Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/315

 eldest daughter, Anne, was married to Warwick's eldest son, Viscount Lisle.

Although an opportunity of recovering his position seemed to be thus offered Somerset, the ambition of his rival Warwick rendered his ultimate ruin inevitable. A public slight was put on him when, on the death of his mother on 18 Oct. 1550, the council refused to go into mourning. On 10 May 1551, however, he was made lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, in August he put down an insurrection in Sussex, and in face of the ill success of the new administration the influence of Somerset's party seemed for a moment to revive. As early as February 1550–1 some members of parliament had started the idea of again making him Protector, but a dissolution brought the scheme to nothing. Somerset endeavoured to procure Gardiner's release from the Tower, and to prevent the withdrawal of the Princess Mary's license to practise her own religion. Paget and Arundel gave him their support, and popular feeling was strongly in his favour. With this encouragement, Somerset seems to have meditated seizing his three chief enemies, Warwick, Northampton, and Pembroke, who, on their side, determined to destroy him. During the whole of September 1551 Somerset was prevented from attending the council by sickness in his household, and probably during this period the designs against him were matured. On 4 Oct. he appeared once more by their order at the council; on the same day Warwick became Duke of Northumberland, and his adherents were likewise advanced a step in the peerage. Three days later Sir Thomas Palmer (d. 1553) [q. v.] revealed to Warwick and the king a plot, which he described as having been formed in April by Somerset, Arundel, Paget, and himself, with the object of raising the country and murdering Warwick. On the 11th, Northumberland and Palmer again discussed the matter, and on the same day the council ordered an inquiry into the amount of Somerset's debts to the king. This roused Somerset's suspicions, but he attended the council as usual on the 16th. A few hours later he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The duchess, Lord Grey, and others of his adherents, followed him thither next day; and finally, Palmer, who had been left at liberty for ten days after giving his information, was arrested. On the 19th the council communicated to the corporation the baseless story that Somerset had plotted to destroy the city of London, seize the Tower and the Isle of Wight (, ii. 56–7). He was also accused of endeavouring to secure for himself and his heirs the succession to the crown (cf. ‘A Tract agaynst Edward, Duke of Somerset,’ extant among the Loseley MSS., Hist MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. p. 607). For six weeks Somerset remained in the Tower while evidence was being collected against him. There can be no doubt that he had meditated supplanting Northumberland, but the plot against the duke's life rests on no satisfactory evidence. Apart from the improbabilities of Palmer's story (see, ii. 1–70), there is the direct statement of Renard that both Northumberland and Palmer confessed before their death that they had concocted the evidence (, v. 36 n.) On Tuesday, 1 Dec., at 5 A.M. Somerset was conveyed by water from the Tower to Westminster Hall, to stand trial by his peers. The charge of treason broke down, but he was condemned for felony, and sentenced to be hanged; the people ‘supposing he had been clerely quitt, when they see the axe of the Tower put downe, made such a shryke and castinge up of caps, that it was heard into the Long Acre beyonde Charinge Crosse,’ and on his way back to the Tower they ‘cried God save him all the way’ (, ii. 63; cf., p. 607). He was beheaded on Tower Hill on Friday, 22 Jan. 1551–2, between 8 and 9 A.M.; to prevent a tumult, orders were given that the people should remain indoors till ten o'clock, but an hour before the execution Tower Hill was crowded. Somerset addressed the people in a few dignified words, rejoicing in the work that he had been able to do in the cause of religion and urging them to follow in the same course. While he was yet speaking a panic seized the crowd, and in the midst of it Sir Anthony Browne rode up. A cry of ‘pardon’ was raised, but Somerset was not deceived, and, protesting his loyalty to the king, he laid his head on the block, while those nearest the scaffold pressed forward to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood (, Orig. Letters, 2nd ser. ii. 216). He was buried in St. Peter's Chapel in the Tower, on the north side of the aisle, between Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. In the Stowe collection (No. 1066) in the British Museum is a manuscript calendar used by Somerset in the Tower, inside one cover of which he wrote some pious reflections the day before his execution; on the other cover is the signature of his daughter-in-law, Catherine Seymour [q. v.], who also used it while in the Tower. As he was attainted for felony and not for treason, his lands and dignities were not thereby affected, but an act of parliament was passed on 12 April following declaring