King Edward VI - A Tudor Monster in the Making Documentary

The man known to history as Edward Tudor was born at Hampton Court Palace in London on the 12th of October 1537, he was baptised by archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the chapel of the palace on the 15th October and was proclaimed Duke of Cornwall. His father was an immense figure, Henry VIII, who ruled England for the better part of forty years from his accession in 1509. He was the second Tudor monarch, the first to succeed to the throne, after Henry’s father, Henry VII, largely usurped the crown from the Yorkist monarchs in 1485, the Tudors being a

relatively obscure family of Welsh origin, with a tenuous claim to the throne of England. The frail basis for Tudor rule haunted Henry VIII, he needed to secure the line by siring a legitimate male child and his efforts to do so would have enormous consequences, unleashing a torrent of political, religious, social and economic change across England in the process. Edward’s mother was Jane Seymour, in 1536, at about 28 years of age, she was married to Henry, she was his third wife in an increasingly speedy succession of them throughout the 1530s, but unlike many of Henry’s other

wives, Jane was not murdered or simply discarded by the king, but rather she died on the 24th of October 1537, less than two weeks after giving birth to Edward, her first son, the birth was difficult, the labour lasting nearly three days and nights, and Jane never recovered, dying from complications 12 days later. The world which Edward was born into was experiencing momentous change, and although the infant Edward would have been entirely unaware of the fact, much of that change was the direct result of his father’s effort to produce Edward, a legitimate male heir. Henry had

first married in 1509, his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was born in Spain, she produced just one child during their long marriage, which lasted until 1533, a daughter, Mary, who was born in 1516. Despite Mary’s birth, what Henry really needed was a legitimate male heir born in wedlock and a clear successor to the throne of England, who could cement the Tudor dynasty’s grip on the country, his desire to do so, partially explains Henry’s increasing infatuation from the mid-1520s with Anne Boleyn, a daughter of Thomas Boleyn, an English diplomat and Knight of the Garter. Henry’s obsession

with marrying Anne in the late 1520s and early 1530s led him to seek to divorce Catherine, by securing a dispensation from the Pope in Rome, and then splitting with Rome altogether, declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England, and in doing so, he began flirting with the new Protestant faith which had emanated out of Germany in recent years. But Henry was no doctrinal Protestant, a traditional Catholic, he split with Rome in order to further his marital desires and to acquire the great riches of the church in England, Wales and Ireland. And so, having successfully

split with the Papacy, Henry quickly divorced Catherine in May 1533 and married Anne Boleyn five days later, Anne’s reign as Queen of England lasted almost exactly three years, her crime in the end was similar to Catherine’s, a male heir did not result from the marriage. When a child came in September 1533 it was another girl, Elizabeth, when a son did not arrive, Henry had his second marriage annulled, on trumped up charges of adultery and other crimes, and Anne was beheaded on the 19th of May 1536. Yet again Henry did not wait long to acquire a

new wife, he married Edward’s mother, Jane Seymour eleven days later, thus, Jane was Henry’s third wife in three years, and the quest for a legitimate male heir had seen England split with Rome as well as the first tenuous moves towards the adoption of Protestantism in England. As an infant Edward would have been surrounded by women, his wetnurse and dry nurse, his rockers and various other ladies would have taken care of his every need, all overseen by Lady Margaret Bryan, who was in charge of not only Edward but of his half sisters Mary and Elizabeth also,

and in late 1538, his portrait was painted by Hans Holbein the younger who presented it to the King as a new year’s gift in January 1539, being given a gold cup in return, from the painting we see the prince had blue/grey eyes and fine blond hair. Edward’s early years were spent at various royal palaces in and around London such as Hampton Court, his chamberlain was Sir William Sidney and his steward was Sir John Cornwalleys, Sidney’s task was to quote: ‘have the keeping, oversight, care and cure of his Majesty’s and the whole realm’s most precious jewel,

the prince’s grace’, and to ‘foresee all dangers and adversaries of malicious persons and casual harms’ to Edward. Access to the young Edward was highly restricted with no strangers ever allowed to see him and access being granted according to social rank, and no rank less than a knight was permitted in his presence, as well as this, visitors would be expected to kiss the young boy’s hand. As his safety was paramount, to protect the young Edward further, his servants were banned from visiting London, in case they should bring back the plague but overall, from Lady Bryan’s writing

it seems that Edward was a happy, healthy and very lively toddler. New apartments were built at Hampton Court Palace for the young Edward, complete with several different chambers and a dedicated kitchen and bathroom, however, as was the custom of the time, Edward lived apart from his father and visits would have been seen as special occasions, the court would travel around different houses according to which was seen as best for the time of year or occasion, but Hunsdon in Hertfordshire would have been one such house that would have been familiar to Edward, as he spent much

time there with Lady Bryan as he was growing up. His education was entrusted into the hands of two men, Richard Cox and John Cheke, Cox was his senior tutor, the headmaster of Eton and a tough taskmaster who used stern discipline to educate his charges. The more significant however, of Edward’s tutors was Cheke, appointed as the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University, Cheke was the greatest classical scholar of his day in England, who did much of the work of reviving the interest and scholarship of Greek classical writers in Tudor England. Under his tutelage Edward

