Howard was knighted by the royalists in 1644 and was imprisoned during the Commonwealth, but after the Restoration he was elected to Parliament and ultimately became a member of the Privy Council. His proud and pretentious character provoked frequent attacks.

Of Howard's plays, the best were The Indian Queen (first performed 1664), a tragedy written in collaboration with Dryden; and The Committee (first performed 1662), a comedy of humours that satirized the Commonwealth regime and gained durable popularity from the character of the Irish footman Teague.

Howard's preface to Four New Plays (1665) began his dispute with Dryden, who had married Howard's sister, Lady Elizabeth Howard, in 1663. In his preface Howard opposed Dryden's dedicatory epistle to The Rival Ladies (1664), which held that rhyme was better suited to heroic tragedy than blank verse. Dryden replied in Of Dramatick Poesie, an Essay (1668). In the preface to The Duke of Lerma (1668), Howard replied in a rather more personal tone, but Dryden had the final word in the crushing Defence of an Essay of Dramatick Poesie prefaced to The Indian Emperour (1667).