Background
She was the daughter of Sir Henry Hobart, 4th Baronet, a Norfolk landowner who died in a duel when Henrietta was aged eight. Her mother Elizabeth (née Maynard) died a few years later.
She was the daughter of Sir Henry Hobart, 4th Baronet, a Norfolk landowner who died in a duel when Henrietta was aged eight. Her mother Elizabeth (née Maynard) died a few years later.
They had one son, Henry Howard, 10th Earl of Suffolk. The marriage was unhappy. Charles was a wife-beater and compulsive gambler.
In 1714, they travelled to Hanover, hoping to ingratiate themselves with the future George I of Great Britain.
Queen Caroline liked Henrietta, and was happy that the King kept a mistress she found congenial, although she would occasionally administer snubs to Henrietta in public. Henrietta was noted for wit and intelligence (she went deaf at an early age) rather than beauty.
George Berkeley, son of the Earl of Berkeley. After leaving the position of mistress to George II, Henrietta purchased land on the banks of the River Thames, having received a very large financial settlement from him.
I knew a thing that’s most uncommon
(Envy be silent and attend!)
I knew a reasonable woman,
Handsome and witty, yet a friend.
She is generally supposed to be the model for Chloe in Pope"s The Rape of the Lock. Her correspondents also included Horace Walpole (a near neighbour in later life) and Jonathan Swift.
