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 Webb Seymour John Webb Seymour The Hon John Webb Seymour, called Lord Webb Seymour FRS FRSE FLS FGS FSA(Scot) (7 February 1777 – 15 April 1819) was an English aristocrat and amateur geologist. John Webb Seymour was the fourth son of Webb Seymour, 10th Duke of Somerset and Mary Anne, Duchess of Somerset. He was educated at Edward Meyrick's school in Ramsbury. In 1793 his brother Edward Adolphus Seymour became the 11th Duke. On 29 January 1794 Webb John Seymour matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford and on 15 December 1797 graduated there M.A. At Oxford he was interested in anatomy and, especially,