Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset KG (* around 1500 ; † January 22, 1552 in London ) was an English statesman and brother of Queen Jane Seymour , the third wife of King Henry VIII. After his sister's marriage to the king, he made Court career, receiving in rapid succession the titles of Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford and the offices of Chancellor of North Wales and Governor and Captain of Jersey . In the last years of Henry VIII Seymour took part in military campaigns against France and Scotland and after his death became lord protector for the underage King Edward VI.
As regent of England, Seymour openly promoted Protestantism, which led to revolts in Cornwall , Devon and Somerset . His campaign against Scotland, an attempt at the marriage of Edward VI. Forcing with the also still underage Scottish Queen Mary Queen of Scots ended in a financial catastrophe for England. Increasingly unpopular among the nobles, Seymour was overthrown in December 1549 and imprisoned in the Tower of London for a few months . Although he was released in May 1550 and reassigned to the Privy Council, the nobility continued to distrust him. On October 16, 1551 he was arrested for treason at the instigation of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland , and beheaded on January 22, 1552 on Tower Hill .
Life
Origin and youth
Edward was the eldest surviving son of Sir John Seymour ( Seymour family ) and Margery Wentworth. His father served both Henry VII and his son Henry VIII as a soldier and was sheriff six times between 1498 and 1527 in Wiltshire , Dorset and Somerset . It is very likely that Edward was born around 1500 on the Wolf Hall family estate in Wiltshire. In total, his parents had ten children, five of whom survived in addition to Edward: Henry, Thomas , Jane , Elizabeth and Dorothy. The family u. a. with the rich, influential Percys and the Cliffords.
Seymour was presumably introduced to the court by his father. For the first time he appears in 1514 as the honorary page of Princess Mary Tudor , the younger sister of Henry VIII, when she met the French King Louis XII. got married. On July 15, 1517, he and his father were given the office of sergeant at Bristol Castle. At an unspecified time before 1518 he married Catherine, daughter of Sir William Filliol (also Fillol), with whom he had two sons.
Rumors have been circulating since the 17th century that Edward's father, John Seymour, allegedly had an affair with his daughter-in-law, annulling the marriage and classing the two sons as bastards. Usually, bastards were excluded from any inheritance and were not entitled to the hereditary titles of their ancestors. Seymour himself, however, decreed by parliamentary act that Catherine Filliol's descendants could inherit his titles and lands, albeit only after the heirs of his second marriage. Thus, the descendants of his first marriage in 1750 received the title of Duke of Somerset , which the descendants of Seymour's second marriage had previously held until the male line was extinguished. The rumors surrounding John Seymour and Catherine Filliol should therefore be treated with caution.
Rise at court
When Emperor Charles V visited England in 1522, Seymour was possibly one of the English in his entourage, because the Spanish ambassador Eustace Chapuys later said of Seymour that he had been in Charles's service. In August 1523 he took part in Henry's campaign against France where he on November 1 by Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk the accolade received. In 1525 he became both Justice of the Peace in Wiltshire and Captain of Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset , the king's illegitimate son. In 1527 he accompanied Cardinal Thomas Wolsey on his trip to France and in 1528 benefited from the closure of some monasteries that Wolsey had dissolved in order to promote his universities. On September 15, 1531 Seymour was appointed Esquire of the Body and thus a personal servant of the king, which earned him an annual salary of 50 English marks. Together with his father, he accompanied Heinrich and his lover Anne Boleyn to France in 1532 to meet the French King Franz I.
Before March 9, 1535, Seymour had divorced Catherine Filliol and instead married Anne Stanhope . In October of the same year, he and his new wife hosted Henry VIII in their Hampshire manor when the king was on his annual summer tour of his kingdom. Heinrich also stayed for five days in Wolf Hall, the Seymour family seat. It was later suspected that it was here that he first met Seymour's sister Jane, although this is historically incorrect. By this time Jane had already been at court for several years and had served both Henry's first wife Katharina von Aragón and his current Queen Anne Boleyn as lady-in-waiting.
Still, Seymour soon benefited from the king's growing interest in Jane. On March 3, 1536, he received the prestigious office of Gentleman of the Privy Chamber , which gave him unrestricted access to the king. Just a few days later, he and his wife were housed in rooms in the palace in Greenwich , where they kept Jane company when the king visited them. On May 30, a few weeks after Anne Boleyn's execution, Heinrich married Jane, making Seymour the king's brother-in-law. As a new member of the royal family, Seymour received the title of Viscount Beauchamp of Hache a week later . The offices of Chancellor of North Wales and Governor and Captain of Jersey followed within a few months .
