Edmund Beaufort (died 1471) Edmund Beaufort (died 1471) Edmund Beaufort (c. 1438 – 6 May 1471), styled 4th Duke of Somerset, was an English nobleman, and a military commander during the Wars of the Roses, in which he supported King Henry VI. Edmund Beaufort, born about 1438, was the son of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and Eleanor, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and widow of Thomas, fourteenth baron Roos of Hamlake. After the defeat of the Lancastrians in 1461, Edmund was brought up in France with his younger brother John Beaufort, Marquess of Dorset, and on the execution of
Henry Stafford (c. 1425 – 1471) 12 he made a firm decision to support Edward and to join him, accompanied by his Steward, John Gilpyn, and other retainers. Although ill-prepared, Henry and his men travelled to Barnet, where the Yorkists won a decisive victory on 14 April 1471. The previous day Henry had made a hastily drafted will, in which he referred to Margaret as “my most entire belovyd wyff”. Henry is believed to have suffered from the skin disease erysipelas, also known as “St Anthony’s Fire” and thought at the time to be a form of leprosy. In the last few years of his life,