In 1427 it is believed that Edmund Beaufort may have embarked on an affair with Catherine of Valois, the widow of King Henry V. Evidence is sketchy; however, the liaison prompted a parliamentary statute regulating the remarriage of queens of England.

"[3] Edmund received the county of Mortain in Normandy on 22 April 1427,[5] became a commander in the English army in 1431, and in 1432 was one of the envoys to the Council of Basel.

He failed to repulse French attacks, and by the summer of 1450 nearly all the English possessions in northern France were lost, with Normandy having fallen after the Battle of Formigny and Siege of Caen.

The fall of the duke of Suffolk left Somerset the chief among King Henry VI's ministers, and the Commons in vain petitioned for his removal in January 1451.

[6] Power rested with Somerset and he virtually monopolised it, with Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry, as one of his principal allies.

During her pregnancy Henry suffered a mental breakdown, leaving him in a withdrawn and unresponsive state that lasted for one-and-a-half years.

During Henry's illness, the child was baptised Edward, Prince of Wales, with Somerset as godfather; if the King could be persuaded, he would become legal heir to the throne.

Somerset's fortunes, however, soon changed when his rival York assumed power as Lord Protector in April 1454 and imprisoned him in the Tower of London.

His son, Henry, never forgave York and Warwick for his father's death, and spent the next nine years attempting to restore his family's honour.