began his education in Greek, Latin, grammar and philosophy, this was the standard curriculum of the new Renaissance Humanist education, which had been developed in Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and which had spread to northern Europe in the early sixteenth century. Some of this involved reading works which would be familiar to any schoolchild today, such as the fables of the ancient Greek writer, Aesop, but also works by other more obscure classical writers such as the Roman poet, Dionysius and Cato, but most significantly, Edward would have been made familiar with the philosophical and political writings

of the two foremost thinkers of ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle, as well as learning the ‘art of rhetoric’, which all children of royal and noble birth learned through the writings of the Roman authors, Cicero and Quintilian, this was an education for a royal prince, given to prepare him to rule England for many years. We also know about Edward’s friendship circle growing up, his closest friends were Henry and Charles Brandon, the sons of the first Duke of Suffolk. Charles Brandon, was Henry VIII’s closest friend throughout his lifetime. Two further childhood companions of Edward curiously hailed from

Ireland, these were Thomas Butler, the future tenth earl of Ormond, a great lordship in the south of the country, and Barnaby Fitzpatrick, the son of an Irish lord, who had recently accepted a title of English lordship from Henry VIII, in an effort which was being undertaken, to anglicise the Irish lords, by having them accept English titles of nobility, Butler and Fitzpatrick were in England to be raised as English gentlemen, who would return to Ireland as adults, and anglicise their lordships in the years ahead. While Edward was growing up, the world he inhabited continued to be

destabilised by his father’s actions, despite having many of the trappings of a Renaissance prince, Henry VIII was a product of the middle ages, and viewed his most important role as being at war with England’s ancient enemies, France and Scotland. After yet another bout of conflict with Scotland in the early 1540s, Henry agreed to the Treaty of Greenwich with England’s northern neighbour on the 1st of July 1543, this sought to facilitate a sustained peace between the two countries by arranging a marriage between Edward, the heir presumptive to the throne of England, and Mary Stuart, popularly remembered

as Mary Queen of Scots, and the new Queen of Scotland since the death of her father James V on the 14th of December 1542. At the time the treaty was signed, however, Mary was less than one year old and the marriage to Edward, five years her senior, would not be put into practice for many years to come, Henry’s desire was to see Scotland united with England through the union, thus making Edward the future king of England and Scotland. However, the Scots, who had agreed to the terms of the Treaty of Greenwich, during a period when

their military fortunes were particularly precarious, quickly reneged on the terms of the treaty. As a result Henry commanded Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour, the Earl of Hertford, to campaign north into Scotland in 1544, with the goal of making the Scots abide by the terms of the Treaty of Greenwich, including Edward’s marriage to Mary, the result was a lengthy war with Scotland and their perennial ally, the French, which dragged on for many years into Edward’s reign, this conflict, known as ‘the Rough Wooing’, not only had a bearing on Edward’s future marriage prospects, but would shape England’s foreign

policy throughout Edward’s reign. Edward’s father’s long and tumultuous reign came to an end on the 28th of January 1547, Henry had suffered a serious injury in a jousting accident in 1536, and experienced many ailments in his later years, brought on by a chronic leg ulcer from this earlier accident, and aggravated by clinical obesity, he was probably also suffering from gout, as such, his death at the age of 55, was ultimately due to many health complications. Henry left his nine year-old son as King of England and Ireland, despite marrying three further times following the premature death

of Edward’s mother, Henry had never been able to produce another legitimate child, consequently the security of the Tudor regime now rested to a great extent on Edward’s shoulders, Henry would have been distraught to have learned that his son’s reign would prove short, although, in many ways, it was just as eventful and turbulent as Henry’s own. Owing to his youth at the time of his accession, Edward’s reign was dominated by senior political figures who ruled in his stead, between 1547 and 1549, one man above all others, was the young king’s most powerful subject, at a meeting

of the most senior political figures and nobles in England, held in the Tower of London on the 31st of January 1547, just days after the death of Henry VIII, it was decided that the new king’s uncle, Edward Seymour, would be given this position of seniority within the government, during his nephew’s youth, he was to be appointed as both governor of the king and protector of the realm. Seymour was created first Duke of Somerset on the 17th of February 1547, to mark his position of pre-eminence within the realm, the extent of his power in the early

years of Edward’s reign can be glimpsed from his array of titles, by the late spring of 1547, Seymour was Duke of Somerset, Earl of Hertford, Viscount Beauchamp, Lord Seymour, Governor of the king, Protector of his people, realms and dominions, Lieutenant General of his majesty’s lands and sea armies, Treasurer and High Marshal of England and a Knight of the Garter. Yet despite his titles and power, Somerset’s authority was still derived from the Privy Council, the governing body of over a dozen senior ministers, who ran the government and whom Henry VIII had appointed as the executors of

his will, these ministers had granted Somerset his authority in January 1547, and as Seymour would learn in time, these same men could take it away. A number of serious issues confronted England at the outset of Edward’s reign, foremost amongst these, was the ongoing war with France and Scotland, which had commenced in 1544 with the ‘Rough Wooing’, Somerset had led the invasion of southern Scotland early in the conflict and in the summer of 1544, had attacked and burned much of Edinburgh. However thereafter, the conflict had stagnated into an occupation of parts of the border regions of

