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

"Portrait of an Unknown Woman", suggested to be Elizabeth Seymour
'Elizabeth Seymour' (
1513? –
1563) was one of the many children and the second daughter of Sir
John Seymour and Margaret Wentworth, her sisters being
Jane Seymour, later Jane,
Queen Consort of
King Henry VIII of England; Margery (who died in
1520) and Dorothy. Elizabeth married first, before the other girls. Her marriage to Sir Anthony Ughtred ended at his death in
1534. The couple did not have any children.
Like her elder sister, Jane, Elizabeth served as a maid in the household of Henry's second wife,
Queen Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth's family rose in wealth and power as King
Henry VIII's attention turned to her sister, Jane. The Seymours involved themselves in the plot to depose and murder Queen Anne Boleyn in
1536. Eleven days after the former queen's execution, King Henry VIII married Elizabeth's sister Jane.
Elizabeth herself married as her second husband
Gregory Cromwell, son of Henry's chief minister,
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex. She acted as a chief lady-in-waiting to her sister, who died in childbirth in
1537.
Gregory and Elizabeth had a son, Henry, the year after Jane's death. The family fortunes dipped with the execution of Gregory's father for
treason and
heresy in
1540.
Elizabeth took part in the official welcome party for Henry's fourth queen, the German princess
Anne of Cleves, who arrived in England in 1540. After Henry divorced his fourth wife, Elizabeth served as a
lady-in-waiting to his fifth wife,
Queen Catherine Howard.
Later, Elizabeth functioned as lady-in-waiting to Queen
Catherine Parr. After King Henry's death in
1547, Elizabeth's brother
Thomas Seymour secretly married the former queen, Catherine Parr. She died in childbirth in
1548.
Elizabeth's two brothers,
Edward Seymour (died 1552) and Thomas Seymour (died 1549), were both beheaded for treason in the reign of her nephew,
Edward VI (reigned 1547 – 1553). She survived through the reign of
Mary I (1553 – 1558), who had enjoyed good relations with Elizabeth's sister, Jane. Elizabeth Seymour Cromwell died in 1563 when Anne Boleyn's daughter
Elizabeth I had reigned as queen for five years.
Scholars in the Victorian era incorrectly identified the portrait of Elizabeth (shown above) as depicting Queen Catherine Howard. However, historian
Antonia Fraser has recently argued that this image is far more likely to portray Elizabeth Seymour Cromwell. The sitter wears a widow's outfit, which Catherine Howard never had reason to wear - but Elizabeth did, since her first husband, Sir Anthony, died in 1534. Furthermore, the woman shown in the above portrait shows a clear family resemblance to Jane Seymour, particularly in the chin and mouth. The
National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom) which houses the portrait is still undecided about the identity of the sitter.
References