by John, Judith
Despite views of the prince suffering a weak, unhealthy childhood, Edward enjoyed good health for most of his life, apart from a fever at the age of four. It is believed there were no lasting issues from this childhood malady that may have brought on his early death, although the severe illness might have weakened the young King’s constitution. It is possible that Edward was seen as weak and feeble only in comparison with his gigantic and imposing father.
Thought to be close to his older sisters as a child, the young prince enjoyed their visits when the girls were reconciled with their father. It was when Henry VIII married Catherine Parr in 1543 that the Tudors became a true family. Edward loved the attention of the mother figure he had missed out on (Jane Seymour had died within days of her much-wanted son’s birth) and became fond of his sisters, especially Mary.
Henry arranged the betrothal of his son and heir to Mary, Queen of Scots, when Edward was only seven years old. Mary was but seven months at the time. The Treaty of Greenwich was signed in 1543, forming an alliance between the old enemies of England and Scotland that was to be cemented by the marriage. However, by 1547 the betrothal was broken and the Scottish Parliament rejected the Treaty, beginning years of strife known as the ‘rough wooing’. Mary would go on to marry the French Dauphin, later King Francis II of France. With the alliance shattered, England sent troops into Scotland to wage a war that would continue under Edward’s reign.
Becoming King
At the tender age of nine, Edward’s idyllic childhood came to an abrupt end. His father, the great and notorious Henry VIII, had died. The tragic news was kept secret from the country at first, especially since it had recently undergone such internal religious turmoil, as the idea of a child taking the crown may lead to threats from abroad, as well as possible usurpers looking to snatch the throne from a vulnerable youngster. But Edward was in strong hands. Henry had done all he could to secure his son’s succession, leaving his Privy Council in no doubt that Edward, and only Edward, would inherit. If Edward were to die without issue, the crown would revert to Mary, then Elizabeth, Henry having reinstated both daughters as successors in his third Act of Succession in 1543.
Henry had done all he could to secure his son’s succession, leaving his Privy Council in no doubt that Edward would inherit. If Edward died, the crown would revert to Mary, then Elizabeth …
Henry had also left the prince’s care in the hands of 16 executors and 12 assistants until Edward’s 18th birthday and majority. Not eager to bequest a single man with the power to manipulate the King, Henry felt that the safest way to protect his legacy was to share it among many. It was also tradition that when a royal in his minority took the throne, little would be done of any consequence by his government until the King came to prominence and could speak for himself, which would give the country time to adjust to a new ruler. Neither precaution was to stand fast. Powerful men with agendas of their own would soon make their own mark on the young monarch and the entire country.
ROYAL BANQUETS
ALWAYS A SUMPTUOUS affair, Edward’s coronation banquet was a sight to behold. Containing every type of meat and fish conceivable, as well as pies, tarts and exotic fruit and vegetables, banquets would typically consist of three to six courses of a large variety of dishes. Food would often be spiced or salted and the nobles would enjoy exotic flavours such as saffron, ginger and cloves. The tables were laid with gold and silver plates. Theatrical centrepieces would resemble swans or peacocks, or represent the coats of arms of attending nobles. While such dinners were a special occasion, there was often a huge amount and variety of food at the King’s table. However, the practice would be to sample just a little of your favourite dishes, ensuring that there was enough left to feed the many servants afterwards. Nevertheless, gout was rampant due to the rich food and excessive alcohol consumption.
Other health issues such as vitamin deficiency were also common, as certain foods such as locally grown vegetables were seen as poor people’s fare and therefore excluded from banquets.
The spacious size of this Tudor kitchen hints at the huge amounts of food cooked here each day. Fires would be lit in each of the brick ovens on the left of the photo, enabling gallons of soups, stews and sauces to be made at the same time.
Edward was finally proclaimed King of England on 31 January 1547. His council made the succession a cause for great celebration, hoping to win the support of the public by laying on the expected lavish ceremony for his coronation on 20 February. They need not have worried; Edward was already being hailed as the new ‘Josiah’, the Old Testament Hebrew King renowned for reforming Hebrew religion. Cranmer hailed Edward as ‘Christ’s vicar’, the personification of Royal Supremacy who was answerable only to God. It was a concept the young sovereign had no trouble believing.
The new King wore red velvet robes trimmed with ermine and the Imperial Crown, now a symbol of both an English King and the Supreme Head of the Church of England. This crown was later replaced with a smaller and lighter crown as a nod to the King’s youth, which Edward wore throughout the following banquet. Two cushions were also placed on the seat of the throne to boost Edward’s small frame. Edward kept comprehensive diaries throughout his reign, which tell us that one of his lasting memories of the coronation was a tightrope act.
