William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset

William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, KG (1588 – 24 October 1660) was an English nobleman and Royalist commander in the English Civil War.

Seymour was the son of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hache (who predeceased his own father) by his wife Honora Rogers. He was the grandson of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford by his wife Lady Catherine Grey, a sister of Lady Jane Grey, "The Nine Days Queen", which thus gave him a distant claim to the throne through Catherine's descent from Mary Tudor, younger sister of King Henry VIII. He was the great-grandson of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c.1500-1552), the uncle of King Edward VI and Lord Protector of England.

Seymour made a secret marriage at Greenwich on 22 June 1610 to Arbella Stuart (d.1615), daughter of Charles Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox and Elizabeth Cavendish. Arbella was thirteen years his senior, and King James I disapproved of the marriage as the union of two potential Tudor pretenders to the throne, who were respectively fourth and sixth in line, could only be seen as a threat to the ruling dynasty. As a result, William was condemned to life imprisonment in the Tower of London and thus became the fourth of five generations of Seymours to spend time in that prison.

In June 1611 Seymour escaped from the Tower, planning to meet up with Arbella, who also had escaped captivity. They were to flee to the Continent, but bad weather and other circumstances prevented their meeting, and Arbella was recaptured and placed back in the Tower. William however managed to reach safety abroad at Ostend, but was never reunited with Arbella who remained in the Tower until her death in 1615.

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