King Edward VI Edward 4 Author Rachel Armstrong Supervising Editor Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Rachel Armstrong, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Education Humanism Published file. Updated metadata proofed Review of article finished. updated author respStmt. swapped the desc and figDescs to be correct. added image citation and figure. Fixed capitalization in source titles. Created File. Rachel Armstrong Rachel Armstrong

Rachel Armstrong was a student at Utah Valley University.

 Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
Portrait of Edward VI of England, c, 1552, wearing a gown lined in fur over a crimson doublet with the collar of the Order of the Garter and holding a Bible. Courtesy of Wikimedia. {{PD-US}}.
Birth

Edward Tudor, the only son of Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour, was born October 12, 1537, in Hampton Court Palace. Edward’s birth led to great celebration, as he was the 46-year-old King’s only legitimate and long-awaited son. His mother was Jane Seymour, King Henry VIII’s third wife. His mother died 12 days after his birth from complications of childbirth. He had two older half-sisters: Mary, his sister from his father’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth, from his father’s second wife, Anne Boleyn.

Care and Education

Due to the king’s intense desire to have a surviving male heir, young Edward was kept in relative seclusion from the court in an effort to prevent illness. Other than one severe bout of illness at age four, probably from malaria, and having poor eyesight, Edward was generally healthy. As he grew, he enjoyed hunting and was quite athletic. He received a robust humanist education and enjoyed learning. By age seven, Edward was reading Erasmus’s edition of Aesop in Latin. Many of his letters and diaries survive, revealing his strong personality. His tutors were all of the reformed Protestant faith, which strongly influenced Edward, who showed great stubbornness and great piety.

Child King

At age nine, Edward succeeded his father as King when Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547. About a month after Henry VIII’s death, Edward was crowned following a spectacular five-hour procession through London to Westminster Abbey in a doublet of white velvet with cloth of silver and gold, patterned with knots of diamonds and pearls.

Prior to his death, Henry VIII created a Council of Regency to rule until Edward came of age. The young king’s uncle, Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, held supreme power as Lord Protector within the council and made decisions in Edward’s name. Power struggles inevitably ensued, and Edward Seymour was overthrown by John Dudley, earl of Warwick and duke of Northumberland, also of the Council of Regency, in 1549. Northumberland himself fell from power in 1553. Both men were eventually executed, and Edward VI is said to have watched both executions without much emotion.

Protestant Reforms

Members of the Council of Regency were all advocates for the Protestant Reformation of England that began with King Henry VIII. Protestantism became even more firmly rooted in England during the reign of Edward VI. Under the Council’s direction, the Church of England implemented a Book of Common Prayer in 1549 to make a uniform worship service in English.

Under the influence of Archbishop Thomas Cramer, Edward VI and his Council also oversaw the purifying of the Church of England of many of its medieval Catholic remnants, particularly the visual ones in churches that appeared in stone, wood, and glass. Stained glass windows were removed, frescoes painted over, and many statues of saints were literally defaced (with noses knocked off) or removed entirely. Other cultural aspects of English life also were discontinued or discouraged, including religious pageants on holy days, the performance of mystery plays, and more pagan or folk celebration such as maypoles. This series of changes and pressures continued into the 17th century as Puritanism gained influence.

Illness and Death

In February 1553, the 15 year-old, unmarried Edward VI contracted an upper-respiratory infection that progressively got worse. In June, physicians determined that his illness was chronic and historians believe it may have been tuberculosis. With the next successor to the throne being his half-sister, Mary, who remained a staunch Catholic, the Council of Regency sought a more suitable, Protestant option to rule England. Influenced by the Council, Edward VI drafted a convoluted succession plan that changed his will and disinherited both of his purportedly illegitimate half-sisters to keep them from the throne, instead favoring Lady Jane Grey, who was the great-granddaugter of King Henry VII.

Edward VI died on July 6, 1553, at the age of 15. Days later, the Lord Protector John Dudley appointed his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, as the Queen of England; however, she was overthrown the next month after a rule of only nine days due to the overwhelming support for Edward’s half-sister Mary, who became Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland.

Key Print Sources Guy, J.A. The Children of Henry VIII. Oxford University Press, 2013. Hoak, Dale. Edward VI (1537–1553), king of England and Ireland. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 29 May 2014. Loach, Jennifer. Edward VI. Yale University Press, 1999.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. A Child King: Edward VI. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/history/henry%20VIII/edwardvi.html. Accessed 10 Nov. 2018. Edward VI (1537–1553). BBC History, Accessed 10 Nov. 2018, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_vi_king.shtml. Accessed 10 Nov. 2018. Morrill, John S. Edward VI: King of England and Ireland. Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://britannica.com/biography/Edward-VI. Accessed 10 Nov. 2018.
Image Source Scrots, William, attributed to. Portrait of Edward VI of England. c. 1552. Wikimedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Circle_of_William_Scrots_Edward_VI_of_England.jpg.