Seymour Family

The Early Career of Edward Seymour

Although Henry VIII’s marriage to Jane Seymour would transform the fortunes of her oldest brother, Edward Seymour was a rising man before his sister caught the eye of the king. Edward was born around 1500 to John and Margery Seymour, whose chief residence was Wolf Hall in Wiltshire. He was his parents’ second son; his …

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It’s a Boy! No, It’s a Girl! Some Seymour Birth Dates

While looking for something else this morning, I made the mistake of looking in the Lisle letters and got completely sidetracked by the question of the birthdates of the older children of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and his second wife, Anne Stanhope. Since this has blown a good part of the day, I thought …

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The Death of Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset

Hi, there! Between taxes and a lovely weekend in Washington, D.C., with the family, I haven’t had much time to blog, but I did want to stop in and commemorate the death of Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset. She’s an important character in Her Highness, the Traitor (coming out on June 1!), and I’m seriously …

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A Devoted Duchess: Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset

Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, was one of the more prickly personalities of the Tudor period, but among her attractive qualities was her devotion to her husband, which he repaid in full.  One of the most difficult periods in the couple’s lives was in 1549, when Somerset, who as uncle to King Edward VI had …

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The Deaths of a Duke and a Duchess

On January 22, 1552, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, uncle and former Protector to Edward VI, was executed on Tower Hill. Somerset was a complex man, neither the “Good Duke” of one stereotype nor the greedy megalomaniac of another, but he was probably out of his element as Protector and had a knack for alienating …

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Was Lady Jane Grey Precontracted to the Earl of Hertford?

In The Children of Henry VIII, Alison Weir writes that while John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was planning for Lady Jane Grey to marry his son Guildford, “Jane was already betrothed to Edward Seymour, Lord Hertford, the fifteen-year-old son of the late Duke of Somerset, but her parents had no qualms about breaking this precontract.” …

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