Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English politician and diplomat, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (born 1618)

Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington was an English politician and army officer. A supporter of the Royalists during the English Civil War, he joined the royal family in exile before returning to England at the Restoration in 1660. He gained political influence over the following decade and became one of Charles II's key advisors as a member of the Cabal ministry from 1668. He was impeached in 1674. He was a leading figure in the Court faction in the Parliament of England, a grouping which would evolve into the Tories.

The secretary of state for the Southern Department was a position in the cabinet of the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain up to 1782, when the Southern Department became the Home Office.