Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk (5 June 1686 – 20 September 1777), of Worksop Manor in Nottinghamshire and of Norfolk House in London, was a British peer, politician and hereditary Earl Marshal. Origins He was the third of the five sons of Lord Thomas Howard (d.1689), of Worksop (younger brother of Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk (d.1701), both sons of Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (d.1684)) by his wife Mary Elizabeth Savile (d.1732). An elder brother Henry Howard (1684-1720) was Roman Catholic Bishop-elect before his death. His younger brothers were Richard Howard (1687-1722) who died in Rome, where he was a Canon of St. Peter Basilica and Philip Howard (1688-1750). Career He took part in the Jacobite Rising of 1715, one of several English noblemen to do so. Through the intercession of his brother, he escaped the punishment for high treason. He succeeded as 9th Duke of Norfolk in 1732, after the death of his childless elder brother Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk. Largely at the instigation of his wife, a fellow Roman Catholic and a talented and highly regarded interior designer and embroiderer, he rebuilt Norfolk House in St James's Square in London on a grand scale and commenced the rebuilding of Worksop on a palatial scale, to rival Blenheim Palace. The latter project was abandoned after the completion of only one wing following the death of the couple's beloved nephew and heir apparent Edward Howard (1743/4-1767), the son of the Duke's younger brother Philip Howard (1688-1750) of Buckenham Tofts, Norfolk, by his second wife Henrietta Blount (d.1782), a sister of his wife. Edward died in 1767, aged 23, due to a fever he caught while playing tennis not fully recovered from measles. The Duchess was affected "almost to distraction and she never recovered from the blow". The couple realised that their next heir was a distant male cousin they hardly knew and who was a "depressing" contrast to Edward. Marriage On 26 November 1727 he married Mary Blount (before 1712–27 May 1773), one of the three daughters and heiresses of Edward Blount (d.1726) of Blagdon in the parish of Paignton in Devon, by his wife Anne Guise, a daughter of Sir John Guise, 2nd Baronet (c. 1654–1695) of Elmore in Gloucestershire. The Blount-Guise marriage was commemorated by the surviving heraldic overmantel above the fireplace of the great hall of Blagdon manor house. This shows