In May 1537 he was officially admitted to the Privy Council and was a member of the jury that sat before the Barons Hussey and Darcy for their participation in the Pilgrimage of Grace . On October 12, his sister Jane finally gave birth to the long-awaited heir to the throne Eduard , making Seymour the future king's uncle. When his nephew was baptized three days later, Seymour bore his half-sister Princess Elisabeth and was named Earl of Hertford three days later . A little later, on October 24th, Jane Seymour died of puerperal fever .
Although no longer the queen's brother, Seymour remained a confidante of the king. He was one of the committees that investigated the so-called Exeter conspiracy and was entrusted in March 1539 with the fortification of Calais and Guînes . In the same year he led Henry's new wife Anna von Kleve from Calais to England. Although he assured the mediator of that marriage, Thomas Cromwell , that nothing since the prince's birth had delighted him as this marriage, Cromwell fell from grace for this arranged marriage and was ultimately executed in 1540. Seymour survived Cromwell's fall and gained increasing influence in Henry's final years in reign. On January 9, 1541, he was accepted into the prestigious Order of the Garter and took over the affairs of state together with Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Baron Audley while the king was on a summer trip. He worked again with Cranmer in November when the young Queen Catherine Howard was accused of adultery. On December 28, 1542 he was appointed Lord High Admiral and two months later, on February 16, 1543, he was appointed Lord Great Chamberlain .
Military campaigns
In September 1542 Seymour had already received the office of Warden of the Scottish Marches , which made him guardian of the border between England and Scotland. Towards the end of the year war broke out with Scotland, in the course of which the Scottish King James V died via his mother Margaret Tudor Heinrich's nephew. His crown passed to his six-day-old daughter, Maria Stuart . Heinrich Maria's mother Marie de Guise then proposed a marriage between her daughter and his son Eduard, in order to unite Scotland and England under one crown. Marie pretended to accept the offer, but secretly entered into negotiations with France. In December 1543, Scotland openly broke with England and instead allied with France. Heinrich then sent Seymour to the north in March 1544 to make an example of Scotland:
“Bring sword and fire upon them, burn , grind and deface Edinburgh , so that when you have pillaged and sacked it, it may forever be an incessant reminder of the vengeance of God that fell upon them for their falsehood and disobedience . "
Armed with this order, Seymour ignored an offered conditional surrender of Edinburgh and when the Scots refused to surrender unconditionally, Seymour's forces looted the city for two days. He then confiscated ships in Leith in order to be able to transport his robbery to England. However, he did not succeed in breaking the Scots' resistance against the English, as his campaign only made them work more closely with France. In August he joined Henry's campaign in France and was present at the conquest of Boulogne-sur-Mer . According to some sources, Seymour played a major role in the city's case by bribing the French captain.
In May 1545 he was sent to Scotland again to force the Scots to agree to Maria Stuart's marriage to Edward. In September he and his troops invaded Scotland and advanced into Kelso and Jedburgh . On the way there they burned down villages, fields and monasteries and carried out systematic destruction and devastation. This campaign against Scotland went down in history as Rough Wooing (in German: rough courtship). In October he returned to London to attend parliamentary sessions and government business. The spring of 1546 took him back to France, where he took command of the Boulognes Defense Forces and began peace negotiations. On June 7, his efforts culminated in the Treaty of Camp , which stipulated that Boulogne would remain in English hands until 1554 and that the French would then buy it back.
Lord Protector of England
With the fall of his old rival Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and the execution of his son Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in 1547, Seymour's political position was strengthened. In his will, Henry VIII named him one of the privy councilors who were to lead the government when the young heir to the throne Eduard was a minor. In the very first sessions of the Secret Council after Henry's death on January 28, 1547, Seymour was raised to Lord Protector of the Kingdom and Duke of Somerset . Barret L. Beer argues that the council may have found Heinrich's guidelines impractical and instead preferred a form of government that was easier to implement. With his appointment as lord protector, Seymour also received the offices of Earl Marshal and Lord High Treasurer and thus exercised more power than any other English subject since the beginning of the Tudor period.
