Elizabeth Seymour

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For the Duchess of Somerset, see Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Somerset

Elizabeth Seymour (ca. 1511 – 1563) was the daughter of Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth. One of nine children, she was the sister of Jane Seymour, later Queen Consort of Henry VIII. Elizabeth's first husband was Sir Anthony Ughtred (or Oughtred), who died in 1534. The marriage was childless.

Jane and Elizabeth served as maids of honour to Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was their second cousin. The Seymours gained wealth and power as Henry's attentions turned to Jane. On May 30, 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry and Jane were married.

Elizabeth Seymour was chief lady-in-waiting to Jane, who died in 1537, twelve days after giving birth to Edward VI. By 1538 Elizabeth had married Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, son of Henry's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex. They had five children.

Elizabeth took part in the official welcoming party for Henry's fourth queen, Anne of Cleves, who arrived from Germany in 1540. After Henry's marriage to Anne was annulled, Elizabeth became lady-in-waiting to his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. With Thomas Cromwell's execution in 1540 for treason and heresy, there was a brief decline in his family's fortunes. Elizabeth served as lady-in-waiting to Henry's sixth wife, Catherine Parr. After Henry VIII's death in 1547, Elizabeth's brother Thomas Seymour secretly married Catherine Parr, who died in childbirth in 1548.

Two of Elizabeth's brothers, Thomas Seymour and Edward Seymour, were executed for treason during the reign of Edward VI. She became a widow again upon the death of Gregory Cromwell in 1551. In 1554 she married John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester. She died in 1563.

Victorian scholars had identified a portrait (shown above) by Hans Holbein the Younger as a likeness of Catherine Howard. Historian Antonia Fraser has argued that this image is far more likely to be Elizabeth Seymour. The sitter wears widow's apparel. Catherine Howard would have had no reason to be dressed as a widow; but Elizabeth Seymour would, as her first husband had died in 1534. The woman in the portrait also has a family resemblance to Jane Seymour, particularly in the chin and mouth. The National Portrait Gallery, which exhibits the painting at Montacute House in Somerset, remains undecided about the sitter's identity.

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