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
French history in the English-speaking theatre 1471, Philip II of France, king from 1180 to 1223, Charles VI of France, king from 1380 to 1422, and Charles VII of France, king from 1422 to 1461. In the first scene of "King John", John of England receives a message from Philip II of France, demanding that he abdicate his throne to his nephew, Arthur I of Brittany, believed to be the rightful heir. When John refuses, war is declared. But to obtain a stronger claim to his throne and to appease the French (act 2, scene 1), John agrees to a marriage contract between Blanche of Castile,