Charles Howard
CHARLES HOWARD, nth duke of Norfolk (1746-1815), was the son of Charles Howard (1720-1786), who succeeded his cousin, Edward Howard (1686-1777), as loth duke of Norfolk in 1777, and who wrote Historical Anecdotes of some of the Howard Family (1769 and 1817). Born in March 1746,the earl of Surrey, as Charles was called from 1777 until he became duke of Norfolk in 1786, represented Carlisle in the House of Commons, where he acted with the Whigs; unlike his father he was a Protestant. In 1780 he was a lord of the treasury. In 1789 at a dinner held in London the duke gave the toast " Our sovereign's health the majesty of the people "; this greatly offended George III., who deprived him of some of his public offices.
When he died on the 16th of December 1815 he left no sons, and the dukedom passed to his kinsman, BERNARD EDWARD HOWARD (1765-1842), a descendant of the 4th duke.
Bernard's only son, HENRY CHARLES HOWARD (1791-1856), became 13th duke in 1842. As earl of Surrey he was the first Roman Catholic since the Reformation to sit in the House of Commons, of which he was a member from 1829 to 1841; as duke of Norfolk he was master of the horse from 1846 to 1852 and lord steward from 1853 to 1854. The second of his three sons, Edward George Fitzalan (1818-1883), was a member of the House of Commons from 1848 to 1868, and was created Baron Howard of Glossop in 1869. Lord Howard rendered great service to the cause of Roman Catholic education.
The 13th duke's eldest son, HENRY GRANVILLE FITZALAN HOWARD (1815-1860), succeeded to the title. He was a devoted Roman Catholic, left the Liberal party and resigned his seat in parliament rather than support the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill of 1850. He edited the Lives of Philip Howard, earl of Arundel, and of Anne Dacres, his wife (1857 and 1861). He was succeeded by his son Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th duke (b. 1847), who was postmaster-general from 1895 to 1900, first Lord Mayor of Sheffield in 1895, went out to the South African War in 1900, and whose position as head of the English Roman Catholics and as premier duke and Earl Marshal made him for many years conspicuous in public life. His only son by his first wife, a daughter of Baron Donington, died in early life; but by his second marriage (1904) to the daughter and heiress of Lord Herries he had a son born in 1908.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
