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
Wars of the Roses again won complete victories at Barnet (14 April 1471), where Warwick was killed, and Tewkesbury (4 May 1471) where the Lancastrian heir, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales was killed, or perhaps executed after the battle. Queen Margaret was escorted to London as a prisoner and Henry was murdered in the Tower of London several days later, ending the direct Lancastrian line of succession. A period of comparative peace followed, ending with the unexpected death of King Edward in 1483. His surviving brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, first moved to prevent the unpopular Woodville family of Edward's widow from participating