The Tudor Society
  • #OTD in Tudor History – 22 January

    Portraits of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger

    On this day in Tudor history, 22nd January, war was declared, a Lord Protector was beheaded, Wyatt’s Rebellion was planned, and Francis Bacon, a lord chancellor and famous philosopher, author and scientist, was born…

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  • May 22 – Edward Seymour joins Henry VIII’s privy council

    Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector

    On this day in Tudor history, 22nd May 1537, Edward Seymour, brother of Queen Jane Seymour, was sworn in as a privy councillor.

    Edward, who was born in around 1500, had been at court since early adolescence, and he’d risen to become an esquire of the body by 1531.

    In 1536, when the king was wooing his sister, Jane, Edward was appointed to the king’s privy chamber. Following Henry and Jane’s marriage, the rewards came thick and fast…

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  • October 5 – Edward Seymour’s actions lead to his undoing

    On this day in Tudor history, 5th October 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, Lord Protector Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, ordered a gathering of men at Hampton Court Palace.

    Somerset was lodged at the palace with the young King Edward VI due to tensions mounting between the Lord Protector and John Dudley, Earl of Warwick.

    But what was going on and what happened when 4,000 peasants turned up?

    How did the Earl of Warwick react and what did the king have to say about it all?

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  • 22 May – Edward Seymour is in favour

    Portrait of Edward Seymour as 1st Earl of Hertford (c.1537), wearing the Collar of the Order of the Garter. By unknown artist, Longleat House, Wiltshire.

    On this day in Tudor history, 22nd May 1537, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Queen Jane Seymour’s brother, Edward Seymour, was appointed to the privy council.

    It was just one reward of many and you can find out more about Edward Seymour’s rise in this 60-second TudorHistoryShorts video:

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  • 22 January

    In today’s “on this day in Tudor history” video, I take you back to 1552 and the execution of Edward Seymour, Lord Protector.

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  • Quiz – Edward VI’s Regency Council

    In January 1547, King Henry VIII died and left his throne to his son and heir, Edward. Henry’s will made provisions for the nine-year-old King Edward VI to be helped by a regency council, but how much do you know about this council and what happened in early 1547? Test your knowledge with this fun quiz. Good luck!

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  • 5 October 1549 – Protector Somerset issues a proclamation

    On this day in history, 5th October 1549, Edward Seymour, Protector Somerset, issued a proclamation for a general array of troops to gather at Hampton Court Palace for the defence of the realm, or rather the defence of the Lord Protector and his nephew, King Edward VI.

    This proclamation was due to tensions mounting between Somerset and John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who had recently defeated Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk and who was now known to be negotiating with Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, and Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. The imperial ambassador, François van der Delft, recorded what happened in a letter to the Emperor:

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  • Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset

    The fifth article in Sarah Bryson’s series on prominent Tudor courtiers…

    Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset is one of the most well-known of Henry VIII’s courtiers. Although the duke was most influential under the reign of his nephew, King Edward VI, it was during the reign of Henry VIII that Seymour started his ascent at the Tudor court.

    The exact date of Edward’s birth has not been recorded, but it is believed that he was born around 1500 at the family’s home of Wolf Hall, Wiltshire, to Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth. John and Margery had ten children: six sons (John, Edward, Henry, Thomas, John and Anthony) and four daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Margery and Dorothy). Edward Seymour was descended from the ancient family lines of the Percys and Cliffords, and his father served both King Henry VII and King Henry VIII as Sheriff of Wiltshire and Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, cementing the family’s loyalty to the Tudors.

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  • 1 February 1547 – Edward Seymour is appointed Lord Protector

    On this day in history, Tuesday 1st February 1547, the executors of Henry VIII’s will appointed Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, to the offices of Lord Protector of the Realm and Governor of the King’s Person.

    Here is the record from Acts of the Privy Council:

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