The third son of Henry Howard, 5th Earl of Suffolk,[1] he was commissioned a captain in Echlin's Regiment of Dragoons on 27 February 1703. During that year, he sat for a few months as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Carlow in the Irish House of Commons.
On 2 March 1706, he married Henrietta, who was the daughter of Sir Henry Hobart, 4th Baronet[2] and had been placed with the Suffolk family on her father's death. Their one son, Henry, was born in 1710.
The marriage was not a happy one; Charles was a drunken and abusive husband, and neither was possessed of any great means. Charles and Henrietta travelled to Hanover to seek favour with the Prince-Elector George, who seemed likely to succeed to the English throne. They were, indeed successful in securing posts at his accession as George I in 1714; Charles as Groom of the Bedchamber to the King, and Henrietta as a Woman of the Bedchamber to Caroline, Princess of Wales. However, this brought Henrietta into the company of the Prince of Wales, whose mistress she became.[3] Charles was by no means complacent about these arrangements, and, according to Horace Walpole, his acquiescence had eventually to be bought with a pension of £1,200 p.a. He also received an appointment as Deputy Lieutenant of Essex in 1718 and a commission as captain and lieutenant-colonel in the Coldstream Guards in 1719. He was not reappointed as a Groom of the Bedchamber after the death of George I in 1727; he had formally separated from his wife shortly before the end of the reign.
In 1731, he succeeded his brother Edward as Earl of Suffolk, and as Henrietta was now formally a Countess, she was appointed Mistress of the Robes. Suffolk died in 1733 and was succeeded by his son Henry.[1]