It was
he who built the Castle, where the Pomeroys remained in possession until
the year 1547, when it passed into the hands of the Seymour family,
afterwards the Dukes of Somerset, in whose possession it still remained.
After the Pomeroys disappeared the first owner of the manor and
castle was Edward Seymour, afterwards the haughty Lord Protector
Somerset, who first rose in royal favour by the marriage of his
eldest sister Jane Seymour to Henry VIII, and that monarch appointed
him an executor under his will and a member of the Council on whom
the duty devolved of guarding the powers of the Crown during the
minority of his son and successor Edward VI, who only reigned six
years, from 1547 to 1553; and Seymour's father, Sir John, had
accompanied King Henry VIII to his wars in France, and to the Field
of the Cloth of Gold.
Henry VIII had great faith in his brother-in-law, and after the
King's death Seymour quickly gained ascendency over the remaining
members of the Council, and was nominated Lord Treasurer of England,
and created Earl of Somerset, Feb. 17, 1567; two days afterwards he
obtained a grant of the office of Earl Marshal of England for life,
and on the 12th of March following he procured a patent from the
young King, who was his nephew, constituting himself the Protector of
the Realm, an office altogether new to the Constitution and that gave
him full regal power.
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