The Short, Unhappy Life of England's King Edward VI

England's King Edward VI began life as the hope of an entire nation; the male heir that Henry VIII at long last produced after a series of unfortunate marriages ending in a couple of beheadings and a divorce that completely changed the religious map of England. Unfortunately for Edward especially, but really almost all concerned, his birth occurred too late in his father's life to ensure the smooth transition that such a celebrated event was intended to guarantee. A mere child when he was handed the crown of England, Edward VI was never more than a figurehead; a puppet monarch whose strings were pulled by a variety of ambitious overseers. But such was the instability of transition in a monarchy that even the powerful Duke of Somerset was not free to rule young Edward as he might have hoped.

Henry VIII died when Edward was just nine years old. Henry's will requested that sixteen executors be named as members of a Council of Regency until his son turned 18. Almost as if knowing he never would, the Council voted to lower Edward's age of assumptive majority to 16 in a vote taken in 1552. In addition to the sixteen executors, Henry also willed the addition of twelve assistants who would assume the mantle of executor should any of the original sixteen not prove fit for their duties. The council quickly moved to elect Edward's uncle, Edward Seymour, as Lord Protector of the Realm and Governor of the King's Person until Edward achieved maturity. Seymour was then given the title Duke of Somerset and appointed to the positions of Lord High Treasurer and Earl Marshal.