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Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, KG, PC (c. 1508 – 20 March 1549) was a brother of Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII. With his brother, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England, he vied for control of their nephew, the young King Edward VI (r. 1547–1553). In 1547, Seymour married Catherine Parr, the widow of Henry VIII. During his marriage to Catherine, Seymour involved the future Queen Elizabeth I (then 14 years old), who resided in his household, in flirtatious and possibly sexual behaviour. Family and royal connections Thomas Seymour was the son of Sir John Seymour and Margaret Wentworth. He was the fourth of their six sons; his elder brother Edward (1500–1552) would become 1st Duke of Somerset. He grew up at Wulfhall, the Seymour family home in Wiltshire. The Seymours were a family of country gentry, who, like most holders of manorial rights, traced their ancestry to a Norman origin. Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, did not have a son although Henry hoped for a male heir. His interests turned elsewhere, to Seymour's sister Jane, one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting. Henry married Jane eleven days after Anne's execution in May 1536, and the Seymour brothers saw their fortunes rise: in that year, Thomas became a gentleman of the privy chamber. In October of the following year, Queen Jane gave birth to a son, Edward Tudor, who would become King Edward VI. Her two brothers, Edward and Thomas, were, therefore, uncles to the baby Edward, heir to the throne. Less than two weeks later, Jane died from complications related to childbirth. Thomas Seymour's other royal connection was with Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife, whom Seymour would later marry, after Henry's death. In 1543, Parr established herself as part of Princess Mary's household, where she caught the attention of the King. Although she had already begun a romantic relationship with Seymour, she saw it as her duty to accept Henry's proposal. Foreign affairs In 1538, Seymour was sent to the embassy at the French court. He was one of those appointed to meet Anne of Cleves, King Henry's fourth wife, at Calais on 13 December 1539. A few weeks later he was sent to King Ferdinand I of Hungary, brother of Emperor Charles V, to enlist support for Henry against France and Scotland. In May 1543, he was appointed ambassador to the Habsburg court in Brussels. He was given this posting to remove him from King Henry's court, in view of the King's marriage to Catherine Parr. War breaking out between England and France, Seymour was made marshal of the English army in the Netherlands on 26 June 1543, being second in command to Sir John Wallop. On 24 July, with a strong detachment, he captured and destroyed the castles of Rinquecen and Arbrittayne near the French port of Boulogne. For a short time, he held the chief command during Wallop's illness. Due to his position of privilege as a royal uncle and as a reward for his services, Seymour was made Master-General of the Ordnance in 1544 and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1545, both senior military positions. Regency Council and marriage to Catherine Parr Seymour returned to court just before Henry VIII died in January 1547, leaving Catherine one of the wealthiest women in England. According to the King's will, a regency council was constituted to rule on behalf of the nine-year-old orphaned King Edward. Thomas Seymour became 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, and his older brother Edward became Duke of Somerset, and is often, therefore, referred to as "Somerset". In addition, Thomas Seymour saw his brother rise, amid the contentious and dangerous politics of the English Reformation, to the position of chief councillor with an approved title of "Protector" regent, referred to unofficially as Lord Protector of England, in effect, ruler of the realm as regent for his nephew, the king. Thomas began to resent his brother and the relationship between them began to dissolve. Although Thomas was named Lord High Admiral as a concession, he was consumed by jealousy of his brother's power and influence and worked to unseat and replace his brother as Lord Protector. Thomas Seymour sought to overturn his brother's position on the regency council by his personal influence over the young king, and also possibly by making a royal marriage. Although his name had been linked to Mary Howard, Duchess of Richmond, he was still unmarried at the time of Henry VIII's death. He had previously shown some interest in marrying either of Henry's daughters, Elizabeth or Mary; however, within weeks of Henry's death, Thomas Seymour had rekindled the affair with Catherine Parr, and they were secretly married in April or May 1547, too soon after the king's death to suit many. Anne Stanhope, Somerset's proud wife, disliked Catherine and Thomas and began to turn many people in court against them. Relationship with Elizabeth Upon their marriage, Seymour moved into his wife's house, at Chelsea Manor in London, where she lived with her step-daughter, the 14-year-old Elizabeth. Seymour was the uncle of Elizabeth's half-brother, and the newly-wed husband of her stepmother. Now, living under the same roof as Elizabeth, Thomas Seymour began to show affection toward Elizabeth, tickling her, and slapping her on her behind as she lay in her bed, or coming into her room in his nightclothes. Her governess, Kat Ashley, thought this scandalous, and reported it to Catherine. Indignant, Seymour retorted, "By God's precious soul, I mean no evil, and I will not leave it!" At first, Catherine dismissed the behaviour as innocent fun, and even joined in the behaviour on a few occasions. Elizabeth's feelings regarding this behaviour are unknown, but it was said that she bore Thomas some degree of affection; and though her governess "bade him go away in shame," she found him more amusing than dangerous. Given Elizabeth's relatively young age, the fact she was Catherine's step-daughter and also second in the line of succession of the English throne plus Seymour was married to the dowager queen, his behaviour was considered to be highly inappropriate, shocking, and immoral. When Catherine was pregnant in the spring of 1548, she had become concerned enough about her husband's flirtatious relationship with Elizabeth that she sent Elizabeth away to live with Anthony Denny and his wife, Joan Champernowne (Kat Ashley's sister), in Hertfordshire. In June 1548, Catherine and Thomas Seymour moved their household from London to Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, the property granted to Seymour when he became Baron Seymour of Sudeley. In September 1548, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Mary Seymour. In the following days, she became uncharacteristically hostile and delusional. Thomas lay in bed with her to quiet her, but she did not get better, and died of childbirth complications, just before Elizabeth's 15th birthday. Upon her death, Catherine bequeathed all of her.... Discover the E V Seymour popular books. Find the top 100 most popular E V Seymour books.