Lesson VI: The King's Heirs
Edward VI and Lady Jane Grey
When Edward was born in 1537, the entire country rejoiced. Like most of the Tudors, he was very intelligent, and also a serious child. He received the best possible education from some of the leading scholars of the time, all of whom praised his accomplishments highly. They had reason to flatter him, of course, but everyone who met him realized that he was very bright. He spoke several languages well and preferred reading to many other activities.
Though he was not an entirely sickly child as some stories suggest, he was never athletic or robust like his father. He didn't care for jousting or wrestling, but he did enjoy footraces against other boys. Even so, his advisers worried a good deal about his health.
Edward was just nine years old when his father died and he found himself King. Of course he was considered too young to rule by himself, so as was traditional, a Lord Protector was appointed to help with the business of state and run the King's Council. The Lord Protector in this case was Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, Edward VI's uncle. As often happened when the king was not of age, many nobles tried to gain advancement any way they could, and there was a great deal of competition for power.
By 1552, one especially ruthless nobleman had gained a good deal of influence. John Dudley had a bad start in life, his father having been executed for treason by Henry VIII. John had a brilliant career as a soldier, however, and he was made first a viscount and then an earl. But this wasn't enough for him, and as one of Edward's councillors, he earned the support of enough of his fellow nobles that he was able to make himself Duke of Northumberland, the first person not of royal blood to hold the title of Duke.
Northumberland clashed frequently with the Duke of Somerset, who did not always get along well with his fellow councilors. When Somerset's brother, Thomas Seymour, was executed (see Lesson VIII), that was the beginning of the end for Somerset, who was later tried for treason. Surprisingly, he was not found guilty of the main charges, which Northumberland had mainly falsified, but was found guilty of a lesser felony, trying to effect a change of government. Northumberland forged a warrant for his execution, and was at last rid of his rival. In order not to offend his supporters, however, Northumberland never claimed the title of Lord Protector and remained officially equal to them.
Edward VI - son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour
Signature of Edward VI
By flattering the young king and making a show of consulting his opinion, Northumberland earned the boy's trust and support. Edward was a staunch Protestant, anxious to continue the religious reforms his father had begun, and was bursting with plans. Northumberland promised him that he would be allowed to rule in his own right when he turned sixteen in 1553. But by late summer of 1552, he was very ill and would only continue to decline from then on. He probably had tuberculosis, which was untreatable at the time.
Northumberland, cruelly, kept Edward alive but in great pain, using the boy to help solidify his power. He had planned to marry Edward to Lady Jane Grey, whose mother, Frances, was the eldest child of Mary Brandon, Henry VIII's sister. The children were fond of each other, and since Lady Jane was also well-educated and intelligent, it might have been a happy match. But Edward's illness changed all this. At Northumberland's urging, Edward wrote a document called the Devise [meaning Device, in the sense of a plan] for the Succession, disinheriting his sisters and making Jane his heir. Northumberland then arranged for his youngest son, Guilford, to marry Jane. When Edward finally died on 6 July 1553, Northumberland planned to make himself the King, for all practical purposes. Lady Jane was only about fifteen, and she was both Protestant and (Northumberland hoped) easily led.
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland
But though Jane hated the Roman Catholic faith even more than Edward had, she knew the crown was Mary's by right. Edward had no legal power to decide the succession by himself, and since Parliament had not approved the Devise for the Succession, Jane flatly refused to take the crown. Her highly ambitious parents, however, had other plans and threatened her until she gave in.
Her ill-fated reign lasted just nine days. The populace was not happy with the idea of a possible return to the Roman Catholic faith, but Mary herself was popular and when she promised to make no drastic changes to religion, the people rose up in her support and Jane was arrested and placed in the Tower. Northumberland was executed, despite a last-minute conversion to Catholicism that he had hoped would save his life. Lady Jane's parents were briefly imprisoned, then released on Mary's orders. Afterwards they made little effort to ask for mercy or even to contact their daughter, who remained in the Tower. In 1554, Jane and her husband, both still in their teens, were beheaded as traitors. Jane's father, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, was executed only a few days later, for having helped to lead a rebellion against Mary's proposed Spanish marriage (see Lesson VII). Frances made a scandalous second marriage to her Master of Horse, Adrian Stokes, who was a commoner, just a few weeks after her husband's death. She may have done this partly in order to avoid any further involvement in the dangerous political games that were such a part of court life -- by marrying beneath her, she was much less of a threat.
