10 depressing and tragic facts about England’s youngest king
At the age of nine years and three months, Edward VI was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. He reigned for six years under a Privy Council and Lord Protector and was a zealous Protestant king determined to enforce his father’s vision of the Church of England. He died at the age of only fifteen and is mostly remembered as a weak and ailing king. That’s not entirely true, but there are definitely some unfortunate circumstances in his life.
Maybe you’ve read The Prince and the Pauper, and yes, Mark Twain wrote about the boy who eventually became Edward VI, but as far as historians know, there was never a change of identical boys. Whether the real Edward would have been anything like the one in the book is unlikely. However, the wealth and love encountered by the prince were certainly real. Of course, royalty has its perks, but no life escapes grief, and Edward had plenty of tragedies of his own.
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10 Ascended the throne at the age of nine
Edward was the youngest king to ascend the English throne at the time of his coronation, and he continues to fill that role to this day. To a normal nine-year-old boy, ruling an entire country might seem like a daunting task, but to Edward, well… it was undoubtedly too daunting a task. So a council was set up to help him make decisions and, in most cases, conduct business on his behalf. He had been a spoiled child and, being Henry VIII’s long-awaited male heir, he had been primed for the throne from birth. His father affectionately called him “the most precious jewel in all this realm.”
The pressure had certainly increased during the nine years leading up to little Edward’s reign, and this was a special situation among Tudors. All Tudor monarchs before and after Edward had won the throne by circumstance rather than by birth. Henry VII was a usurper who won the crown in war, and the rest became monarchs due to the death of a sibling. In Edward’s case, he was born heir to the throne and remained so until his final succession to the throne.[1]
9 Willing to be a copy of his father
Because of his youth and his father’s strong and staunch political views, Edward VI would prove to be an extremely zealous version of his father’s philosophy. This was deliberate on Henry’s part, and everything about Edward in his youth – from his studies to the decorations in his apartments to the clothes Edward wore – were copies of his father’s. He played the same sports that Henry VIII is known to have excelled at and received a strong education in evangelical Protestantism.
It all worked out that Edward as king had such passion and devotion to the Protestant cause that he worked tirelessly to further the success of the Church of England; he published The Common Prayer Book and issued a ban on several traditional Catholic principles.[2]
8 His father’s will left room for manipulation
A young king could not rule alone, and Henry VIII was well aware of this. Instead of designating a single regent to rule on Edward’s behalf, Henry established in his will a council of sixteen men to fill that role. Some sources suggest that this last will has been heavily edited and contains a false signature, with the aim of removing some of the more religiously zealous councillors. It also had two clauses giving extremely generous rights to the executors of his will, one of which provided for honoring “unfulfilled gifts”.
Eventually, the sixteen men appointed as Edward’s council took account of changes to the structure, leading to the emergence of Edward Seymour as the king’s ‘protector’. Seymour, Edward’s maternal uncle, was eventually removed and executed for his manipulations, but not until many years later.[3]
7 His mother dies when he was two weeks old
Edward’s mother, Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, died just twelve days after giving birth to her son. At first she seemed to be recovering well and spent the night signing letters of notice from her son. She was also seen sitting up in bed hosting the guests at Edward’s christening. With no apparent complications in the delivery and with a healthy child in evidence, the doctors were quite surprised when she turned pale and weak at night four days later. Despite this surprising dip in health, she recovered quickly and did not fall ill again until three days later. At this time she was in constant decline until her death in the early hours of October 24, 1537.
It is unclear what illness Jane Seymour succumbed to and how Edward ultimately felt about losing his mother. However, Jane is sometimes considered Henry VIII’s favorite wife (because she provided a male heir). With that in mind, Edward probably would have had a great fondness for his mother, perhaps influenced by his father’s fondness for her.[4]
6 Edward had a fierce and terrifying temper
Edward was heavily spoiled in his youth, with constant gifts, rich food, and everyone in his household was constantly fond of him. His father even gave Edward his own troupe of minstrels for the sole purpose of entertaining him. It may have seemed that nothing he touched, from his silverware to his textbooks, came second. He was so spoiled that if he didn’t get his way, the ensuing anger could be incredibly violent. A contemporary account claims that Edward tore a live falcon into four pieces in one such attack.
Edward began to keep a diary of his innermost thoughts and desires. An entry referenced when he ordered his uncle beheaded, simply saying, “The Duke of Somerset had his head cut off on Tower Hill between eight and nine o’clock in the morning.” Chopping off his uncle’s head warranted little more notice than a haircut.
