Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of

b. circa 1506; d. 1552

English statesman, Lord Protector of England. He served in France as a soldier and diplomat. Henry VIII married his sister, Jane Seymour. On the death of the King in 1547, Somerset became protector during the minority of Edward VI, his nephew. He aimed at peaceful union with Scotland but failed to conciliate the Scots, was drawn into war, and finally defeated them at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. Somerset was a convinced Protestant and by the Act of uniformity (1549) he tried to enforce the use of the first (and most extreme) Book of Common Prayer. Disagreements in the Privy Council threatened his position, first in 1549 when he was imprisoned in the Tower for a short time and again in 1551 when he was charged with high treason and executed. He enriched himself enormously from confiscated Church lands, but his religious views were sincere and under his administration Protestantism gained a firm foothold in England.

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