Edmund Beaufort (left) negotiating with French envoys atRouen, miniature from Bibliotheque Nationale de France, MS Fr. 2691, a copy of theChronique ofJean Chartier, c. 1470–80, probably decorated byPhilippe de Mazerolles.
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled1st Count of Mortain,[a] (1406 – 22 May 1455), was anEnglish nobleman and an important figure during theHundred Years' War. His rivalry withRichard, Duke of York, was a leading cause of theWars of the Roses.
Although he was the head of one of the greatest families in England, his inheritance was worth only£300. By contrast his rival, Richard, Duke of York, had a net worth of £5,800. His cousin King Henry VI's efforts to compensate Somerset with offices worth £3,000 only served to offend many of the nobles, and as Somerset's quarrel with York grew more personal, the dynastic situation worsened. Another quarrel withRichard Neville, Earl of Warwick, over the lordship ofGlamorgan may have forced the leader of the younger Nevilles into York's camp.
His brothers were taken captive at theBattle of Baugé in 1421, but Edmund was too young at the time to fight. He acquired much military experience while his brothers were prisoners.
In 1427 it is believed that Edmund Beaufort may have embarked on an affair withCatherine of Valois, the widow of KingHenry V. Evidence is sketchy; however, the liaison prompted a parliamentary statute regulating the remarriage of queens of England. The historianG. L. Harriss surmised that it was possible that another of its consequences was Catherine's sonEdmund Tudor and that Catherine, to avoid the penalties of breaking the statute of 1427–1428, secretly married Owen Tudor. He wrote: "By its very nature the evidence for Edmund Tudor's parentage is less than conclusive, but such facts as can be assembled permit the agreeable possibility that Edmund 'Tudor' and Margaret Beaufort were first cousins and that the royal house of 'Tudor' sprang in fact from Beauforts on both sides."[3]
Edmund received thecounty of Mortain inNormandy on 22 April 1427,[5] became a commander in the English army in 1431, and in 1432 was one of the envoys to theCouncil of Basel.[6] After his recapture ofHarfleur and his lifting of the Burgundiansiege of Calais, he was named aKnight of the Garter in 1436. After subsequent successes he was createdEarl of Dorset on 28 August 1442 (though he seems to have been styled as such since around 1438)[7] andMarquess of Dorset on 24 June 1443.[8][9] During the five-year truce from 1444 to 1449 he served as Lieutenant of France. On 31 March 1448 he was created Duke of Somerset.[10] As the title had previously been held byhis brother, he is sometimes mistakenly called the second duke,[11] but the title was actually created for the second time, and so he was actually the first duke, the numbering starting over again.[citation needed]
Somerset was appointed to replace York as commander in France in 1448. Somerset was supposed to be paid £20,000; but little evidence exists that he was. Fighting began in Normandy in August 1449. Somerset's subsequent military failures left him vulnerable to criticism from York's allies.[12] The most humiliating moment was when Somerset surrendered Rouen, the capital of Normandy, to the French without even a token siege. He failed to repulse French attacks, and by the summer of 1450 nearly all the English possessions in northern France were lost, with Normandy having fallen after theBattle of Formigny andSiege of Caen. By 1453 all the English possessions in the south of France were also lost and theBattle of Castillon ended theHundred Years War.
The fall of theduke of Suffolk left Somerset the chief among King Henry VI's ministers, and the Commons in vain petitioned for his removal in January 1451.[6] Power rested with Somerset and he virtually monopolised it, withMargaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry, as one of his principal allies. It was also widely suspected that Somerset had an extra-marital affair with Margaret. After giving birth to a son in October 1453, Margaret took great pains to quash rumours that Somerset might be his father. During her pregnancy Henry suffered a mental breakdown, leaving him in a withdrawn and unresponsive state that lasted for one-and-a-half years. This medical condition, untreatable either by court physicians or byexorcism, plagued him throughout his life. During Henry's illness, the child was baptisedEdward, Prince of Wales, with Somerset as godfather; if the King could be persuaded, he would become legal heir to the throne.
