Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort  Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, KG, PC (162921 January 1700) was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1667, when he succeeded his father as 3rd Marquess of Worcester. He was styled Lord Herbert from 1644 until 3 April 1667. The Dukedom of Beaufort was bestowed upon him by King Charles II in 1682. Henry Somerset was born at Raglan Castle in 1629, and from 1644 was styled Lord Herbert of Raglan. As a reward for the services of his father Edward, he was promised, on 1 April 1646, the hand of Princess Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of King Charles I. He left the country during the First English Civil War, but returned by 1650. His father's estates had been forfeited, and those in Monmouthshire were held by Oliver Cromwell, but Herbert was given an allowance. Having renounced the Roman Catholic faith, to which his father had held, he became acceptable to Cromwell, and was known as plain Mr. Herbert. He adopted the "republican" form of marriage before a justice of the peace in 1657. He sat in the First Protectorate Parliament as Member of Parliament for Breconshire in 1654–5. After Cromwell's death Herbert then joined the party that demanded a "full and free parliament", in practical terms demanding the Restoration of the House of Stuart. He was involved in the royalist plot of July 1659, and was committed to the Tower of London, whence he wrote to his wife on 20 August 1659 a letter taking a justly sanguine view of his situation. He was released on 1 November 1659, and was elected MP for Monmouthshire and for Wootton Basset in 1660; he chose to sit for Monmouthshire in the Convention Parliament. In 1661 he was re-elected MP for Monmouthshire in the Cavalier Parliament and sat until 1667 when he inherited a peerage. As one of the twelve commissioners from the House of Commons who attended Charles II at Breda (7 May 1660), after Charles's accession Herbert was appointed warden of the Forest of Dean (18 June), and also on 30 July, in response to appeals from local gentry, lord lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire. The Monmouthshire estates, which he had obtained by reversion from Cromwell, were allowed to remain in his possession, though they should strictly have reverted to his father; the latter wrote to Lord Clarendon that his son was intriguing against him.