Somerset was the brother of Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour and thus uncle to King Edward VI.  He was a popular leader amongst the common people.  He attempted to reform agricultural policies and led a successful army against the Scots.  But the treachery of his younger brother (whom he was forced to execute) and the ambitions of other noblemen (most notably the earl of Warwick) doomed him.

On 22 January, soon after 8 o'clock in the morning, the duke of Somerset was beheaded on Tower Hill.  There was as great a company as has been seen... the king's guard being there with their halberds and a thousand more with halberds of the privilege of the Tower, Ratcliffe, Limehouse, Whitechapel, St Katherine's and Stratford Bow, as well as Hoxton and Shoreditch; and the two sheriffs being present there, seeing the execution of my lord, and his head being cut off, and shortly after his body was put into a coffin and carried into the Tower, and there buried in the church, on the northside of the choir of St Peter's, and I beseech God to have mercy on his soul, amen!  And there was a sudden rumbling a little before he died, as if it had been guns shooting and great horses coming, so that a thousand fell to the ground for fear, for they who were at one side thought no other but that one was killing another, so that they fell down to the ground, one upon another with their halberds, some fell into the ditch of the Tower and other places, and a hundred into the Tower ditch, and some ran away for fear.
 

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