Mercy Leroux

And their ties to both America as a country and the British royal family.

William Howe is known for leading the British troops in North America until his resignation in 1778. He often worked closely with his older brother, Admiral Richard Howe, and both brothers were likely given their roles due to a tie between their eldest brother, George Howe, and the American colonists.

The three brothers’ grandmother, Sophia Charlotte von Kielmansegg, was actually half-sister to King George I, as the king’s father had an affair with Sophia’s mother. In proof that humanity never changes and loves Targaryens, before it was common knowledge that Sophia was George’s sister, the rumor was that Sophia and George they were having an affair. Once their blood relationship became common knowledge, people still speculated they were having an affair.

Sophia married and had Charlotte, who was rumored to be George I’s illegitimate daughter/niece. Almost certainly this wasn’t the case, but rumors die hard even in the 18th century. Charlotte married then Emmanuel Howe, with whom she had ten kids, including George, Richard, and William.

Brigadier-General George Howe

George Howe was well-liked and his father’s eldest surviving son. When said father died, George inherited his title, becoming the third viscount Howe.

George was a soldier and served in the Seven Year’s War. There, during a skirmish in New York, George was fatally wounded. He died in the arms of one Israel Putnam… who would later go on to fight against George’s younger brother William at the Battles of Bunker Hill, Long Island, and more during the American Revolution.

At the time, though, revolution wasn’t so much a priority. The Americans mourned George Howe. In fact, the Massachusetts government even contributed to building a memorial to George Howe back in England’s Westminster Abbey, which remains there to this day. His brothers, Richard and William, were reportedly deeply grateful for the colonists’ respect for their brother and for their donation to create George’s memorial.

George was buried in New York, and is as of 2026 the only person of British titular peerage buried in the United States.

Admiral Richard Howe

After the death of George, the next brother, Richard Howe, became the 4th Viscount Howe.

Richard Howe was a well-known Admiral of the British Navy. He too fought in the Seven Year’s War, and after the war, remained highly sympathetic to the colonies even as the rifts began to further rupture between the colonies and the crown.

When war broke out, Richard was sent to America with his brother William. He worked with William to negotiate a peace settlement, pressing Parliament for peace instead of a harsh and violent military strategy. Barnet Schecter’s informative The Battle for New York goes into great detail about the lengths the Howe brothers went to try to procure a peace agreement.

By the time he and William were able to offer terms, though, it was past July 4, 1776. America had declared independence, and they weren’t willing to consider any terms that did not include recognition as a separate country.

Richard was very close with their third brother, William. In fact, during the Revolutionary War, William Howe seemed to rely on Richard overmuch, to the point where he was struggling to make his own decisions.

Richard Howe died in 1799, upon which his title passed to William. He still has descendants alive today via his daughters.

General William Howe

William Howe was selected to be Commander-in-Chief of the British troops in the colonies, replacing the unpopular Thomas Gage. Parliament hoped he could win the support of the those still loyal thanks to his brother, and William appears to have hoped he could broker peace. Again, Schecter’s The Battle for New York paints a portrait of a general who had sincerely committed himself to brokering peace, and when that couldn’t be established, he seems to have found himself at a loss.

In battle, William Howe actually outwitted Washington numerous times, but he did not move to crush the rebellion when he very much could have. In particular, if he’d encircled the Continental Forces during the invasion of New York in late summer-autumn 1776, he easily could have stomped out the Revolution. But for whatever reason, he didn’t do this. Henry Clinton, his second-in-command, was reportedly extremely frustrated with William’s lack of initiative.

People both then and now speculate that William’s personal feelings of gratitude towards the colonists’ for their honor of his brother may have stymied his military duties. Reportedly, American General Israel Putnam commented that William was either “a friend of America or no general.” However, while this quote is reported in multiple secondary sources, I haven’t been able to find a firsthand source for it, so take this with a grain of salt.

There were potentially other reasons for his inaction, though. For one thing, during William’s tenure as Commander-in-Chief, gossip spread that he was much more interested in gambling and “lying abed with Mrs. Loring” than in actually doing his job. Betsey Loring will get her own post next week, but he does appear to have had an affair with her (with the consent of her husband).

For another, it is also worth noting that many of William Howe’s strategic blunders came in the form of being hesitant, with a great deal of second-guessing. He kept running ideas by his brother instead of just, you know, doing the thing. By the time he actually got around to doing the idea he’d had, the circumstances had shifted and his moves were no longer impactful strategically.

While it’s impossible to say whether this caused his hesitation, William does seem to have been traumatized after the Battle of Bunker Hill. The British experienced a pyrrhic victory there with an astounding number of casualties under William’s command, and William wrote to Richard that he experienced “a moment I never felt before.” Nowadays we know far more about mental health and PTSD in soldiers, and it is certainly not unlikely that many Revolutionary War era soldiers on all sides may have experienced symptoms. Whether or not that affected his judgement can’t be known for sure, but it certainly seems plausible.

Whatever the case, William Howe resigned in 1778 and sailed for England. Henry Clinton took over as Commander-in-Chief, but the circumstances of the war had dramatically changed and he would not be able to crush the Revolution.

Nota bene: In addition to the numerous ethical and common sense concerns about Time’s embarrassing, shoddy, insulting “documentary” on the American Revolution that they made entirely with AI, we gotta point out that the 1776 version of William Howe was almost certainly generated using the image of a 1794 Admiral Richard Howe, not his younger brother.

There was a 1777 mezzotint of William Howe, who was 46 in 1775–almost the correct year and the correct brother, right there, and yet these AI prompters didn’t even bother to make sure they went with an accurate image. Let’s again put the mezzotint side-by-side with the portrait of Admiral Richard Howe from almost 20 years later, and tell me which one the AI generation resembles.

Anyways, there’d be plenty to criticize even if the Howe portrayed in this documentary was based on the 1777 mezzotint, but that it wasn’t and is so clearly actually his brother from 19 years later is absolutely hilarious and shows the complete lack of care, thought, and respect for history Time used in this “documentary.”

Next week, we’ll discuss Howe’s relationship with Betsey Loring, which may or may not have had a major impact on the war. But first… we have a release date to announce!