Francis Somerset (died 22 July 1563), was an English soldier, briefly a member of the House of Commons of England in the last Parliament of Queen Mary I (1558).
Somerset joined the English expedition to France and died of the Plague while taking part in the defence of Le Havre.
Probably born about 1534, Somerset was the fourth son of Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester, and his second wife Elizabeth Browne, a daughter of Anthony Browne,The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, Vol. 25 (University of Wales Press, 1974), p. 492 (footnote)Michael C. Questier, Catholicism and community in early modern England (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 68 Lieutenant of Calais.Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families (2011), p. 179 His mother was the leading witness against Anne Boleyn, and there were rumours that she had been a mistress of Henry VIII.Kelly Hart, The Mistresses of Henry VIII (The History Press, 2009), p. 25 He was descended in the male line from John of Gaunt.
Somerset was mistakenly reported to have died at the battle of Pinkie in 1547,William Williams, The Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales (1895), p. 121, says that Arthur Collins's 18th-century Peerage claims Somerset died at Pinkie (or Musselburgh) in 1547. but he was one of the two Members of Parliament for Monmouthshire in 1558Thomas Nicholas, Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales (Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991), p. 764 and fought at the siege of Leith in 1560.P. S. Edwards, "Francis Somerset" , History of Parliament OnlineJoseph Bain, ed., Calendar of the State Papers Relating to Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots, Vol. I, A. D. 1557–1563 (Edinburgh: H. M. General Register House, 1898), p. 441
During the French wars of religion, on 8 May 1562 Huguenot forces took the town of Le Havre and expelled Roman Catholics. Fearing a counter-attack by the royal armies, by the Treaty of Hampton Court the Huguenot leader Louis I, Prince of Condé, handed the town over to the English, who sent a garrison of some 6,000 men led by Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick. The English built fortifications.
In 1563, the year of his death, Somerset was leader of a "band" of men. A warrant of Queen Elizabeth's authorized her Comptroller of the Household, Sir Edward Rogers, to send Sir Morice Denys, Treasurer of Newhaven, £300 () to be paid to Somerset "for the wages of himself and his band, serving at Newhaven, due the 25th January last".Joseph Stevenson, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth: 1563 (London; Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1869), pp. 304–305 John Stow's The Annales of England calls him Captain Francis Somerset.John Stow, The Annales of England (1631), p. 652
In the summer of 1563 Charles IX sent a force, commanded by the Duke of Montmorency, which attacked Le Havre and expelled the English on 29 July 1563.Modern Period (1492–1610), Municipal Archives of Le Havre, at archive.today Somerset was then at Le Havre and died there of Plague,John Oldmixon, History of England, Volume 1 (London: T. Cox, 1739), p. 335 a few days before the French had regained control of the town. He died unmarried, but in his Will proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury he refers to two illegitimate children, whom he consigned to the care of his mother.Judith Jones, Monmouthshire Wills: Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1560-1601 (South Wales Record Society, 1997), p. 8
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