Edward VI of England
Edward VI
Edward VI, by William Scrots, c. 1550
King of England (more...)
Reign
28 January 1547 – 6 July 1553
Coronation
20 February 1547
Predecessor Henry VIII
Regent
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of
Somerset (1547–1549)
John Dudley, 1st Duke of
Northumberland (1549–1553)
Successor
Lady Jane Grey (disputed) or
Mary I
House
House of Tudor
Father
Henry VIII
Mother
Jane Seymour
Born
12 October 1537(1537-10-12)
Hampton Court Palace, near
London
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553)
became King of England and Ireland on 28
January 1547 and was crowned on 20 Febru-
ary at the age of nine.[1] The son of Henry
VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third
monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England’s
first Protestant ruler. During Edward’s reign,
the realm was governed by a Regency Coun-
cil, because he never reached maturity. The
Council was led from 1547 to 1549 by his
uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somer-
set, and from 1550 to 1553 by John Dudley,
1st Earl of Warwick, who in 1551 became 1st
Duke of Northumberland.
Edward’s reign was marked by economic
problems, military withdrawal from Scotland
and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and social unrest that
in 1549 erupted into riot and rebellion. It also
saw the transformation of
the Anglican
Church
into
a
recognisably Protestant
body.[2] Henry VIII had severed the link
between the Church of England and Rome,
and during Edward’s reign, Protestantism
was established for the first time in England,
with reforms that included the abolition of
clerical celibacy and the mass, and the im-
position of compulsory services in English.
The architect of these reforms was Thomas
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose
Book of Common Prayer has proved lasting.
When Edward fell terminally ill in 1553,
he and his Council drew up a "Devise for the
Succession" in an attempt to prevent a Cath-
olic backlash against the Protestant Reforma-
tion. Edward named his cousin Lady Jane
Grey as his heir and excluded his two half sis-
ters, the Catholic Mary and Protestant Eliza-
beth. On Edwar