STAFFORD-HOWARD, Henry (c. 1648-1719)

Henry Howard appears to have left England in the spring of 1679, probably because of heightened anti-Catholic tensions caused by the Popish Plot. CSP Dom. 1679–80, p. 335; HMC Downshire, i. 720; HMC Bath, iii. 194. He could not succeed to his father’s peerage in 1680 because it had been extinguished by his conviction and execution for treason. The same process also led to the confiscation of his father’s estates. Nevertheless the family received favourable treatment from the crown. The confiscated estates were restored to Henry Stafford’s mother in November 1681 by Charles II. Staffs. RO, D641/2/H/3/1. Despite her husband’s attainder she continued to use the title of Viscountess Stafford. In 1688 Howard was created earl of Stafford, thus fulfilling his parents’ long-cherished aim of reviving the ancient earldom. He also changed his surname to Stafford-Howard. At the same time his mother was given the place and precedence of a countess and his siblings were granted the precedence accorded to the children of an earl. CSP Dom. June 1687–Feb. 1689, p. 1445.

As the Catholic son of a Catholic martyr, it was only to be expected that Stafford would himself sympathize with the efforts of James II to introduce the Catholic religion into England. At the revolution of 1688 he followed his king into exile, and in the spring of 1689 he was appointed ambassador to the king of Spain by the exiled James II, but according to Roger Morrice he was refused an audience. Luttrell Diary, i. 543; Morrice, Entring Bk. Q493. A list of ‘Englishmen in France with King James’ compiled in 1689 includes not only Stafford himself but also his two brothers, Francis and John. According to this source Stafford was worth ‘about £3,000’. That same year, when his mother answered a circular about peers’ taxable assets on his behalf, she declared that he had no personal estate. CSP Dom. 1689–90, pp. 375–6; Chatsworth, Halifax Collection B.45, Phillipson to Medhurst, 19 Sept. 1689.

By 1690 Stafford and his mother had used Stafford Castle and other lands in England to fund the celebration of masses for the martyred viscount and to begin the process of canonizing him. CTB, x. 591. He was alleged to have been involved in plans for a Jacobite uprising in 1691; further allegations against him were made in 1694, and in 1695, while in France, he was indicted for high treason. HMC 11th Rep. pt. 7, p. 295; HMC Kenyon, 369–70; Bodl. Carte 239, f. 57a. His failure to appear and answer the charges meant that he was eventually outlawed, a process which technically amounted to attainder and consequent loss of his estates and peerage. CSP Dom. 1698, p. 205.

By 1694 Stafford was living at the Hague and had obtained a passport from the elector of Bavaria. HMC Bath, iii. 41. He married that year but was soon separated from his wife. Within a short time, according to Thomas Bruce, 2nd earl of Ailesbury, he had been reduced to ‘great want’. Ailesbury Mems. ii. 476. He was unable to support his estranged wife and the combination of his outlawry and her claims for relief led James Vernon^‡ to remark that ‘he may as well jointure his lady in Utopia as in England’. Accordingly, early in 1698 Stafford began to ‘plague’ Mathew Prior^‡ about the possibility of returning to England. HMC Bath, iii. 194, 202. Warned about the consequences of returning while still under a sentence of outlawry, he petitioned the crown for a pardon and a nolle prosequi. His petition was granted and in May 1699 Stafford obtained a licence to return to England. CSP Dom. 1699–1700, pp. 65, 69, 178; HMC Lords, n.s. v. 204–8. His motives appear to have been purely financial, in that his return was calculated to obtain a pardon and to ensure the restoration of his estates. He did not renounce his Catholicism.

Stafford’s whereabouts after 1699 are uncertain. Although he appears to have spent some time in England, by 1704 he was said to be living in Brussels. CSP Dom. 1702–3, p. 409; Add. 61620, f. 226; Ailesbury Mems. ii. 571. The remainder of his life remains obscure. He died in 1719 leaving debts of nearly £35,000 to be paid from assets worth less than £10,000. Arundel, G 2/15. He was succeeded by his nephew William Stafford-Howard^† under the terms of a special remainder.