joe burnt them down. Howe was soon trapped inside the flame, with Ichabod saying everything was over. Nevertheless, Howe said he won't let a turncoat like Ichabod to gain satisfaction, before he stepped into the flame and killed himself instead.