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Lord Henry Somerset, Earl Worchester,Baron Herbert, Knight of the Garter
Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester was born around
1496 to Charles Somerset 1st Earl of Worcester and Elizabeth Herbert 3rd
Baroness Herbert. He married twice, 1st by papal dispensation dated 15 June 1514 to Margaret
Coutrenay, daughter of William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, by Catherine of York, daughter of Edward IV, King
of England. Margaret died before 15 April, 1526 without issue. Somerset married 2nd (before 1527) to Elizabeth Browne, daughter of Anthony Browne, Knight, by Lucy, daughter of
John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu. The children
of Henry Somerset and Elizabeth Browne were: In 1513 at Calais, France, he organized the Field
of the Cloth of Gold. He succeeded to the title of 4th Lord Herbert [E., 1461]Lord
Herbert between 1514 and 1526. He held the office of Constable of Usk Castle, Constable of Dynas Castle, Constable of
Caerleon Castle, and Steward and Constable of Brecknock Castle. After Fighting in the Duke of Suffolk's campaign in France
between August 1523 and December 1523 he was invested as a Knight of the Garter on November 1st, 1523 at Roye,
France by the Duke of Suffolk. before 21 March 1512/13. He was styled as On April 15, 1526, he succeeded his father and became the 2nd
Earl of Worcester. From his mother, he inherited the title of Baron Herbert. As the eldest son Henry succeeded to most of his fathers Welsh offices and extended the family influence to west Wales.
As well as being made chief justice in eyre of Newport, Wentllwg, and Machen,
and of the whole of Glamorgan,
he also received at the dissolution of the smaller monasteries the site of Tintern abbey in 1537 Somerset
died on November 26, 1549 and was buried at Chepstow in Monmothshire, Wales. His Father CHARLES
SOMERSET (1460?-1526), 1st
Somerset earl of Worcester , was the illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd duke of Somerset,
beheaded by the Yorkists (1463). He was a staunch supporter of
Henry Tudor, who from the beginning of his reign as Henry VII employed him about court and abroad, admitting him to the
Privy Council on 14 Feb. 1505. His advancement in Wales dates from his marriage (2 June 1492) to Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William Herbert (d.1491), 2nd earl of Pembroke of the first creation and afterwards earl of Huntingdon, on the strength of which he assumed (1504) the title of
baron Herbert of Raglan, Chepstow, and Gower, ‘iure uxoris’.
Meanwhile (23 April 1496) he had been made commissioner of array for Wales,
and between 1503 and 1515 he was given the stewardship of the chief Crown lordships in the (later) counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, Radnor,
and Montgomery, and in Ruthinland, together with the constableships of the appurtenant castles
and the titles of sheriff of Glamorgan and Morgannwg (1509) to which Henry VII (who
continued to employ him abroad) added those of chief forester of
Glamorgan, Ruthin,
and Montgomery (1515). His gallantry at Tournai (1513) was rewarded with the earldom of Worcester
(10 Nov. 1513 or 1 Feb. 1514). He granted a charter to Chepstow
on 2 Dec. 1525, and d. next year (15 April), being buried in the Beaufort chapel
at Windsor.
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