Through a patent from the young king, Seymour was given full authority. This enabled him to bypass the advice and instead rule with a small group of advisors, including a. It belonged to William Cecil , who later became the adviser to the future Queen Elizabeth I. In the first few months, the first voices rose against Seymour's authoritarian government and his use of the royal “we”. Seymour took immediate action and on March 6, 1547, dismissed Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton as Lord Chancellor . William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, who also served on the council, wrote several letters to Seymour admonishing him and reminding him of his promise to take his advice on government matters.
Foreign policy
The war against Scotland continued to draw Seymour's attention. As before, he planned to marry Mary Stuart to Eduard and in this way bring Scotland under English control. In contrast to other campaigns, this time he planned to establish an English base in Scotland and from there to win the loyalty of the Scots. In 1547 he led a 19,000-strong army into the battle of Pinkie Cleugh and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Scots on September 10th. But the garrisons set up by the English were attacked by French troops in June 1548, which landed in Leith and came to the aid of the Queen Mother Marie de Guise. At the same time, fighting flared up again in France for Calais and Boulogne, which kept the English troops in suspense.
Although Seymour earned praise for his win at Pinkie Cleugh, he was also criticized for not having initiated a sea blockade to prevent the French from landing. Also, the English were nowhere near enough troops, so that Seymour was forced to hire mercenaries from the continent. The war began to swallow up large sums of money and Parliament tried in vain to contain the debt. There was inflation , lands belonging to the Crown, including university properties, had to be sold and large loans taken out. Ultimately, Seymour had to withdraw his troops and give up the English garrisons in Scotland. Apart from high debts, his campaign could not show any results, especially since Marie de Guise smuggled her little daughter Maria to France in August 1548.
Even on the continent itself, the English did not succeed in gaining the upper hand. The French artillery bombed Boulogne, which seriously weakened the defensive forces of the city. Seymour threatened the French then, the city on France's nemesis Charles V. deliver. However, his efforts to win Karl as a protector for Boulogne failed because the emperor's promise of protection only included Calais. Throughout the spring and summer of 1549, the French repeatedly attacked Boulogne, captured several bases outside the city walls and besieged the city. While the English defense forces offered heavy resistance, no reinforcements arrived because of the uprisings in England. It was not until 1550, after Seymour's fall, that the English government realized that the city could not be held.
Domestic politics
Shortly after taking power, Seymour initiated the first reforms. The traitor laws were revised and Heinrich's definitions of treason and felony were reversed. It took two witnesses instead of one to prove treason. The heretic laws also lost their validity. To curb rural poverty and promote the cultivation of grain, Seymour took action against illegal fencing of pasture land for sheep with new laws. However, these laws were so unpopular with the wealthy landowners that Seymour's commissions, which were supposed to control the fences, met with resistance and hindrance in the exercise of their duties everywhere. At least the parliament managed to impose taxation on sheep and woolen fabrics. Seymour's efforts to reform university curricula were also unsuccessful.
Seymour benefited significantly from some reforms. Under his rule, the sale of lands within two years resulted in the sale of 20,000 pounds, which had originally been part of the Crown's income, into private hands. Church income was also cut sharply. In this way it was possible for Seymour to acquire eleven large mansions and several small estates from former church lands and to finance the construction of Somerset House . During his reign, his annual income rose steadily and finally reached the astronomical value of 12,800 pounds for the time.
However, his wealth, power and authoritarian style of rule made him enemies. Seymour's younger brother Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley , who claimed more power as the king's second uncle, was particularly dissatisfied . He tried to influence Eduard through small gifts of money and to take him against Seymour. At the same time he gathered dissatisfied nobles and took steps to marry Princess Elisabeth. When rumors emerged that he was planning to kidnap the young king, Thomas Seymour was placed under arrest in January 1549 and executed on March 20 for high treason. Although Seymour was reluctant to convict his brother, his reputation was irreparably damaged by the execution.
Seymour led the Church Reformation with Thomas Cranmer as a spiritual leader. Under him, English gradually became the language of worship, which was significantly changed and began to approach the Protestant worship of the continent. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer was published and the Act of Uniformity was passed, a parliamentary act that sought religious uniformity. Another parliamentary act allowed priestly marriage, although celibacy was still considered desirable. There was also a pronounced iconoclasm under his rule . Seymour also strove to limit the power of the bishops and worked together with his wife Anne as a patron of Protestant writers. A total of 25 works were dedicated to him and he maintained contact with leading Protestants on the continent such as John Calvin .
