Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/278

 260 S M S M pushed on the Protestant Reformation with inconsiderate speed, repealed the Treason Acts of Henry VIII. 's reign, and issued a commission to inquire into agricultural distress. The agitation into which these measures threw the country produced insurrections in the west and east, which were with some difficulty suppressed. Irritated by his arrogance, rashness, and incapacity, the council, in October 1549, turned against him, deprived him of the protectorate, and confined him in the Tower. Released in 1550, he recovered much of his influence through the misgovernment of his successors, and contemplated a return to power at their expense. His plans being dis- covered, he was tried on a charge of felony, and executed on January 22, 1552. His popularity was immense, and in some respects deserved; but he aspired to a tyranny, and had he retained or recovered power he would have gone far towards ruining the nation. Authorities. Holinshed's Chronicle; Calendars of State Papers for the Reign of Edward VI.; Strype's Memorials ; Froude's History of England. SOMERSET, ROBERT CARE, EARL OF (e. 1590-1645), came of a good Scottish family, the Kers of Ferniehurst. The date of his birth seems uncertain, but he was a lad when James I. ascended the English throne. When this event occurred Carr gave up the position which he had hitherto occupied as page at the Scottish court, and sought for a time to make his fortune in France. Returning to England he entered the service of Lord Hay, and soon attracted the attention of the king. Entirely devoid of all higher qualities, Carr was endowed with good looks, excellent spirits, and considerable personal accomplish- ments. These advantages were sufficient for James, who knighted the young man and at once took him into favour. In 1607 an opportunity enabled the king to con- fer upon him a more substantial mark of his affection. Sir W. Raleigh had through his attainder forfeited his life- interest in the manor of Sherborne, but he had previously executed a conveyance by which the property was to pass on his death to his eldest son. This document was, unfortunately, rendered worthless by a flaw which gave the king eventual possession of the property. Acting on Salisbury's suggestion, James resolved to confer the manor on Carr. The case was argued at law, and judgment was in 1609 given for the crown. Lady Raleigh received some compensation, apparently inadequate, and Carr at once entered on possession. His influence was already such that in 1610 he persuaded the king to dissolve the parliament, which had shown signs of attacking the Scottish favourites. Next year Carr was made an English peer, and took his seat in the House of Lords as Viscount Rochester. Shortly afterwards he became a privy coun- cillor, and in the autumn of 1613 lie was created earl of Somerset. In 1614 he became lord chamberlain. He was now at the zenith of his power, but the event had already occurred which was to prove his ruin. Before 1609, while still only Sir Robert Carr, he had commenced an intrigue with Lady Essex. In 1613 that lady set about procuring a divorce from her husband, with the object of afterwards marrying Carr. James favoured the cause of Lady Essex ; the court pronounced a decree of divorce; and in December 1613 she married the earl of Somerset. Ten days before the court gave judgment, Sir Thomas Over bury, who apparently knew facts concerning Lady Essex which would have been fatal to her success, was poisoned in the Tower. No idea seems to have been entertained at the time that Lady Essex and her future husband were implicated. For two years more Somerset continued to exercise a paramount influence over James, and it was not till 1615 that his arrogant behaviour began to alienate the king. His fall was due, however, not to the loss of the king's favour nor to the combination at court against him, but to the discovery of the circum- stances of Over bury 's death. In July 1615 Somerset obtained a full pardon from the king for all offences which he might have committed. Soon afterwards the truth about the murder came out. Coke and Bacon were set to unravel the plot. After four of the principal agents had been convicted and punished, the earl and countess were brought to trial. The latter confessed, and of her guilt there can be no doubt. Somerset's share is far more diffi- cult to discover, and probably will never be fully known. The evidence against him rested on mere presumption, and he consistently declared himself innocent. Probabili- ties are on the whole in favour of the hypothesis that he was not more than an accessory after the fact. James let matters take their course, and both earl and countess were found guilty. The sentence was not carried into effect against either culprit. The countess was pardoned immediately. The earl appears to have refused to buy forgiveness by concessions, and it was not till 1624 that he obtained his pardon. Thenceforward he disappears from public view. He died, without heirs, in 1645. Authorities. State Trials; Carcio Letters; Life and Letters of Bacon, ed. Spedding; Spedding, Studies in English History; Gardiner, History of England. SOMERVILLE, previous to its recent incorporation with Boston a city of the United States, in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, lying on Mystic river, 2 miles north-west of the Boston state-house. It was named in honour of Richard Somers, a naval officer, and was incor- porated as a city in 1872. The population was 24,933 in 1881. Glass-works, bottle- works, flour-mills, a bleachery, and a brass-tubing factory are among the industrial establishments. SOMERVILLE, MARY (1780-1872), scientific writer, was the daughter of Admiral Sir William George Fairfax, and was born 26th December 1780 in the manse of Jed- burgh, the house of her mother's sister, wife of Dr Thomas Somerville, author of My Own Life and Times, whose son was her second husband. She received a rather desultory education, and mastered algebra and Euclid in secret after she had left school, and without any extraneous help. In 1804 she married her cousin Captain Samuel Greig, who died in 1806; and in 1812 she married another cousin, Dr William Somerville, inspector of the army medical board, who encouraged and greatly aided her in the study of the physical sciences. After her marriage she made the acquaintance on the Continent and in London of the most eminent scientific men of the time, among whom her talents had attracted attention before she had acquired general fame, Laplace paying her the compliment of stating that she was the only woman who understood his works. Having been requested by Lord Brougham to translate for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know- ledge the Mecanique Celeste of Laplace, she greatly popularized its form, and its publication in 1831 under the title of The Meclianisin of the Heavens at once made her famous. She was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society, and her bust by Chantrey was placed in the hall of the Royal Society of London. Her other works are the Connection of the Physical Sciences (1834), Physical Geography (1848), and Molecular and Microscopic Science (1869). Much of the popularity of her writings is due to their clear and crisp style, and the underlying enthusiasm for her subject which pervades them. In 1835 she received a pension of 300 from Government. She died at Naples 28th November 1872. In the following year there appeared her Personal Recollections, consisting of reminiscences written during her old age, and of great interest both for what they