Edward Somerset Seymour
1509 - 1552 (43 years)-
Name Edward Somerset Seymour Born 1509 Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England 
Gender Male Died 22 Jan 1552 Tower Hill, London, England Person ID I301152 Little Chute Genealogy Last Modified 18 Dec 2018
Father John Seymour, b. 1476, Wulfhall, Burbage, Wiltshire, England , d. 21 Dec 1536, London, Middlesex, England (Age 60 years) Mother Margery Wentworth, b. 1474, Nettlestead, Suffolk, England , d. Oct 1550, Kent County, England (Age 76 years) Married 1517 Wiltshire, England Family ID F118129 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Anne Stanhope, b. 1497, Westminster, London, Middlesex, England , d. 16 Apr 1587, Westminster, London, Middlesex, England (Age 90 years) Married 1516 Somerset, Lydiard, England Children 1. John Seymour, b. 1535, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England , d. 22 Oct 1605, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England (Age 70 years)2. Mary Seymour, b. 1541, Chester, Cheshire, England , d. 03 Aug 1593, Lincolnshire, England (Age 52 years)Last Modified 21 Jul 2022 Family ID F118128 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Notes - After the death of Henry VIII (Jan. 28, 1547), Hertford was named protector by the regency council that Henry had nominated to run the government for the nine-year-old king Edward. He soon became duke of Somerset (Feb. 16, 1547) and for two and a half years acted as king in all but name. His chief rival for power was John Dudley, earl of Warwick. Somerset tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the Scots to join a voluntary union with England, but, when his appeal was rejected, he destroyed all chances of reconciliation by invading Scotland and defeating the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie (Sept. 10, 1547). In domestic affairs, the Protector proceeded with moderation in consolidating the Protestant Reformation in England. He repealed Henry VIIIs heresy laws, which had made it treason to attack the kings leadership of the church; the first Book of Common Prayer, which was imposed (1549) by an Act of Uniformity by Somerset, offered a compromise between Roman Catholic and Protestant learning. Nevertheless, these and other apparently moderate measures stirred up antagonisms that resulted in Catholic uprisings in western England in 1549.
Somerset attempted to aid the rural poor by forbidding enclosuresthat is, the taking of arable common land by the propertied classes to use as pasturageand this action led to his downfall. The landowners foiled his efforts; the desperate peasants revolted in Norfolk under the leadership of Robert Kett; and in October 1549 Somerset was swept from power and imprisoned by a coalition of Warwick and the propertied classes. When the coalition broke down, he was released in February 1550 and ostensibly reconciled with his rival. But in October 1551, the Duke of Northumberland (as Warwick was then called) had Somerset imprisoned on a trumped-up charge of treason. Four months later he was beheaded upon Tower Hill.
Encylopedia Britannica
- After the death of Henry VIII (Jan. 28, 1547), Hertford was named protector by the regency council that Henry had nominated to run the government for the nine-year-old king Edward. He soon became duke of Somerset (Feb. 16, 1547) and for two and a half years acted as king in all but name. His chief rival for power was John Dudley, earl of Warwick. Somerset tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the Scots to join a voluntary union with England, but, when his appeal was rejected, he destroyed all chances of reconciliation by invading Scotland and defeating the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie (Sept. 10, 1547). In domestic affairs, the Protector proceeded with moderation in consolidating the Protestant Reformation in England. He repealed Henry VIIIs heresy laws, which had made it treason to attack the kings leadership of the church; the first Book of Common Prayer, which was imposed (1549) by an Act of Uniformity by Somerset, offered a compromise between Roman Catholic and Protestant learning. Nevertheless, these and other apparently moderate measures stirred up antagonisms that resulted in Catholic uprisings in western England in 1549.