3
Edward VI and Mary I
●●Edward VI, 1547–53
Edward VI became king in 1547 at the ripe
old age of nine, in succession to his father
Henry VIII. His reign was to last just six
years, but it witnessed great religious and
political change which then ushered in a
period of even greater religious turmoil as
his sister, ‘Bloody Mary’, undid the changes
of his reign.
Edward had been born in 1537, the longawaited son of Henry VIII and his third wife,
Jane Seymour. He was serious and studious,
well versed in Latin, Greek and French, and
often described as ‘old beyond his years’. His
father placed his education in the hands of
tutors who were sympathetic to the Protestant
ideas spreading across from Europe, ideas
which had been warmly embraced by Henry’s
close advisors such as Thomas Cromwell, but
which he himself had rejected.
On his accession, Edward was too young
to rule himself, and so a Regency Council
was appointed to exercise power on his
behalf. This council was initially controlled
■● Edward VI; from a portrait produced in the sixteenth
by Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour, the
century
Duke of Somerset, but later came under
the control of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, soon to be Duke of
Northumberland, who ousted Somerset and took the role of Lord
President of the Council in 1549.
●●Cranmer and the Protestant surge
Somerset and Northumberland were both keen Protestants who
favoured the religious changes that Cromwell had been embracing. No
sooner was Henry VIII dead than Somerset, who had been appointed
by Henry as Protector for the young Edward, set about dismantling
Catholicism. Many of the Catholic rituals and ceremonies that had
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Protestantism and John Calvin
been part of English life for centuries were banned. These included
such colourful occasions as the Corpus Christi processions, when
consecrated bread, which Catholics believed had been transformed into
the body of Christ, was carried through the streets in a special shrine.
The procession was accompanied by great celebrations, as was the St
George’s Day ceremony, when statues of St George and the dragon were
carried through the streets, watched by people dressed in costumes
and enjoying the drama and colour of the occasion. Gone, too, were
the Easter rituals of ‘creeping to the cross’ on Good Friday, and those of
the Easter sepulchre. There were many other such customs, part of the
very fabric of English life, which were now, quite suddenly, banned.
Somerset was also quick to set up an enquiry into the state of the
Church in England. Commissioners were sent out into every parish and
their findings led to the following, hastily drawn up measures:
Chantries Act in 1547 abolished chantries. These were chapels
to which people left money on the understanding that masses would
be said there after their death. People believed that the saying
of masses after death would speed up the process of freeing their
souls from Purgatory. The Chantries Act abolished the chantries, and
caused all their money and property to be handed over to the Crown.
● The Act of Uniformity in 1549 imposed a single, standard form of
worship across England, which everyone was obliged to follow.
For the first time, English, not Latin, was to be used as the
language of worship, and both bread and wine were to be given
during communion. A new Prayer Book was introduced, compiled
by Archbishop Cranmer. Notable in the 1549 Prayer Book was
the fact that Cranmer was rather vague on the crucial matter of
transubstantiation. He neither endorsed it nor wholly rejected it,
and some fervent Protestants were dissatisfied as a result.
● The
●●Protestantism and John Calvin
Cranmer had been introducing Protestant ideas into the English Church
which were essentially Lutheran. But the ideas of Martin Luther had
been taken further by a French Protestant called John Calvin. Calvin
was even more critical of the Catholic Church than Luther had been,
and encouraged Protestants to set up new churches. Calvin believed
in predestination, the idea that God decides who will go to Heaven
and who will go to Hell, before each person is born. Those chosen
for Heaven, ‘the elect’, can be recognised by their good behaviour;
those chosen for Hell, ‘the reprobate’, can be recognised by their bad
behaviour. Either way, no one needs the intervention of priests or
saints, and no one needs to buy indulgences.
