The Life and Career of Sir Amias Paulet (c. 1457-1538): Service, Loyalty and Rebellion

The focus of this article is the life and career of Sir Amias Paulet (c. 1457-1538), a prominent knight from Somerset, a county dominated in the late fifteenth century by a powerful noble, Giles Lord Daubeney (1451-1508) of South Petherton. Research regarding Somerset in the late medieval period has focused primarily on religion, especially the county’s religious infrastructure in the pre-Reformation era, but little has been done in terms of the socio-political role of the gentry within the county; there has been even less in the way of biographical studies of the Somerset gentry. The Paulet genealogy has received some minor treatment in a handful of articles but little biographical attention to date. Not only does this article address this oversight, it also offers an insight into the complexity of political decision making and county politics in the late fifteenth century, as well as exploring the tension between gentry and noble influence during the reign of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII.