Charlotte Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk

Who was Charlotte Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk?

Charlotte Sophia Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk was a daughter of the 1st Duke of Sutherland and his wife, Elizabeth.

On 27 December 1814, she married Henry Charles Howard, the son and heir of Bernard Edward Howard, who was the heir presumptive to the childless and elderly 11th Duke. She became the Countess of Arundel and Surrey in 1815 when Bernard succeeded as 12th Duke, and upon the death of her husband's father in 1842, she became the Duchess of Norfolk. The couple later had five children:

Lady Adeliza Matilda Fitzalan-Howard

Henry Granville Fitzalan-Howard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey

Lord Edward George Fitzalan-Howard

Lady Mary Charlotte Howard

Lord Bernard Thomas Fitzalan-Howard

Henry Charles Howard and his father were Roman Catholics, although his mother Lady Elizabeth Belasyse was Anglican. It is not clear if Howard was formally and nominally raised Anglican, or if he was already Catholic when he married into a prominent Whig family. In 1829, after Catholic emancipation, the Earl of Surrey was elected a Member of Parliament.