Scotland, in France the English had, in 1544, taken control of the coastal city of Boulogne to add to the English possession of Calais, however these English outposts in northern France had been under nearly continuous siege from the French in the years that followed. A period of renewed military activity commenced in the summer of 1547, shortly after Edward’s accession, again overseen by Somerset who led an army of nearly 20,000 men north, a significant victory was won over the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie, nine kilometres east of Edinburgh itself, on the 10th of September 1547, with

thousands of Scots killed or captured, in contrast to just a few hundred of Somerset’s men, however, the effect of the Battle of Pinkie was to encourage the French to commit to significant military aid, to be given directly to Scotland, resulting in further stalemate in the years ahead. When peace was finally concluded in 1550 with France, with the Treaty of Boulogne and with Scotland in 1551, through the Treaty of Norham, both sides effectively returned to their pre-war borders, and the proposed marriage of Edward and Mary Stuart, which had first provoked the war back in 1544, was

abandoned, and even Boulogne, on which enormous amounts of money had been spent building elaborate fortifications between 1544 and 1550, was relinquished back to the French. Equally Edward’s government had inherited a rapidly shifting situation in the second Tudor kingdom, across the Irish Sea in Ireland, after years of neglect. Henry VIII had begun to pay much greater attention to his Irish possession, than many of the kings of England had in the fifteenth century, and owing to that earlier neglect, the crown’s position there was quite weak, its authority extending little beyond the city of Dublin on the east

coast and its hinterland. Beyond this Pale or march region, Ireland was largely governed by several dozen independent Irish and Anglo-Irish lords, who paid little heed to the English crown’s authority, and often conducted raids against English possessions near Dublin. In an effort to reverse this situation, Henry had made himself King of Ireland in 1541, and sought to reform the country through a cheap policy of voluntary Anglicisation, but this proved ineffective, and by 1546 the administration in Dublin was embarking on a costly policy of regional military conquest in the Irish midlands, where England was soon establishing its

first major colonies of the early modern period. Somerset’s regime was hugely supportive of this strategy, and as with the wars against Scotland and France, he pumped money into the erection of military outposts in Ireland in the late 1540s, however, the results were mixed and the government in Dublin was soon overseeing a number of costly military conflicts, which were proving impossible to win, against an enemy that engaged in guerrilla-style warfare. Nevertheless, Edward’s reign is notable for seeing the introduction of increasingly aggressive strategies of conquest and colonisation in Ireland, which would see the country fully reduced to

English rule, over the course of the sixteenth century. This aggressive foreign policy during Somerset’s Protectorate, had major implications at home, Henry VIII’s wars had ensured that Edward inherited a very poor financial situation in England and Wales, the cost of maintaining large armies on the Scottish border, and particularly in France, had led the regime to begin debasing the English coinage, by reducing the silver purity in English coins. This did not go unnoticed, either at home or abroad, and by Edward’s reign it was well-known that English coins were no longer worth their face-value, consequently by the late

1540s inflation was rising at home and internationally, the value of English sterling against other major currencies such as the Venetian ducat, was declining considerably, Somerset’s regime made some effort to address this problem, but the continuation of the wars until 1550 meant there was little that could be achieved by Somerset in this respect, and economic reform would have to wait until the early 1550s. More pressing was the issue of agrarian reform, the early sixteenth century witnessed the expansion of the enclosure movement where landlords and major landholders were enclosing the common lands which had been available to

peasants and farmers in every hamlet of England and Wales during the late middle ages, however, by the 1540s this process had accelerated to a point, where it was creating considerable tensions between the landlord class and the commons, while illegal enclosures were now being created throughout England. Turning his attentions to this matter, on the 1st of June 1548 Somerset issued a proclamation prohibiting illegal enclosures, however, this, and efforts to tackle the problem through parliamentary legislation, did little to solve the issue, and agrarian unrest continued to grow. The most striking aspect of England’s domestic policy during Somerset’s

tenure as lord protector, though, was unquestionably the religious policy introduced in Edward’s name. Henry VIII’s quest for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and subsequent marital difficulties in the 1530s, had driven him into associations with a number of English Protestant theologians at this time, who had exploited Henry’s desire to split with the Papacy to introduce a number of Church reforms, in line with the teachings of Martin Luther and other continental reformers. An English translation of the Bible produced by William Tyndale became the first Bible printed in English in 1535, removing the need for reliance on

the Latin Bible, a core tenet of European Protestant reformers, in 1533 Thomas Cranmer, a prelate who had been to the fore in establishing the doctrinal and legal basis for Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon, was appointed as archbishop of Canterbury, as the years passed, Cranmer, already a reformer, gradually shifted further towards a position of evangelical or radical Protestantism. Under Cranmer’s oversight of the Church of England and the influence of Henry’s chief minister in the 1530s, Thomas Cromwell, liturgical and doctrinal changes were introduced such as the Ten Articles of 1536, and the Bishops’ Book of 1537,

