SEYMOUR, Francis (1658-78)

Seymour was born at Preshute, Wiltshire, into a cadet branch of the Seymour family. He grew up at Marlborough Castle and inherited considerable estates in Wiltshire. Wilts. Arch. Mag. xviii. 1–2. In April 1675 he succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his father’s cousin John Seymour, 4th duke of Somerset, but the estates parted company from the peerage and passed to Lady Elizabeth Seymour, sister of the 4th duke, prompting suggestions of a marriage between them. M. McClain, Beaufort: The Duke and His Duchess, 114.

In April 1676 Somerset was in Paris, where he was received with great pomp and ceremony by the English ambassador, John Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Verney ms mic. M636/29, Dr Denton to Sir R. Verney, 12 Apr. 1676. Somerset was reportedly socializing with Richard Butler, Baron Butler and earl of Arran [I], and other members of the English and Irish nobility in Paris throughout the summer. In the spring of 1678 he embarked for Italy, accompanied by his uncle Hildebrand Alington, later 4th Baron Alington [I], who later said that the duke travelled ‘only out of curiosity’. In April they arrived at Lerici, where they fell into company with a group of French gentlemen. On entering a local Augustinian church the French gentlemen allegedly behaved indecently towards a group of local ladies. Alington later insisted that Somerset played no part in the offence but Horatio Botti, the outraged husband of one of the ladies, tracked the gentlemen to an inn, where he shot and killed Somerset. Verney ms mic. 636/31, J. to Sir R. Verney, 9 May 1678; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xviii. 2–3. His body was sent home to England and buried at Great Bedwyn on 15 Oct. 1678. HMC Egmont, ii. 72. He was succeeded by his younger brother Charles Seymour, 6th duke of Somerset.

The secretary of state, Henry Coventry^‡, informed the consul in Genoa, George Legatt, on 20 May 1678 that Charles II was ‘obliged not only in justice, but by many of the important considerations to show his resentment’. The king appeared genuinely angry and Legatt was instructed to convey the ‘great indignation’ he felt at ‘so horrible a deed done on a person of such high rank and quality’. The Genoese authorities pronounced the death sentence against Botti, but he evaded capture and was only hanged in effigy. James II later agreed to pardon Botti and dissatisfaction at this outcome was said to have been the reason why the 6th duke of Somerset snubbed the papal nuncio at the English court in 1687. Wilts. Arch. Mag. xviii. 3–6; HMC 6th Rep. 223; HMC 4th Rep. 248.