Edward VI was only nine when he succeeded his father Henry VIII in 1547. During his six-year reign a Regency Council carried on the government of the country, under which the Protestant party consolidated its position, and the Book of Common Prayer was introduced. Edward suffered badly from ill-health and died of consumption in 1553.

This is closely based on a portrait by Holbein, now at Windsor Castle: only the legs have been added

You have never seen in the world for these thousand years so much erudition united with piety and sweetness of disposition. Should he live and grow up with these virtues, he will be a terror to all the sovereigns of the earth.
- Bishop Hooper of Gloucester.

Additional Information on
Edward VI (b.1537 r.1547-1553)

Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII, was only nine years of age when he ascended the throne in 1547. Because of this, the government was to be managed by a group of Lords called the Regency Council during Edward's six year reign, but in fact the Duke of Somerset, Edward's uncle, bribed the other council members to put him in charge under the title Lord Protector (from 1550 the Earl of Northumberland took over this role). Under their guidance the Reformation in England was consolidated - Catholic mass was declared illegal and a new book of common prayer was introduced.

Unfortunately, unlike his father, Edward was a small, pale child who suffered from extremely poor health for much of his life and in 1552 he caught tuberculosis, dying from it the following year.

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