Edward VI (King)

1537

1553

Edward VI, the young king of England and Ireland from 1547 to 1553, was born in London on 12 October 1537; he was the only legitimate son of Henry VIII, by his third wife Jane Seymour, who died 12 days after Edward’s birth. At the age of nine Edward succeeded to the throne on the death of his father on 28 January 1547. The country was managed by the regent, Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, until the latter was deposed in 1549 by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and then Duke of Northumberland. When Edward began to suffer from tuberculosis early in 1553, he was persuaded by Northumberland to arrange that his two half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, would be excluded from succession and that Northumberland’s daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, would assume the throne. After Edward’s death on 6 July 1553 (when he was not quite 16), Lady Jane ruled for nine days only and then was overthrown by Mary I (bloody Mary), who died in 1558 and was succeeded by Elizabeth I. (EB)