King Edward VI
King Edward VI was a child when his father, Henry VIII died. He had been a much sought after heir to the Tudor throne and expectations were high when Edward VI was crowned. It was hoped that the new King would enjoy a long and successful reign, resolving the religious problems of the day. King Edward VI died long before any of these expectations could be met. Indeed, Edward never ruled the country himself, his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, governed as regent as Edward was so young.
Protestant Reformation
Edward’s mother had been Jane Seymour, she died shortly after he was born and so Edward was brought up in the royal household alongside his older sister, Elizabeth. King Edward VI was brought up in a protestant household. His uncle had great hopes of ensuring the dominance of the new protestant religion. This was in stark contrast to his sisters, Mary being a devout Catholic as a result of her mother being Spanish. Edward’s brief reign as King of England ended when, at the age of just 15, he died of Tuberculosis. His reign had seen the spread of religious disharmony and the beginnings of the persecution of the Catholics: although non of these were directly his doing.
The Tudors
People
King Henry VII – King Henry VIII – King Edward VI – Queen Mary I [Bloody Mary]– Queen Elizabeth I – Anne Boleyn – Mary Boleyn – Sir Walter Raleigh – Sir Francis Drake – William Shakespeare – Margaret Beaufort – Lambert Simnel
Events
The Wars of the Roses – Battle of Bosworth – Battle of Stoke Field – Protestant Reformation – Spanish Armada
The Elizabethan Age
England in 1588: Society and Government – Elizabethan Religious Settlement – Challenges to the Religious Settlement – Mary Queen of Scots – Plots and Rebellions in the Elizabethan Age – Anglo-Spanish Relations in the Elizabethan Age – How did the English defeat the Spanish Armada?– Education, Culture and Leisure – Elizabethan Poor Law – Voyages of Discovery – Sir Walter Raleigh and the Roanoke and the Virginia Colony