Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, was the ambitious younger brother of Jane Seymour and uncle of Edward VI. After Henry VIII’s death he married the widowed Catherine Parr and became lord high admiral, but his political manoeuvring and disturbing familiarity with the young Princess Elizabeth damaged his position. Accused of plotting against the protectorate, he was executed for treason in 1549.
Seymour is a prominent figure in novels about Catherine Parr and Elizabeth’s youth. He appears in Elizabeth Fremantle’s Queen’s Gambit, Alison Weir’s Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife and The Lady Elizabeth, where his charm, ambition and behaviour toward Elizabeth are central sources of tension.
In non-fiction, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley is discussed in Linda Porter’s Katherine the Queen. Linda Porter’s Katherine the Queen approaches the subject through court politics and dynastic power, family, marriage and personal loyalty, and social change and the pressures of ordinary life.