James Howard was born about 1619, the eldest son of Theophilus Howard Earl of Suffolk and his wife, Elizabeth Home. His godfathers at his christening on 10 February 1620 were King, James I, and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. He was created a Knight of the Bath on 2 February 1626 aged 7, at the Coronation of Charles I. His father died on 3 June 1640 when James succeeded as Earl of Suffolk.
His first wife was Susanna Rich, daughter of Henry Rich, Earl of Holland and his wife, Isabel Cope whom he married on 1 December 1640. [1]They had one child, a daughter, Essex. He sided, though not very actively, with Parliament during the Civil War but still found himself impeached by the Commons in 1647. The charges were subsequently dropped. Susanna died at Kensington on 19 May 1649 and in 1651 he married Barbara, widow of Richard Wenman and daughter of Sir Edward Villiers and his wife, Barbara St John. In 1656 they had a daughter, Elizabeth.
James welcomed the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, was Earl Marshal for the Coronation and remained in favour becoming a groom of the bedchamber in 1665 while Barbara was made a groom of the stole to Queen Catherine. In 1666 he sold Audley End to the King for £50,000 and was then appointed Keeper there. When the Dutch attacked Felixstowe in 1667 he was in command of the forces that repelled them. Barbara stood godmother in 1667 to Edgar, son of the Duke of York. [2] The baby was the fourth son of the Duke but the three earlier boys had died. It was the death of this little boy at the age of three together with that of the child’s mother that really made people worry about the succession since the King had no heir and York was known to have become a Roman Catholic. York’s subsequent marriage to the Catholic Mary of Modena in 1673 drove many into the arms of the exclusionists. Suffolk was one who voted for the second Exclusion Bill of 1680 and the following year he was excluded from the King’s bedchamber.
Barbara died on 13 December 1681 leaving James, like the King and his brother without a male heir so in June 1682 by this time in his sixties he married 22 year old Anne Montagu, daughter of Robert Montagu Earl of Manchester and his wife, Anne Yelverton. No children were born of the marriage. By this time his health was failing and he died at Great Chesterford on 7 December 1689 aged almost 70.[3] He was buried at Walden on the 17th.[4] He was succeeded as Earl by his brother, George.
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