Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (12 July 1628 – 13 January 1684) was an English nobleman and politician. He was the second son of Henry Howard, 15th Earl of Arundel, and Lady Elizabeth Stuart. He succeeded his brother Thomas Howard, 5th Duke of Norfolk, after Thomas's death in 1677.
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Life
Henry Howard's older brother Thomas contracted a fever while visiting their grandfather Thomas in Padua in 1645 that subsequently left him mentally disabled and unable to administer his own affairs. There was near unanimity in the House of Lords in persuading King Charles II to revive the Dukedom of Norfolk for the Howard family in 1660 but, as this descended from Henry's great-great-grandfather Thomas to his brother Thomas who was still confined to an asylum in Padua, Henry managed the duchy's affairs in his name.
Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, Henry Howard allowed the Royal Society to meet regularly at Arundel House. Having befriended John Evelyn, he followed Evelyn's guidance to provide some of his grandfather's Grecian statues to Oxford University, principally to get them out of the corrosive London air. He further agreed to bestow his grandfather's collection of manuscripts to the Royal Society, but it initially remained at Arundel House for want of a dedicated library elsewhere.
It being felt desirable to be able to summon Henry to the Lords in his own right, he was created 1st Baron Howard of Castle Rising in 1669 and 1st Earl of Norwich in 1672, on the latter occasion obtaining the restoration of the office of Earl Marshal of England to him and to his family. Henry's career in the Lords began inauspiciously when he announced that he had married Jane Bickerton, who had been his mistress for many years. This caused a violent family quarrel, as a result of which he went abroad for a time. Nonetheless, he wielded considerable political influence and in 1673 was able to find a safe seat in Parliament for Samuel Pepys.