Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester

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Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester. Painting after a portrait from the 16th century

Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester KG (actually Charles Beaufort ) (* around 1460 - † April 25, 1526 ) was an English courtier and magnate . As an illegitimate member of the Beaufort family , he was one of the most important advisors to Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII , whom he also served as a military and diplomat. Through his service to the kings, he rose to Earl of Worcester and was the founder of the Somerset family , the head of which was later elevated to the Duke of Beaufort .

Origin and childhood

Charles Somerset was the illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and his lover Joan Hill . His father was executed during the Wars of the Roses in 1464. Through him Charles was a cousin of both the future King Henry VII and his mother Margaret Beaufort , to whose executors he later belonged. He spent his childhood in exile during the Wars of the Roses, first in Flanders and later in France.

Rise under Henry VII.

Somerset was one of the troops with which Henry Tudor, who later became Henry VII. Landed in Wales in 1485. This knighted him after landing on August 7th in Milford Haven , and a little later Beaufort took part in the Battle of Bosworth , in which Henry Tudor defeated the English King Richard III. struck and thus fought for the crown. A little later, Beaufort changed his name to Somerset, presumably to make it clear that despite his descent from the Beaufort family, he made no claim to the English throne. The new king now provided for Somerset as his relative and companion in arms, in which he appointed him on March 1, 1486 captain of the Yeomen of the Guard . Somerset was soon appointed royal cupbearer and in 1493 the king granted Somerset's mother a pension. On St. George's Day 1496, April 23rd, Somerset was accepted into the Order of the Garter. On June 17, 1497 he proved himself in the battle of Deptford Bridge in the suppression of a rebellion, so that he was defeated on the battlefield to the Knight Banneret . Somerset remained closely linked to the king. In the wake of the king, he attended his meeting with Archduke Philip of Austria on June 9, 1500 in front of Calais . In 1501 the king appointed him deputy Chamberlain of the Household . In this office he was responsible for the celebrations for the arrival of Catherine of Aragon in England in October and November 1501. In September 1503 the king made him Knight of the Body and before the beginning of 1505 he was appointed royal council.

Military and diplomat under Henry VII.

As one of Henry VII's closest advisers, Somerset took on numerous military and diplomatic tasks. When the king tried at the beginning of his rule to mediate in the Guerre folle , the conflict between France and Brittany, a fleet was equipped under Somerset's command. On February 20, 1488 Somerset was appointed admiral and given command of the ship Le Soveraigne . When the king was considering defending the claims of Anne de Bretagne , daughter of the last Duke of Brittany, against the French King Charles VIII , he ordered Somerset to set sail on October 9, 1488. In September 1490, the King of Somerset sent to the Roman-German King Maximilian I , who tried to marry Anne de Bretagne. Somerset presented Maximilian with the Order of the Garter, but in the end the attempts of the English king were in vain, since Anne married the French king in 1491, with which Brittany fell to France. In 1492 Henry VII and Charles VIII signed a peace treaty in the Treaty of Étaples . After the death of Charles VIII on April 7, 1498, Somerset was sent to France to meet with the new King Louis XII. to renew the Treaty of Étaples.

In 1502 Somerset was sent back to Maximilian I to ensure that the Yorkist rebels banished from England remained abroad. After negotiations in Antwerp , Somerset and the Roman-German king agreed a treaty on June 19, 1502, in which Maximilian I not only promised to monitor the rebels, but also agreed a trade agreement with England. In return, Henry VII paid the Roman-German king £ 10,000. Henry VII, widowed since 1503, also entrusted Somerset with the difficult negotiations with France when he was considering marrying a French princess. At the beginning of June 1505 Somerset met Louis XII in Blois . After extensive negotiations, the French king offered the English king the prospect of marrying his niece Margaret of Angoulême . However, this marriage did not take place until the death of Henry VII.

Rise to magnate in Wales

Obtaining extensive possessions under Henry VII.

On June 2, 1492 Somerset had married Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert († 1507). His bride was the only daughter and heiress of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Huntingdon . Since her father had died the previous year, she was a ward of the king. Elizabeth's father had grown up with the King and her mother Mary was a sister of the Dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville . Through his wife's inheritance, Somerset acquired significant land holdings in the Welsh dominions of Gower , Kilvery , Crickhowell , Tretower and Raglan . With that he rose to become an important Marcher Lord . After the death of Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford in 1495, his lands in Wales fell to the Crown, and in March 1501 the king turned over the administration of the Welsh rule of Glamorgan to Somerset. The lords of the Welsh Marches were still partially autonomous at that time, and as Lord of Glamorgan Somerset was also responsible for the judiciary of Glamorgan. The king had negotiated hard with Somerset, however. In 1502 Somerset complained that the administration of Glamorgan would be unprofitable for him without the allocation of further offices. Accordingly, the king gave him the rule of Ewyas Lacy in September 1503 and the administration of the rule of Monmouth in south-east Wales in October 1503 . After the death of Sir Walter Herbert , an uncle of his wife, in September 1507, Somerset acquired the lordship of Chepstow and Tudenham and the administration of the lordship of Caldicot . With these vast possessions and offices, Somerset had risen to be the most powerful nobleman in South Wales. From the right of his wife, he used the title Baron Herbert from 1503 at the latest and was called to parliament as such on October 17, 1509 and November 28, 1511 .

