House of Beaufort

House of Beaufort
Arms of Beaufort: The royal arms of King Edward III differenced by a bordure componée argent and azure (later adjusted to France modern in the reign of Henry IV). The heraldic colours argent and azure had been symbols of the Earls of Lancaster.[1]
Heraldic badge of the House of Beaufort: A portcullis chained or
Parent houseHouse of Lancaster (legitimated)
CountryKingdom of England
Founded1396; 628 years ago (1396)
FounderJohn Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset
Current headHenry Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort
Titles
  • Duke of Somerset
  • Duke of Exeter
  • Duke of Beaufort
  • Marquess of Worcester
  • Marquess of Somerset
  • Marquess of Dorset
  • Earl of Somerset
  • Earl of Dorset
  • Earl of Worcester
  • Earl of Glamorgan
  • Count of Perche, styled
  • Count of Mortain, styled
  • Count of Harcourt, styled
  • Baron Beaufort
Cadet branchesHouse of Tudor (from Henry VII through a female line onward)
Somerset family

The House of Beaufort (/ˈboʊfərt/ BOH-fərt)[2] is an English noble family which originated in the fourteenth century as the legitimated issue of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, by Katherine Swynford. Gaunt and Swynford had four children: John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (1373–1410); Cardinal Henry Beaufort (1375–1447), Bishop of Winchester; Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter (1377–1426) and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (1379–1440).[3] When Gaunt finally married Swynford as his third wife in 1396, the Beauforts were legitimized by Pope Boniface IX and by royal proclamation of the reigning monarch King Richard II the following year.

John of Gaunt’s eldest legitimate son by his first wife Blanche of Lancaster was Henry Bolingbroke, who would eventually take the throne from Richard II as King Henry IV in 1399, the year of Gaunt’s death. Henry would be the first of the House of Lancaster (the main line descending from John of Gaunt) to rule England, and would eventually be succeeded by his son Henry V and grandson Henry VI. The Beauforts, as a junior branch of the House of Lancaster, would play an important role during the Wars of the Roses during the reign of the incompetent Henry VI. The eventual heiress of the Beaufort family was Lady Margaret Beaufort, only daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, who married Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond and became the mother of King Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch of England.

The name Beaufort refers to the estate of Montmorency-Beaufort in Champagne, France, an ancient and seemingly important possession of the House of Lancaster. It is earliest associated with Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (the younger son of King Henry III) whose third son John of Lancaster (1286–1317) was "Seigneur de Beaufort". The estate of Beaufort was eventually inherited, with other vast possessions, by John of Gaunt (third surviving son of King Edward III) following his marriage to the heiress Blanche of Lancaster.

The House of Beaufort continues to exist in an illegitimate line descended from Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, the illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset. The senior representative of the House of Beaufort is Henry Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort, who is thus a direct male-line descendant, albeit via a legitimated and an illegitimate line, of King Henry II, the first Plantagenet King of England.

  1. ^ Cokayne, G. E.; H. A. Doubleday & Lord Howard de Walden, eds. (1929). The Complete Peerage, or a history of the House of Lords and all its members from the earliest times (Husee to Lincolnshire). 7 (2nd ed.). London: The St. Catherine Press, p.409, note (f)
  2. ^ "Beaufort Definition & Meaning". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  3. ^ Chisholm 1911.