Charles Noel Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort (12 September 1709 – 28 October 1756) was a British Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1731 until 1745 when he succeeded to the peerage as Duke of Beaufort.
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Life
Somerset was the younger son of Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort and his second wife, Rachel Noel. He was educated at Winchester College and matriculated as University College, Oxford on 19 June 1725, being awarded MA on 16 October 1727.
Somerset was a High Tory and 'a most determined and unwavering Jacobite.' He was returned as Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire his family's seat at a by-election on 17 May 1731. At the 1734 British general election, he transferred to Monmouth. He adopted a traditional Tory line in Parliament, which included voting against the repeal of the Test Act in 1736; this demonstrates the complexity of the English Jacobite movement, which was staunchly anti-Catholic, yet in theory supported a Catholic monarchy.
Somerset was returned again for Monmouth at the 1741 British general election. The era was dominated by the Whigs under the premiership of Robert Walpole with the Tories excluded from power. In February 1742, Walpole was finally ousted by a coalition of Tories, Patriot Whigs who opposed his foreign policy and members of the 'Prince's Party,' a group of younger politicians, most notably William Pitt who associated themselves with Frederick, Prince of Wales. However, to the fury of their Tory allies, the Patriot Whigs did a deal with their Whig colleagues to shut them out of the new government, while in 1744, the Tory leader the Earl of Gower joined the so-called Broad Bottom ministry and Somerset assumed leadership of the party. However, the government simply ignored him and continued to treat Gower as the Tory leader when negotiating the award of offices.