RISE OF THE SOMERSETS 



very wealthy marriage Somerset made about this 

 time was in some measure the king's doing. The 

 chosen bride was Elizabeth, the only daughter 

 and heiress of William, second Earl of Pembroke, 

 which dignity he had exchanged at the wish of 

 Edward IV. for the Earldom of Huntingdon. 

 This marriage, uniting the heiress of a powerful 

 Yorkist family with the friend and adherent of 

 the king, laid the foundation of the fortunes 

 of the Somerset family, and gave them the large 

 estates on the borders of Wales that henceforth 

 made them powerful. Charles Somerset was 

 styled Lord Herbert in right of his wife's baron- 

 ies, and after her death he was summoned to Par- 

 liament as Baron Herbert of Raglan, Chepstow 

 and Gower. 



Thus at the beginning of the reign of Henry 

 VIII. he was a peer, a Knight of the Garter, and a 

 privy councillor, beside being a man of consider- 

 able wealth. Every step he had earned by loyal if 

 not exactly brilliant service. Into the spirit of the 

 new reign he threw himself with zeal. He sym- 

 pathised with Henry's love of magnificence and 

 splendour, and he was still young enough to be 

 enthusiastic about field sports and tournaments. 

 Moreover Lord Herbert, who seems to have been of 

 a more phable mould than most of his descendants, 

 was always on the right side in politics, and he 

 supported Wolsey. Probably he recognised what 

 historians have since come to acknowledge — that 



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