William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford
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.
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 of England 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, and was sent to the Tower of London. He was later convicted of treason and executed. The viscountcy was never revived.
He was beatified by the Roman Catholic church in 1929.
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