which established many changes in how the people of England were to practice their faith in line with Protestant thinking. For instance, the Ten Articles established that images and iconography could continue to be used in English churches, but worship of images was now forbidden, while it was decreed that the concept of purgatory was biblically uncertain, and the notion of Papal indulgences being able to rescue individuals from purgatory was dismissed as doctrinally unsound, thus, Protestant reforms were being introduced in the 1530s, and yet Henry himself was no Protestant, and the 1540s had actually seen some rolling back

of these earlier reforms. The beginning of Edward’s reign now offered an opportunity for advanced Protestants such as Cranmer to introduce a much more wide-ranging set of religious reforms and fully establish the Protestant Reformation in England, during the late 1540s, under Cranmer’s oversight, and with Somerset’s patronage, English became the official language of religious services in England, Wales and Ireland, new liturgies were introduced which moved the church closer to standard practice in the reformed churches of Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere where Protestantism had taken hold. An act of 1549, removed the prohibition on marriage for priests, most significantly

the manner of worship and the physical appearance of churches throughout England were altered dramatically, in a wave of state-sponsored iconoclasm religious images were stripped from church walls and altars, and the interior walls of churches were whitewashed to remove the trappings of wealth and ostentation, which had come to characterise the mass under the influence of Rome, the vestments of priests and ministers were also reformed, plain clothing, rather than the ornate robes of the priests of the Catholic Church, was now to be worn by the Anglican clergy. Finally, and most significantly, early in 1549 Cranmer oversaw the

introduction of The Book of Common Prayer, a collection of prayer books for use in the new Anglican Church, this contained clear instructions for how the mass was to be performed and how prayers should be offered throughout Edward’s dominions, further orders were given within it for the enactment of Baptisms, Confirmation and Marriage. All of the rites and orders outlined leaned heavily towards evangelical or radical Protestantism as it was being practiced amongst the second generation of Protestant reformers in Germany, Switzerland and the Low Countries, by the 1540s. Taken together all of these measures amounted to a complete

introduction of the Protestant Reformation throughout Edward’s kingdoms between 1547 and 1549, this was unquestionably the most noteworthy development of Edward’s entire reign. Cranmer had hailed Edward as ‘a second Josias’, and had hoped that the new king would ‘see idolatry destroyed’ and ‘images removed’ upon his accession in 1547, such assertions do raise the question of where Edward’s own religious inclinations lay, was the Protestant Reformation which occurred in England in the late 1540s and continued into the 1550s, driven entirely by figures like Cranmer and Somerset, or was Edward a factor? Surprisingly, there is evidence that by the

age of eleven, Edward was showing clear signs of an adherence to radical, evangelical Protestantism, his writings from late 1548 exhibit personal denunciations of the Pope in Rome, and belief in tenets such as Justification through Faith, the Protestant maxim which held that individuals would attain salvation through God’s grace alone, and that no measures such as prayer or purchasing of indulgences, could be used to attain salvation, in the years ahead Edward’s household also became a regular resort for advanced evangelical Protestant ministers, who preached before the young king, had he lived into adulthood, Edward would unquestionably have been

an advanced Protestant monarch. Viewed from the vantage point of the evangelicals within Edward’s government, and the growing number of Protestants in and around the court, the religious reforms which had been undertaken during the first two years of Edward’s reign, were a resounding act of progress, but the wider country was not so happy, England was still an overwhelmingly Catholic country at the end of the 1540s, and beyond London and its surrounding region, as well as in some of the other major towns where Protestantism had taken hold amongst the gentry and merchant and professional classes, the reforms

introduced by Edward’s government and overseen by Cranmer, met with fierce opposition. In the summer of 1549, this discontent found tangible expression as rebellions shook England, around the time of his accession, Edward had begun keeping a ‘Chronicle’ of his life, effectively a diary, though a highly enlightening one, concerning how this child perceived events around him, in a kingdom of which he was king, but over which he did not yet exercise his own control, this ‘Chronicle’ covers the years from 1547 to 1552, and provides a striking entry relating to the unrest which erupted throughout England in the

summer of 1549: “The people began to rise in Wiltshire … Then they rose in Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Gloucestershire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, a piece of Leicestershire, Worcestershire, and Rutlandshire … After that they rose in Oxfordshire, Devonshire, Norfolk and Yorkshire.” This was how the insurrections registered in the imagination of a child king, and it gives a succinct view of how extensive the unrest was, on the ground it was even more tumultuous, the two most prominent regional revolts were in Norfolk and the English West Country, but there had been some unrest in Cornwall as early as the

spring of 1548, in opposition to the enclosures movement and the stripping of religious images from parish churches. This expanded the following summer into a general rebellion throughout Devon and Cornwall in response to the publication of The Book of Common Prayer and the liturgical and doctrinal changes it involved, combined with discontent about the declining economic situation throughout Edward’s kingdoms, as inflation sky-rocketed and the purchasing power of English coins declined dramatically. Eventually after the rebels seized the town of Exeter ‘The Prayer Book Rebellion’, as the revolt in the West Country has become known, was suppressed when Somerset

