_Descendants of John of Gaunt_ (Vol. iv., p. 343.).--A. B. may be right
as to there being "some little confusion in Burke's excellent work."
There certainly is no "_little_ confusion" in A. B.'s communication.
Margaret Beaufort, successively Countess of Richmond and Derby, the
mother of King Henry VII., was the only child of John Beaufort, the
first Duke of Somerset.
What can A. B. mean by "Henry, Edmund, and John, successively dukes of
Somerset," to whom he conjectures Margaret Beaufort might have been
sister? There were not three brothers Beaufort successively _dukes_ of
Somerset; nor were there ever three successive dukes of Somerset named
Henry, Edmund and John; though there certainly was a succession of John,
Edmund, and Henry, they being respectively father, uncle, and cousin of
Margaret.
John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, who had been created Marquis of
Somerset and Dorset, was, on his death (1410), succeeded in the earldom
of Somerset by his eldest son, Henry Beaufort, who dying without issue
(1418), the second son, John Beaufort, succeeded to this earldom. He was
created _Duke_ of Somerset (1443), and on his death without male issue
(1444), the dukedom became extinct; but the earldom of Somerset
descended to his brother, Edmund Beaufort, Marquis of Dorset (the third
son of John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset), who was afterwards (1448)
created Duke of Somerset. He was slain at the battle of St. Alban's
(1455), and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry Beaufort, who was
beheaded in 1463. He is said to have been succeeded by his next brother,
Edmund Beaufort; but it is doubtful if the fact were so, and the better
opinion seems to be that the dukedom became extinct by the attainder of
Duke Henry in 1463.
"The second and last Duke John," alluded to by A. B., is altogether a
myth: the last Beaufort Duke of Somerset was either Henry or Edmund; and
there was but one Duke John, and he was not the "second and last," but
the _first_ duke.