SEYMOUR OF SUDELEY, THOMAS SEYMOUR, BARON (c. 1508-1549), lord high admiral of England, was fourth son of Sir John Seymour of Wolf Hall, Wiltshire, and younger brother of the Protector Edward Seymour, 1st duke of Somerset. His sister Jane Seymour became the third wife of Henry VIII. in 1536, and another sister, Elizabeth, married Thomas Cromwell's son. Seymour was employed in the royal household and on dip lomatic missions abroad. He was for a short time in command of the English army in the Netherlands. In 1544 he received the post of master of the ordnance for life, becoming admiral of the fleet a few months later, in which capacity he was charged with guarding the Channel against French invasion. In 1547 he was created Baron Seymour of Sudeley and appointed lord high admiral. From this time forward he was mainly occupied in intrigue against his brother the Protector; and he aimed at pro curing for himself the position of guardian of the young king, Edward VI. The lord high admiral tried to secure the princess (afterwards queen) Elizabeth in marriage; and when this project was frustrated he secretly married the late king's widow, Cath erine Parr. He ingratiated himself with Edward, and proposed a marriage between the king and the Lady Jane Grey. He
entered into relations with pirates on the western coasts, whom it was his duty as lord high admiral to suppress, with a view to se curing their support ; and when the Protector invaded Scotland in the summer of '547 Seymour fomented opposition to his authority in his absence. On the death of his wife in September of the next year he made renewed attempts to marry the princess Elizabeth. Somerset strove ineffectually to save his brother from ruin, and in January 1549 Seymour was arrested and sent to the Tower; he was convicted of treason, and executed on March 20, See Sir John Maclean, Life of Sir Thomas Seymour (London, 1869) ; Chronicle of Henry VIII., translated from the Spanish, with notes by M. A. S. Hume (London, 1889) ; Literary Remains of Edward VI., with notes and memoir by J. G. Nichols (2 vols., London, 1857) ; Mary A. E. Green, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain to the Close of the Reign of Mary (3 vols., London, 5846). See also SOMERSET, EDWARD SEYMOUR, ISt. DUKE OF, and the authorities there cited.