Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset numerous descendants include Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (and therefore The Queen and all of her blood descendants), Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah, Duchess of York. Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset ("née" Devereux; 30 September 1599 – 24 April 1674), was an English noblewoman who lived during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I and Charles II. Her father was Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Elizabeth I's favourite who was executed for treason in 1601. She was the second wife of William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and the mother of
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough and passed through members of the British royal family until it became the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1959. Wimbledon Park House succumbed to fire in 1785; and Holywell House, Sarah's birthplace in St Albans, was demolished in 1827. Today, much of St Albans is named after the Marlboroughs because of Sarah's influence. Sarah died, in the words of Tobias Smollett, "immensely rich and very little regretted, either by her own family or the world in general", but her efforts to continue the Marlborough legacy cannot be ignored. Because of her influence, Sarah managed to marry off members of her family to