Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset

John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick
Personal details
Born	1500
Died	22 January 1552(1552-01-22) (aged 51–52) Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, London, United Kingdom 51°30′31″N 0°04′37″W / 51.508611°N 0.076944°W / 51.508611; -0.076944
Nationality	English
Spouses	Catherine Fillol Anne Stanhope
Children	with Catherine: John Seymour Lord Edward Seymour with Anne: Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp of Hache Lady Anne Seymour Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, and 7 others ...
Parents	Sir John Seymour Margery Wentworth
Residences	Somerset House, London Syon House, Isleworth, Middlesex Woodmancote Place, West Sussex
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of England
Battles/wars	French wars, 1522–1524 The Rough Wooing Siege of Boulogne , 1544 Battle of Pinkie

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp

In October 1549, Somerset was forced out of power and imprisoned in the Tower of London by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and a group of privy councillors. He was later released and reconciled with Warwick (now Duke of Northumberland), but in 1551 Northumberland accused him of treason, and he was executed in January 1552. Until the 1970s historians had a highly positive view of Somerset, seeing him as a champion of political liberty and the common people, but since then he has also often been portrayed as an arrogant and inept ruler of the Tudor state.

Origins and early career

Edward Seymour was born c. 1500, the son of

In 1541, during Henry's absence in the north, Hertford, Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Audley had the chief management of affairs in London. In September 1542 he was appointed Warden of the Scottish Marches, and a few months later Lord High Admiral, a post which he almost immediately relinquished in favour of John Dudley, the future duke of Northumberland. In March 1544 he was made lieutenant-general of the north and instructed to punish the Scots for their repudiation of the treaty of marriage between Prince Edward and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots. He landed at Leith on 3 May 1544, captured and pillaged Edinburgh, and returned by land burning villages and castles along the way.^[4]

In July 1544 he was appointed lieutenant of the realm under

In March 1546 he was sent back to Boulogne to supersede the Earl of Surrey, whose command had not been a success; and in June he was engaged in negotiations for peace with France and for the delimitation of the English conquests.^[4]

From October to the end of Henry's reign he was in attendance on the king, engaged in the struggle for predominance which was to determine the complexion of the government during the coming minority. Personal, political and religious rivalry separated him and

Other historians have argued that Gardiner's exclusion had non-religious causes, that Norfolk was not noticeably conservative in religion, that conservatives remained on the council, and that the radicalism of men such as Sir Anthony Denny, who controlled the dry stamp that replicated the king's signature, is debatable.^[12] Whatever the case, Henry's death was followed by a lavish hand-out of lands and honours to the new power group.^[13] The will contained an "unfulfilled gifts" clause, added at the last minute, which allowed Henry's executors to freely distribute lands and honours to themselves and the court,^[14] particularly to Seymour (then known as Earl of Hertford), who became the Lord Protector of the Realm and Governor of the King's Person, and who created himself Duke of Somerset.^[13]

Henry VIII's will did not provide for the appointment of a Protector. It entrusted the government of the realm during his son's minority to a

Seymour's appointment was in keeping with historical precedent,[21] and his eligibility for the role was reinforced by his military successes in Scotland and France. He was senior to his ally Lisle in the peerage, and was the new king's closest relative.^[4]

In March 1547, he secured

To deal with the widespread social problems in England, Seymour introduced the Vagabonds Act 1547, which dictated that able-bodied men who were unemployed for three days or more should be sold into slavery for two years. This law was deeply unpopular and turned many people against him, particularly local officials who were blamed for enforcing the Act.^[28]

Seymour also attempted to bring uniformity to forms of worship, and in 1549 the first

Edward Seymour faced less manageable opposition from his younger brother

Edward Seymour's only undoubted skill was as a soldier, which he had proved on his expeditions to Scotland and in the defence of Boulogne in 1546. From the first, his main interest as Protector was the war against Scotland.[39] After a crushing victory at the Battle of Pinkie in September 1547, he set up a network of garrisons in Scotland, stretching as far north as Dundee.^[40] His initial successes, however, were followed by a loss of direction. His aim of uniting the realms through conquest became increasingly unrealistic. The Scots allied with France, who sent reinforcements for the defence of Edinburgh in 1548,^[41] while Mary, Queen of Scots, was removed to France, where she was betrothed to the dauphin.^[42] The cost of maintaining the Protector's massive armies and his permanent garrisons in Scotland also placed an unsustainable burden on the royal finances.^[43] A French attack on Boulogne in August 1549 at last forced Seymour to begin a withdrawal from Scotland.^[44]

