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Edward VI of England

Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. Edward, the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty, was England's first Protestant ruler. Although his father and predecessor, Henry VIII, had broken the link between the English church and Rome, it was during Edward's reign that the decisive move was made from Catholicism to a form of Protestantism which came to be known as Anglicanism.

Early life

Edward was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London. He was the son of King Henry VIII by his wife, Jane Seymour, who died twelve days afterwards from puerperal fever. It is sometimes asserted that Jane sacrificed her life by the performance of a Caesarean section, but such assertions are without basis. Edward automatically became Duke of Cornwall upon his birth; he was, however, never created Prince of Wales, as was (and still is) customary for the heir-apparent to the Throne. Henry VIII was extremely pleased by the birth of a male heir. He had left his two previous wives, Catherine of Aragon (mother of Mary) and Anne Boleyn (mother of Elizabeth), because of their failure to produce male heirs. Both marriages had been annulled, and Anne Boleyn was also executed; Mary and Elizabeth were deemed illegitimate. Despite their illegitimacy, however, they were reinserted into the line of succession after Edward VI in 1544.

Edward VI was an extremely sickly child. It has been theorised that he suffered from congenital syphilis or from tuberculosis. His frailty led Henry VIII to quickly seek to remarry; the King's last three marriages, however, did not produce any children. Edward's physical difficulties did not impede his education; on the contrary, the young prince was a very bright child, already able to speak Latin at the age of seven. He later learned to speak French and Greek; by the age of thirteen, he found himself translating books into the latter language. His principal tutors were Sir John Cheke, Leonard Cox, and Jean Belmain. He was quite fond of his stepmother Catherine Parr. He wrote three letters to her, one in French, English and Latin. The rest of the letters he wrote were in Latin to his sisters. He had strong feelings for his sister Mary.

Alternatively, given that Jane Seymour passed away days after Edward VI's birth, it is natural that Henry VIII would seek remarriage, which act does not, therefore, necessarily substantiate claims that Edward VI was a sickly child. Indeed, Henry VIII only married Anne of Cleves on 6 January, 1540, over 2 years after Jane Seymour perished. In fact, Edward's journals mention no illness at all apart from a bout of measles in 1552, and the pulmonary tuberculosis which killed him. The policies of the Duke of Northumberland also indicate that he was building a foundation on which Edward was expected to build when he reached his majority, rather than expecting Edward to die young.

Under Somerset

Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547. His will named sixteen executors, who were to act as a Council of Regency until Edward VI achieved majority at the age of eighteen (although it was agreed by the Council in 1552 that Edward would reach his majority at 16). These executors were to be supplemented by twelve assistants, who would only participate when the others deemed it fit. The executors were all inclined towards religious reformation, whose most prominent opponents, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Stephen Gardiner (the Bishop of Winchester) and Thomas Thirlby (the Bishop of Westminster), were excluded. Henry VIII also appointed Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford to serve as Lord Protector of the Realm and Governor of the King's Person during Edward VI's minority. Lord Hertford, who was Edward VI's uncle, was only supposed to act on the advice of the other executors. A few days after Henry VIII's death, Lord Hertford was created Duke of Somerset and appointed to the influential positions of Lord High Treasurer and Earl Marshal.

To allay all doubts regarding the validity of Henry VIII's will, all the executors sought reappointment from Edward. On 13 March 1547, Edward VI created a new Council of twenty-six members. The Council consisted of all the executors and assistants, except for Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (who, whilst serving as Lord Chancellor, had illegally delegated some of his powers to other officials) and Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. The Duke of Somerset was no longer merely a "first among equals"; instead, he was allowed to act without the consent of the Council, the composition of which he was permitted to change at his whim. The Lord Protector, then, became the real ruler of England; Edward VI was demoted to a ceremonial role.

Another powerful influence on Edward VI was Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Both Cranmer and the Duke of Somerset began the process of creating a 'Protestant England'. Various Catholic rites were replaced with Protestant ones. The Duke of Somerset, however, did not encourage persecution; rather, he refrained from it, as he feared the wrath of Europe's powerful Catholic monarchs, especially the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. One of the Duke of Somerset's primary aims was to achieve a union between England and Scotland. In late 1547, an English army marched into Scotland and took control of the Lowlands. In 1548, however, Mary, the daughter of the Scottish King James V, married the Dauphin Francis, the heir-apparent to the French Throne, thereby strengthening the alliance between France and Scotland.

The Duke of Somerset was hardly in a position to oppose both France and Scotland, as his own position was insecure. His brother, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, the Lord High Admiral, had hatched a plot to depose him. Lord Seymour's conspiracy, however, was exposed in 1549. A bill of attainder was introduced and passed almost unanimously by Parliament; Lord Seymour was executed on 20 March.

Following an enforced law to introduce the Book of Common Prayer in English on Whitsunday 1549 there was another uprising known as the Prayer Book Rebellion or Western Rebellion. (In 1548 the Book of Common Prayer in English replaced the four old liturgical books in Latin). The change was widely unpopular, but nowhere more so than among the people of Devon and Cornwall, most of which did not speak English at this time. In London, King Edward VI and his Privy Council became alarmed by this news from the South-West. One of the Privy Councillors, Sir Gawain Carew, was ordered to pacify the rebels. At the same time Lord John Russell was ordered to take an army, composed mainly of German and Italian mercenaries, and impose a military solution. The uprising was quickly suppressed at Crediton, Sampford Courtenay and Fenny Bridges in Devon, before the mercenary forces moved into Cornwall. In total 4,000 "rebels" lost their lives in the action and all further proposals to translate the Prayer Book into Cornish were suppressed. On 8 August, taking advantage of internal strife, the French formally declared war on England. The Duke of Somerset became extremely unpopular, and was deposed by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick. Lord Northumberland did not make himself Lord Protector, and even encouraged Edward VI into declaring his majority as soon as he was sixteen. In 1550, Lord Northumberland conciliated the peasant rebels and made peace with France, giving up all of England's possessions in Scotland without compensation.

Under Warwick (Northumberland)

The rise of the Earl of Warwick was accompanied by the fall of Catholicism in England. Thomas Cranmer introduced the Book of Common Prayer for use in all Church services. All official editions of the Bible were accompanied by anti-Catholic annotations. Catholic symbols in churches were desecrated by mobs. Religious dissenters, moreover, were often persecuted and burnt at the stake. In 1550 and 1551, the most powerful Roman Catholic Bishops, Edmund Bonner (the Bishop of London), Stephen Gardiner (the Bishop

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