Consolidation of influence in Wales under Henry VIII.

Despite his offices, Somerset had far less power during the reign of Henry VII in Wales than Jasper Tudor had. Somerset had received a large part of his offices and lands from the king only for a period of time and not for life or even hereditary. After the death of Henry VII, his son and heir, Henry VIII. Somerset's powers in South Wales expanded considerably. On May 19, 1509, the new King appointed Somerset steward of the Ruthin reign and commander of Ruthin Castle . Through these offices Somerset now gained influence in North Wales. On May 21, the King gave him lifelong administration of Monmouth and Grosmont and command of Monmouth Castle , and on May 29, the King appointed him Sheriff of Glamorgan . In May 1510 Somerset received lifelong administration of the Abergavenny lordship . In June 1510 the King granted Somerset, with the exception of the administration of Monmouth, the right to inherit the offices for the offices previously conferred. From its Welsh possessions, Worcester received at least £ 850 a year in 1520.

1545 painting of the meeting of the English and French kings at the Camp du Drap d'Or, in whose organization Worcester played a key role

Position under Henry VIII.

Somerset retained an influential position at the royal court under Henry VIII. The King appointed him Lord Chamberlain of the Household on May 30, 1509 . In 1513 he accompanied the king during the war of the Holy League on his campaign to France, with Somerset commanding the middle of the three divisions of the English army. With these troops he besieged Thérouanne , which was captured on August 23, 1513. As a reward, the king made him Earl of Worcester on February 1, 1514. In August 1514, Worcester, as Somerset was now called, accompanied Mary , the king's sister, to France, where she was King Louis XII. got married. To this end, he took part in negotiations with France aimed at expelling King Ferdinand II of Aragon from Navarre . In 1515 Worcester was mainly occupied with inspecting the fortifications of Tournai , which the English had conquered shortly after the conquest of Thérouanne. From 1516 to 1517 he was involved in unsuccessful negotiations for an alliance with Emperor Maximilian I. involved. Eventually Worcester had to inform Henry VIII that the Emperor was reluctant to forge an alliance with England and advised him not to support the Emperor with any further monetary payments. After the failure of negotiations with the emperor, relations between England and France improved again. Worcester reached the peak of his career when he was entrusted with negotiating an armistice with France between 1518 and 1520. In 1518 he agreed to return Tournai to France, for which England received 600,000 crowns . In December 1518 Worcester met the French King Francis I in Saint Denis . He subsequently served as an intermediary between the English Lord Chancellor Wolsey and the French court, which finally culminated in the meeting of the two kings at the Camp du Drap d'Or from June 11 to 22, 1520. On the English side, the meeting was mainly organized by Worcester, who thus demonstrated his organizational and diplomatic skills. In 1522 he took part in the reception of Emperor Charles V in England and testified to the Treaty of Windsor concluded with the emperor . In 1525 he attested to an agreement with France concluded in the country estate The More in Hertfordshire .

Worcester probably died in his preferred residence at Kew and was buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle next to his first wife, Elizabeth Herbert. He himself had laid down the procedure for his funeral in his will.

Family and offspring

With his first wife Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert, Worcester had at least one son:

After the death of his first wife, around 1513, he married Elizabeth West, daughter of Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr , with whom he had at least one daughter:

After 1514 he married Eleanor Sutton, daughter of Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley, third . Eleanor, with whom he had no children, survived and later married Leonard Gray, 1st Viscount Grane († 1541).

Web links

Commons : Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • WRB Robinson: Early Tudor policy towards Wales: the acquisition of lands and offices in Wales by Charles Somerset, earl of Worcester . In: Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies , 20 (1962-1964), pp. 421-438.
  • WRB Robinson: The Welsh estates of Charles, earl of Somerset in 1520 . In: Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies , 24 (1970-72), pp. 384-411.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George Edward Cokayne , Vicary Gibbs (Ed.): The Complete Peerage . Volume XII / 2, Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester 2000, p. 851.
  2. ^ A b George Edward Cokayne, Vicary Gibbs (Ed.): The Complete Peerage. Volume XII / 2, Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester 2000, p. 848.
predecessor Office successor
William Herbert Baron Herbert
(de iure uxoris)
1492–1513 		Henry Somerset
New title created Earl of Worcester
1514-1526 		Henry Somerset
Giles Daubeney Lord Chamberlain of the Household
1509-1526 		William FitzAlan
personal data
SURNAME Somerset, Charles, 1st Earl of Worcester
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beaufort, Sir Charles; Somerset, Charles, 3rd Baron Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English courtier and magnate
DATE OF BIRTH around 1460
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1526
Place of death unsure: Kew (London)