First Duke of Somerset

English duke and lord protector

• Born: c. 1506
• Birthplace: England
• Died: January 22, 1552
• Place of death: London, England

Edward Seymour, first duke of Somerset, was an ambitious nobleman of Tudor England who became governor of his nephew, the young king Edward VI. His appointment as lord protector of England initiated Protestant religious practice that sparked rebellions and led to his overthrow.

Early Life

One of ten children born to Sir John Seymour and his wife, Lady Margery Wentworth, Edward Seymour, his younger brother Thomas, and younger sister Jane were significant figures during the reign of Henry VIII.

Because of his father’s connections, young Edward was attached to the court of Henry VIII’s sister, Mary I, and attended Oxford and Cambridge Universities. In 1523, he accompanied Charles Brandon, the first duke of Suffolk, to France, where he was knighted. He had married Katherine Fillol, whom he later abandoned on grounds of adultery, and then married Anne Stanhope, a woman of radical reformist (or Protestant) religious views, before Fillol’s death.

As one of Henry VIII’s favorites, Seymour played sports and cards with Henry and benefitted from loans and grants of land from him, but his rise in influence accompanied the fall of Henry’s second queen, Anne Boleyn, and the king’s marriage to Jane Seymour on May 30, 1536. Seymour was elevated to viscount beauchamp of Hache, which was followed in 1537 with the title earl of Hertford. He was connected to Henry’s powerful minister, Thomas Cromwell, through the marriage of Cromwell’s son Gregory and Seymour’s sister Elizabeth. The birth of Prince Edward (Edward VI) on October 12, 1537, increased Seymour’s prestige because of his status as the prince’s oldest uncle; his prestige did not lessen as a result of Queen Jane’s death on October 24, 1537. In 1539, he journeyed to France to oversee the defense of Guisne (now Guînes) and Calais, where he met Henry V’s future and fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and returned with her to London.

Life’s Work

Additional honors flowed Seymour’s way during the latter years of Henry VIII’s reign, as Seymour became a Knight of the Garter in January, 1541, and lord high admiral and warder of the Scottish Marches in 1542. He participated in military campaigns against Scotland and France (1544-1546) and was present with the king at the defense of Boulogne in France (1545). Seymour’s forces burned Edinburgh in May, 1545.

In March, 1546, Seymour once again supervised the strengthening of Guisne and Calais, but Henry’s deteriorating health brought Seymour back to England, where he became involved in the complex power struggle during the final months of the king’s life. The exact workings of these maneuvers are still the subject of scholarly debate.

Several factions were involved in these intrigues: a Conservative Catholic group headed by Bishop Stephen Gardiner and the Howard family, and a Reformist Protestant group composed of Seymour’s supporters and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer . As the oldest uncle of Edward, prince of Wales, Seymour wielded considerable influence, and he had been instrumental in the trial and execution of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey. Henry’s will designated sixteen executors and councillors for Edward VI; Seymour was one of the sixteen, and Henry had given Seymour the will on December 30, 1546.

Along with his chief ally William Paget, a secretary of state, Seymour made a bid for power by concealing news of Henry’s death on January 28, 1547, for three days. On January 31, 1547, the councillors named Seymour lord protector of England and governor of the young king. Even greater authority was granted Seymour on February 4, 1547, when Edward VI and thirteen councillors confirmed these powers through Edward VI’s minority. Shortly thereafter, he became lord high treasurer on February 10, 1547, and was elevated to duke of Somerset on February 16, 1547.

Disregarding the instructions of Henry’s will, Seymour expanded membership of the council and procured titles and grants of land for himself and his supporters. Symbolic of his tremendous power, Seymour had a prominent role in Edward VI’s coronation procession and ceremony on February 19, 1547, as he and Archbishop Cranmer jointly placed the crown on the nine-year-old king’s head.

Early scholarly works characterized Seymour as the “good duke” who held enlightened views on social issues, patronized education, literature, and drama, and was a pious Protestant in his private religious views. Scholarship since the mid-1970’s, however, has focused on three main topics: religious change, military engagements with Scotland and France, and the rebellions of 1549, demonstrating that Seymour was a grasping, materialistic man.

During Seymour’s period as protector (1547-1549), no individual was burned for heresy, but greater control was exercised over the English church, which moved toward Protestantism. Visible changes promulgated by Seymour and Cranmer involved removal of images from churches and the declaration that practices such as lighting candles were superstitious. Also, the number of holy days was reduced and the clergy were allowed to marry. The first Book of Common Prayer (1549) and the Act of Uniformity (1549) mandated that the entire worship service be in English, and many aspects of baptismal and marriage services were abrogated.