Benefiting from the ‘unfulfilled gifts’ clause in Henry’s will, Seymour won support by awarding himself and his acolytes …
Protector of the Realm
Soon after his coronation, Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, was assigned King Edward’s Lord Protector. As the boy’s uncle, Seymour was an obvious choice, but others were not so happy about his influential role. Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, Lord Chancellor and keeper of the Great Seal – who had earlier been the one to draw up arrest papers for Catherine Parr that Henry then rejected – first refused to grant this authority to Seymour, possibly believing Wriothesley himself should be Protector to the King. Seymour and his cronies quickly put paid to Wriothesley’s designs on power and he resigned, probably to avoid a harsher fate if he did not back down. The old Chancellor would bide his time for now. Seymour later appointed Richard Rich, the lawyer who had testified against Fisher and More, as Lord Chancellor in Wriothesley’s place. Benefiting from the ‘unfulfilled gifts’ clause in Henry’s will, Seymour won support by awarding himself and his acolytes titles, lands and riches. Many councilmen were more than willing to support him in everything as long as they were compensated for their loyalty.
Now secure in his authority, Seymour basically had control over the King and country. He cemented this control by getting Edward to sign letters patent that gave Seymour the authority to choose Privy Council members, thus enabling him to select like-minded men who owed him. They took advantage of the ambiguity in Henry’s will to allow ‘unfulfilled gifts’ to be distributed, which ended up with each of Seymour’s supporters gaining titles and lands. Around this time, the more conservative men of court fell out of favour. This included Thomas Howard, who had been a favourite of Henry’s for a large part of his reign and who would later serve Elizabeth, and Stephen Gardiner. A conservative Catholic, Gardiner would remain a source of opposition to Seymour’s intended religious reforms, which went further than Henry VIII had ever wanted. With the speedy removal of these men, plus placing his supporters within Edward’s household so the Lord Protector could even control who saw the King, Seymour’s takeover of Edward was smooth, deadly efficient and practically unchallenged.
This dramatic illustration shows an angry Thomas Seymour trying to force his way into Edward’s quarters at Hampton Court. The barking dog alerted the guards, who quickly dealt with Thomas. His brother, Edward Seymour, was Edward’s protector.
Brotherly Love
Thomas Seymour, Edward’s younger brother, was not happy with the control Seymour had over Edward, wanting more authority of his own. Fighting for absolute power over the susceptible monarch, Thomas did his best to destroy Seymour’s authority. Thomas held the
titles of Duke of Somerset as a consequence of the ‘unfulfilled gifts’ clause, which Seymour hoped would be enough to buy him off. Thomas was also Lord High Admiral and a member of the Privy Council. However, instead of directly challenging Seymour for power, Thomas took a more underhanded approach. He secretly slipped Edward VI pocket money, trying to turn the King away from Seymour by suggesting the Protector was withholding money that was rightfully Edward’s. Also urging Edward to fight Seymour for control of his own realm, Thomas further connived to win power by continuing his romance of Elizabeth, Edward’s sister, having charmed Edward into agreeing to his marriage with Catherine Parr very soon after Henry’s death.
EDWARD SEYMOUR
EDWARD SEYMOUR, JANE Seymour’s brother, awarded himself the Dukedom of Somerset on Henry’s death. While the whole council were meant to share guidance of the young King, 13 out of the 16 swore Seymour in as Lord Protector (the other three men were absent at the time).
His supporters were indifferent to religion or were believers in the new faith to some extent. Seymour faced opposition from his brother, Thomas, who also sought power but tried to seize it in other ways.
An excellent soldier, Seymour led the successful battles against Scotland and France under Henry VIII. Seymour’s influence over Edward would later fade and he was arrested in 1549 before his execution in 1552 on the order of his nephew and John Dudley.
Edward VI is shown sitting before parliament circa 1549. While his Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, would lead the council on his behalf, Edward VI was already exhibiting signs of the strong, learned ruler he might one day have been.
During his marriage to Catherine Parr, Thomas had built up a close relationship with the princess. The unscrupulous admiral had engaged in a perverted pursuit of his wife’s stepdaughter, entering her bedchamber when she was not yet awake or properly attired. Elizabeth was soon removed from the household, but the caddish Thomas managed to bluff his way out of trouble and it came to nothing. After Catherine’s death, Thomas once again started to woo the princess, writing her love letters and paying her every compliment. There is a chance that his attentions might have succeeded, despite Elizabeth’s famous later refusal to wed. However, she was advised by the council to remain aloof from his advances. Thomas also considered marriage to Mary at one point, proving that he cared little for which princess it was and was capable of doing anything to achieve the dominance he craved.
Thomas drove a nail into his own coffin when his intrigues led him to form alliances with Channel pirates … to share any booty won by Walton in return for safe conduct in English waters.
From Bad to Worse
Thomas drove a nail into his own coffin when his intrigues led him to form alliances with Channel pirates. Now open about his audacious bid for power, he colluded with a known pirate, Thomas Walton, to share any booty won by Walton in return for safe conduct in English waters. As Lord High Admiral, Thomas abused his title by profiting from piracy and by seeking support for a coup to overthrow his brother.
STEPHEN GARDINER
WHILE NEVER ENJOYING the notoriety of some of Henry VIII’s other advisors, especially Wolsey and Cromwell, Bishop Gardiner was an influential council member throughout Henry VIII’s reign.
