Edward VI

•Edward was King Henry’s VIII only legitimate son; his mother, Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour, died 12
days after his birth. Although Edward has traditionally been viewed as a frail child who was never in
good health, some recent authorities have maintained that until several years before his death, he was
a robust, athletically inclined youth. His tutors found him to be intellectually gifted,
a precocious student of Greek, Latin, French, and theology. On January 28, 1547, Henry VIII died and
Edward succeeded to the throne.
•Henry had decreed that during Edward’s minority the government was to be run by a council of
regency; in fact, Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, had almost supreme power as
regent, with the title of protector, until he was overthrown in 1549 by the unscrupulous John Dudley,
earl of Warwick (soon to be duke of Northumberland). The young king was the mask behind which
Northumberland controlled the government. The measures taken by both Somerset and
Northumberland to consolidate the English Reformation, however, agreed with Edward’s own intense
devotion to Protestantism.
•In January 1553 Edward showed the first signs of tuberculosis, and by May it was evident that the
disease would be fatal. Working with Northumberland, he determined to exclude his two half-sisters,
Mary and Elizabeth, from the succession and to put Northumberland’s daughter-in-law, Lady Jane
Grey, and her male heirs in direct line for the throne. As a result, a power struggle erupted after
Edward’s death. Lady Jane Grey ruled for nine days (July 10–19, 1553) before she was overthrown by
the more popular Mary I (reigned 1553–58).
•Edward displayed a potential for effective administration, but many scholars have felt that, had he
lived, his religious zeal might have imprinted a much firmer Protestantism on the Church of England.
•https://youtu.be/HFrqauouQXA
 Mary I
• Mary I, also called Mary Tudor (born February
18, 1516—died November 17, 1558), the first
queen to rule England (1553–58) in her own
right. She was known as Bloody Mary for her
persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to
restore Roman Catholicism in England.

• https://youtu.be/LS-27NuxqU8
 Elizabeth I
• Elizabeth I, bynames the Virgin
Queen and Good Queen Bess, (born September
7, 1533 —died March 24, 1603), queen
of England (1558–1603) during a period, often
called the Elizabethan Age, when England
asserted itself as a major European power in
politics, commerce, and the arts.
• https://youtu.be/dfgeLdXA87I
• https://youtu.be/j1kf1ZGON-I