| Honorific Prefix: | His Grace |
| The Duke of Norfolk | |
| Children: | Henry Howard, 13th Duke of Norfolk |
| Birth Name: | Bernard Edward Howard |
| Parents: | Henry Howard Juliana Molyneux |
| Birth Date: | 21 November 1765 |
| Office1: | Earl Marshal |
| Monarch1: | George III George IV William IV Victoria |
| Term Start1: | 16 December 1815 |
| Term End1: | 16 March 1842 |
| Predecessor1: | The 11th Duke of Norfolk |
| Successor1: | The 13th Duke of Norfolk |
| Office2: | Member of the House of Lords |
| Status2: | Lord Temporal |
| Term Label2: | as a hereditary peer |
| Term Start2: | 16 December 1815 |
| Term End2: | 16 March 1842 |
| Predecessor2: | The 11th Duke of Norfolk |
| Successor2: | The 13th Duke of Norfolk |
Bernard Edward Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, (21 November 1765 – 16 March 1842), was a British peer.
Howard was the son of Henry Howard (1713–1787) by his wife Juliana Molyneux, daughter of Sir William Molyneux, 6th Baronet (died 1781), of Teversall, Nottinghamshire, High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire 1737. His great-grandfather, Bernard Howard, was a younger son of Henry Howard, 15th Earl of Arundel.[1] Older brother of Edward Charles Howard
Howard succeeded to the title of Duke of Norfolk in 1815 upon the death of his cousin, Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk.
An ardent Roman Catholic, like most of his family, he strongly supported Catholic Emancipation, and gave offence to his Protestant neighbours by giving a banquet to celebrate the passage of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829.
He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1803.[2] In 1834, the Duke of Norfolk was invested by King William IV into the Order of the Garter.[3]
On 23 April 1789, he married Lady Elizabeth Belasyse (1770–1819), daughter of Henry Belasyse, 2nd Earl Fauconberg, and the former Charlotte Lamb. She was a first cousin of Lord Melbourne and Lady Cowper. Before the couple divorced five years later in May 1794, they were the parents of:
His wife later remarried to Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan, whose elder sister was Lavinia Spencer, Countess Spencer; they had several children, but this marriage was also ill-fated as they became estranged after 1804.
The Duke died in 1842 at the age of 76. Upon his death, his only son, Henry, became the 13th Duke of Norfolk.[3] He is buried in Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel Castle.[4]