David Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort


David Robert Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort GCC, known as David Somerset until 1984, was an English peer and major landowner.
An important figure in the world of fox hunting, he was also chairman of Marlborough Fine Art and was well known for frequent conflicts with hunt saboteurs. He also held the office of Hereditary Keeper of Raglan Castle and was President of the British Horse Society.

Early life

David Somerset was the second son of Captain Henry Robert Somers FitzRoy de Vere Somerset, by his marriage in 1922 to Bettine Violet Malcolm, a daughter of Major C. E. Malcolm. He was educated at Eton College. His father was the grandson of Lord Henry Somerset, second son of the 8th Duke of Beaufort and the temperance activist Lady Isabella Somers-Cocks.
He and his family were descended in the male line from Edward III of England; the first Somerset was a legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, whose grandfather was a legitimized son of John of Gaunt. By the time he succeeded as Duke he was therefore considered the senior representative of the House of Plantagenet, through a legitimised line. Somerset's father was the heir presumptive to the Dukedom of Beaufort and the large estates attached to it.
By the time he was about twelve, it was becoming clear that his father's third cousin Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort, was unlikely to have a son, unless his childless wife Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, died and he remarried, and that Somerset's father and elder brother were almost the heirs apparent. And then the outlook changed in April 1945, when his elder brother John Alexander Somerset was killed in action in the Allied invasion of Germany. As a result, at the age of seventeen Somerset himself became the likely heir.
David Somerset, as he then was, was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards on 6 September 1946 as a second lieutenant. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 January 1949.

Later life

After his years in the British Army, Somerset took up residence in Gloucestershire, hunted with the Beaufort Hunt, and following his father's death in 1965 it was increasingly certain that he or one of his sons would be the next Duke of Beaufort. He finally succeeded to the family titles and estates in 1984.
As Duke of Beaufort, he was a major landowner and figure in the world of fox hunting, and he became well known for a raffish reputation and also for frequent conflicts with hunt saboteurs. He held the office of Hereditary Keeper of Raglan Castle, was President of the British Horse Society between 1988 and 1990, and was chairman of Marlborough Fine Art. He ranked 581st in the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, with an estimated wealth of £135m in land and 52,000 acres. The Duke was nominated to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1988.
He had a seat in the House of Lords, where he sat as a Conservative from 1984 to 1999. He was one of those who lost their seats as a result of New Labour's reforms in the House of Lords Act 1999.
The Duke was criticised in January 2009 when a Swansea councillor, Ioan Richard, discovered by a Freedom of Information Act request that he had been paid £281,431 for a 70 ft bridge to be built over the River Tawe near Swansea. The Dukes of Beaufort had owned the river bed for some 400 years, so when the local council had wanted to build a bridge linking a shopping centre to the Liberty Stadium, home of Swansea City football club and the Ospreys rugby team, it had to pay the Duke for the right to cross his river bed. Ioan Richard stated that he was "furious that public money had to be used to pay one of Britain's richest estates. For centuries Swansea folk have paid rents to the Duke of Beaufort and we don't owe this powerful and wealthy family anything." A spokesman for the duke's estate at Badminton House responded: "We do not want to comment about a private transaction."
Beaufort died on 16 August 2017 at Badminton House, Gloucestershire, at the age of 89.

Family

He married, firstly, Lady Caroline Jane Thynne, daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bath, on 5 July 1950. The marriage took place at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, in the presence of the King and Queen and members of the royal family.
The Duchess of Beaufort presided over the restoration of Badminton House and its grounds. She received an honorary degree from Bristol University for her charitable work.
They had four children:
The Duke married, secondly, Miranda Elisabeth Morley, on 2 June 2000. She is a daughter of Brigadier General Michael Frederick Morley.

Ancestry

The Duke's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son.
  1. Hugues du Perche, lived 10th century
  2. Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais, d. 1040s
  3. Fulk IV, Count of Anjou, 1043–1109
  4. Fulk, King of Jerusalem, d. 1143
  5. Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, 1113–1151
  6. Henry II of England, 1133–1189
  7. John, King of England, 1166–1216
  8. Henry III of England, 1207–1272
  9. Edward I of England, 1239–1307
  10. Edward II of England, 1284–1327
  11. Edward III of England, 1312–1377
  12. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, 1340–1399
  13. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, 1373–1410
  14. Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 1406–1455
  15. Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, 1436–1464
  16. Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, c. 1460–1526
  17. Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester, c. 1496–1549
  18. William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester, c. 1526–1589
  19. Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, c. 1550–1628
  20. Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester, c. 1577–1646
  21. Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, 1603–1667
  22. Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, 1629–1700
  23. Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester, 1660–1698
  24. Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort, 1684–1714
  25. Charles Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort, 1709–1756
  26. Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort, 1744–1803
  27. Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort, 1766–1835
  28. Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort, 1792–1853
  29. Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort, 1824–1899
  30. Lord Henry Somerset, 1849–1932
  31. Henry Somerset, 1874–1945
  32. Henry Somerset, 1898–1965
  33. David Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort, 1928-2017

    Honours