Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Somerset and suo jure Baroness Percy (26 January 1667 – 23/24 November 1722)[1] was an English courtier.

Lady Elizabeth was one of the closest personal friends of Queen Anne, which led Jonathan Swift to direct at her one of his sharpest satires, The Windsor Prophecy, in which she was called "Carrots".

She married three times, having children by the third marriage only: Aged 12, she married, on 27 March 1679, the 20-year-old Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle (1659 – 1 November 1680), the only son and heir of Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle, who in accordance with the marriage settlement adopted the surname of Percy in lieu of his patronymic.

He was murdered the following February in Pall Mall by three men, allegedly on the order of Swedish Count Karl Johann von Königsmark,[3] who had started to pursue Elizabeth following the rumour that her marriage was unhappy.

Both of them became the target of violent verbal attacks, especially from Jonathan Swift, who hoped to influence the Queen through Mrs Abigail Masham, Elizabeth's obvious rival for the position of confidante.

[3] The Queen was outraged; from then on, she refused to consider Swift for preferment to a bishopric: even his appointment as Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, was made against her strongly expressed wishes (she did not have the power to veto it).

[3] Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Somerset and Mistresses of the Robes to Anne, Queen of Great Britain died of breast cancer on 23/24 November 1722, aged 55.