EDWARD VI.—1547 to 1553.
How Edward the Sixth was taught to be a Protestant; how the Protector
Somerset went to war in Scotland; how he caused his brother to be
beheaded, and was afterwards beheaded himself; how the Duke of
Northumberland persuaded the King to leave the kingdom to Lady Jane
Grey.
When King Henry the Eighth died, his only son, who was but nine years
old, was made king under the name of Edward the Sixth.
Of course the little prince could not do much of a king’s proper
business himself; but his guardians, and especially his mother’s
brother, managed the kingdom tolerably well for him at first.
The little boy was very gentle and fond of learning. He was serious
and clever too: he wrote down in a book every day what he had been
about, and seemed to wish to do what was right; so the people thought
they might have a really good king.
I told you, when I mentioned the alteration in religion in Henry the
Eighth’s reign, that though nearly all the nobles continued Papists,
yet many of the gentlemen and the people were Protestants. Now King
Edward’s uncles and teachers were Protestants, and they taught the
young king to be one also, and laws were made by which all the people
in England were ordered to be Protestants too.
The Bible was allowed to be read by everybody who chose it, in
English, and the clergymen were ordered to say the prayers in
English instead of Latin, which very few could understand. The king
was declared to be the head of the Church; clergymen were allowed to
marry; and those persons whom Henry the Eighth had put in prison were
set free.
These things were not only good for the people then, but they have
been of use ever since. As the English clergymen, and schools, and
colleges, have had no foreign Pope to interfere with them, they have
been able to teach such things as are good and useful to England.
Clergymen who are married, and have families living in the country
among the farmers and cottagers, may set good examples and teach
useful things, by the help of their wives and children, which the
clergy who were not married could never do.
And as for reading the Bible, and saying prayers in English, it must
be better for us all to learn our duties, and speak of our wants to
God, in the language we understand best.
For these reasons the reign of Edward the Sixth is always reckoned a
very good one for England.
There were, however, some very wrong things done in it, and some
unhappy ones, owing to the king’s being so very young.
I told you he was only nine years old when he came to be king. Those
in whose care his father had placed him and the kingdom, allowed
one of the king’s uncles, the Duke of Somerset, to become his chief
guardian and adviser, and he is always called the Lord Protector
Somerset.
A quarrel which Henry the Eighth had begun with Scotland was carried
on by Somerset, who went himself to Scotland with an army, and beat
the Scots at the battle of Pinkie; but the war did no good, and was
not even honourable to England. Somerset offered to make peace if the
Scottish lords would allow their young Queen Mary to marry our young
King Edward, when the children were old enough, and then England and
Scotland might have been one kingdom from that time.
I should tell you that the last king of Scotland, James the Fifth,
was dead, and that his widow was a French lady, and ruled the
kingdom, with the help of the Scottish nobles, for her little
daughter, who was five years old. She and the nobles at that time
were Papists, and would not allow Mary to marry the Protestant King
Edward of England, but sent her to France, where she married a French
prince, and was Queen of France for a little while.
When the Protector Somerset came back from Scotland, the great Lords
at first seemed glad to see him; but by degrees they made the young
king think very ill of him. Besides, many hated Somerset for his
pride. He pulled down several churches and bishops’ palaces, to make
room for his own palace in the Strand. The great building that now
stands in the same place is still called _Somerset House_.
I am sorry to tell you that one of the Protector’s enemies was his
own brother, Lord Seymour of Sudely, a very brave but bad man, who
was the High Admiral of England.
Now the Admiral wished to be the king’s guardian instead of Somerset;
and he was trying to do this by force. So he was seized and tried;
and his own brother, the Protector, signed the order for him to be
beheaded.
Somerset did this to save his own life; but soon after this his
enemies grew too strong for him, and Lord Warwick, who had become
the chief ruler, got the king to sign an order to behead Somerset.
Although he was a king, the poor boy must have been very unhappy. He
had been persuaded to order his own two uncles to be beheaded; and
although he had two sisters, he could not make friends with them,
because they were brought up to think all he did was wrong.
[Illustration: The Protector Somerset accusing his Brother before
King Edward VI.]
The eldest was the daughter of Henry the Eighth’s first wife,
Catherine of Arragon. She was twenty-one years older than the king,
and she was a Papist, and hated all the Protestants, and the king
most of all.
The king’s second sister was the daughter of poor Queen Anne Boleyn.
Her name was Elizabeth; she was a Protestant, and was only four years
older than her brother, who loved her, and used to call her his
“sweet sister Temperance.”
He had one cousin, whom he saw often, and who was very beautiful and
good, and loved learning; her name was Lady Jane Grey. I shall have a
good deal to tell you about her, and how she used to read and learn
as well as the little king.
But I must now tell you what happened when the Protector was
beheaded. Although he had offended the great lords, and they had
persuaded the king that he deserved to die, the people loved him.
He had always been kind to them, and the laws made while he was
Protector were all good for England. On the day when his head was
cut off on Tower-Hill—it was early in the morning—a great many
people were collected to see him die. Suddenly one of the king’s
messengers rode up to the scaffold where Somerset stood ready for
the executioner; the people hoped the king had sent a pardon for his
uncle, and shouted out, “A pardon! a pardon! God save the king!” But
it was not true; there was no pardon. Somerset was a little moved
when the people shouted, but soon became quite quiet. He spoke kindly
and thankfully to some of his friends who were shedding tears near
him, and then laid his head upon the block, and was beheaded.
After this time the Earl of Warwick managed the country for the
king. But the poor young prince did not live long. Soon after his
uncle’s death he began to cough and look very ill, and everybody saw
that he was likely to die.
Now the person who was to reign over England after Edward’s death was
his eldest sister, the Princess Mary, and, as I told you, she was a
Papist, or, as we now call it, a Roman Catholic.
The Earl of Warwick, who had been made Duke of Northumberland, had
a son named Lord Guildford Dudley, who married the king’s good and
beautiful cousin, Lady Jane Grey. These young people were both
Protestants, and Northumberland hoped that the people would like to
have Lady Jane for their queen, in case the young king should die,
better than the Roman Catholic Princess Mary; and then he thought
that, as he was the father of Jane’s husband, he might rule the
kingdom in her name, and get all the power for himself.
Poor King Edward now grew weaker and weaker: he was taken to
Greenwich for change of air, and seemed at first a little better, so
that the people, who really loved their gentle and sweet-tempered
young king, began to hope he might live.
But Northumberland knew that Edward was dying, and he never left him,
that he might persuade him to make a will, leaving the kingdom to his
dear cousin, Lady Jane Grey, after his death.
This was very wrong, because the king is only placed at the head
of the kingdom, to do justice and to exercise mercy. He cannot buy
or sell the kingdom, or any part of it. He cannot change the owner
of the smallest bit of land without the authority of the whole
parliament, made up of the king himself, and the lords and gentlemen
of the commons along with him. Of course, therefore, Northumberland
was wrong, in persuading the young king to make such a will without
the advice of parliament. You will read presently how Northumberland
was punished.
Soon after this will was made poor Edward the Sixth died. He was not
quite sixteen years old. He was so mild and gentle, that everybody
loved him. He took such pains to learn, and do what was right, that
the people were in hopes of having a really good and wise king. But
it pleased God that he should die. His last prayer as he lay a dying
was, “O Lord, save thy chosen people of England. Defend this realm
from papistry, and maintain thy true religion.”