Pollard, to be echoed by Edward VI's 1960s biographer W. K. Jordan. A more critical approach was initiated by M. L. Bush and Dale Hoak in the mid-1970s. Since then, the first Duke of Somerset has often been portrayed as an arrogant ruler, devoid of the political and administrative skills necessary for governing the Tudor state.David Loades, "The reign of Edward VI: An historiographical survey" Historian 67#1 (2000): 22+ online Marriages and children Edward Seymour married twice: Firstly by 1518, to Catherine Fillol (or Filliol) (d. ), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Fillol (1453–1527), of Fillol's Hall, Essex and Woodlands, Horton, Dorset. Catherine bore two sons, whose paternity was questioned by her husband after it was discovered that she was "apt to bestow her favours too liberally", which resulted in both being excluded in 1540 from their paternal and maternal inheritances, and all their claims to their father's dignities being postponed to his children by his second wife. Ironically these two sons remained faithful to their father during his misfortunes and both were imprisoned with him in the Tower of London: John Seymour (1527 – 19 December 1552) was sent to the Tower where he died in December 1552, having survived his father by 11 months. He successfully petitioned Parliament for the restoration of his maternal inheritance, but as her lands had been sold, he was awarded compensation in the form of the estate of Maiden Bradley, an Augustinian priory in Wiltshire granted to his father at the Dissolution by Henry VIII, which had descended to his half-siblings. However, he did not live to enjoy the grant and bequeathed it with all his other lands and goods to his younger brother Lord Edward Seymour. Lord Edward Seymour (1529–1593) of Berry Pomeroy, Devon, Sheriff of Devon. He was sent to the Tower in 1551 but was later released, and became heir to his elder brother, from whom he inherited Maiden Bradley, where today Bradley House is the seat of his descendant, the present Duke of Somerset. Secondly, before 9 March 1535, to Anne Stanhope (c. 1510–1587), only child and sole heiress of Sir Edward Stanhope (1462–1511) by his wife Elizabeth Bourchier (c. 1473–1557), daughter of Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin (1445–1479). Seymour's suspicions about the fathering of Catherine Fillol's sons led him to pass an Act of Parliament in 1540, entailing his estates away from the children of his