Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset

Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, KG PC ( August 13, 1662 *, † December 2, 1748 at Petworth House ) was an English peer and court and state officials. He was from 1702 to 1716 Master of the Horse, and 29 January to 9 July 1702 Lord President of the Council.

Life

Charles was the second son of Sir Charles Seymour, 2nd Baron Seymour of Trowbridge, and Lady Elizabeth Bennett. After the 3rd and 4th Duke of Somerset had died childless, the cousin of the 4th Duke, Charles 's older brother Francis in 1675 inherited the title. After Francis was in 1678 during his Grand Tour at the age of twenty years from the Genoese Horatio Botti, whose wife he should have dishonored in Lerici, shot, the then 16 -year-old Charles inherited the title Duke of Somerset and Baron Seymour of Trowbridge. He studied at this time at Trinity College, Cambridge, which he generously promoted later. Despite his brother's fate, he undertook 1679-1681 also a Grand Tour to Italy. In 1682 he married the already twice widowed Elizabeth Thynne of Longleat, the heiress of the Percy estates. Before the wedding, it was agreed that he took the name of Percy, but to his relief renounced his wife thereon after the wedding. In 1682 he was inducted Lord Lieutenant for the East Riding of Yorkshire and 1683 for Somerset, in 1684, he joined the Order of the Garter. In 1685 he was Gentleman of the Bedchamber of James II as well as owner of a dragoon regiment. In 1687, he lost all his positions, as he refused to show the apostolic nuncio, Ferdinando d'Adda at the Court of Windsor. During the Glorious Revolution, he was on the side of the Prince of Orange, and had in 1689 when Lord Speaker of the House of Lords. Since 1692 a friend of Princess Anne, he was after her accession one of their favorite minions and received in 1702 the post of Master of the Horse. Also in 1702 he became a member of the Privy Council, this year he held the office of Lord President of the Council. By Marlborough little attention, he became friends with the Tories and the confidence of the Queen could get while his wife Elizabeth Percy 1711 Sarah Churchill, as Mistress of the Robes replaced.

In the memorable crisis, was as Queen Anne dying, Seymour acted together with Argyll, Shrewsbury and other Whig nobles who, by insisting on their right to be present at meetings of the Privy Council, secured the succession of the House of Hanover. He held the office of Master of the Horse to 1716, but under the reign of George I and George II, he could not tie to his former position, so that he retired to his estates, where he died in 1748 at the age of 86 years.

The Duke of Somerset is described as a remarkably handsome man, who had an almost excessive joy from playing prominent roles in court ceremonies. His vanity, which ( engl. the proud duke ) earned him the nickname "the proud duke" was already proverbial among his contemporaries and the subject of numerous anecdotes. Macaulay's description of the Dukes as a man, in the pride of birth and rank increased almost morbidly, is well known. The assets of his first wife allowed him to expand his London town house Northumberland House and the country seats Syon and Petworth House splendidly. To this end, he collected numerous paintings, including images of Lorrain, but also by contemporary artists such as John Laguerre, John Closterman, John Riley and John Wootton.

From 1688 to his death, he was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Family and descendants

His marriage to his first wife Elizabeth, who by all accounts was harmoniously, were four children:

• Catherine (1682-1731) ∞ 1708 Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet Orchard Wyndham
• Anne (1683-1722) ∞ 1709 Peregrine Hyde Osborne, 3rd Duke of Leeds
• Algernon (1684-1750), 7th Duke of Somerset ∞ 1713 Lady Frances Thynne
• Elizabeth (1685-1734) ∞ 1707 Henry O'Brien, 7th Earl of Thomond

Elizabeth Percy died on November 23, 1722 and Charles married in 1726 Charlotte, daughter of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham. With her he had two children,

• Frances (1728-1761)
• Charlotte ( 1730-1805 ).

His successor in the dukedom by his son from his first marriage Algernon Seymour.