William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford

Infobox Saint
name=Blessed William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford
birth_date=November 30, 1614
death_date=December 29, 1680
feast_day=December 29
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


imagesize=200px
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birth_place=
death_place=London, England
titles=Martyr
beatified_date=1929
beatified_place=Rome, Italy
beatified_by=Pope Pius XI
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=Layman, Martyr
patronage=
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suppressed_date=
issues=
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prayer_attrib=

Blessed William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford (November 30, 1614 - December 29, 1680) was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and his wife, the former Alethea Talbot. He is regarded as a Roman Catholic martyr.

Coming from the recusant Howard family, he was brought up a Roman Catholic. [CathEncy|wstitle=Ven. William Howard]

Lord Stafford supported the Royalist cause. In 1637 he married Mary, sister of Henry Stafford, 5th Baron Stafford, and was allowed to take the title of Baron Stafford when the male line of his wife's family died out, whilst Mary became Baroness in her own right. He was raised to a viscountcy by King Charles I in 1640. In 1642, he went into exile with the royal family. Throughout the decade following his father's death in 1646, he was involved in financial wrangling with the rest of his family. In 1678, he was implicated in the "Popish Plot" fabricated by anti-Catholics during the reign of King Charles II, and was sent to the Tower of London.

Richard Gerard of Hilderstone came to London to testify for Stafford, but was instead imprisoned on the word of Stephen Dugdale, and died in jail. [John Kenyon, "The Popish Plot" (1972), pp. 51 and 164.] Stafford was later falsely convicted of treason and executed. The viscountcy was never revived.

He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

Notes