remainder sailed before a storm up the North Sea and
around Scotland before the sad remnants arrived back
in Spain.
For the remainder of the war against the Spanish,
Howard played a minor role, but his ability to take ad-
vice from experienced seamen and his organization of the
fleet had led the way to an English victory. He served on
only one other military expedition: an attack against the
Spanish city of Cádiz in 1596 with Robert Devereux, the
second earl of essex, which resulted in the destruction
of the Spanish fleet for the second time. That same year,
Howard was given the title earl of Nottingham. He was
forced to turn on Essex and was instrumental in end-
ing an insurrection when Essex rebelled against Queen
Elizabeth in 1601. In 1606, Howard served on one of the
courts that tried the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot
to kill King James I. As lord high admiral, he continued
to play a managerial role for the remainder of his military
career. However, as he aged, he took less and less part in
everyday activities, and when fraud was discovered in the
lower levels of the naval administration, he was forced to
retire in 1618. He died at Haling House, in Croydon,
southern London, on 14 December 1624.
Despite the significant role he played in the En-
glish victory against the Spanish Armada, Howard has
been overshadowed by Sir Francis Drake and Sir John
haWkins. However, historian Garrett Mattingly, in his
1959 work The Armada, has tried to resurrect Howard’s
reputation. Quoting a work on English military history
by historian Thomas Woodroofe, Mattingly writes: “In
the past twenty years or so, historians have done Howard
more justice. The most recent narrative says roundly, ‘It
was Howard’s battle, and he won it.’ It has even been
argued that Howard fought the battle the only way it
could have been fought—without too much risk—and
that no admiral could have done any better.” As histori-
ans continue to examine the Spanish Armada and evalu-
ate its importance to world and military history, perhaps
Howard’s reputation will be more enhanced.
References: Southey, Robert, English Seamen: Howard,
Clifford, Hawkins, Drake, Cavendish (London: Methuen
& Co., 1895); Kenny, Robert W., Elizabeth’s Admiral:
The Political Career of Charles Howard, Earl of Notting-
ham, 1536–1624 (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press,
1970); Bruce, Anthony, and William Cogar, “Howard,
Charles, Second Lord Howard of Effingham (later Earl of
Nottingham),” in An Encyclopedia of Naval History (New
York: Checkmark Books, 1999), 182–83; A Discourse
Concerninge the Spanish Fleete Invadinge Englande in the
Yeare 1588... (London, 1590); Mattingly, Garrett, The
Armada (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959).Howard, Thomas See norfolk, thomas
hoWard, second duke of.Howe, Richard, Earl Howe (1726–1799)
British admiral
Richard Howe was a member of a distinguished English
military family. He was born in London on 8 March
1726, the second son of Emanuel Scrope Howe, second
Viscount Howe, who served as governor of the Barba-
does (now Barbados) until his death in 1735. Richard
Howe attended the prestigious English school Eton
about 1735, and in 1740, when he was 14, he entered
service in the British navy, and saw action in 1743 and- By 1755, he had risen to the rank of captain, and
at the start of the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), he was
named as captain of the ship Dunkirk, serving under
Admiral Edward boscaWen in North America. When
Howe captured the French ship Alcide, it was the first
shot fired by English forces in that war. He saw further
action during the conflict, with perhaps his most im-
portant service coming at the victory of Quiberon Bay
(20 November 1759), when, working under Edward
haWke, his ship, the Magnanime, led the attack.
In 1758, Howe’s older brother, General George
Howe (1724–58), was killed while fighting the French
in North America, and because he was the next in line,
Richard Howe therefore succeeded to the title of Vis-
count Howe. In 1762, he was elected a member of Par-
liament for Dartmouth, and he served from 1763 to
1765 as a member of the Board of Admiralty. He later
served from 1765 to 1770 as the treasurer of the navy.
He was promoted to rear admiral in 1770 and to vice
admiral in 1775.
In 1776, Howe was named as commander of the
British fleet off the coast of North America, fighting the
insurrection of the formerly British colonies. In secret
sympathy with the colonists’s aims of breaking away
from London’s control, he first tried appeasement to
mollify them, working with his brother, General Sir
William Howe, and one of the leading colonists, Ben-
jamin Franklin. In September 1776, the Howe broth-
howe, RichARD, eARl howe