Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset

Coat of arms of Beaufort, earls and dukes of Somerset

Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset (26 January 1436 – 15 May 1464) was an important Lancastrian military commander during the English Wars of the Roses. (Some number him 2nd Duke, since the title was re-created for his father after his uncle died.)

Somerset was the son of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and Eleanor Beauchamp, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Thus he was first cousin to Margaret Beaufort and to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and uncle to Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

Somerset fought at the First Battle of St Albans (1455), where he was seriously wounded and his father was killed. He was the principal Lancastrian commander at the Lancastrian victories of the Battle of Wakefield (1460) and the Second Battle of St Albans (1461), and the Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Towton (1461), fleeing to Scotland after escaping the field at Towton.

From Scotland he travelled to France to negotiate for help, where he was imprisoned for a time and thence to Flanders and back to England via Scotland. He garrisoned several Northumberland castles. After surrendering at the end of one castle siege, he indicated his willingness to make peace with King Edward. The king needed to win over some of the Lancastrian commanders to help secure his hold on the throne, and so pardoned Somerset on 10 March 1462, restoring his forfeited lands and titles.

For the next year or so Somerset remained close to Edward, attending his court and giving him military advice. But at the end of 1463 he slipped back over to the Lancastrian side, hurried north and started raising troops. He held out in the far north of England until May 1464, when he was defeated at the Battle of Hexham and beheaded shortly afterwards that same day. He was buried at Hexham Abbey.

Somerset died unmarried and left no legitimate children. He did have an illegitimate son by Joan Hill (later legitimized), Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, from whom descend the Earls and Marquesses of Worcester and later the Dukes of Beaufort, who are currently the last male line descendants of the Plantagenets and the Second House of the Counts of Anjou.

References

Pollard, A.F. (1909). "Henry Beaufort, third Duke of Somerset". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 23 (supplement). pp. 157–158.