Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (née Stanhope) (c.1510 – 16 April 1587) was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c.1500–1552), who held the office of Lord Protector during the first part of the reign of his nephew King Edward VI, through whom Anne was briefly the most powerful woman in England. During her husband's time as Lord Protector she claimed precedence over the dowager queen Catherine. Anne Stanhope was likely born in 1510, the only child of Sir Edward Stanhope (1462 – 6 June 1511) by his wife Elizabeth Bourchier (b.
Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset However, he inherited little of the great wealth enjoyed by his two immediate predecessors, as the 7th Duke had arranged for the principal Percy family estates and houses of Alnwick Castle, Northumberland House, Petworth House, and Syon House to be divided between his daughter Elizabeth and his nephew Charles Wyndham. As a result, the Dukes of Somerset were never again among the greatest landowning families. Seymour's children were all born long before the dukedom came to him: The 8th Duke of Somerset died between 12 and 15 December 1757, and was buried at Maiden Bradley on 21 December 1757. Edward