sent a large military force into the southwest in July 1549. By the time it was fully suppressed in August, over 5,000 rebels had lost their lives. The revolt in the West Country mirrored others elsewhere in England in the summer of 1549, in being a popular revolt fuelled by economic considerations, and sparked by the new measures to introduce Protestantism across the country. However, the rebellion was exceeded for significance, by a revolt in East Anglia near London, in July 1549 rebels formed camps in Norfolk in opposition to landlords who had defied Somerset’s efforts to limit the spread

of enclosures, the insurrection was led by Robert Kett, a tanner from Wymondham, and has consequently become known as Kett’s Rebellion, it happened on the 22nd of July, when Kett and his followers occupied Norwich, at the time the second largest city in England. At first Somerset attempted to placate the rebels, however when his approach to the problem engendered severe opposition within the Privy Council, the lord protector sent the Earl of Warwick, John Dudley, north from London with an army of 14,000 men, including regiments of experienced German mercenaries, to suppress the revolt, the rebellion was finally crushed

on the 27th of August at the Battle of Dussindale near Norwich, with the loss of the lives of about 3,000 rebels. Thus, the local revolts of the summer of 1549 had been suppressed by the early autumn, but the unrest was the most severe bout of civil disobedience England experienced during the sixteenth century, and the insurrections had seriously undermined Somerset’s authority as head of Edward’s government. The revolts added to a growing list of problems confronting the Lord Protector, another complication facing Somerset had been created by a close family member, the Protector’s younger brother, Thomas Seymour, had

been seeking a greater role in the running of the kingdom from early in his nephew’s reign, Somerset had tried to placate his ambitions with offices and appointment to the Privy Council, but Thomas aimed higher, incredibly his methods included bribing the impressionable young king, to gain his adherence to Thomas’s demands, in the spring of 1547 Seymour then married Henry VIII’s widow and Edward’s step-mother, Catherine Parr. This alone would have been enough of a controversy, but the situation escalated further still in the summer of 1548, when Catherine, who had fallen pregnant by that time, discovered Seymour embracing

the Princess Elizabeth, Edward’s half-sister and the daughter of Anne Boleyn, the princess was only 14 at the time. Subsequently, when Catherine died in September 1548, after complications from childbirth, Seymour seems to have developed intentions to then marry the king’s half-sister, thus potentially placing him in line to become consort to a possible future queen. However, before his plan could fully materialise, Seymour’s activities became public knowledge, outraged, the Privy Council had Thomas arrested in January 1549, he was tried on various charges of misconduct, including manipulation of the king, and was eventually sentenced to death and beheaded on

the 20th of March 1549, although Somerset had not been involved in his brother’s machinations, and had tried to prevent his worst conduct, the whole affair had further damaged Somerset’s authority as head of the minority government. The combination of all these scandals and unrest was ebbing support for Somerset, compounded by reversals in fortunes in the wars with France and Scotland, as the French commenced a further attack on England’s outposts in France at Calais and Boulogne in 1549. Moreover the near continuous wars in the north, on the continent and in Ireland, had stretched the finances of Edward’s

government to breaking point. Consequently in the course of 1549 support for Somerset’s leadership simply began to melt away, as the country lurched from one crisis to another. This culminated in early October 1549 as the Privy Councillors, many of whom were the executors of Henry VIII’s will and the guardians of the kingdom during Edward’s minority, made it clear that Seymour no longer had their support, in response Somerset absconded with the king to Windsor Castle on the 6th of October, trusting in the belief that if he had custody of Edward, he might retain his position of pre-eminence

within the government, Edward himself recounted the events in his ‘Chronicle’: “The Council, about 19 of them, were gathered in London, thinking to meet with the Lord Protector, and to make him amend some of his disorders. He, fearing his state, caused the secretary Sir William Paget in my name to be sent to the lords, to know for what cause they gathered their powers together, and if they meant to talk with him, that they should come in peaceable manner” A five day standoff followed, but Somerset had miscalculated, by leaving London for Windsor, the duke had retained custody

of Edward, but he had effectively left the Privy Council with control over the army and the crown ordnance in the Tower of London, eventually, realising his cause was lost, Somerset surrendered on the 11th of October. Somerset was confined to the Tower in the aftermath of the events of October 1549, he was formally removed from his position as Lord Protector of the realm by act of parliament in January 1550, and stripped of his other offices, however despite some calls for him to be tried and executed for his actions, he was given his freedom, indeed in the

course of 1550 and early 1551, the duke was partially rehabilitated and restored to some of his lands and offices, including membership of the Privy Council. Nevertheless, doubts about his intentions were never fully allayed, and in October 1551 he was arrested on suspicion of plotting a new rebellion against the council, these later accusations were almost certainly fictitious, but they were enough to do away with Somerset permanently, in December he was tried and found guilty of felony, and he was executed on Tower Hill on the 22nd of January 1552. In the immediate aftermath of Somerset’s attempts to