But Edward’s diary revealed more than just his cold reaction to his uncle’s execution. Edward VI’s diary provides insight into the kind of man he was becoming – and it wasn’t looking good. The entries reveal a cold, callous boy with almost no emotion whatsoever. Who knows the man and king he would have become had he lived to fully take over the reigns. Fortunately, we don’t have to think about that.[5]
5 His relationship with his sisters was complicated
Edward VI had two sisters, both of whom eventually became queens. Mary, the eldest, and twenty-one years his senior, apparently loved Edward dearly and showered him with gifts and affection, even acting in a sort of maternal role. Around the age of nine he wrote to her that she was his favourite. On the other hand, Elizabeth was only four years older than him, and they shared a meaningful childhood bond. Upon learning of their father’s death, Elizabeth and Edward held each other and wept intensely.
However, all this tenderness quickly evaporated when Edward became king, and he focused on having a “royal” relationship with them rather than a brotherly one. Mary was a staunch Catholic, and this led to dramatic arguments about religion. It became such a problem that Edward decided to write his sister Mary out of succession. Unfortunately, in order to remove Mary from the succession on the simplest grounds of legitimacy, he also had to declare Elizabeth illegitimate. This subsequently caused the succession crisis of 1553 and the death of Edward’s designated heir and nephew, Lady Jane Grey.[6]
4 Edward had two circuit breakers
Following the arrangement of the council acting for Edward’s regency, the Duke of Somerset (Edward Seymour) emerged as a leading figure and was made Lord Protector. Seymour, through Jane Seymour, was Edward VI’s uncle and was a strong advocate for more extreme reform. He wanted to break as far as possible with Catholic tradition and took intense, radical steps against established practices. However, his views led some groups to go too far, resulting in rebellion. His failure to stop the rebellions, weakness against his enemies and lack of military prowess led to his downfall.
One of Seymour’s main opponents, John Dudley (later the Duke of Northumberland), led the demand for his removal. It was Dudley who eventually took over the role of Lord Protector. He wasn’t much better, and in fact history often refers to him as much worse (he is sometimes referred to as “The Wicked Duke”). Dudley arranged for an ailing Edward to appoint Lady Jane Gray as his heir. After Edward’s death, he even married his boyish son to Jane in hopes of becoming the father-in-law and comptroller of England’s first Queen Regent.[7]
3 Edward’s terrible illness and death
In the spring of 1553, Edward contracted measles. He recovered, but his immunity was greatly weakened and he eventually contracted what historians believe to be tuberculosis. In May 1553 he was seriously ill and the Duke of Northumberland acted quickly to ensure that he benefited from the succession. On July 1, 1553, Edward was seen in public for the last time, although looking extremely thin and “wasted”. No doubt he was in immense pain, for in early July he whispered the words, “I am glad to die.” On the 6th he died, and a surgeon who opened his chest after his death stated that it was due to lung disease.
Although this illness barely lasted more than a year, Edward fought all the while to remain an effective ruler. Whether this succeeded is up for debate. Yet his weakness in the last two months of his life (and Northumberland’s subsequent manipulations) eventually set the stage for a catastrophic succession crisis.[8]
2 His father’s will complicated Edward’s own dying wishes
The Succession Act of 1544 allowed Henry VIII to specify in his will any heirs he wished, meaning that although he declared his daughters Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate, he had the legal right to name them his heirs, which he did . First would come Edward, then Mary, then Elizabeth, then a list of other potential heirs (the next four of whom were also women!).
When Edward was about to die and Mary was to succeed him, he and his counselors thought it highly undesirable for a Catholic monarch to take over and erase all his years of Protestant reform. To counter this, Edward wrote his sisters out of succession in his will and named his cousin Lady Jane Gray as heir. Then came that succession crisis we talked about!
In July 1553, Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen of England, but so was Mary just a short time away. The wills of two dead kings were at odds, with Mary claiming legitimacy from her father’s will and Jane claiming legitimacy from her cousin’s. In the end, Henry’s will and Mary’s public support and military prowess led her to the throne, and Jane lost her head.[9]
1 England’s return to Catholicism (temporary)
Two weeks after Edward VI’s death, and at the age of 37, Mary Tudor became Mary I and began the process of returning England to the Catholic Church. She is often remembered as “Bloody Mary” for her extreme actions in doing so. But she actually killed far fewer people than Henry VIII.
Edward would probably have been devastated if he had known that his careful preparations to keep England a Protestant nation, as his father had desired, had failed. But this didn’t last long, and just six years later Elizabeth succeeded her sister as queen, and again England switched. Ultimately, the Act of Settlement in 1701 would mean that only Protestants could claim the English and Irish crowns.[10]