Rebellion

During 1548, England was subject to social unrest. After April 1549, a series of armed revolts broke out, fuelled by various religious and agrarian grievances. The two most serious rebellions required major military intervention to put down: one was in Devon and Cornwall, the other in Norfolk. The first, called the Prayer Book Rebellion (and also known as the Western rebellion), arose mainly from the imposition of church services in English; the second, led by a tradesman called Robert Kett, mainly from the encroachment of landlords on common grazing ground.^[45] A complex aspect of the social unrest was that the protestors believed they were acting legitimately against enclosing landlords with the Protector's support, convinced that the landlords were the lawbreakers.^[46]

The same justification for outbreaks of unrest was voiced throughout the country, not only in Norfolk and the west. The origin of the popular view of Edward Seymour as sympathetic to the rebel cause lies partly in his series of sometimes liberal, often contradictory, proclamations.^[47] and partly in the uncoordinated activities of the commissions he sent out in 1548 and 1549 to investigate grievances about loss of tillage, encroachment of large sheep flocks on common land, and similar issues.^[48] Seymour's commissions were led by the evangelical M.P. John Hales, whose socially liberal rhetoric linked the issue of enclosure with Reformation theology and the notion of a godly commonwealth.^[49] Local groups often assumed that the findings of these commissions entitled them to act against offending landlords themselves.^[50] King Edward wrote in his Chronicle that the 1549 risings began "because certain commissions were sent down to pluck down enclosures".^[51]

Whatever the popular view of the Duke of Somerset, the disastrous events of 1549 were taken as evidence of a colossal failure of government, and the Council laid the responsibility at the Protector's door.^[52] In July 1549, Paget wrote to Seymour: "Every man of the council have misliked your proceedings ... would to God, that, at the first stir you had followed the matter hotly, and caused justice to be ministered in solemn fashion to the terror of others ...".^[53]

Fall from power

The sequence of events that led to Seymour's removal from power has often been called a coup d'état.^[52] By 1 October 1549, Seymour had been alerted that his rule faced a serious threat. He issued a proclamation calling for assistance, took possession of the king's person, and withdrew for safety to the fortified Windsor Castle, where Edward said, "Methinks I am in prison".^[54]

By 7 October he was writing desperately to Sir Rowland Hill, Lord Mayor of London, and a fellow member of the Privy Council requesting 1000 troops to defend him and the King. By this point a meeting had already been had between Hill and London representatives with John Dudley, then Earl of Warwick at Ely Palace.^[55] That meeting moved decisively against Somerset.

Meanwhile, a united Council published details of Seymour's mismanagement of government. They made clear that the Protector's power came from them, not from Henry VIII's will. On 11 October, the council had Seymour arrested and brought the king to Richmond.^[52] Edward summarised the charges against Somerset in his Chronicle: "ambition, vainglory, entering into rash wars in mine youth, negligent looking on Newhaven, enriching himself of my treasure, following his own opinion, and doing all by his own authority, etc."^[56]

In February 1550,

Edward Seymour married twice:

• Firstly by 1518, to Catherine Fillol (or Filliol) (d. c. 1535), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Fillol (1453–1527), of Fillol's Hall, Essex and Woodlands, Horton, Dorset.^[1][63] Catherine bore two sons, whose paternity was questioned by her husband after it was discovered that she was "apt to bestow her favours too liberally",^[64][65] which resulted in both being excluded in 1540 from their paternal and maternal inheritances, and all their claims to their father's dignities being postponed to his children by his second wife.^[66] Ironically these two sons remained faithful to their father during his misfortunes and both were imprisoned with him in the Tower of London:
  • John Seymour (1527 – 19 December 1552) was sent to the Tower where he died in December 1552,
    Henry VIII, which had descended to his half-siblings.^[67]
    However, he did not live to enjoy the grant and bequeathed it with all his other lands and goods to his younger brother Lord Edward Seymour.
  • Sheriff of Devon.^[68] He was sent to the Tower in 1551 but was later released, and became heir to his elder brother, from whom he inherited Maiden Bradley, where today Bradley House
    is the seat of his descendant, the present Duke of Somerset.

