Background
Henry Bowes Howard, twelfth Earl of Berkhire, was born either on 10 May or on 16 May 1739, according to The Complete Peerage. He succeeded his cousin on 22 April 1745 as Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire.
Henry Bowes Howard, twelfth Earl of Berkhire, was born either on 10 May or on 16 May 1739, according to The Complete Peerage. He succeeded his cousin on 22 April 1745 as Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire.
Howard was educated at Eton (1746-1756) and matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1757, gaining an M.A. in 1759. He became a doctor of civil law in March 1761.
He was the bearer of the second sword at the coronation of King George III and served as High Steward of Malmesbury between 1763 and 1767 and as Deputy Earl Marshall between 1763 and 1765.
Howard was appointed a member of the Privy Council on 22 January 1771 and served as Lord Privy Seal from January to June 1771. He was then appointed secretary of state for the north in Lord North’s administration (North was First Lord of the Treasury, and thus prime minister, from 1770 to 1782), in June 1771, and he remained in that office for the rest of his short life. His tenure of eight years was longer than that of many of his predecessors and successors in this office.
He was elected a Knight of the Garter in 1778, but was never installed because of illness and died at the age of 39, on 7 March 1779, at Bath, and was buried on20 March 1779, at Charlton
On 25 May 1764, he was married to Maria Constantia, only daughter of Robert, first Viscount Hampden. She died in childbirth less than three years later, on 8 February 1767. Howard married for the second time, on 14 August 1777, to his cousin Charlotte, first daughter of Heneage, third Earl of Aylesford.