The Howe DynastyIn December 1774, Benjamin Franklin met Caroline Howe, the sister of British General Sir William Howe and Richard Admiral Lord Howe, in a London drawing room for "half a dozen Games of Chess." But as historian Julie Flavell reveals, these meetings were about much more than board games: they were cover for a last ditch attempt to forestall the outbreak of the American War of Independence. Aware that the distinguished Howe family, both the men and the