King Edward VI

1537 – 1553 · Generation XXIII · King of England and Ireland (r. 1547–1553) · House of Tudor

Edward VI Tudor (1537–1553). King of England and Ireland (r. 1547–1553). The boy king of the Protestant reform; dead at fifteen. Governed throughout by regency councils — first under his uncle Somerset, then Northumberland — his realm struggled with economic troubles that broke into riot and rebellion in 1549, and an expensive Scottish war ended in withdrawal, Boulogne given up with it. Yet under him the Church of England became Protestant in substance for the first time: the Latin Mass and clerical celibacy were abolished and English made compulsory in services, reforms the young king followed with keen interest. Dying, he drew up a “Devise for the Succession” naming Lady Jane Grey and passing over his half-sisters; Mary deposed Jane after nine days and reversed his reforms, which Elizabeth restored in 1559.

One of 10 people of House of Tudor (1485–1603) in this archive. Welsh in origin and only a handful of monarchs long — it broke with Rome and ended with Elizabeth I.

Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → King Henry VIII → King Edward VI.

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Parents

• King Henry VIII (1491 – 1547)
• Jane Seymour (1508 – 1537)

Siblings

• Queen Mary I (1516 – 1558) (half)
• Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) (half)

Life

• 1537 — Born
• 1547 — Edward VI accedes to the throne at the age of nine after the death of his father, Henry VIII.
• 1547 — Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, uncle of Edward VI, is invested as Duke of Somerset and Protector of England.
• 1547 — The English army defeats the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh as part of an attempt to force a marriage between Edward VI and Mary Queen of Scots.
• 1553 — Died
• 1553 — The Duke of Northumberland persuades Edward to nominate his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey as his heir, in an attempt to secure the Protestant succession.
• 1553 — Edward VI dies of tuberculosis at Greenwich Palace.