The strict moral code of behaviour that Calvin encouraged included
wearing simple clothes, having short hair, avoiding music and games,
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closing down theatres, abandoning popular holiday activities such as
maypole dancing, removing all the ornaments and colourful decoration
from churches and much more besides. These ideas were developed
further by people called the Puritans (see Chapter 4) and would
certainly not have been tolerated by Henry VIII. And yet, his son was to
rule over a country that saw Calvinist ideas develop extremely rapidly.
●●1549: A year of rebellions
Edward faced two significant rebellions during his reign, both in
1549. The first of these seems to have been a direct response to the
religious changes introduced in the first two years of the reign. The
second was more to do with economic hardships.
The Western Rebellion
(April 1549)
Causes:
● People in Cornwall and Devon did not
like the imposition of Edward’s religious
changes.
● They objected in particular to the
Chantries Act and the new Prayer Book,
especially because it was in English.
● Concern about new taxes.
Kett’s Rebellion
(July 1549)
Causes:
Opposition to enclosure in East Anglia.
● High land rents.
● Loss of common fishing rights in rivers
and the sea.
●
3
Edward VI and Mary I
Events:
A force was gathered, led by Robert Kett.
The city of Norwich was captured by the
rebels.
Demands:
● Re-instatement of the Six Articles.
● Government troops were pushed back.
● Return to old Catholic forms of worship.
● Fresh troops led by the Earl of Warwick
defeated the rebels at the Battle of
● A delay in further religious changes.
Mousehold Heath. About 3000 of Kett’s
Events:
16 000 men were killed in the battle.
● Opponents marched on the city of Exeter
● Kett was captured and executed for
and besieged it.
treason on 7 December 1549.
● Government had no control over the area
for some two months.
● Protector Somerset sent Lord Russell to
remove the rebels.
● Several small battles resulted and the rebels
were scattered. 2500 people were killed.
●
●●The Prayer Book of 1552 and the Forty-Two Articles
Following the defeat of the Western Rebellion of 1549, and ignoring the
demands of the rebels for a return to the religion of Henry VIII’s later
years, Cranmer made further religious changes and introduced a revised
Prayer Book in 1552, known as the Book of Common Prayer, which was
more Protestant than the first (for example, it removed the concept of
transubstantiation), and was very close to the views of Calvin.
In 1553, he then published his Forty-Two Articles, written ‘for
the avoiding of controversy in opinions’ and which showed clearly
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●●The end of the reign
As a teenager, Edward’s health declined and when in the spring of 1552
he caught first measles and then smallpox, there were fears for his life.
He recovered, but then succumbed to tuberculosis and died in 1553.
The Book of Common
Prayer is still used, in
a modified form, today.
It is responsible for
many phrases that have
found their way into
everyday English. Can
you find out what some
of them are?
The end of the reign
how much Protestant ideas now dominated the teachings of the Church
of England. It was made compulsory for all clergy, schoolmasters and
students at the universities to subscribe to these articles.
Exercise 3.1
Write a few sentences on each of the following:
1 The Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland
2 John Calvin
3 The Act of Uniformity of 1549
4 The Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552
Exercise 3.2
SOURCE A: The allegorical painting of Edward VI below represents the triumph of
Protestantism over the Catholic Church. The painting, produced around 1570, shows:
in his bed, the dying Henry VIII; Edward VI sitting on the throne; to his left, Protector
Somerset and the Privy Council; the Pope, with his head bent, in the foreground;
outside, reformers smashing statues of the saints and the Virgin Mary.
■■
Edward VI; a painting produced around 1570 by an anonymous artist
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SOURCE B: An extract from Edward VI’s journal for the year 1551, recording a visit
paid to him by his Catholic sister, Mary.
The lady Mary, my sister, came to me to Westminster, where after greetings she
was called with my council into a chamber where it was declared how long I
had suffered her mass, in hope of her reconciliation; and how now, there being
no hope as I saw by her letters, unless I saw some speedy amendment, I could
not bear it. She answered that her soul was God’s and her faith she would not
change, nor hide her opinion with dissembled doings.
