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.
John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset (before 1646 – 29 April 1675) was an English peer and MP. He was the only surviving son of William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset and Lady Frances Devereux and entered Grays Inn in 1666. He succeeded his nephew as the 4th Duke of Somerset in 1671. In 1656 he married Sarah, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edward Alston and widow of George Grimston. He was elected Member of Parliament for Marlborough in 1661. He died in 1675, childless, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. He was succeeded