It was his strong-minded character that caused Henry to fear Gardiner’s influence over his young son. This, plus Gardiner’s conservative stance on religion, left him high and dry under the new monarch. Earlier in his career, Gardiner had worked under Wolsey but had managed to remain on good terms with Henry after Wolsey’s death. Gardiner was then awarded Wolsey’s old bishopric of Winchester in 1531.
Often refusing to submit to Henry like so many others – and subsequently thought to be far too willful and dominant to accept only a partial role in Edward’s council – Gardiner tried to charge Cranmer with heresy when he began to push forward the new faith. Later confined to the Tower, Gardiner would again rise to power under Mary I.
When he was called upon to defend his actions, Thomas threw caution to the wind and attempted to kidnap Edward. On 16 July 1549, under the cover of darkness, Thomas tried to force his way into Edward’s apartments at Hampton Court. Alerted by a barking dog, which he later shot, Thomas was apprehended, arrested and held in the Tower to await trial. The charges eventually brought against him included conspiracy, embezzlement (Thomas had also tried to bribe Sir William Sharington, the treasurer of the Bristol Mint) and treason. With no supporters or hope left, Thomas was executed on 20 March 1549. His own brother was later condemned for playing a part in Thomas’ execution, but Seymour was reluctant to support Thomas’ death warrant, the council eventually taking it to Edward for signing.
In the Name of the King
Disregarding the usual tradition of making few changes during the time of a King in his minority, Seymour pushed forward with his own controversial agenda and policy. Ably aided by Cranmer, from 1547 to 1553 Seymour took the religion of the moderate Church of England and moulded it into a Protestant faith, abolishing purgatory and the idolatry of saints and allowing clerics to marry. The Lord Protector’s further abolishment of religious houses and seizure of their property would help to finance some of his more reckless decisions in war. Seymour remained a reformist and his moves away from both the traditional Catholic orthodoxy and Henry VIII’s Church of England were steps too far for many.
Alerted by a barking dog, which he later shot, Thomas was apprehended, arrested and held in the Tower to await trial.
The country was beginning to split into Catholic and Protestant factions as Seymour pushed forward his own agenda. This included the highly contentious royal visitations, whereby Seymour’s men would inspect churches, imposing injunctions as to what must be done and what must be abolished in order to purify them. This included removing images of saints, rosaries, flowers and most of the candles. Organ music was banned, as were many traditional hymns and the buildings were whitewashed, the only permitted ornament being the royal coat of arms.
One of the most drastic steps was to change the mass from Latin to English. It would shortly be treason not to use Cranmer’s English Book of Common Prayer, introduced on Whit Sunday 1549. Showing just how far religious reforms had come, only a few years ago under Henry, to say the mass in any language but Latin would have been an act of treason punishable by death. Around 2500 chantries – houses in which people would say prayers for the dead – were dissolved, the money from lands being worth £600,000 to the crown. It was all too much, too soon. Seymour and Edward would presently be facing a rebellion from within the country as well as threats from abroad.
This is the front page of Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer, which did away with the Latin mass. Edward’s beliefs and those of his supporters took the reformation closer to Protestantism that Henry VIII had ever intended.
Seymour was canny enough to keep close and trusted advisors near him, whom he rewarded well for their loyalty. These men included William Paget and Anthony Denny. Denny, one of Henry VIII’s confidants, was the one who dry stamped Henry’s final will with a facsimile of his signature prior to it being signed (although Henry died before ever signing the final version, which partly allowed the flexible approach Seymour and his supporters took to it). It is thought that Denny was able to subtly sway the weakened King in the writing of his will. William Paget, Henry’s secretary, who was present for the final version of Henry’s will, is also thought to have had a hand in influencing the dying King, although the full extent of this influence may never be known.
The other man close to Seymour was John Dudley, the Earl of Warwick, who had been one of Henry VIII’s confidantes. However, Dudley would soon turn against Seymour to gain further power of his own.
This striking image depicts the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, near Musselburgh in the south-east of Scotland. Part of the ‘rough wooing’, the battle saw the Scots defeated by the English.
War at Pinkie Cleugh
The final weeks of Henry VIII’s life were tumultuous,
due to the on-again, off-again battles with Scotland. The continued attempts – with future good relations hopefully secured by Edward’s marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots – at peace being thwarted, the ‘rough wooing’ of Scotland commenced. Part of the dispute was England wanting to force reformation on the largely Catholic population of Scotland. Seymour also wanted to secure the English borders against a possible Scottish–French invasion. The Protector and warlord led his army into Scotland on 31 August 1547. With an offer of peace on the condition of the marriage going ahead being rejected, the English routed the Scots in an overwhelming defeat with over 10,000 Scots killed at Pinkie, near Edinburgh. The Scots attacked, but their troops were split and the more modern English army used their weapons to great effect against them. Seymour left men in Scotland, which he believed would keep the peace and ensure English authority across the border, but this, plus the costly wars, would cause a huge financial drain that Seymour was later criticized for. However, Scotland, then under the regency of James Hamilton, the Earl of Arran, after James V’s death in 1542, still refused to capitulate. In August 1548 Mary was smuggled to safety in France where she would later marry Francis II and briefly act as Queen Consort. The Treaty was broken and the war had been for nothing.