Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk (5 June 1686 – 20 September 1777) was an English peer and politician who was Earl Marshal from 1732 to 1777.
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Origins
He was the third of the five sons of Lord Thomas Howard (d.1689), of Worksop (younger brother of Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk (d.1701), both sons of Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (d.1684)) by his wife Mary Elizabeth Savile (d.1732). An elder brother Henry Howard (1684-1720) was Roman Catholic Bishop-elect before his death. His younger brothers were Richard Howard (1687-1722) who died in Rome, where he was a Canon of St. Peter Basilica and Philip Howard (1688-1750).
Career
He took part in the Jacobite Rising of 1715, one of several English noblemen to do so. Through the intercession of his brother, he escaped the punishment for high treason. He succeeded as 9th Duke of Norfolk in 1732, after the death of his childless elder brother Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk. Largely at the instigation of his wife, a fellow Roman Catholic and a talented and highly regarded interior designer and embroiderer, he rebuilt Norfolk House in St James's Square in London on a grand scale and commenced the rebuilding of Worksop on a palatial scale, to rival Blenheim Palace. The latter project was abandoned after the completion of only one wing following the death of the couple's beloved nephew and heir apparent Edward Howard (1743/4-1767), the son of the Duke's younger brother Philip Howard (1688-1750) of Buckenham Tofts, Norfolk, by his second wife Henrietta Blount (d.1782), a sister of his wife. Edward died in 1767, aged 23, due to a fever he caught while playing tennis not fully recovered from measles. The Duchess was affected "almost to distraction and she never recovered from the blow". The couple realised that their next heir was a distant male cousin they hardly knew and who was a "depressing" contrast to Edward.