Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort (1629 – 21 January 1700) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1667, when he succeeded his father as 3rd Marquess of Worcester.

[a] As a reward for the services of his father Edward, he was promised, on 1 April 1646, the hand of Princess Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of King Charles I.

He was involved in the royalist plot of July 1659, and was committed to the Tower of London, whence he wrote to his wife on 20 August 1659 a letter taking a justly sanguine view of his situation.

The Monmouthshire estates, which he had obtained by reversion from Cromwell, were allowed to remain in his possession, though they should strictly have reverted to his father; the latter wrote to Lord Clarendon that his son was intriguing against him.

Worcester was also troubled by the accusations of treason made against his brother-in-law William Herbert, 1st Marquis of Powis, and against Donough Kearney, an Irishman who had married his widowed stepmother, Lady Margaret O'Brien.

A steady supporter of the Court party, he voted against the Exclusion Bill at the close of 1680, whereupon the Commons petitioned the king to remove him from his person and counsels (January 1681).

On the strength of his attitude to the Exclusion Bill, Beaufort figured prominently in John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel as Bezaliel.

[6] In November 1683 Beaufort obtained £20,000 damages in two libel actions against Sir Trevor Williams and John Arnold, but the judgment against the latter was partially reversed in 1690.

[7] In July 1684 he made, as president of the principality, magnificent progress through Wales, and was sumptuously entertained, among other places, at Worcester, Ludlow, and Welshpool.

He bore the queen's crown at the coronation of James II (23 April 1685), was appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber on 16 May, and colonel of the 11th Regiment of Foot on 20 June following.

There are twin Corinthian columns with embossed shafts, acanthus frieze, cornice with flaming urns, and the Duke's arms and supporters.

At the top, 25 ft from the ground, is a tasselled cushion supporting a coronet; on the plinth are full-length female figures of Justice and Truth.

[13] Roger North, in his Life of the Lord Keeper, gave an account of the state maintained by Beaufort: "a princely way of living" with a household of about 200.

The Duke spent much time hunting, planting, and building, and was unfashionably strict: his servants lived in constant fear of dismissal, and even neighbouring landowners were reluctant to cross him.