Edward VI 1537-53
King of England and Ireland

Born in London, the son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, he was 10 years old at his accession (1547). The government was at first in the hands of his uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who, as Lord Protector, attempted to resolve the economic, social and religious problems of the realm. The publication of the conservative first Book of Common Prayer (1549) was an important step towards the establishment of uniform observance in the newly reformed English Church, but it caused the Western Rebellion in the south-west. Robert Kett's rebellion in East Anglia in 1549 helped cause Somerset's fall; his moderate religious policy pleased neither adherents of the old faith nor the more zealous Protestants, while his cautious approach towards popular discontent worried those who advocated a harder line. He was executed (1552) and replaced by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who had achieved great influence over the young king. Edward was highly intelligent, with a mind of his own, but his religious views were intensely narrow. A revised prayer book was produced, confirmed by a second Act of Uniformity (1552) and the Forty-Two Articles (1553) were intended to give the English Church a definitive creed. As the English Reformation flourished, the king's health, never robust, deteriorated suddenly, and Warwick persuaded the dying boy to alter the succession in favour of his own daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. Edward died of tuberculosis, and Lady Jane Grey was overthrown after only nine days on the throne by his Catholic half-sister, Mary I.

Bibliography: W K Jordan, Edward VI (2 vols, 1968-70)