Sir Robert Howard (January 1626 – 3 September 1698) was an English playwright and politician. He fought for the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gov ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...

Life

He was born the 6th son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire and his wife Elizabeth. As the 18-year-old son of a Royalist family, he fought at the

battle of Cropredy Bridge The Battle of Cropredy Bridge was fought on 29 June 1644 near Banbury, Oxfordshire during the First English Civil War. In the engagement, Sir William Waller and the Parliamentarian army failed to capture King Charles. The site was placed ...

and was knighted for the bravery he showed there. In the years after the

his royalist sympathies led to his imprisonment at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

in 1658. After the Restoration, he quickly rose to prominence in political life, with several appointments to posts which brought him influence and money. He was Member of Parliament for Stockbridge in the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

(1661 to 1679) and for

Castle Rising Castle Rising is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated some north-east of the town of King's Lynn and west of the city of Norwich. The River Babingley skirts the north of the village separating C ...

(1679 to 1681 and 1689 to 1698), and believed in a balance of parliament and monarchy. All his life he continued in a series of powerful positions; in 1671 he became secretary to the Treasury, and in 1673

auditor of the Exchequer The Auditor of the Receipt of the Exchequer was an office in the English Exchequer. The office originated in early times as the clerk of the Lord High Treasurer at the Receipt of the Exchequer. He was responsible for filing and entering the Teller' ...

. He helped bring William of Orange to the throne and was made a

privy councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

in 1689. His interest in financial matters continued, and in later life he subscribed to the newly founded

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...

while continuing his work on currency reform. Robert Howard is the first person known to use the English phase "We the People." He used this phrase in a debate in Parliament on 28 January 1689. He said, referring to King James II: He was thought of as arrogant and was caricatured in a play by

Shadwell Shadwell is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets , east of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the Thames between Wapping (to the west) and Ratcliff (to the east). This riverside location has mea ...

as Sir Positive-At-All, a boastful knight. Howard died on 3 September 1698 and is buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

Works

Most of his writing was for the stage, although he also wrote some poetry, and two books on political questions. One of these was "The Life and Reign of King Richard the Second", published anonymously in 1681, with the author described simply as 'a Person of Quality'. The book was published in octavo and contains 240 pages. In his Preface, Howard states that he 'has made it his business truly to set down naked matters of fact as he finds them related by the best authors, without obtruding his own fancies or dreams under the notion of history'. Howard was active in the London theatrical world after the Restoration, and was both scene designer for, and shareholder in, the Theatre Royal, along with

Thomas Killigrew Thomas Killigrew (7 February 1612 – 19 March 1683) was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England. Life Killigrew was one of twelve children of Sir Robert Killigrew ...

and eight actors. His plays were successful and continued to be performed in the 18th century, though some later critics, notably

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

, found fault with them. ''The Committee; Or, The Faithful Irishman'' (1665), a political comedy, was the most popular. It caricatured the manners of the Commonwealth. '' The Great Favourite, or The Duke of Lerma'' was preferred by some writers:

A. W. Ward Sir Adolphus William Ward (2 December 1837 – 19 June 1924) was an English historian and man of letters. Life Ward was born at Hampstead, London, the son of John Ward. He was educated in Germany and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1866, War ...

, for example. Howard and his brother-in-law, the poet

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the p ...

, co-wrote '' The Indian Queen'', later set to music by

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...

. Howard, who had acted as Dryden's patron for some time, went on to have a public dispute with him over the use of rhyme in drama, but they were reconciled before Howard's death. Other poets' work paid tribute to Howard. John Dryden wrote a poem entitled, "To Sir My Honored Friend, Sir Robert Howard," in which Dryden praised Howard for his poetic abilities.

Family

He married four times.Florence R. Scott, "The Marriages of Sir Robert Howard," ''Modern Language Notes'', Vol. 55, No. 6 (June 1940), pp. 410-15. After the mother of his six children, Anne Kingsmill, died, he married an older widow, Lady Honoria (''née'' O'Brien), and adopted the manor at Wootton Bassett left her by her husband, Sir Francis Englefield. Lady Honoria complained to the King and to the Commons that Howard did not allow her any of the money which she had brought into the marriage. His third wife was Mary Uphill, who was often at Howard's manor house at

Ashtead Ashtead is a large village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Primarily a commuter settlement, Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on ...

which he bought around 1680. In 1693 he married an 18-year-old maid of honour, Anabella Dives.

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

was his only surviving son; his daughter, the Poor Clare Mary Howard was in a convent at

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

. Howard was a great-grandson of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who, jointly with his friend

Sir Thomas Wyatt Sir Thomas Wyatt (150311 October 1542) was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was o ...

were known as the "Fathers of the English Sonnet" and were the first English poets to write in the sonnet form that Shakespeare later used. He had three brothers who also wrote plays — Edward Howard, Colonel Henry Howard, and James Howard. Their sister, Elizabeth Howard, was married to the influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright

Notes

References

* Charles Mosley (ed.), Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th Edition, Wilmington, Delaware, 2003, vol III, pp. 3814–3817, *. *
The ''Cambridge History of English and American Literature''
* The above painting of Robert Howard by Van Dyck is in the British collection of Christian Levett.

Life

Works

Family

Notes

References

Further reading