Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset appeared to back the common people against a rapacious landowning class. In the early 20th century this line was taken by the influential A. F. Pollard, to be echoed by Edward VI's 1960s biographer W. K. Jordan. A more critical approach was initiated by M. L. Bush and Dale Hoak in the mid-1970s. Since then, Somerset has often been portrayed as an arrogant ruler, devoid of the political and administrative skills necessary for governing the Tudor state. Edward Seymour married twice: The male line of Edward Seymour and Anne Stanhope died out with the seventh Duke of Somerset in 1750,
Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset and wife Elizabeth Somner, daughter of John Somner, of Seend. They had at least five children. In December 1740, his father died and Seymour inherited his manors in Wiltshire and Devon. On 11 September 1744, with the unexpected death of George Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp (1725–1744), the only son of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, the likelihood emerged of Seymour succeeding his distant cousin as Duke of Somerset and Baron Seymour, as the 7th Duke was then aged sixty, and his wife was past child-bearing age. On 23 November 1750 the Duke died, and Seymour duly succeeded to his titles.