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, Lord Beauchamp Wulfhall and Tottenham Lodge), inscribed in Latin as follows: Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch (21 September 1561 – 21 July 1612) had a theoretically strong claim to the throne of England through his mother, but whose legitimacy was questioned. He was the son of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (1539–1621), by his wife Lady Catherine Grey (died 1568), younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, "The Nine Day Queen". His grandfather was Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (executed 1552), all of whose titles became forfeit on his attainder by Parliament, during the reign of