Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester

The Marquess of Worcester
Spouse(s)	Hon. Anne Russell
Issue Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester
Noble family	House of Beaufort
Father	Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester
Mother	Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Worcester
Born	1577
Died	18 December 1646

Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester (1577^[1] – 18 December 1646) was an English aristocrat, who was a prominent and financially important Royalist during the early years of the English Civil War.

Life

He was the son of Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester and Elizabeth Hastings. On 3 March 1628, he succeeded his father and became the 5th Earl of Worcester.^[2]

Brought up a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism as a young man. He was considered an outstandingly wealthy peer, with an income, by the contemporary estimate of Richard Symonds, of £24,000 per annum. By good management, as well as by inheritance and marriage, he built up major holdings in property. When war came, he claimed to have expended and lent over £900,000 to the royalist cause.^[3]

Charles I asked him to keep a low profile in public life. Some noted recusants, such as Gwilym Puw and his chaplain Thomas Bayly, gathered around him at Raglan Castle. His local support was increased by the fact that he was not identified as a courtier.^[4] For his financial support of King Charles I at the outset of the First English Civil War, he was created 1st Marquess of Worcester, on 2 November 1642.

After the battle of Naseby, King Charles sought refuge at Raglan, in the period June to September 1645.^[5] The next year, the Marquess was forced to surrender Raglan Castle to the forces of Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet, late in 1646, marking the effective end of the Civil War in Wales.^[6] He was taken into custody by the Parliamentary forces, and died in Covent Garden, on 18 December 1646.^[2]

Family

He married Hon. Anne Russell, daughter of John Russell, Baron Russell and Elizabeth Cooke on 16 June 1600. Anne's paternal grandparents were Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford and his wife Margaret St. John. Anne's maternal grandparents were Sir Anthony Cooke and his wife Anne FitzWilliam.^[7][8]

With his wife, he had nine sons and four daughters including, Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, his heir and successor, and Thomas Somerset, his second son, who became a Catholic priest in Rome before joining the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Perugia before Pope Clement IX sent him to England as his internuncio. Fr Thomas died in exile in Dunkirk on 30 August 1678. Another son was Sir John Somerset, of Pauntley, Gloucestershire, who married Mary Arundell, a daughter of the 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, co. Wiltshire by his second wife. His youngest daughter, Elizabeth, married Francis Browne, 3rd Viscount Montagu.^[9]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester

16. Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester               8. Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester                       17. Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert               4. William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester                             18. Sir Anthony Browne               9. Elizabeth Browne                       19. Lucy Neville               2. Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester                                   20. Roger North               10. Edward North, 1st Baron North                       21. Christian Warcup               5. Christian North                             22. Oliver Squire               11. Alice Squire                       1. Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester                                         24. Edward Hastings, 2nd Baron Hastings               12. George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon                       25. Mary Hungerford               6. Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon                             26. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham               13. Anne Stafford                       27. Catherine Woodville               3. Elizabeth Hastings                                   28. Sir Richard Pole               14. Henry Pole, 11th Baron Montacute                       29. Margaret Plantagenet, 8th Countess of Salisbury               7. Catherine Pole                             30. George Nevill, 4th Baron Bergavenny               15. Jane Neville                       31. Margaret Fenne

Notes

1. "Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2014-12-02.
2. Lundy 2011, p. 2465 § 24647 cites Cokayne 2000, p. 857
3. "Access to Archives". The National Archives. Retrieved October 2013.
4. "The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography". Yba.llgc.org.uk. Retrieved October 2013.
5. "KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF MONMOUTHSHIRE, 1901". Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved October 2013.
6. "Raglan Castle and the Civil War". Castlewales.com. Retrieved October 2013.
7. Lundy 2011, p. 2465 § 24647 cites Mosley 1999, p. 221
8. David Nash Ford. Royal Berkshire History, Nash Ford Publishing, 2001. Elizabeth Cooke, mother of Hon. Anne Russell.
9. Roundell, Julia Anne Elizabeth (1884). "VIII". Cowdray: the history of a great English house. London: Bickers & Son. pp. 78–86.

References

• Lundy, Darryl (31 January 2011). "Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester". Thepeerage.com. p. 2465 § 24647. Retrieved October 2013.
  • Cokayne, G.E. (2000). Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, eds. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. XII/2 (reprint in 6 volumes ed.). Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 857.
  • Mosley, Charles, ed. (1999). Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1 (106th in 2 volumes ed.). Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books). p. 221.