Edward VI of England
King Henry VIII desperately waited more than twenty five years to have a son. It was a great celebration after Jane Seymour, wife of Henry VIII gave birth to a child named Edward VI whose baptism was held at the Hampton Court chapel in a grandeur ceremony. Soon Queen Jane became ill and she died shortly after on October 24th, and left Edward to be raised and taken care of by Mother Jack, his nurse together with some of the servants.
After the death of Edward's mother, his father Henry VIII stayed single for almost two years showing everybody that he still honestly and purely expressed great sorrow for her. However, a confidential agent named Thomas Cromwell was hired to start seeking information about a possible candidate of a foreign bride for Henry VIII. The split-up of England from Rome left Henry detached and weak which is why he took his ministers to find him a bride that could strengthen the treaty between the countries. The efforts of his agents and his ministers were not enough until he also requested painters to bring him some pictures and images of some possible candidates. It was in 1539 when the famous painter of Tudor court, Hans Holbein, painted the sisters of the Duke of CLeves that made Henry decide to sign a contract for his marriage with Anne. But it was a great shock when King Henry VIII threw out Anne of Cleves after finding her ugly in person, compared to her portrait. Again, another marriage that also ended badly was to Catherine Howard when she was punished for adultery. There were many more relationships that were reported after the two most controversial marriages happened in the life of Henry VIII.
Only in 1543 when King Henry VIII found a loving mother to Edward in the arms of Catherine Parr, the very last of all his six wives. She was not only a woman that took care of Henry's poor health and old age which greatly improved his current condition but also played an important role in managing Edward's education. Through tutors, Prince Edward was given a lot of education on geography, political issues, history of past events and different languages as well as on social behaviour and conducts, music and sports. To apportion his education, King Henry agreed a benefit for fourteen children to accompany Edward for his studies. Barnaby Fitzpatrick became Prince Edward’s most favourite friend.. Edward grew into a studious and sincere person, although sometimes he displayed a wild and cruel temper towards his tutors. On the other hand, he was very affectionate towards his half sister Elizabeth unlike his lesser feelings towards Mary.
Prince Edward became a King when his father, King Henry VIII died in 1547 but a council was elected to rule first because he was still under the required legal age. Likewise, Edward Seymour, the uncle of Edward VI wanted to become the defender of the Kingdom and the King thus he gave trust to William Paget to keep the last will and testament of King Henry VIII without having purpose of letting other people know until he had taken dominion of King Edward VI and convey him to go into London. Together with his sister Elizabeth and the legislative body of Enfield, Seymour proclaimed the death of their father and expressed formal and deep respect to Edward as the new King. The death of Henry VIII brought sorrows and grief not only to his children but also to all servants that made consciousness to their adjusted roles and many changes in the closeness of Edward and Elizabeth.
It was on February 17th, 1547 when Edward VI was honoured and recognised by his uncle Seymour, who himself became the first Duke of Somerset. Jealousy of power and position started to play havoc with Edward when Admiral (Somerset's brother) planned to put the power in his hand by failing to count the good deeds of the young king. Edward VI was almost grown from a child to a man showing indications of becoming responsible and independent of being a King until time came when the King himself established the truth of his wrong doings resulted into his arrest and charges for betrayal of trust. Later, Edward permitted the council to punish Admiral by cutting his head off when Edward Seymour doubted to sign the death warrant of his brother. In succeeding years, several death warrants were signed by the fourteen year old Edward to all his uncles but it was proven to be purely of sovereign business as always.
The time had come that Edward VI had already finished his studies and it was concluded that at the age of sixteen, he would be the one to take over the rule of the country. This was really bad news for Mary, who was at that time a devotee of Catholicism and who declined to follow reforms on preaching and practices made by Edward while getting total sympathy from his sister Elizabeth, a moderate believer of Protestants. Different from his father’s attitude, Edward showed little interest in sports but preferred to practice more in knowledge and intellect during his spare time that had been noted by some Kings as a Christian King with excellent education. He also mastered the history, geography, religion but above all he knew sacred writings of the old and new testaments for he was passionate enough to hear religious discourse from preachers.
King Edward VI’s health weakened after suffering from small pox in the spring of April 1552, he was obviously dying of tuberculosis of the lungs. Mary would be the next Queen if Edward was to die without having any children according to his father’s will, but Northumberland convinced him that Jean Grey should be his next successor. At the age of 16, King Edward VI died after conversing in whisper his last prayer to God.
Original Authors: Phil Post
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 23/07/2008
