Edward VI, Part One

Edward VI reigned from 28 January 1547 until his premature death on 6 July 1553 – a short reign of just over six years, during none of which did he rule of his own accord. Because he was a minor upon his accession to the throne, government operations fell to a regency council; this council would become a battleground upon which different government parties fought to direct England’s course. The council was first in the hands of Edward’s uncle Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset; but in 1550 the council was led by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick (known later as the Duke of Northumberland). Edward was Henry VIII’s only surviving son, and his mother was the late king’s third wife, Jane Seymour, who died shortly after giving birth to the young prince due to complications in childbirth. 

The motherless Edward grew quickly and with vigor; contemporaries reported he was a tall child, merry and content. Sir William Sidney recalled the young prince as ‘a marvelous sweet child, of very mild and generous condition.’ Though tradition likes to paint Edward as a sickly boy, he was generally healthy despite occasional sicknesses and poor eyesight (though a bout of malaria at the age of four almost did him in). Henry had strict standards for the boy’s household, insisting that Edward was ‘this whole realm’s most precious jewel.’ He lavishly provided his only son with toys and comforts, including his own troupe of singers and musicians. Edward’s formal education began at the age of six, ‘learning of tongues, of the scripture, of philosophy, and all liberal sciences.’ One of his premiere tutors was Roger Ascham, who also tutored his half-sister Elizabeth; both he and Elizabeth were academically inclined, and they competed to outdo one another in intellectual prowess. Edward studied geometry, learned to play the flute and the virginals, collected globes and maps, excelled at economics, and learned French, Spanish, and Italian. His religious education leaned towards the English reformers; his tutors were likely chosen by Archbishop Cranmer, and in 1549 the young Edward (then king) wrote a treatise against the pope as Antichrist. Part of his education included training with sons of nobles who were ‘appointed to attend upon him’ in a sort of miniature court geared towards learning the ins-and-outs of royal life. Edward was on good terms with both his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth, though in a letter to his eldest sister Mary, he confessed that she rather than Elizabeth was his favorite. Edward grew up in splendid surroundings: his rooms were hung with Flemish tapestries, and his clothes, books, and cutlery were encrusted with precious jewels. He, like his father, was fascinated by military life. One of his portraits portrays him wearing a gold dagger with a jeweled hilt, in imitation of his father, and his Chronicle detailed English military campaigns against Scotland and France. 

Henry VIII died when Edward was nine, and Edward wouldn’t last much longer. His short reign was marked by war with Scotland, economic woes, and social unrest that would blossom into rebellion. Though Edward entrusted the government machinery to a Council (at least in theory; for most of Edward’s reign, the government was autocratically managed by the Duke of Somerset), the young king was ruthless in promoting the English Reformation. His father’s aim in the Reformation was finagling his way out of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and he didn’t push the Reformation too far (he was, in the deepest part of his heart, still very much Catholic and hotly opposed to Protestant Reformers). Edward, given the atmosphere in which he was raised and the reforming spirit imposed upon him by tailored tutors, had a more Protestant approach. He pulled the Church of England farther from the trappings of Catholicism, abolishing clerical celibacy, putting an end to Mass, and jettisoning compulsory services in English. 

Edward fell ill in February 1553. When his illness was discovered to be terminal, he and his council drew up a ‘Devise for Succession’ to prevent the country from returning to Catholicism. His father’s will stipulated that, if Edward were to die absent an heir, the throne would pass first to Mary and then to Elizabeth. Because Mary was staunchly Catholic, Edward feared (rightly so) that his favorite half-sister would undue so much of what he’d accomplished in his few years as king. Desperate to make sure his oldest sister didn’t take his place, he sought to supersede his father’s will by naming one of his first cousins once removed as heir. The Protestant Lady Jane Grey was slated to take the throne, and his half-sisters were barred from the line of succession. Things went according to his plan after his death; Lady Jane Grey took the throne, but the ‘Devise for Succession’ was hotly disputed. ‘Queen Jane’ would last a mere nine days before being deposed by Mary. True to his fears she would reverse Edward’s reforms, but in a twist of fortune (at least for him) Elizabeth would resurrect Edward’s reforms and make them official with the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559. Edward’s legacy – or at least the legacy he cared about – would survive.