RISE OF THE SOMERSETS 



House came into the Somerset family. That one 

 of Lady Elizabeth's aunts on the father's side might 

 have been Queen of England is possible, had not 

 Henry VH. been obliged for reasons of policy to 

 espouse Elizabeth of York.^ However this may 

 have been, Henry VH. was and always remained 

 friendly to the Herbert family, although they were 

 politically opposed to him. 



Elizabeth Herbert was not in herself a person of 

 great consequence. Women in the days of the 

 Tudors were not much considered, even princesses 

 and heiresses having little personal influence. As 

 at the jousts, so in society their place was that of 

 spectators. On the political chess-board they were 

 the pawns whose lot it was to be married to the 

 knights. Yet Elizabeth was of great importance to 

 the Somerset family. She brought to them wealth 

 and a legitimate relationship to royalty. So little is 

 known of Lady Elizabeth Herbert that the date of 

 her death can only be approximated by inferring 

 that it was before the alleged creation of the barony 

 of Herbert by patent in favour of her husband, then 

 Sir Charles Somerset, though during her lifetime 

 holding the barony of Herbert in her right. This 

 would fix the date of her death between the months 

 of July, 1506, up to which time Somerset sat in the 



1 The wives of Somerset and Henry VII. were first cousins. 

 Mary Woodville, mother of Elizabeth Herbert, being the sister 

 of Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV. and mother of 

 Elizabeth of York. 



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