invasion. In August apparently he joined the main fleet under Lord Lisle at Portsmouth, but on 17 Sept. was directed to proceed with all haste to the narrow seas. On 15 Oct. the French fleet having finally dispersed, he was directed to bring into the Thames all the English ships, with the exception of a few left to guard the narrow seas. On 29 Nov. he was granted Hampton Place, outside Temple Bar, which he seems to have renamed Seymour Place. In the following year Norfolk again sought to disarm the enmity of the Seymours by pressing for the marriage of the Duchess of Richmond with Sir Thomas, but was once more foiled by Surrey (Bapst, Deux Gentilshommes Poètes, pp. 338–9; Cotton MS. Titus B. i. f. 94). In October 1546 Seymour was named commissioner to arrange terms with France about the frontier of the Boulonnais and the fortifications of Boulogne (Corr. Politique de Odet de Selve, 1546–9, ed. 1888, pp. 47, 181; State Papers, Henry VIII, xi. 319, 346–8, 355). On 23 Jan. 1546–7, five days before Henry's death, Seymour was sworn of the privy council (Acts P. C. ed. Dasent, i. 566).
Henry left him 200l. by his will, and, according to Paget, desired that he should be made a peer and lord high admiral. He was accordingly created Baron Seymour of Sudeley in Wiltshire on 16 Feb., and made K.G. and lord high admiral on the following day. He took a prominent part in the tournament at Edward's coronation on 21 Feb., and in the evening entertained the court at his house near Temple Bar. On 4 March he was put on a commission to negotiate a defensive league with France (Corr. Pol. de Odet de Selve, pp. 109, 114). On the following day he was sent to take the seal from the chancellor Wriothesley. There seems to have been some intention of making him governor of the king (Greyfriars' Chron. p. 54; Lit. Remains of Edward VI, p. cxiv), but it was not carried out. Seymour's ambition was not satisfied with his subordination to his brother, the Protector, and he began almost at once to intrigue for a share in his authority. Immediately after Henry's death he sought the hand of the Princess Elizabeth (Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustr. Ladies, iii. 191–2), and, according to the French ambassador, De Selve, he also made advances to the Princess Mary and Anne of Cleves (Corr. Pol. pp. 154–5); but being refused, he secretly married the queen dowager, Catherine Parr, two or three months later [see Catherine Parr]. When the news leaked out the Protector was ‘much offended’ (Lit. Rem. Edward VI, p. 215), and there were frequent disputes between the two brothers as to the precedence of their respective wives. Seymour now began to examine precedents by which in cases of a royal minority one uncle had had the protectorate of the realm, and the other the governance of the king's person (cf. Haynes, State Papers, pp. 74–5); he tampered with the king's attendants, and sought to win Edward's favour by supplying him liberally with pocket money; he endeavoured to stimulate a dislike of the Protector in the king's mind, and urged him to take the government into his own hands. He also tried to persuade Edward to write a letter on his behalf to the parliament, which met on 4 Nov., and he threatened, if parliament refused his demands, to make it ‘the blackest parliament that had ever been seen in England.’ In the same parliament he seems to have been mainly instrumental in procuring the act which made the duration of the protectorate depend upon the king's pleasure, instead of being fixed until the king should be eighteen years of age. About the same time he formed a project for marrying Edward to Lady Jane Grey, who was then a member of Seymour's household.
Seymour used his position as lord high admiral with the same object. On 5 April 1547 he set out to visit the western ports, and prepare an expedition against one ‘Thomessin,’ a pirate who had seized on the Scilly Isles and used them as a basis for privateering operations against the trade of all nationalities (Corr. Pol. pp. 130, 189). Notwithstanding his superior force, Seymour left the pirate unmolested, and apparently came to an understanding with him to share the spoils and the control of the islands. He made a similar attempt to occupy Lundy Isle, and, in spite of the protests of the French ambassador and the remonstrances of his brother, he systematically connived at privateering, thereby seeking to win over the pirates to his own ends (Oppenheim, Administration of the Navy, 1897, pp. 101–2, 104; Chron. of Henry VIII, ed. Hume, 1889, pp. 161–2). In August he declined the offer of the command of an army which was to be conveyed by sea to Edinburgh to co-operate in the Protector's invasion of Scotland. He remained behind as lieutenant-general of the south, in order to defend the coast of the Isle of Wight against a possible French invasion. In the Protector's absence he endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the landowners whom Somerset had offended. He urged his personal friends like Dorset and Northampton (Haynes, pp. 78–80) to secure adherents among the young gentlemen and yeomen who had no interest in the