retain control of the government in the autumn of 1549, power had once again devolved to the collective authority of the Privy Council, a power struggle amongst the varying factions within that body, played out over the winter of 1549, largely between a religiously conservative grouping and a group of reformed Protestant councillors, the latter would eventually win out and in the process one of their members emerged as the new head of the government during Edward’s minority. This was the earl of Warwick, John Dudley, a privy councillor and the lord great chamberlain of England, who had risen to

become one of the foremost political figures in England on the back of his military service as governor of Boulogne in France in the mid-1540s, in February 1550, Dudley’s role as successor to Somerset as head of the government was affirmed, when he was granted the title of President of the Privy Council, his pre-eminent status amongst the English nobility was subsequently affirmed on the 11th of October 1551, when he was created first Duke of Northumberland. Despite his rise to this office, Northumberland would never hold as much authority as Somerset had between 1547 and 1549, this was partly

the result of the council being unwilling to place as much trust in one individual as Somerset had been granted in 1547, but also a change in the king himself. There are signs that by 1551, as Edward moved into his teenage years and developed his own awareness and determination to rule, he increasingly began imposing his own stamp on the government, there is, for instance, evidence of his disagreement with members of the Privy Council from this point onwards, and letters in which he forthrightly rebukes senior officials and councillors for their conduct, a demonstration of his increasing awareness

of his own royal authority, for instance, when John Hooper was being confirmed as bishop of Gloucester in July 1550, Edward personally crossed out all reference to the saints in the version of the Oath of Supremacy appended to the documentation, as one of the foremost historians of Tudor England, Diarmaid MacCulloch, has noted, “This was a Henry VIII in the making”. This new-found independence was mirrored in the extant images of Edward at the time, in 1551 he sat for a portrait painted by Guillim Scrots which is found in the Louvre Museum in Paris today, here Edward’s gaze

is becoming more mature than in portraits of him from the late 1540s, he stands confidently, his hand resting on the pommel of his rapier, his confidence in his monarchical authority beginning to show. Northumberland would have had a much more difficult time simply trying to act as though he could ignore Edward in the early 1550s, as Somerset had been able to do just a few years earlier. This increasingly personal rule was not as eventful as had been the years of Somerset’s protectorate, with the end of the war with France and Scotland and peace under the Treaty

of Boulogne in 1550, the wars which had lasted virtually without interruption throughout the 1540s came to an end, the major concern in their aftermath, was to get the government’s finances back in order, and to attempt to remedy the many economic and social problems which had caused the revolts in the summer of 1549, by the time Northumberland took control of the government, the crown had debts of £300,000, an enormous sum for its time, inflation had risen by about 75% since the start of Edward’s reign, and the exchange rate of sterling had virtually collapsed. To combat these

problems Northumberland, with Edward’s backing, took a multi-pronged approach, firstly, the Treaty of Boulogne contained a clause that in return for relinquishing the town of Boulogne back to the French, Henri II’s government in Paris would pay £180,000 to England, this made substantial inroads into paying for the wars which had ended in complete stalemate by 1550, and significantly reduced the national debt. Secondly, efforts were made to reform the coinage and improve the currency valuation, for this, Northumberland acquired the services of a brilliant young London financier, Thomas Gresham, who reformed the Mint, and thereafter coins were issued which

were not seriously debased, as they had become in the 1540s. Gresham also oversaw the implementation of various measures to improve the value of the pound sterling on the Antwerp Bourse, the main stock exchange of northern Europe in the mid-sixteenth century, by employing these measures, Gresham, the man who would go on to establish the Royal Exchange in London some years later, did much to put the finances of Edward’s government back on track. Attempts to allay the social tensions which had partly caused the revolts of 1549, met with more mixed success, while some efforts were made to

reform county administration through measures such as the regularisation of the appointments of lord lieutenants, it is hard to assess how effective these measures were. It may simply have been the case, that the worst of the unrest had already spent itself in 1549, and that the outbreak of severe bouts of the ‘sweating sickness’ across England in 1551 and 1552, simply limited the capacity for the kind of social congress which was needed, to produce further regional unrest and revolts, closer to home for the king, the outbreak of this ‘sweating sickness’, most likely a hantavirus of some kind,

robbed Edward of two of his closest childhood friends in 1551, as Henry and Charles Brandon both succumbed to this disease on the 14th of July 1551. Finally, Northumberland’s tenure as head of the government, was marked by a steady continuation of the Protestant religious settlement, arrived at during the Somerset years, as Edward matured into adolescence it was increasingly clear that the radical Protestantism which had characterised the early part of his reign, was not something which had been foisted on an impressionable king by his elder advisors, by the early 1550s it was evident that the young king

