From an engraving in the British Museum.

(1. Smith fec.)

of a great hesitation in his speech wants expression.' Kneller's portrait of him, in a full-bottomed wig, shows him to have been a handsome man of the true Seymour type, large-eyed and full-lipped, holding himself with the arrogant air that might well have hindered any poor relation from claiming kinship.1 The death of his brother Francis in 1678 had brought him the title and estate of the dukedom of Somerset, when he was only sixteen years of age, and had recently entered Trinity College, Cambridge. The estate was not suitably adapted to the title, as a contemporary expressed it. Many of the estates which had belonged to the second duke had gone, at the death of his grandson William, to the only sister of the latter, Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Bruce, second Earl of Ailesbury. Hence the Trowbridge Seymours had more dignity than territory. An ambitious marriage was

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1 Walpole tells an amusing anecdote concerning James Seymour, the animal painter, who, being employed by the duke to decorate a room at Petworth with portraits of his racehorses, dared to claim kinship with him. 'Cousin Seymour, your health!' the duke one day drank to the artist at dinner. The artist replied, 'My lord, I really do believe that I have the honour of being of your Grace's family.' The duke, enraged, bade his steward dismiss Seymour for his impudence. Another artist was engaged, but, failing to continue the work successfully, advised the duke to recall Seymour. This he eventually did, and then Seymour replied, 'My lord, I will now prove myself one of your Grace's family, for I won't come.'

2 In the March of 1678-9, the young duke fell ill of smallpox, and Colonel Cooke wrote to the Marquess of Ormonde. 'Mr. Seymour (Edward Seymour, afterwards fourth baronet, and the Speaker) now bids fair for Duke of Somerset, the young duke yesterday falling sick of that fatal disease to that family, the small pox, and if he miscarries there is no thing but his father (the third baronet) betwixt his worship and his grace' (Marquess of Ormonde's MSS.).

* This Earl of Ailesbury was an ardent supporter of the Stuarts. He refused to take the oath to William and Mary, and being suspected of complicity in Sir John Fenwick's plot, was arrested and put into the Tower. The shock of the news brought about the death of his wife (Elizabeth Seymour), in premature childbirth. See his Memoirs (Roxburghe Club).

surely a tradition in the Seymour family, but the marriage on which this wiser Seymour had set his heart was one of solid wealth or territorial aggrandisement, with no drawbacks such as those which had handicapped his ancestors.

Elizabeth Percy was the sole heir of Josceline, eleventh and last Earl of Northumberland. In 1671, when she was only four years old, her father had died, and she succeeded to all the honours and estates of the house of Percy, holding in her own right six of the oldest baronies in England-Bryan, Fitz Payne, Latimer, Lucy, Poynings, and Percy. Brought up under the care of her grandmother, the old Dowager Countess of Northumberland, she was soon the centre of attraction for interested suitors. Her grandmother guarded her well, refused her hand to Charles II. in February 1679, for his natural son, the Duke of Richmond, but bestowed her a few weeks later on Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, and heir of Henry, second Duke of Newcastle; the ugliest and saddest creature' that Sacharissa, Elizabeth's great-aunt, had ever looked upon. The bridegroom was only fifteen, the bride twelve. It was arranged that he should take the name of Percy, and travel abroad for two years, while the bride finished her education. Before the first year was over, the weakly boy was dead, and the old countess was planning a new marriage for her ward. This time she chose a middle-aged man of the world, a wellbattered rake, Thomas Thynne of Longleat in Wiltshire. In the summer of 1681, Elizabeth was married to Thynne, but fled immediately after the marriage to the protection of Lady Temple at the Hague. The second husband was as distasteful to her as the first, but she was again to be delivered by his death. Count Charles Königsmark, who had been one of the rival suitors for her hand, caused Thynne to be murdered by hired assassins in Pall Mall in the February of 1681-2.1 This paved the way for a new suitor, and this time

1 There is a memorial to Thynne in Westminster Abbey. Swift

for one whom Elizabeth, now a girl of fifteen, delighted to honour, Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. On the 30th of May 1682, she became his wife, and he became lord of her estates, and master of Alnwick Castle, Petworth, Syon House, and Northumberland House in the Strand. The only stipulation was that he should assume the arms and name of Percy, and even from this agreement his bride released him when she came of age.

Wealth and territorial influence secured, Somerset was open to any favours that the court might shower upon him. In 1683 he was appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and 1684 was installed as Knight of the Garter. Soon afterwards he was sworn one of the Privy Council, and was one of those who signed the order for the proclamation of James II. At the funeral of Charles II. he was one of the supporters of Prince George of Denmark, who was chief mourner.

The duke had been appointed by the late king colonel of a regiment of Dragoons, and in 1685 he put himself at the head of the militia in the county of Somerset for the purpose of opposing the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion. On the 16th of June 1685 he wrote from Wells to the Earl of Sunderland: 'I intend to march myselfe to-morrow towardes Crookeherne [Crewkerne] and will gett there as soon as I can.

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Pray my lord acquaint the king that there shall not be any thing wanting in me to put a stope to this rebellion which (sic) I hope now in ten dayes you will find a very alteration for the best.' 'I have here stopt ten idle lusty fellowes,' he continues, we suspected to be going into Lime that could give noe account of themselves, and one of them confessed that he believed the Duke of Monmouth an honest man, and was sure that he was a friend of his, and upon this we have sent them all to the jaile of this

later accused the Duchess of Somerset of having been privy to the plot to murder Thynne. She revenged herself by keeping him out of the bishopric of Hereford.