Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset

Coat of arms of Edmund Beaufort

Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset KG (* around 1406, † May 22, 1455 near St Albans , Hertfordshire , England ) was an English nobleman and an important figure in the Wars of the Roses and the Hundred Years War . He was Lieutenant of France, Constable of England and fought on the side of the House of Lancaster in the First Battle of St Albans , in which he was also killed.

Edmund was a younger son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and a grandson of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster . He was one of the representatives at the Basel Council in 1432 and became Count of Mortain in Normandy in 1435 .

In 1436 he participated in the Relief of Calais and commanded Maine two years later with some success. In 1440 he recaptured Harfleur and was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter . The next year he was promoted to Earl of Dorset and on June 24, 1443 to Marquess of Dorset . After the death of his brother John, he succeeded him as the 4th Earl of Somerset . On March 31, 1448 he was awarded the title Duke of Somerset , which his brother John (1404-1444) had previously worn. For this reason, Edmund is sometimes counted as the 2nd Duke, although this is not correct, because he was not his brother's heir, but the Dukedom was rebuilt for him.

As the head of the Beaufort party, he was the rival of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York , whom he replaced in 1446 as lieutenant (governor) of France. However, Beaufort lacked statesmanship and was therefore unable to stop the French successes. The loss of Rouen and Normandy over the next several years was caused by his incompetence, and his failure made him the target of verbal attacks by the Yorkists. He lost the county of Mortain to the French in 1449. After the fall of Suffolk , Beaufort took over his post as first minister of the king and in January 1451 the parliament unsuccessfully demanded his replacement.

Despite the active opposition of the Yorks, he was able to hold his position, not least because of his good relations with Queen Margaret , until his rival Richard because of Henry VI's inability to rule . in March 1454 was appointed Lord Protector . He was captured and spent - without trial - in the Tower of London for a year . After the king's recovery, he was honorably discharged and reinstated as Captain of Calais. The Yorks used suspicion of Beaufort as an excuse to raise their arms. The rivalry between the two men ended with the defeat of the House of Lancaster and Somerset's death at the Battle of St. Albans in 1455.

Despite being a loyal man, Beaufort lacked leadership skills. It was unfortunate for Henry VI that circumstances compelled him to appoint such a weak man as his First Minister. Thomas Basin , the French chronicler, describes Beaufort as handsome, courteous and amiable.

With his wife Eleanor, daughter and co-heiress of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick , whom he had secretly married between 1431 and 1435, he had the following children:

• Eleanor, ⚭ (1) James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormonde , ⚭ (2) Sir Robert Spencer
• Elizabeth († around 1492)
• Mary (* 1431/55)
• Henry Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1436–1464)
• Margaret Beaufort (1427–1474) , ⚭ (1) Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford , ⚭ (2) Sir Richard Darell
• Edmund Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset (1439-1471)
• Anne Beaufort (around 1453 – around 1496)
• John Beaufort, Earl of Dorset (around 1455–1471)
• Joan Beaufort (around 1455-1518)
• Thomas Beaufort (around 1455 – around 1463)

His two sons, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, and Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset, were executed on Edward IV's orders after the battles of Hexham and Tewkesbury . With the execution of the latter, Edmund, the Beaufort family went extinct.

literature

• John A. Wagner: Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses. ABC Clio, 2001, ISBN 1-85109-358-3 , pp. 22-23.
• Henry Avray Tipping: Beaufort, Edmund (d.1456) . In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 4, Oxford University Press, 1885, pp. 38 f.

Web link

• Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset on thepeerage.com , accessed July 26, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alison Weir: Britain's Royal Families. A Complete Genealogy. Bodley Head, London 1989, ISBN 0-370-31310-0 , p. 105.
2. ↑ F. Maurice Powicke, EB Fryde (Ed.): Handbook of British Chronology (= Royal Historical Society. Guides and Handbooks 2, ISSN  0080-4398 ). 2nd edition. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 426.
3. ↑ F. Maurice Powicke, EB Fryde (Ed.): Handbook of British Chronology (= Royal Historical Society. Guides and Handbooks 2, ISSN  0080-4398 ). 2nd edition. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 426.
4. ↑ F. Maurice Powicke, EB Fryde (Ed.): Handbook of British Chronology (= Royal Historical Society. Guides and Handbooks 2, ISSN  0080-4398 ). 2nd edition. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 449.
5. ↑ Natalie Fryde, Hanna Vollrath : The English kings in the Middle Ages. From William the Conqueror to Richard III. (= Beck series 1534). Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49463-3 , pp. 193ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Duke of Somerset 1448-1455	Henry Beaufort
New title created	Marquess of Dorset 1442-1455	Henry Beaufort
New title created	Earl of Dorset 1441-1455	Henry Beaufort
John Beaufort	Earl of Somerset 1444-1455	Henry Beaufort
John of Lancaster	Count of Mortain 1435-1449	to France ( Charles IV. d'Anjou )