My history project is underway at last. Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector when the nine year old Edward VI came to the throne in 1547. He held this office for nearly three years before being stripped of his office and thrown in the Tower of London. It is this period on which my project concentrates, and in particular Somerset's relationship and struggle for power with his brother, Thomas Seymour.
I now have a number of sources (apart from Alison Weir's "Children of England" whose first one hundred pages covers this period). These include "The Boy King - Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation" (a highly scholarly but very dry book by Diarmid McCulloch), "England under Protector Somerset - An Essay" by Albert Fred pollard and various extracts from the internet including Marilee Hanson's piece on Edward VI on her website http://englishhistory.net/tudor.
I have also found a copy of a 1953 film called "Young Bess" with Stewart Granger as Thomas Seymour, Guy Rolfe as Somerset and Jean Simmons as the young Elizabeth. Although most of the film does actually cover the same period, it is primarily concerned with the relationship between the future queen and Thomas. But it totally distorts many historical facts. The story of Edward and Thomas Seymour is dramatic enough without having to resort to fantasy.
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