Military involvement with France centered on retaining Boulogne and Calais and on issues surrounding the 1543 betrothal of Prince Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots . During the summer of 1547, Seymour invaded Scotland and defeated its troops at the Battle of Pinkie. The Scots had disavowed the betrothal of 1543 and initiated discussions for an alliance and marriage between Mary, Queen of Scots and the French dauphin. French troops sent to Scotland attacked Somerset’s army, and by July 7, 1548, the Franco-Scottish marriage negotiations were completed and Mary, Queen of Scots was sent to France. On August 8, 1549, France declared war on England, and because England was racked by internal rebellions, the French had success and acquired Boulogne on March 28, 1550, through a treaty. The costly military operations led Seymour to continue to debase the coinage of the realm, as had Henry in order to cover the costs.

The extension of Seymour’s status as protector a position that could be terminated by Edward VI only and not automatically on the king’s eighteenth birthday caused Seymour’s jealous brother Thomas Seymour to plot against him. The protector moved against Thomas, who was arrested on January 17, 1549, condemned by an act of attainder, and executed March 19, 1549.

Other problems emerged, as population increases put pressure on land and resources, which in July and August led to rural disturbances and outright rebellions in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including Kett’s Rebellion. These disturbances were subdued by government forces; similar disturbances in Norfolk and Suffolk were ended by negotiations and military actions. Rebellion in Devon and Cornwall was sparked by protests against the use of the new Prayer Book and the English language in worship services. Troops that Seymour had intended for use in Scotland were used to put down that rebellion.

In early October of 1549, members of the council in London moved against Seymour because of his handling of the rebellions and his rejections of their advice. Seymour was arrested on October 11, 1549, and placed in the Tower of London, where he confessed to twenty-nine articles critical of his rule. The leader of the opposition, John Dudley, earl of Warwick and lord president of the council, began to consolidate power, but he needed support against the Catholic faction, so Seymour was released from the Tower on February 6, 1550, and pardoned by Edward VI on February 18, 1550. After he returned to the council on April 10, 1550, rivalry developed between Dudley, who had become duke of Northumberland, and Seymour, who sought to regain power. Seymour was arrested on October 11, 1551, tried in December, 1551, and convicted of a felony for assembling men for the purpose of creating a riot. He was executed on January 22, 1552, and his body was buried in St. Peter’s Chapel in the Tower of London.

Significance

Seymour’s religious policies, a sharp break from those of Henry VIII, initiated a distinctively Protestant influence, which encouraged iconoclasm’s destruction of a substantial amount of religious art. After Seymour’s fall, the duke of Northumberland continued these policies until their reversal under the Catholic queen Mary I.

In foreign policy, Seymour’s focus on the traditional rivalries with Scotland and France resulted in military conflict, crushing debt, the strengthening of the French influence in Scotland, and loss of Boulogne to the French. This forced Northumberland to pursue a foreign policy of peace and economic retrenchment. The 1549 rebellion caused by economic problems and radical religious change exposed Seymour’s weakness as a politician. Suspected of being too sympathetic with the “lower orders” of society and granting inappropriate concessions to the rebels in the east, his rivals managed to strip him of power. Although briefly restored to the circles of power, his overweening ambition to reacquire his old status caused his final downfall and execution.

Bibliography

Bush, M. L. The Government Policy of Protector Somerset. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1975. The first major revision of the view of Seymour as the “good duke,” which focuses on the Scottish war and religious change.

Hoak, D. E. The King’s Council in the Reign of Edward VI. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1976. An extensive analysis of the council and the policy of Seymour as Protector Somerset.

Loach, Jennifer. Edward VI. Edited by George Bernard and Penry Williams. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. Not strictly a biography, this work examines Seymour’s policies and his relationship with Edward VI.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Tudor Church Militant: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation. London: Allen Lane, 1999. This work examines the key personalities and policies connected with the extensive religious changes of Edward VI’s church in which Seymour played a prominent part.

Shagan, Ethan. “Protector Somerset and the 1549 Rebellions: New Sources and New Perspectives.” English Historical Review 114, no. 455 (February, 1999): 34-63. An analysis of Seymour’s handling of the Kett’s Rebellion, along with copies of nine letters related to negotiations with rebel leaders.