Together, Henrietta and George visited friends on the continent and remodelled and extended parts of Marble Hill. Surviving letters between the couple reveal that this was a loving and caring relationship. No longer a mistress and widowed in 1733, Henrietta took a second chance on marriage when, in 1735, she married the politician George Berkeley. Her plan was a success.Īfter 20 years of service and after falling out of favour with George II, Henrietta retired from her role at court. She raised funds to travel with Charles to the Hanoverian court, in the hope of currying favour with the dynasty which would inherit the throne of Great Britain on Queen Anne’s death. Henrietta was left in fear of creditors and, as she noted in one letter, for her own safety.Īlthough trapped in an abusive marriage and plunged into poverty, Henrietta refused to accept her dire circumstances. This was a disastrous match, as a contemporary observed: ‘Thus they loved, thus they married, and thus they hated each other for the rest of their lives.’ Charles was described as ‘ill-tempered, obstinate, drunken, extravagant, brutal’, and soon squandered what money the couple had on drinking, gambling and whoring. In the hope of finding some security, in 1706 she married Charles Howard, the youngest son of the 5th Earl of Suffolk. By the time she was 12 she had lost her father in a duel and her mother to illness, and the family was burdened with mounting debts. However, her early life was far from easy. Henrietta Howard was born in 1689 into a titled and respected family, the Hobarts of Blickling Hall in Norfolk.

Henrietta howard tracy borman