However, through his religious policy, he turned the conservative Catholics against him, including Princess Maria , the eldest half-sister and successor of the young king. In 1548 the first uprisings broke out in Cornwall and spread over England over the course of the next year. Both clergy and citizens in the west of England resisted iconoclasm in their communities, killing a government official, weavers tearing down fences and hedges that demarcated pastureland. In June 1549, Exeter was besieged when the mayor refused to cooperate with the rebels. The council urged Seymour to intervene militarily, but only after some hesitation did so. Thus the uprising in the west was not put down until August, when there were new revolts in East Anglia and Norwich was taken.
Seymour tried to negotiate with the rebels. He offered them pardons, convened Parliament ahead of time to discuss their complaints, and set up a new commission to investigate the fences. His comparatively small force under William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton , was unable to pacify the rebels. Ultimately, the uprising was bloodily crushed by a larger army led by John Dudley on August 27th. By refusing to take military action, Seymour lost the trust of the nobility and gentry and his reforms were sharply questioned.
Fall and death
Deposition as lord protector
Seymour's populist reaction to the uprisings had fueled the nobility's distrust of him. Added to this were his foreign policy failures. Gradually a party against Seymour formed, headed by Thomas Wriothesley and John Dudley. Seymour was initially unaware of their activities and ordered all soldiers back to their posts on September 30, 1549. A few days later, however, he seemed to know more, for on October 5th he published a letter signed by the king that all citizens should arm themselves immediately and come to Hampton Court Palace to protect the king. At the same time he asked William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford for support in letters and brought King Edward to the well-fortified Windsor Castle on October 6th . However, his enemies met in London and demanded Seymour's removal from his position as lord protector. Since they met with broad approval and did not want to risk civil war, Seymour surrendered on October 11 and was imprisoned in the Tower of London three days later .
In November 1549 his case was brought before parliament, but this only sentenced him to a fine. In December Thomas Wriothesley attempted Seymour's execution and brought John Dudley into disrepute, but unsuccessfully. On January 14, 1550, Seymour's deposition as Lord Protector was confirmed by parliamentary act and he lost all offices and lands, which brought him more than 2000 pounds a year. He was succeeded by John Dudley, although he never gave himself the title of Lord Protector. Dudley also tried to find a reconciliation with Seymour. He obtained Seymour's release from the Tower on February 6 and officially pardoned him two days later.
Seymour and his wife Anne were under house arrest for six weeks and then, on April 10, he was finally reinstated on the council. In May he again became a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, took precedence over all others at court and got his goods back. Once again, Seymour was entrusted with various missions. So he tried to convert the arrested Stephan Gardiner to Protestantism and was sent to Wokingham in August 1551 to pacify a popular uprising against the landed gentry. He also received the office of Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire and Hampshire . With the help of former church lands he built up a small Protestant community for Flemish refugees in Glastonbury and helped them with investments in fabric production.
Still, it was nowhere near as much power and influence as he had once held. The council made this clear to him when its members refused to wear mourning clothes on the occasion of Seymour's mother's death in 1550. Seymour also experienced snub among the nobility. So he entered into negotiations to marry his son Edward to Lady Jane Gray and his daughter Anne to Henry Brandon . But Jane's father, Henry Gray , waited and Henry Brandon's mother, Katherine Willoughby , flatly turned down the offer. On June 3, 1550, Seymour married his daughter Anne to Dudley's son John instead. Instead of Lady Jane Gray, his son would later marry her younger sister Catherine .
Indictment and execution
As early as the beginning of 1551 there had been rumors that Seymour wanted his old post as Lord Protector back. They were nourished by a quarrel between Seymour and Dudley and the activities of his servants trying to get support for their masters. The final decision was made by Sir Thomas Palmer's report, which said that Seymour intended to invite Dudley and William Parr to a banquet, cut off their heads, take possession of the Tower and call the people to arms. It is unclear whether Seymour actually had such ambitions, but the Council could not ignore such statements. On October 16, 1551, shortly after dinner with the king, Dudley had Seymour arrested for high treason and brought to the Tower. Anne Seymour was also placed under arrest two days later.
