He was the second son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, and succeeded his brother John as Duke of Somerset in 1444.
Edmund was a favorite of the Queen, Margaret of Anjou, and wielded considerable power after the fall of the Duke of Suffolk in 1450. In fact some claimed that Edward of Westminster, the young Prince of Wales was his son, and not the King's.
He was killed at the Battle of St Albans, where he commanded the Lancastrian forces, and was succeeded as duke by his son Henry.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump