Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

The Duke of Somerset
Arms of Beaufort, Earls and Dukes of Somerset: The Royal Arms of England within a bordure compony argent and azure
Duke of Somerset
Successor	Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke
Earl of Somerset
Predecessor	John Beaufort, 1st Duke, 3rd Earl
Successor	Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke, 5th Earl
Born	1406
Died	22 May 1455 (aged 48/49) First Battle of St Albans
Spouse	Eleanor Beauchamp
Issue	Eleanor Beaufort, Countess Ormonde Dame Elizabeth FitzLewis Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Stafford, Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke Dame Anne Paston John Beaufort, Marquess of Dorset Joan, Baroness St Lawrence Thomas Beaufort
House	House of Beaufort
Father	John Beaufort, 1st Earl
Mother	Margaret Holland

Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, KG (1406 – 22 May 1455), sometimes styled 1st Duke of Somerset, was an English nobleman and an important figure in the Wars of the Roses and in the Hundred Years' War. He also succeeded in the title of 4th Earl of Somerset and was created 1st Earl of Dorset and 1st Marquess of Dorset (previously held by his father and later forfeited), and Count of Mortain. He was known for his deadly rivalry with Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.

Early life

Edmund Beaufort was the third surviving son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, and Margaret Holland. His paternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Katherine Swynford. His maternal grandparents were Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and Alice FitzAlan. Alice was a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and Eleanor of Lancaster.

Although he was the head of one of the greatest families in England, his inheritance was worth only 300 pounds. By contrast his rival, Richard, Duke of York, had a net worth of 5,800 pounds. His cousin King Henry VI's efforts to compensate Somerset with offices worth 3,000 pounds only served to offend many of the nobles and as his quarrel with York grew more personal, the dynastic situation got worse. Another quarrel with the Earl of Warwick over the lordships of Glamorgan and Morgannwg may have forced the leader of the younger Nevilles into York's camp.

His brothers were taken captive at the Battle of Baugé in 1421, but Edmund was too young at the time to fight. He acquired much military experience while his brothers were prisoners.

Affair with Catherine of Valois

In 1427 it is believed that Edmund may have embarked on an affair with Catherine of Valois—the widow of Henry V. Evidence is sketchy, however the liaison prompted a parliamentary statute regulating the remarriage of queens of England. The historian G. L. Harriss surmised that it was possible that another of its consequences was Catherine's son Edmund Tudor and that Catherine, to avoid the penalties of breaking the statute of 1427–8, 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."^[1]

Later life

He became a commander in the English army in 1431. After his recapture of Harfleur and his lifting of the Burgundian siege of Calais, he was named a Knight of the Garter in 1436. After subsequent successes he was created Earl of Dorset in 1442 and the following year Marquess of Dorset. During the five-year truce from 1444 to 1449 he served as Lieutenant of France. In March 1448 he was created Duke of Somerset. As the title had previously been held by his brother, he is usually called the second duke.

Somerset was appointed to replace York as commander in France in 1448. Fighting began in Normandy in August 1449. Somerset's subsequent military failures left him vulnerable to criticism from York's allies. Somerset was supposed to be paid £20,000; but little evidence exists that he was. He failed to repulse French attacks, and by the summer of 1450 nearly all the English possessions in northern France were lost. By 1453 all the English possessions in the south of France were also lost, and the Battle of Castillon ended the Hundred Years War.

Power had rested with Somerset from 1451 and he virtually monopolized it until the King went insane and York was named Lord Protector. York imprisoned Somerset in the Tower of London, and his life was probably saved only by the King's seeming recovery late in 1454, which forced York to surrender his office.

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 the First Battle of St Albans which marked the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. Somerset was killed in a last wild charge from the house where he had been sheltering. His son, Henry, never forgave Warwick and York for his father's death, and he spent the next nine years attempting to restore his family's honour.

Family

Edmund married before 1436 (probably about 1435) Eleanor, daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and his first wife, Elizabeth, (daughter and heiress of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley), and the widow of Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros. Eleanor was an older half-sister of Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick and Anne Neville, 16th Countess of Warwick.

Their unlicensed marriage was later pardoned on 7 March 1438, and they had the following children:

• Eleanor Beaufort, Countess of Ormonde, married firstly James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormonde and secondly Sir Robert Spencer.^[2]
• Elizabeth Beaufort (d. before 1472), married Sir Henry FitzLewis.^[2]
• Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset (1436 – 1464)^[3]
• Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Stafford (bef.1439 – 1474), married firstly Humphrey, Earl of Stafford and secondly Sir Richard Darell.^[3]
• Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset (c.1439 – 4 May 1471)^[3]
• Anne Beaufort (c.1453 – c.1496),^[2] who married, before 1470, Sir William Paston (1436 – September 1496), a younger son of William Paston (1378–1444), Justice of the Common Pleas.^[4]
• John Beaufort, Earl of Dorset (c.1455 – 4 May 1471)^[3]
• Lady Joan Beaufort (d. 11 August 1518), married firstly Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth and secondly Sir Richard Fry, and had issue by her first marriage.^[2][5]
• Thomas Beaufort (c.1455 – c.1463)^[2]
• Mary Beaufort (b. between 1431 and 1455)^[2]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

16. Edward II of England[6]               8. Edward III of England[7]                       17. Isabella of France[6]               4. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster[8]                             18. William I, Count of Hainaut[9]               9. Philippa of Hainault[9]                       19. Joan of Valois[9]               2. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset[8]                                   10. Payne de Roet[10]                       5. Katherine Swynford[11]                             1. Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset                                         24. Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand[12]               12. Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent[13]                       25. Maud la Zouche[12]               6. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent[8]                             26. Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent[14]               13. Joan of Kent[13]                       27. Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell[14]               3. Margaret Holland[8]                                   28. Edmund Fitzalan, 9th Earl of Arundel[15]               14. Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel[13]                       29. Alice de Warenne[15]               7. Alice Fitzalan[16]                             30. Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster[17]               15. Eleanor of Lancaster[17]                       31. Maud Chaworth[17]

Notes

1. Richmond 2008, p. 1
2. Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 106.
3. Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 105.
4. Davis 1971, p. lvii.
5. The Lineage and Ancestry of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, by Gerald Paget, Vol. I, p. 23.
6. Weir 2008, p. 92.
7. Weir 2008, p. 232.
8. Brown 2004.
9. Weir 2008, p. 93.
10. Weir 2007, p. 6.
11. Marshall 2003, p. 50.
12. Browning 1898, p. 288.
13. Weir 2008, p. 125.
14. Weir 2008, pp. 94–95.
15. Weir 2008, pp. 97, 104.
16. Weir 2008, pp. 94, 125.
17. Weir 2008, p. 77.

References

• Brown, M.H. (2004). "Joan [Joan Beaufort] (d. 1445)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14646. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Browning, Charles H. (1898). The Magna Carta Barons and Their American Descendants. London: Genealogical Publishing Company.
• Davis, Norman, ed. (1971). The Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, Part I. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
• Marshall, Rosalind (2003). Scottish Queens, 1034-1714. Tuckwell Press.
• Richmond, Colin (2008) [2004]. "Beaufort, Edmund, first duke of Somerset (c.1406–1455)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1855. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Weir, Alison (2008). Britain's Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-09-953973-5.
• Weir, Alison (2007). Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. London: Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-45323-5.

Further reading

•  Tipping, H. A. (1885). "Beaufort, Edmund". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 38–39.