Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset
Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (
13 August 1662-
2 December 1748), succeeded his brother Francis, the 5th Duke, when the latter was shot in
1678 at the age of twenty, by a
Genoese gentleman, named Horatio Botti, whose wife Somerset was said to have insulted at Lerici. Charles, who thus inherited the Barony of Seymour of Trowbridge along with the Dukedom of Somerset, was educated at
Trinity College, Cambridge; and in
1682 he married a great heiress, Elizabeth, daughter of Joceline Percy,
Earl of Northumberland, who brought him immense estates, including
Alnwick Castle,
Petworth, Syon House and Northumberland House in
London. In
1683 Somerset received an appointment in the king’s household, and two years later a colonelcy of dragoons; but at the revolution he bore arms for the
Prince of Orange. Having befriended
Princess Anne in
1692, he became a great favourite with her after her accession to the throne, receiving the post of
Master of the Horse in
1702. Finding himself neglected by
Marlborough, he made friends with the
Tories, and succeeded in retaining the queen’s confidence, while his wife replaced the Duchess of Marlborough as
Mistress of the Robes in
1711. In the memorable crisis when Anne was at the point of death, Somerset acted with
Argyll,
Shrewsbury and other
Whig nobles who, by insisting on their right to be present in the
Privy Council, secured the
Hanoverian succession to the Crown. He retained the office of Master of the Horse under
George I till
1716, when he was dismissed and retired into private life; he died at Petworth on
2 December 1748. The duke’s first wife having died in
1722, he married secondly, in
1726, Charlotte, daughter of the
2nd Earl of Nottingham. He was a remarkably handsome man, and inordinately fond of taking a conspicuous part in court ceremonial; his vanity, which earned him the sobriquet of "the proud duke," was a byword among his contemporaries and was the subject of numerous anecdotes;
Macaulay’s description of him as “a man in whom the pride of birth and rank amounted almost to a disease,” is well known.