On December 1, 1551, Seymour was tried. Since he was still very popular with the common people as the "good duke", the council took precautionary measures so that the negotiation was not disrupted. Seymour declared his innocence and deftly defended himself. The charges of treason were eventually dropped. Instead, Seymour was convicted of felonia for allegedly gathering men to murder a servant of the king. Historians disagree as to how well the charge was justified. On the one hand, Seymour faced a largely hostile jury; on the other hand, Dudley agreed that he had committed no treason; H. had taken no action against the king. As a result, Seymour may still be involved in a plot against the nobility. Despite the people's hopes that Seymour's life would be spared, the king and council signed the warrant on January 19, 1552.
As was the custom at the time, Seymour prepared for death by praying and reading the Bible, and wrote a prayer in his pocket diary the night before his execution. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 22, 1552 at 8 a.m. On the scaffold, Seymour stated that he would never have acted against the king or his country, but that he had been lawfully sentenced to death. He encouraged the crowd to remain true to the Protestant religion. The arrival of two horsemen caused a stir in the crowd, as they suspected a pardon. However, Seymour asked her to stay calm so he could prepare for his death, tied his handkerchief over his eyes and when he put his head on the pad he admitted that he was scared. However, he had to get up again as his shirt collar covered part of his neck and the hangman asked him to straighten his collar. He was then beheaded with a single blow.
The title Duke of Somerset expired with his death, but was restored to his great-grandson William Seymour shortly before his death in 1660.
Marriages and offspring
From his marriage to Catherine Filliol, Seymour had two sons, from whose descendants the present-day Dukes of Somerset descend:
- Edward Seymour († 1593), Sheriff of Devon
- John Seymour († 1553)
From his marriage to Anne Stanhope , Seymour had four sons and six daughters:
- Edward Seymour (* 1537), died as an infant
- Anne Seymour (1538-1588); married in 1st marriage to John Dudley, 2nd Earl of Warwick, in 2nd marriage to Sir Edward Unton
- Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (born May 22, 1539 - April 6, 1621); 1st marriage to Catherine Gray , 2nd marriage to Frances Howard, 3rd marriage to Frances Prannell
- Henry Seymour (* 1540); married to Lady Joan Percy, daughter of Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland
- Margaret Seymour (* 1540)
- Jane Seymour (1541-1561); Lady in waiting of Queen Elizabeth I
- Catherine Seymour
- Thomas Seymour (1548–1574)
- Elizabeth Seymour (1550–1602), married to Sir Richard Knightley
- Mary Seymour (* 1552); married in 1st marriage to Andrew Rogers, in 2nd marriage to Sir Henry Payton
Web links
- Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of England
- Edward VI & Somerset
- Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, on thepeerage.com , accessed July 26, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa from Barrett L. Beer: Seymour, Edward, duke of Somerset (c.1500–1552) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press 2004, Online Edition January 2009 , accessed June 8, 2011
- ^ GW Bernard: Seymour, Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley (b. In or before 1509, d. 1549) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press 2004, Online Edition May 2011 , accessed February 15, 2013
- ↑ a b Edward Seymour on luminarium.org
- ↑ Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Gray. 2009 Ballantine Books, pp. Xxii
- ↑ David Starkey: Six Wives. The Queens of Henry VIII. 2004 HarperCollins Perennial, p. 554
- ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Second Edition, London, 1961, p. 432
- ↑ Jane Dunn: Elizabeth and Mary. Cousins, Rivals, Queens. 2005 Vintage Books Edition, p. 62
- ↑ Peter Wende (ed.): English kings and queens of modern times; From Heinrich VIII. To Elisabeth II. Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57375-0 , p. 51
- ↑ Peter Wende (ed.): English kings and queens of modern times; From Heinrich VIII. To Elisabeth II. Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57375-0 , p. 52
- ↑ a b Peter Wende (ed.): English kings and queens of modern times; From Heinrich VIII. To Elisabeth II. Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57375-0 , p. 57
- ↑ Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Gray. 2009 Ballantine Books, p. 66
- ↑ a b Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Gray. 2009 Ballantine Books, p. 84
- ↑ Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Gray. 2009 Ballantine Books, p. 85
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| New title created |
Earl of Hertford 1537-1552 |
Title forfeited |
| New title created |
Duke of Somerset 1547-1552 |
Title forfeited |
| John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford |
Lord High Admiral 1542-1543 |
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland |
| Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk |
Earl Marshal 1547-1549 |
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland |
| Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk |
Lord High Treasurer 1547–1549 |
William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester |
| Vacant |
Lord Protector 1547-1549 |
Vacant until 1653 |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Seymour, Edward, 1st Duke of Somerset |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English statesman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1500 |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 22, 1552 |
| Place of death | London |