became 4th earl of Suffolk. George’s nephew, Henry, the 6th earl (c. 1670–1718), who was president of the board of trade from 1715 to 1718, left an only son, Charles William (1693–1722), who was succeeded in turn by his two uncles, the younger of them, Charles (1675–1733) becoming 9th earl on the death of his brother Edward in June 1731. This earl was the husband of Henrietta countess of Suffolk (c. 1681–1767), the mistress of George II., who was a daughter of Sir Henry Hobart, bart., of Blickling, Norfolk. When still the Hon. Charles Howard, he and his wife made the acquaintance of the future king in Hanover; after the accession of George I. to the English throne in 1714 both husband and wife obtained posts in the household of the prince of Wales, who, when he became king as George II., publicly acknowledged Mrs Howard as his mistress. She was formally separated from her husband before 1731 when she became Countess of Suffolk. The earl died on the 28th of September 1733, but the Countess, having retired from court and married the Hon. George Berkeley (d. 1746), lived until the 26th of July 1767. Among Lady Suffolk’s friends were the poets Pope and Gay and Charles Mordaunt (earl of Peterborough).
A collection of Letters to and from Henrietta Countess of Suffolk, and her Second Husband, the Hon. George Berkeley, was edited by J. W. Croker (1824).
The 9th earl’s only son Henry, the 10th earl (1706–1745), died without sons in April 1745, when his estate at Audley End passed to the descendants of the 3rd earl, being inherited in 1762 by John Griffin Griffin (1719–1797), afterwards Lord Howard de Walden and Lord Braybrooke. As owners of this estate the earls of Suffolk of the Howard line had hitherto been hereditary visitors of Magdalene College, Cambridge, but this office now passed away from them. The earldom of Suffolk was inherited by Henry Bowes Howard, 4th earl of Berkshire (1696–1757), who was the great-grandson of Thomas Howard (c. 1590–1669), the second son of the 1st earl of Suffolk, Thomas having been created earl of Berkshire in 1626. Since 1745 the two earldoms have been united, Henry Molyneux Paget Howard (b. 1877) succeeding his father, Henry Charles (1833–1898), as 19th earl of Suffolk and 12th earl of Berkshire in 1898.
SUFFOLK, WILLIAM DE LA POLE, Duke of (1396–1450), second son of Michael de la Pole, second earl of Suffolk, was born
on the 16th of October 1396. His father died at the siege of
Harfleur, and his elder brother was killed at Agincourt on the
25th of October 1415. Suffolk served in all the later French
campaigns of the reign of Henry V., and in spite of his youth held
high command on the marches of Normandy in 1421–22. In
1423 he joined the earl of Salisbury in Champagne, and shared
his victory at Crévant. He fought under John, duke of Bedford,
at Verneuil on the 17th of August 1424, and throughout the
next four years was Salisbury’s chief lieutenant in the direction
of the war. When Salisbury was killed before Orleans on the
3rd of November 1428, Suffolk succeeded to the command.
After the siege was raised, Suffolk was defeated and taken
prisoner by Jeanne d’Arc at Jargeau on the 12th of June 1429.
He was soon ransomed, and during the next two years was again
in command on the Norman frontier. He returned to England
in November 1431, after over fourteen years’ continuous service
in the field.
Suffolk had already been employed on diplomatic missions by John of Bedford, and from this time forward he had an important share in the work of administration. He attached himself naturally to Cardinal Beaufort, and even thus early seems to have been striving for a general peace. But public opinion in England was not yet ripe, and the unsuccessful conference at Arras, with the consequent defection of Burgundy, strengthened the war party. Nevertheless the cardinal’s authority remained supreme in the council, and Suffolk, as his chief supporter, gained increasing influence. The question of Henry VI.’s marriage brought him to the front. Humphrey of Gloucester favoured an Armagnac alliance. Suffolk brought about the match with Margaret of Anjou. Report already represented Suffolk as too friendly with French leaders like Charles of Orleans, and it was with reluctance that he undertook the responsibility of an embassy to France. However, when he returned to England in June 1444, after negotiating the marriage and a two years’ truce, he received a triumphant reception. He was made a marquess, and in the autumn sent again to France to bring Margaret home. The French contrived to find occasion for extorting a promise to surrender all the English possessions in Anjou and Maine, a concession that was to prove fatal to Suffolk and his policy. Still for the time his success was complete, and his position as the personal friend of the young king and queen seemed secure. Humphrey of Gloucester died in February 1447, within a few days of his arrest, and six weeks later Cardinal Beaufort died also. Suffolk was left without an obvious rival, but his difficulties were great. Rumour, though without sufficient reason, made him responsible for Humphrey’s death, while the peace and its consequent concessions rendered him unpopular. So also did the super session of Richard of York by Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, in the French command. Suffolk’s promotion to a dukedom in July 1448, marked the height of his power. The difficulties of his position may have led him to give some countenance to a treacherous attack on Fougéres during the time of truce (March 1449). The renewal of the war and the loss of all Normandy were its direct consequences. When parliament met in November 1449, the opposition showed its strength by forcing the treasurer, Adam Molyneux, to resign. Molyneux was murdered by the sailors at Portsmouth on the 9th of January 1450. Suffolk, realizing that an attack on himself was inevitable, boldly challenged his enemies in parliament, appealing to the long and honourable record of his public services. On the 7th of February and again on the 9th of March the Commons presented articles of accusation dealing chiefly with alleged maladministration and the ill success of the French policy; there was a charge of aiming at the throne by the betrothal of his son to the little Margaret Beaufort, but no suggestion of guilt concerning the death of Gloucester. The articles were in great part baseless, if not absurd. Suffolk, in his defence on the 13th of March, denied them as false, untrue and too horrible to speak more of. Ultimately, as a sort of compromise, the king sentenced him to banishment for five years. Suffolk left England on the 1st of May, He was intercepted in the Channel by the ship “Nicholas of the Tower,” and next morning was beheaded in a little boat alongside. The “Nicholas” was a royal ship, and Suffolk’s murder was probably instigated by his political opponents.
Popular opinion at the time judged Suffolk as a traitor. This view was accepted by Yorkist chroniclers and Tudor historians, who had no reason to speak well of a Pole. Later legend made him the paramour of Margaret of Anjou. Though utterly baseless, the story gained currency in the Mirrour for Magistrates, and was adopted in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI. (act iii. sc. ii.). Suffolk’s best defence is contained in the touching letter of farewell to his son, written on the eve of his departure (Paston Letters, i. 142), and in his noble speeches before parliament (Rolls of Parliament, v. 176, 182). Of the former Lingard said well that it is “difficult to believe that the writer could have been either a false subject or a bad man.” The policy of peace which Suffolk pursued was just and wise; he foresaw from the first the personal risk to which its advocacy exposed him. This alone should acquit him of any base motive; his conduct was “throughout open and straightforward” (Stubbs). Whatever his defects as a statesman, he was a gallant soldier, a man of culture and a loyal servant.
Suffolk’s wife, Alice, was widow of Thomas, earl of Salisbury, and granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer. By her he had an only son John, second duke of Suffolk.
Bibliography.—Suffolk is necessarily prominent in all contemporary authorities. The most important are J. Stevenson’s Wars of the English in France, Thomas Beckington’s Correspondence, T. Wright’s Political Poems and Songs, ii. 222–234 (for the popular view)—these three are in the Rolls Series; and the Paston Letters. Of French writers E. de Monstrelet and Jehan de Waurin are most useful for his military career, T. Basin and Matthieu d’Escouchy for his fall (all these are published by the Société de l’Histoire de
