Baron Howard de Walden is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ of summons in 1597, by Queen Elizabeth I for Admiral Lord Thomas Howard, a younger son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife, the Honourable Margaret Audley, daughter of Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden. The title was reportedly granted for the Admiral's role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The baron eventually went on to obtain the title of Earl of Suffolk from Elizabeth I's successor King James I, which latter title continues in his male-line descendants. The barony Howard de Walden however eventually passed out of the Howard family with the death of James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk in 1688, and came briefly to the 4th Earl of Bristol before passing to his great-grandson, the four-year-old Charles Augustus Ellis in 1803.
The title actually fell into abeyance between 1688 and 1784 between the heirs of the 3rd Earl's two daughters – Lady Essex Howard (a daughter by his first marriage) and Lady Elizabeth Howard (a daughter by his second marriage). Lady Essex Howard married Edward Griffin, 1st Baron Griffin, and had descendants. Her granddaughter Hon. Ann Griffin was the only surviving daughter of the 2nd Baron Griffin, and her son John Griffin Whitwell, later Field Marshal John Griffin Griffin (he changed his surname in 1749) inherited one-half or a moiety of the barony when his maternal uncle the 3rd Baron Griffin died without legitimate issue. In 1784, the barony was called out of abeyance in his favour. In 1788, the new 4th Baron Howard de Walden was also created 1st Baron Braybrooke with special remainder to a kinsman Richard Aldsworth Neville who had married a daughter of the powerful Grenville family (and thus a cousin of William Pitt the Younger).