• Secondly, before 9 March 1535, to
  entailing his estates away from the children of his first wife in favour of the children of Anne Stanhope.^[70]
  By Anne, he had ten children:
  • Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp of Hache (12 October 1537 – 1539), known by the courtesy title of one of his father's subsidiary titles. He died as a two-year-old infant and predeceased his father.
  • MP
    , by whom she had children.
  • Frances Prannell
    .
  • Lord Henry Seymour (1540–?), married Lady Joan Percy, daughter of Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland
  • Lady Margaret Seymour (born 1540), a noted author
  • Lady Jane Seymour (1541–1561), Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I, also a noted author
  • Lady Catherine Seymour
  • Lady Mary Seymour (born 1542), who married three times:
  • Firstly to Francis Cosby^[71][72][73]
  • Secondly, to Andrew Rogers (died c. 1599), MP,^[74] of Bryanstone, Dorset. They had no children.
  • Thirdly, to Sir Henry Peyton^[75]
  • Lord Edward Seymour (1548–1574), died unmarried and childless
  • Lady Elizabeth Seymour (1552 – 3 June 1602), who married Sir Richard Knightley, of Fawsley, Northamptonshire. Her monument with effigy survives in All Saints church, Norton, Northamptonshire.^[76]

The male line of Edward Seymour and Anne Stanhope died out with the

• Edward Seymour appears in The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.
• Edward Seymour is the main character in The Path To Somerset by Janet Wertman, which depicts Edward's rise to power and rivalry with Stephen Gardiner.^[77]

Television

• Disneyland
  TV film The Prince and the Pauper.
• Daniel Moynihan portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1970 BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
• Michael Brill portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1969 musical film The Adventures of the Prince and the Pauper.
• Bernard Kay portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1976 TV series The Prince and the Pauper.
• John Bowe portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1996 miniseries The Prince and the Pauper.
• Richard Felix portrayed Edward Seymour in the 2001 TV series The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
• Thomas Lockyer portrayed Edward Seymour in the 2003 TV serial Henry VIII.
• Max Brown portrayed Edward Seymour in Showtime's original historical fiction television series The Tudors, which portrayed him as a shrewd and ambitious political player.^[78]
• Wolf Hall
  .
• John Heffernan portrayed Edward in the 2022 Starz series Becoming Elizabeth.

Film

• Felix Aylmer portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1936 film Tudor Rose.
• Claude Rains portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1937 film The Prince and the Pauper.
• Guy Rolfe portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1953 film Young Bess.
• Michael Byrne portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1972 film Henry VIII and His Six Wives.^[79]
• Rex Harrison portrayed Edward Seymour in the 1977 film The Prince and the Pauper.
• Jonathan Hyde portrayed Edward Seymour in the 2000 film The Prince and the Pauper.
• Thomas Lockyer portrayed Edward Seymour in the 2003 film The Other Boleyn Girl.^[80]