SOURCE C: An extract from a 1551 letter to Edward VI from John Calvin, warning the
King against Catholic practices.
We must always observe the rule that there must be sobriety and moderation in
ceremonies, so that the light of the gospel be not obscured … For God does not
allow any one to sport with his name, mingling frivolities with his holy and sacred
works. Now there are many abuses which cannot be endured; for instance,
prayer for the dead, placing before God in our prayers the intercession of saints,
and adding their names to his in taking an oath. I doubt not, sire, that you have
been informed of these things: I implore you in the name of God to persevere,
so that everything may be restored to its proper integrity … God wishes to
commend highly those faithful princes who have restored and re-established the
purity of his service …
1 Look at Source A. What do you think the picture is trying to show?
2 Read Source B. How does it add to the picture of religious life under Edward
given in Source A?
3 Read Source C. What does it tell you about the religious teaching that Edward
received from his advisors?
4 Using all the sources and your own knowledge, how far had England become
Protestant at the end of Edward VI’s reign?
Exercise 3.3
First we will have the general council and holy decrees of our forefathers
observed, kept and performed, and who so ever shall gainsay them, we hold as
heretics.
2 Look at the table on page 34 setting out the details of the Western Rebellion
and Kett’s Rebellion. What similarities and differences are there between the
two rebellions of 1549?
3
Edward VI and Mary I
1 Look at the extract below, taken from the demands of the rebels in Devon and
Cornwall. Write a few sentences to explain what you can learn from this about
the reasons for the Western Rebellion in 1549.
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The death of Edward VI without an heir led to a period of political and
religious upheaval, the likes of which England had never seen before.
England, as we have seen, was by 1553 officially a Protestant country,
with an established Church which now ran counter to the teachings
of the Roman Catholic Church on a wide range of matters. The next in
line to the throne, however, in the absence of a suitable male heir, was
Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII and a fanatical Roman Catholic.
Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. As a
committed Roman Catholic, she had continued to practise her religion
under Edward, as we can see in Source B on page 36. Edward’s advisors,
notably Northumberland, were horrified at the prospect of having a
Roman Catholic monarch, and did what they could to avoid it. As Edward
lay on his deathbed, and with the assistance of Cranmer, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Northumberland persuaded the dying King to name as his
successor, not his Catholic sister Mary or his Protestant sister Elizabeth,
on the grounds that they were both illegitimate, but the Protestant Lady
Jane Grey. Jane was the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary and
the scheming Northumberland, while plotting to ensure that Jane was
named as Edward’s heir, had arranged for her to be married to his son,
Guildford Dudley.
However, despite the fact that she was Protestant, and Mary was
Catholic, Lady Jane Grey received little
support for her claim, and when Mary rode
into London in August 1553, she was greeted
as the rightful queen. The fifteen-year-old
Jane was arrested and locked up in the Tower
of London, together with her father and
husband. Her nine-day reign was at an end.
Mary I, 1553–58
●●Lady Jane Grey: the nine-day queen
Most chronologies do
not include Lady Jane
Grey as queen between
Edward VI and Mary
I. Why do you think
this is? Can you find
any other examples
of English ‘monarchs’
who are not generally
regarded as such?
●●Mary I, 1553–58
When Mary entered London in 1553 with
Elizabeth at her side, to be greeted by
cheering crowds, she believed that the
Protestant experiments of her father, and more
seriously her brother, were over. She believed
that her people, like her, resented the changes
that had been made to the religious life of
the country, and that they, like her, were keen
to restore Roman Catholicism in all its papal
glory. She was wrong.
Mary had not had a happy childhood. Her
father had divorced her Spanish mother,
Catherine of Aragon, when she was still a
■■ Mary I; a portrait produced in 1554 by Sir Anthonis Mor
van Dashorst (Antonio Moro)
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