She was the sister of John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire. Her father died in a duel when Henrietta was aged eight, and her mother died four years later in , leaving her an orphan at twelve.
The marriage was unhappy; Charles was a wife-beater and compulsive gambler. She went deaf at an early age. In , the couple travelled to Hanover , hoping to ingratiate themselves with the future George I of Great Britain. Henrietta met and became mistress to his son, the future George II, and was appointed a Lady of the Bedchamber to his wife, Caroline of Ansbach.
In , the now Prince of Wales made a financial settlement with her husband, who was also a member of his household, [ 2 ] in exchange for her services as a royal mistress. Henrietta was noted for her wit and intelligence.
Henrietta and her husband officially separated around , although there was no divorce; that would have required an act of parliament to be passed, with inevitable public scrutiny.
Charles succeeded to the Earldom in , allowing Henrietta to describe herself as Countess of Suffolk. Later, after Charles Howard's death in , Henrietta remarried, in , the Hon. George Berkeley , son of the Earl of Berkeley. After George II moved on to a new mistress, Amalie von Wallmoden in , Henrietta purchased land on the banks of the River Thames , having received a very large financial settlement from the King. Marble Hill House in Twickenham was built for her on this site by the architect Roger Morris , who collaborated in its design with Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke , one of the "architect earls.
