Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset

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Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset

Robert Carr or Ker (r) , 1st Earl of Somerset (* around 1586 , † 1645 ) was a Scottish politician and favorite of King James I of England .

Robert Carr, whose birthday is unknown , was a younger son of Sir Thomas Ker of Ferniehurst and his second wife Janet Scott, sister of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch .

He accompanied Jacob VI. (I.) as a page to England, was then dismissed from the service of the king and sought his fortune in France for some time. When he broke his arm at a tournament in the presence of the king after his return to England, the king caught his attention again. The king was impressed by the young man, who had no higher intellectual abilities but was handsome and attractive, and immediately took him into his favor. On December 23, 1607 he proposed him to the Knight Bachelor and assigned him the Sir Walter Raleigh confiscated goods in Sherborne .

Carr's influence on the king was so great that he was even able to get him to dissolve Parliament in 1610 when it made preparations to oppose the Scottish favorites. On March 25, 1611 former Page in was Peerage of England for Viscount Rochester collected and a member of the Privy Council ( privy councilor appointed). On April 24, 1611 he was accepted into the Order of the Garter and solemnly introduced to the Order on May 13, 1611. After Salisbury's death in 1612, Carr served as secretary to the king, who on November 3, 1613 elevated him to Earl of Somerset and Baron Brancepeth . On December 23 of the same year Carr became Treasurer of Scotland and in 1614 even Lord Chamberlain . In 1614 and 1615 he was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports .

He married Frances Howard and was involved in a murder plot with her. Found guilty but not executed, he spent years prisoner in the Tower of London . After his pardon and release in 1622, he lived in seclusion.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 144.
  2. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 30.
  3. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Second Edition, London, 1961, p. 449
  4. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Second Edition, London 1961, p. 182.

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personal data
SURNAME Carr, Robert, 1st Earl of Somerset
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Somerset, Robert Carr 1st Earl of; Somerset, Robert Kerr 1st Earl of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish courtier and politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 1586
DATE OF DEATH 1645