was a committed Protestant, with perhaps puritan leanings, and that England under his rule would follow on the course Cranmer and his associates had set it on, in the late 1540s. Northumberland was no radical evangelical Protestant, but he was acutely aware that Edward would attain his majority in October 1555 when he turned 18, if Dudley wished to occupy a major place in the adult king’s government he would need to further Edward’s aims of radical church reform, accordingly in an effort to appeal to Edward’s religious sensibilities Northumberland became a backer of evangelical Protestants. Dudley promoted religious radicals

such as John Hooper and John Ponet to the bishoprics of Gloucester and Rochester, in 1552 a new version of The Book of Common Prayer was issued, this one rejecting the doctrine of transubstantiation, in line with the most current continental Protestant beliefs, fresh doctrinal articles were issued in 1553, which denied the existence of purgatory in line with the thinking of Jean Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion and the writings of other reformers. Perhaps most eye-catchingly, in the summer of 1553, an offer had been extended to appoint Phillip Melanchthon as Regius Professor of Divinity at

Cambridge University. Melanchthon was one of the foremost Protestant Reformation leaders of his day, and was second only to Martin Luther in the hierarchy of early German reformers, in the end he never took up the post at Cambridge, but the fact that his appointment was nearly made, is a striking statement concerning the drift of religious policy in England towards advanced evangelical Protestantism, during the years of Northumberland’s primacy within the government. Edward’s court was also becoming a hub for Renaissance learning during the years of Northumberland’s ascendancy, continuing the tradition established by Edward’s father, this would also flourish

during the long reign of his sister Elizabeth, and one individual who was prominent in this regard, was William Thomas, a Welshman who had spent several years in Italy, had returned to England to take up a position of clerk of the Privy Council, and during Edward’s reign he introduced second-hand the writings of the Florentine political writer, Nicoló Machiavelli, into England, including his infamous work ‘The Prince’. Guillim Scrots was the established court painter under Edward, and his portraits of the king and other senior nobles there exemplify the latest Mannerist style of European painters. Perhaps most striking was

the patronage afforded to Robert Recorde, a Welsh mathematician and proto-scientist, who would some years later invent the equals sign, while his invention of mathematical and navigational devices made significant contributions to early English colonial activity, in allowing for more sophisticated maritime navigation and map-making. Such innovations in instrumentation, map-making and scientific inquiry were particularly timely, the final years of Edward’s reign saw some of the first drives to expand England’s overseas activity, as the first colonies established by the Tudors in Ireland were established under Somerset’s regime, but more elaborate initiatives were beginning to be conceived and executed. In

1551, 1552 and 1553, with the encouragement of Edward’s government, Thomas Wyndham made three voyages to Africa, twice to Morocco and finally to the Gold Coast of Africa, in what might well have been the first English voyage ever to the Gulf of Guinea. In 1553 Stephen Borough also became the first English navigator to reach the White Sea north of Russia, Borough was backed by a group of London merchants whose goal was to find a north-east passage to China through the Arctic, they would fail in this endeavour, but they did establish trade and political ties with the

nascent Russian state, and set up the Muscovy Company which would operate until 1917, a major legacy of the overseas exploration and trade initiatives which Edward’s government was sponsoring in the early 1550s. Back at home though, Edward was coming ever closer to attaining his majority, in advance of this, one of the singularly most important decisions for the king had been reached in 1551, following the establishment of peace with France in 1550, negotiations opened to establish a marriage alliance between the newly ‘at peace’ nations, specifically for Edward to marry Elizabeth, the six-year-old daughter of King Henri II

of France. In the early summer of 1551, the bishop of Ely and the Marquess of Northampton had been dispatched to France to begin negotiations, the French king was presented with the Order of the Garter, the highest chivalric order awarded in England, and the terms of a marriage agreement were worked out. Then a month later Jacques d’Albon, Marquis de Fronsac, arrived in England where Edward was made a member of the French Order of St Michael and the terms of the marriage were finalised. Elizabeth would bring with her a dowry of 200,000 crowns, a significant sum, and

the marriage agreement would only be finalised when Elizabeth turned twelve years of age, thus, Edward would not marry until 1557 at the earliest, but in the summer of 1551 it had been agreed it would be to the daughter of the French king, perhaps allaying somewhat, the chance of further conflict between England and France. But Edward was not to marry the French king’s daughter, nor anyone for that matter, in 1553 his reign was cut short in his youth, following the end of the Christmas celebrations at court in January 1553 Edward had fallen ill with flu-like symptoms,

his condition deteriorated over the coming weeks, but by early March his health seemed to be improving, and he resumed some work in the spring, although not fully recovered, this period of relative stability persisted until early May 1553, then, however, things deteriorated quickly, by late May the king’s hands and feet were swelling, and he was coughing up large amounts of black bile. Historians have only been able to speculate as to the cause of Edward’s illness and eventual death, some have argued that he had contracted tuberculosis late in 1552, and this began to manifest itself the following

spring, while others have suggested that he developed a chronic lung infection associated with the flu he developed in early 1553, and that he was also suffering from septicaemia with kidney failure. Whatever the cause of Edward’s illness, he was clearly dying by May 1553, and the rumours were rife, not just in England but throughout Europe to this effect, the Protestant king’s death was imminent, and the next in line to succeed him was his half-sister, Catherine of Aragon’s daughter, Mary, a pious Catholic. Yet Mary’s succession was not assured, at some time in the early spring of 1553,

