Charles_Somerset,_1st_Earl_of_Worcester

Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester

Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester

English nobleman

Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, KG (c. 1460 – 15 March 1526) was an English nobleman and politician. He was the bastard son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset by his mistress Joan Hill.[1]

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Origins

He was born in about 1460, an illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset[2] by his mistress Joan Hill.[3]

Career

He was invested as a Knight of the Garter in about 1496. On his marriage in 1492 he was styled Baron Herbert in right of his wife, and in 1506 he was created Baron Herbert of Ragland, Chepstow and Gower.[4] On 1 February 1514, he was created Earl of Worcester and was at some time appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household to King Henry VIII.[5] As Lord Chamberlain, Somerset was largely responsible for the preparations for the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520.

Marriages and children

He married three times, although his second marriage is uncertain:

Death and burial

Somerset died on 15 March 1526 and was buried with his first wife at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Coat of Arms

  • Garter stall plate of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, show the coat of arms of Beaufort with baton sinister impaling Per pale azure and gules, three lions rampant argent (Herbert, for his first wife, shown here apparently with field inverted as Per pale gules and azure)
  • Arms of Sir Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, KG, showing the arms of Beaufort with baton sinister, with escutcheon of pretence of Herbert, circumscribed by the Garter

Family tree

Notes

  1. [1]
    Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. Burke's Peerage. 1999. p. 220. ISBN 978-1-57958-083-4.
  2. [2]
    Burke, John, Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of peerage, baronetage and knightage, (G.P.Putnam's Sons:New York, 1914), 207.
  3. [3]
    Gurney, E. Henry, Reference handbook for readers, students, and teachers of English history , (Ginn & Company:Boston, 1890), 55.
  4. [4]
     One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Worcester, Earls and Marquesses of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 820.
  5. [5]
    Chisholm 1911.
  6. [6]
    Burke, 207.
  7. [7]
    McClain, Molly, Beaufort: the duke and his duchess, 1657-1715, (Yale University Press, 2001), xxi
  8. [8]
    Jonathan Hughes, "Somerset [formerly Beaufort], Charles, first earl of Worcester (c. 1460–1526)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, January 2007 [accessed 1 Sept 2010] (Subscription required for online version)
  9. [9]
    Burke, 207

References

  • Burke, John, Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of peerage, baronetage and knightage, G.P.Putnam's Sons:New York, 1914.
  • Gurney, E. Henry, Reference handbook for readers, students, and teachers of English history , Ginn & Company:Boston, 1890.
  • McClain, Molly, Beaufort: the duke and his duchess, 1657-1715, Yale University Press, 2001.
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