Somerset's fortunes, however, soon changed when his rival York assumed power asLord Protector in April 1454 and imprisoned him in theTower of London. Somerset's life was probably saved only by the King's seeming recovery late in 1454, which forced York to surrender his office. Henry agreed to recognise Edward as his heir, putting to rest concerns about a successor prompted by his known aversion to physical contact; subsequently he came to view Edward's birth as amiracle.[13][14] Somerset was honourably discharged, and restored to his office asCaptain of Calais.
By now York was determined to depose Somerset by one means or another, and in May 1455 he raised an army. He confronted Somerset and the King in an engagement known as theFirst Battle of St Albans, which marked the beginning of theWars of the Roses. Somerset was killed in a last wild charge from the house where he had been sheltering. His son,Henry, never forgave York and Warwick for his father's death, and spent the next nine years attempting to restore his family's honour.
Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset (26 January 1436 – 15 May 1464),[15] eldest son and heir, who was beheaded after theBattle of Hexham, where he commanded the Lancastrian troops. He died unmarried, but left an illegitimate son by his mistress Joan Hill:
Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset (1439 – 6 May 1471),[15] who succeeded his elder brother. He was executed two days after being defeated in theBattle of Tewkesbury, in which he commanded the van of the Lancastrian army, and was buried inTewkesbury Abbey. Died unmarried, the last of the male line, when "the house of Beaufort and all the honours to which they were entitled became extinct".[16]
John Beaufort, Earl of Dorset (1441[17] – 4 May 1471),[15] killed fighting for the Lancastrians during the Battle of Tewkesbury, two days before his elder brother's execution. Died unmarried.
Thomas Beaufort (died young before 1463), another son identified byAlison Weir, but not by the traditional sources[18]
Following the death of all their brothers without issue, fighting for the Lancastrian cause, they became co-heiresses to their father, and their descendants were thus entitled to quarter the arms of Beaufort.
Arms of Cary,Viscount Falkland (extant family and title), quartering Spencer and Beaufort[19]
Eleanor Beaufort (Countess of Ormond) (between 1431 and 1433 – 16 August 1501), who married firstlyJames Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, and secondly SirRobert Spencer (d. pre-1510), of London and Bridport, Dorset,[18] also of Ashbury in Devon;[20] frequently stated erroneously in credible sources[21] to be ofSpencer Combe, Crediton, Devon. One of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Sir Robert Spencer by his wife Eleanor Beaufort wasMargaret Spencer (1472–1536) (or Eleanor), who married Thomas Cary ofChilton Foliat in Wiltshire, the younger son ofWilliam Cary (1437–1471) of Cockington and Clovelly in Devon, whose descendants included Cary,Viscount Falkland; Cary,Baron Hunsdon; Cary, Baron Cary of Leppington,Earl of Monmouth; and Cary, Viscount Rochfort,Earl of Dover,[22] all of whom quartered the arms of Beaufort.
^de Wavrin, Jean (2012), Hardy, William; Hardy, Edward L.C.P. (eds.),Recueil des chroniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne, à present nommé Engleterre, vol. 5, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–146,ISBN9781108047845, the start of Chapter 3 of Volume 6
^Vivian, Lt. Col. J.L. (ed.),The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising theHeralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pedigree of Cary, pp. 150–155
^Paget, Gerald.The Lineage and Ancestry of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Vol. I, p. 23
^Douglas Richardson (2013)Royal Ancestry, Vol. IV, p. 654
Jones, Michael K. (1994). "The Relief of Avranches (1439): An English Feat of Arms at the End of the Hundred Years War". In Nicholas Rogers (ed.).England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1992 Harlaxton Symposium. Harlaxton Medieval Studies (new series). Vol. 4. Stamford, UK: Paul Watkins. pp. 42–55.ISBN1-871615-67-4.
1 Briefly joined the Lancastrians.2 Briefly joined the Yorkists.3 Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause.4 Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim.5 Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim.
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge (1911). "Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 386.
