Hales, John, (d. 1571), and Seymour, Catherine] he was, on 26 May 1564, committed to the custody of Sir John Mason [q. v.] The death of his wife on 27 Jan. 1567–8 relieved Hertford to some extent of the royal displeasure; he was released late in the same year, but was kept in easy confinement in various country houses until 1571 (Wilts Arch. Mag. xv. 153; but cf. Notes and Queries, 8th ser. vii. 422–3).
Warned by experience, Hertford henceforth lived as quietly as possible. On 30 Aug. 1571 he was created M.A. of Cambridge, and on 2 Feb. 1571–2 was admitted a member of Gray's Inn. In 1578 he was placed on the commission for the peace in Wiltshire, and in the following year was joint commissioner for musters in the same shire. But he again incurred Elizabeth's wrath in November 1595 by renewing the petition to have the declaration of the invalidity of his marriage set aside, and was once more committed to the Tower (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1595, p. 121; ib. Addenda, 1580–1625, pp. 406–8). He was released on 3 Jan. following. On 29 May 1602 he was made lord lieutenant of Somerset and Wiltshire, and in June 1603 custos rotulorum of the latter shire. On 19 April 1605 he was sent as ambassador-extraordinary to Brussels. On 28 June 1608 he was reappointed lord-lieutenant of Somerset and Wiltshire, and from June 1612 to March 1619 was high steward of the revenues to Queen Anne. In January 1620–1 he attended parliament (D'EWES, Autobiogr. p. 170). He died on 6 April 1621, and was buried with his first wife in Salisbury Cathedral, where a magnificent monument was erected to his memory. A portrait engraved from it is given in Doyle's ‘Official Baronage.’ In person Hertford appears to have been diminutive.
By his first wife, Lady Catherine Grey, Hertford had, besides a daughter Catherine, who died an infant, two sons, Edward (see below) and Thomas. The latter, who was born in the Tower and baptised on 11 Feb. 1562–3, married Isabel (d. 1619), daughter of Edward Onley of Catesby, Northamptonshire, and, dying without issue on 8 Aug. 1600, was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster (Walcott, St. Margaret's, p. 29). The report of Scaramelli, the Venetian ambassador, that he was secretly engaged to Arabella Stuart in March 1603 must be incorrect (cf. Edinb. Rev. October 1896). The earl married secondly, before 1582 (Wilts Arch. Mag. xv. 200–1), Frances, daughter of William, lord Howard of Effingham, who died without issue on 14 May 1598 (Chamberlain, Letters, p. 10); and thirdly, in December 1600, Frances, daughter of Thomas, viscount Howard of Bindon, and widow of Henry Pranell (ib. pp. 100, 112), by whom he had no issue. For performing the marriage ceremony in the third case clandestinely without banns or license, and not in the parish church, Thomas Montfort was suspended by Whitgift for three years (Strype, Whitgift, ii. 333, 453). His widow married, after Hertford's death, Ludovick Stewart, second earl of Lennox [q. v.], and died without issue on 8 Oct. 1639, being buried on the 28th in Westminster Abbey.
The eldest son, Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp (1561–1612), was born in the Tower on 24 Sept. 1561 (the exact date, in Hertford's writing, is given in a bible used by the earl in the Tower, and now at Longleat). He owes his importance to inheriting the Suffolk claim to the royal succession [see Seymour, Catherine]. On 22 Dec. 1576 he matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not graduate. In June 1582 he married, without his father's consent, Honora, daughter of Sir Richard Rogers of Bryanstone, Dorset. He was, as a matter of course, visited with Elizabeth's displeasure, and confined within his father's house, whence he petitioned Walsingham to be released (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1581–90, pp. 61, 70). Repeated appeals on his behalf were also brought before William Aubrey [q. v.], master of requests, to set aside the declaration of the invalidity of his mother's marriage. Though these appeals were without result, he was always styled Lord Beauchamp, a title to which he had no right unless he were of legitimate birth (cf. ib. 1591–4, p. 121). In 1596 he and his brother Thomas were implicated with Sir John Smith (d. 1600?) [q. v.] in some treasonable proceedings in Essex; but, beyond a severe examination, no proceedings were taken against him. The leniency with which father and son were treated was attributed to the existence of a considerable party in favour of his claims to the succession, including, it was said, Cecil, Ralegh, Lord Howard of Effingham, and others (ib. Addenda, 1580–1625, pp. 406–8). According to Lady Southwell, Beauchamp's name was suggested as successor to Elizabeth on her deathbed, and she replied, ‘I will have no rascal's son in my seat, but one worthy to be a king’ (cf. Cornhill Mag. March 1897). Apart from the doubt of his legitimacy, he was by act of parliament rightful heir to the throne for a year after James I's accession, until that monarch's title was settled by statute; but he was generally considered unfit to be a king, and no voice was raised in his favour. The appeal for a deci-
