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,
John Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset the Upper House. The Duke's principal seat is Bradley House, Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, and he also owns Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devon. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Wiltshire in 1993 and for Devon in 2003. The present Duke is the son of Percy Seymour, 18th Duke of Somerset, and Jane "née" Thomas (died 2005). His paternal grandmother, Edith Mary Parker, was a daughter of William Parker and Lucinda Steeves, daughter of William Steeves, one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation. He married at All Saints' Church, Maiden Bradley, on 20 May 1978, Judith-Rose Hull, daughter of John Folliott