The struggle for the soul of England after the death of Henry VIII
In the death of Henry VIII, the crown passed to his nine-year-old
son, Edward. However, real power went to the Protector, Edward's
uncle, the Duke of Somerset. The court had been a hotbed of
intrigue since the last days of Henry VIII. Without an adult
monarch, the stakes were even higher. The first challenger was the
duke's own brother: he seduced Henry VIII's former queen, Katherine
Parr; having married her, he pursued Princess Elizabeth and later
was accused of trying to kidnap the boy king at gunpoint. He was
beheaded. Somerset ultimately met the same fate, after a coup
d'etat organized by the Duke of Warwick. Chris Skidmore reveals how
the countrywide rebellions of 1549 were orchestrated by the
plotters at court and were all connected to the (literally) burning
issue of religion: Henry VIII had left England in religious limbo.
Court intrigue, deceit and treason very nearly plunged the country
into civil war. Edward was a precocious child, as his letters in
French and Latin demonstrate. He kept a secret diary, written
partly in Greek, which few of his courtiers could read. In 1551, at
the age of 14, he took part in his first jousting tournament, an
essential demonstration of physical prowess in a very physical age.
Within a year it is his signature we find at the bottom of the
Council minutes, yet in early 1553 he contracted a chest infection
and later died, rumours circulating that he might have been
poisoned. Mary, Edward's eldest sister, and devoted Catholic, was
proclaimed Queen. This is more than just a story of bloodthirsty
power struggles, but how the Church moved so far along Protestant
lines that Mary would be unable to turn the clock back. It is also
the story of a boy born to absolute power, whose own writings and
letters offer a compelling picture of a life full of promise, but
tragically cut short.
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