February 20, 2019

On Feb. 20, 1547, 472 years ago today, young Edward Tudor became King Edward VI of England and Ireland. The son of King Henry III, who had died the month before, Edward was just 9 years old when he took the throne. Because of Edward’s youth, his uncle Edward Seymour, who soon became the Duke of Somerset, governed for him as Protector of England. In 1549, the Earl of Warwick, later called the Duke of Northumberland, took Somerset’s place.

King Edward VI of England and Ireland. Credit: Edward VI (1546), oil on panel attributed to William Scrots; Windsor Castle/Royal Collection Trust

Edward VI was born on Oct. 12, 1537, in what is now part of London. His mother, Jane Seymour, was the third wife of Henry III and died shortly after Edward’s birth. Henry had separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Edward, Somerset, and Northumberland all wished England to continue its new Protestant path.

Edward’s reign—troubled by economic woes, social unrest, and war with Scotland—was a brief one. Just six years after becoming king, he became fatally ill with a fever and severe lung infection (most likely tuberculosis). Before Edward died, he named his Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, who was also Northumberland’s daughter-in-law, as his successor. Edward’s half sister Mary had been next in line for the throne, but she was a devout Roman Catholic. Lady Jane reigned for only nine days before she was dethroned in favor of Mary. Edward died at age 15 on July 6, 1553.