as his illness took hold, Edward had begun work on a short document with a major significance, this was entitled ‘My device for the succession’, in it Edward had outlined his desire that should he die his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, would be passed over, and the succession would descend on Frances Grey and her daughters, Frances was the daughter of Charles Brandon, Henry VIII’s lifelong friend, and Mary Tudor, the late king’s sister and Edward’s aunt, thus, Frances Grey and her daughters had a strong claim to the throne. Yet there was a lot of politics to this, beyond

mere blood claims, Edward’s government was clearly trying to prevent Mary Tudor from ascending to the throne, if she did, the Protestant Religious Settlement which had been fought so hard for during Edward’s reign, would be overturned and England’s church plunged back under the control of the Papacy in Rome, accordingly the Grey family were identified as a means of blocking Mary’s route to the throne. The situation evolved further in the early summer of 1553, as Edward’s illness became fatal, on the 21st of May 1553 Frances Grey’s eldest daughter, the twelve year old Jane Grey, was married to

Guildford Dudley, one of Northumberland’s sons, just days later, Edward’s ‘Device for the succession’ was amended to now acknowledge Jane specifically as his heir, as a result, the Protestant regime would be secured and overseen by Jane Grey as Queen of England, and with Northumberland leading the government. Despite Northumberland’s shadow hanging heavily over these developments, Edward's role in devising this succession arrangement cannot be overlooked, the ‘Device’ is written and corrected in the king’s own handwriting, and by 1553 he was a fifteen year old with his own thoughts and initiatives, rather than the impressionable child of the late

1540s, and so there is every reason to believe that it was Edward’s wish for Jane Grey to succeed him. The ‘Device’ would quickly have to be consulted, in June 1553 the king’s health deteriorated rapidly, on the 10th of June 1553, his doctors gave him three days to live, he survived for four more weeks, enduring a horrific final illness, during the last two weeks of which his hair and nails were falling out, and he had difficulty breathing, when he finally died on the 6th of July 1553, it must have been a relief to the king himself,

and those who had watched him for weeks on his deathbed at Greenwich Palace. In the aftermath of his death England was plunged into a succession crisis, Northumberland and his supporters now moved to install Jane Grey as Queen, on the 9th of July she was proclaimed as Edward’s successor, but Dudley and his confederates had badly misjudged Mary Tudor’s determination to claim the throne, marching south from Hertfordshire towards London, Mary gathered supporters for her proclaimed Catholic cause. It was successful. On the 19th of July, a faction within the Privy Council in London, led by Henry Fitzalen, nineteenth

earl of Arundel, switched their support from Jane to Mary, on the basis that Edward’s ‘Device’, had not been fully established in law. Jane was imprisoned and Northumberland was executed for treason in August, Jane suffered a similar fate the following year, just as Catholicism was being restored across England under Mary’s rule, consequently, the succession of Mary, which Edward had strived to prevent, ultimately resulted from Edward’s death in 1553. Edward VI lived a short and somewhat tragic life, he was the legitimate male heir which his father, Henry VIII, had torn England apart trying to produce, he never

knew his mother, who died owing to complications associated with his birth. Consequently when his father also died in early 1547, Edward became king of England and Ireland at just nine years of age. His youth ensured that his short reign was dominated by caretaker governments, led first by his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, until late 1549, and then the Duke of Northumberland from early 1550, until Edward’s premature and ghastly death in the summer of 1553. While his short reign did not allow for Edward to rule the Tudor dominions in his own right, it was nevertheless a

highly significant kingship, during Edward’s tenure England moved fully from a country which had flirted with Protestantism under Henry VIII, to a country which adopted radical, evangelical Protestantism fully. The altars of churches throughout England and Wales were stripped, the walls were reduced to bare limestone, and the mass was practiced in English, according to doctrinal and liturgical practices advocated for by Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon and other continental reformers. Peace was also brought about with the French in 1550, and a marriage alliance between England and France had been negotiated. Finally, in Ireland, a programme of conquest and colonisation had

been initiated in the late 1540s, which would eventually see that country, conquered and fully incorporated into the English state by the early seventeenth century, while a number of overseas exploration initiatives to Russia and Africa in the early 1550s show, that the state was taking a much greater interest in overseas exploration during the last years of Edward’s brief rule, the boy-king’s reign was full of significance. And yet ultimately Edward VI’s years as King of England and Ireland, leaves more questions than answers, what kind of ruler would Edward have become had he lived to become an adult,

would he have lived up to the many expectations had of him, and governed England as it began its long journey towards empire, or would he have become a despotic tyrant like his father turned into later in his life? These are questions which no assessment of Edward’s actual reign can answer. What do you think of Edward VI? Was he merely a pawn of figures like Somerset and Northumberland who ruled England in his place, or was he a strong figure, who shaped the enormous changes which occurred across the Tudor realms, during his short reign? Please let us

know in the comment section, and in the meantime, thank you very much for watching.