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 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.