See also

• Tudor period

Notes

Citations

1. ^ ^{a b} Beer 2009.
2. ^ "She is the sister of one Edward Semel [...] – Eustace Chapuys to Antoine Perrenot, 18 May 1536, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January – June 1536, (1887)
3. ^ ^{a b} Pollard 1911.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i}  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Pollard, Albert Frederick (1911). "Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 386–387.
5. ^ MacCulloch 2018, pp. 427–8, plate 9..
6. ^ Boutell 1863, p. 243.
7. ^ James Gairdner & R H Brodie, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vol. 20:2 (London, 1907), no. 400: State Papers Henry the Eighth, Part IV (London, 1836), pp. 521-2.
8. ^ ^{a b} Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.1036
9. ^ Loach 1999, pp. 17–18; Jordan 1968, p. 56
10. ^ Starkey 2002, pp. 130–145
11. ^ Starkey 2002, pp. 130–145, incorrectly dates the surrender to 12 January, the date of Norfolk's final confession of treason; see also Elton 1977, pp. 330–331. In his letter offering his lands, now lost but quoted in Herbert of Cherbury, Henry the Eight (1649), p. 566, Norfolk asserted that he was as innocent as "the childe that was born this night", the Christ child born on Christmas Day.
12. ^ Loach 1999, pp. 19–25 In addressing these views, Loach cites, among others: G. Redworth, In Defence of the Church Catholic: the Life of Stephen Gardiner (Oxford, 1990), pp. 231–237; Susan Brigden, "Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and the Conjoured League", Historical Journal, xxxvii (1994), pp. 507–537; and Eric Ives, "Henry VIII's Will: A Forensic Conundrum", Historical Journal (1992), pp. 792–799.
13. ^ ^{a b} Loach 1999, pp. 19–25
14. ^ Starkey 2002, p. 142; Elton 1977, p. 332 David Starkey describes this distribution of benefits as typical of "the shameless back-scratching of the alliance"; G. R. Elton calls the changes to the will "convenient".
15. ^ Starkey 2002, pp. 138–139; Alford 2002, p. 69 The existence of a council of executors alongside the Privy Council was rationalised in March when the two became one, incorporating the executors and most of their appointed assistants and adding Thomas Seymour, who had protested at his exclusion from power.
16. ^ MacCulloch 2002, p. 7; Alford 2002, p. 65
17. ^ Starkey 2002, pp. 138–139; Alford 2002, p. 67
18. ^ Loach 1999, pp. 26–27; Elton 1962, p. 203
19. ^ In 1549, Paget was to remind Seymour: "Remember what you promised me in the gallery at Westminster before the breath was out of the body of the king that dead is. Remember what you promised immediately after, devising with me concerning the place which you now occupy ... and that was to follow mine advice in all your proceedings more than any other man's". Quoted in Guy 1988, p. 211
20. ^ Alford 2002, pp. 67–68
21. Edward V (though not also Governor of the King's Person, as Hertford's brother Thomas
    , who coveted the role for himself, pointed out).
22. ^ Alford 2002, p. 70; Jordan 1968, pp. 73–75 In 1549, William Paget described him as king in all but name.
23. ^ Elton 1977, pp. 334, 338
24. ^ Alford 2002, p. 66
25. ^ Jordan 1968, pp. 69, 76–77; Skidmore 2007, pp. 64–63
26. ^ Elton 1977, p. 333
27. ^ Loades 2004, pp. 33–34; Elton 1977, p. 333
28. ^ "Edward Seymour and Government". History Learning Site. 17 March 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
29. ISBN 9780691065021
30. ^ Loades 2004, p. 34
31. ^ Elton 1977, pp. 333, 346.
32. ^ Loades 2004, p. 36
33. ^ Loades 2004, pp. 36–37; Brigden 2000, p. 182
34. ^ Erickson 1978, p. 234
35. ^ Somerset 2003, p. 19
36. ^ Loades 2004, pp. 37–38
37. ^ Loades 2004, pp. 40–41; Alford 2002, pp. 96–97
38. ^ Alford 2002, pp. 91–97
39. ^ Brigden 2000, p. 183; MacCulloch 2002, p. 42
40. ^ Mackie 1952, p. 484
41. ^ Mackie 1952, p. 485
42. ^ Wormald 2001, p. 62; Loach 1999, pp. 52–53. The dauphin was the future Francis II of France, son of Henry II of France.
43. ^ Brigden 2000, p. 183
44. ^ Elton 1977, pp. 340–41
45. ^ Loach 1999, pp. 70–83
46. ^ Elton 1977, pp. 347–350; Loach 1999, pp. 66–67, 86. For example, in Hereford, a man was recorded as saying that "by the king's proclamation all enclosures were to be broken up".
47. ^ Loach 1999, pp. 60–61, 66–68, 89; Elton 1962, p. 207. Some proclamations expressed sympathy for the victims of enclosure and announced action; some condemned the destruction of enclosures and associated riots; another announced pardons for those who had destroyed enclosures by mistake ("of folly and of mistaking") after misunderstanding the meaning of proclamations, so long as they were sorry.
48. ^ Loach 1999, pp. 61–66.
49. ^ MacCulloch 2002, pp. 49–51; Dickens 1967, p. 310
50. ^ "Their aim was not to bring down government, but to help it correct the faults of local magistrates and identify the ways in which England could be reformed." MacCulloch 2002, p. 126
51. ^ Loach 1999, p. 85
52. ^ ^{a b c} Elton 1977, p. 350
53. ^ Loach 1999, p. 87
54. ^ Brigden 2000, p. 192
55. ^ "HILL, Sir Rowland (by 1498-1561), of London and Hodnet, Salop. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
56. ^ Quoted in Loach 1999, p. 91. By "Newhaven" is meant Ambleteuse, near Boulogne.
57. ^ Guy 1988, pp. 212–15; Loach 1999, pp. 101–102
58. ^ Loach 1999, p. 102
59. ^ MacCulloch 2002, p. 104; Dickens 1967, p. 279
60. ^ Elton 1977, p. 333n; Alford 2002, p. 65.
61. ^ Elton 1977, pp. 334–350
62. ^ David Loades, "The reign of Edward VI: An historiographical survey", Historian 67#1 (2000): 22+ online
63. ^ Vivian 1895, p. 702, pedigree of Seymour
64. ^ Beer 2009: "Reports that Katherine was repudiated by her husband because of misconduct, and that the paternity of her eldest son was suspect, circulated during the seventeenth century."
65. ^ Seymour 1972, pp. 116–117.
66. ^ ^{a b} Locke, A. Audrey, The Seymour Family: History and Romance, London, 1911, p. 193
67. ^ Locke, A. Audrey, The Seymour Family: History and Romance, London, 1911, p. 194
68. ^ The Complete Peerage vol.XIIpI, p.84
69. ^ 32 Hen. 8 cap. 79
70. ^ ^{a b} Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Seymour, Edward (1506?-1552)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
71. ^ Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson, Vol IV:619
72. ^ Genealogies of Virginia Vamilies From William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol V, p186
73. ^ The Early Descendants of Wm. Overton & Elizabeth Waters of Virginia, and Allied Families, W.P. Anderson, p. 17
74. ^ "ROGERS, Andrew (died c. 1599), of Bryanston, Dorset. – History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 31 August 2016.
75. ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Peyton, Sir Henry". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 45. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
76. ^ See image: Monument to Lady Elizabeth Seymour (1552 – 3 June 1602), wife of Sir Richard Knightley, of Fawsley, Northamptonshire, Norton Church, Northamptonshire.
77. ^ "The Path to Somerset". Publishers Weekly. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
78. ISBN 978-1-137-43883-6
    .
79. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) Credits". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
80. ISBN 978-0-7864-5891-2
    .

