Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk

Born Henrietta Hobart, she married Charles Howard and joined the Hanoverian court, where she became a woman of the bedchamber to Caroline of Ansbach. She also became the acknowledged mistress of Caroline’s husband, the future George II. Her first marriage was unhappy and violent, and she worked over many years to obtain financial security and separation from her husband.

Her life reveals the political significance of royal household service and the limited routes by which an eighteenth-century married woman could seek personal and financial independence. Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk was born in Norfolk, England and died in Marble Hill, Twickenham, England.

Laura Purcell’s Mistress of the Court makes Henrietta Howard the centre of the story, following her escape from an abusive marriage, entry into the Hanoverian household and long relationship with the future George II while she also serves Queen Caroline. Antonia Hodgson’s The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins approaches her from the outside: Hawkins accepts an assignment involving the king’s mistress, and Henrietta’s place near the royal couple turns his criminal investigation into a court matter with political consequences.