Richard William Penn Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe, GCH, PC (11 December 1796 – 12 May 1870), was a British peer and courtier.

His office gave him considerable influence over the Queen and through her King William IV, both of whom liked and admired him.

Malicious gossip that he was the Queen's lover was not taken seriously even at the time, and is entirely discounted by historians.

It was his position as an extreme Tory, and his strong opposition to the Reform Act 1832 which made him unacceptable to the Government, and Lord Grey eventually insisted on his dismissal, much to the Queen's distress.

[1] William IV's biographer described him as a man whose vanity and arrogance should have made him insufferable, yet who clearly possessed personal charm great enough to make those who knew him overlook his faults.