References

• Alford, Stephen (2002), Kingship and Politics in the Reign of Edward VI, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
  ISBN 0-521-03971-1
  .
• Beer, Barrett L. (January 2009) [First published 2004]. "Seymour, Edward, duke of Somerset [known as Protector Somerset]".
  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25159. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.).
• Boutell, Charles (1863), A Manual of Heraldry, Historical and Popular, London: Winsor & Newton
• Brigden, Susan (2000), New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603, London: Allen Lane/Penguin,
  ISBN 0-7139-9067-8
  .
• Dickens, A. G. (1967), The English Reformation, London: Fontana,
  ISBN 0-00-686115-6
  .
• OCLC 154186398
  .
• Elton, G. R. (1977), Reform and Reformation, London: Edward Arnold,
  ISBN 0-7131-5953-7
  .
• ISBN 0-385-11663-2
  .
• ISBN 0-19-285213-2
  .
• Jordan, W. K. (1968), Edward VI: The Young King. The Protectorship of the Duke of Somerset, London: George Allen & Unwin,
  OCLC 40403
  .
• Loach, Jennifer (1999), Bernard, George; Williams, Penry (eds.), Edward VI, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
  ISBN 0-300-07992-3
  .
• ISBN 0-582-77226-5
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid (2002), The Boy King: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation, Berkeley: University of California Press,
  ISBN 0-520-23402-2
  .
• ISBN 9780141967660
  .
• OCLC 186603282
  .
• Seymour, William (1972), Ordeal by Ambition: An English Family in the Shadow of the Tudors, London:
  ISBN 978-0283978661
• ISBN 978-0-297-84649-9
  .
• Somerset, Anne (2003). Elizabeth I. New York: Anchor Books.
  OCLC 697656720
  .
• Starkey, David (2002), The Reign of Henry VIII, London: Vintage,
  ISBN 0-09-944510-7
  .
• Vivian, J.L. (1895). The Visitations of the County of Devon, Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564, to 1620, with additions by J. L. Vivian. Exeter: H.S. Eland..
• Wormald, Jenny (2001), Mary, Queen of Scots: Politics, Passion and a Kingdom Lost, London: Tauris Parke,
  ISBN 1-86064-588-7
  .

Historiography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset.

• Loades, David. "The reign of Edward VI: An historiographical survey" Historian 67#1 (2000): 22+ online

Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Russell	Lord High Admiral 1542–1543	Succeeded by The Viscount Lisle
Preceded by The Duke of Norfolk	Lord High Treasurer 1547–1549	Succeeded by The Marquess of Winchester
	Earl Marshal 1547–1549	Succeeded by The Earl of Warwick
Vacant Title last held by The Duke of Gloucester	Lord Protector of the Realm 1547–1549	Vacant Title next held by Oliver Cromwell
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Duke of Suffolk	Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire 1551–1552	Succeeded by The Marquess of Northampton
Peerage of England
New creation	Duke of Somerset 1547–1552	Forfeit Title next held by William Seymour