Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle

The Right Honourable The Earl of Carlisle KG PC
Lord Carlisle, by Joshua Reynolds (1769)
First Lord of Trade
In office 6 November 1779 – 9 December 1780
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	Lord North
Preceded by	Lord George Sackville-Germain
Succeeded by	The Lord Grantham

Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle KG PC (28 May 1748 – 4 September 1825) was a British peer, statesman, diplomat, and author.

He was the son of Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle and his second wife Isabella Byron. His mother was a daughter of William Byron, 4th Baron Byron and his wife Hon. Frances Berkeley, a descendant of John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. She was also a sister of William Byron, 5th Baron Byron and a great-aunt of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, the poet. In 1798, Carlisle was appointed guardian to Lord Byron who later lampooned him in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.

During his youth Carlisle was mentored by George Selwyn and was chiefly known as a man of pleasure and fashion. He was created a Knight of the Thistle in 1767. After he had reached thirty years of age, his appointment on a Commission sent out by Frederick North, Lord North to attempt a reconciliation with the Thirteen Colonies during the American War of Independence was received with sneers by the opposition. The failure of the embassy was not due to any incapacity on the part of the earl, but to the unpopularity of the government from which it received its authority. He was, indeed, considered to have displayed so much ability that he was entrusted with the viceroyalty of Ireland in 1780.