Holland was born at Winterslow House, Wiltshire,[1] the son of Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland (1745–1774), and Lady Mary FitzPatrick, daughter of John FitzPatrick, 1st Earl of Upper Ossory, and Lady Evelyn, daughter of John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower.

Holland led the opposition to the Regency Bill in 1811, and he attacked the orders in council and other strong measures of the government taken to counteract Napoleon's Berlin Decrees.

He denounced the treaty of 1813 with Sweden which bound Britain to consent to the forcible union of Norway, and he resisted the bill of 1816 for confining Napoleon in Saint Helena.

[6] Lord Holland was compensated under three awards for slaves on his estates in Jamaica, which had come to him through his wife, Elizabeth Webster (née Vassall).

[11][12] His whimsical short story Eve's Legend, in which the only vowel used is the letter E, is considered a precursor to the constraints of the Oulipo school.

[1] Lord Holland died in October 1840, aged 66, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest and only surviving legitimate son, Henry.

Vassall ward in the London Borough of Lambeth is named after Henry Richard Vassall-Fox who was responsible for the first building development in the area in the 1820s.