The Forgotten Tudor Boy King Edward VI | The Unknown Tudors | Absolute History

[Music] this is the story of an England that never was radical militarized and truly Protestant and of the king who tried to take us there his quest to change England was to tear apart his family and his country to set brother against sister and church against people his name was Edward and he inherited the throne when he was only nine [Music] 25 years King Henry the eighth's had been trying to father a male heir finally after three wives and two daughters he had succeeded and Queen Jane Seymour gave birth to a son the country rejoiced on the 12th of October 1537 Eduardo's born here at Hampton Court three days later the baby was christened the gallery's chambers and halls of the palace were hung with tapestry the baby was carried in procession through them all the splendour and magnificence of the Tudor Court was there there were drums and trumpets harrell's and lords and ladies walking after the baby sharing in the triumph was the Midwife who had delivered him the wet nurse who was suckling him the christening itself took place on a high platform in the center of the chapel the font was of silver lined with soft linen and filled with warmed water and there under a canopy of cloth of gold the baby was christened Edward and the heralds proclaimed his titles Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester son and heir of the right high mighty and victorious Prince Henry [Music] but then tragedy struck the birth had been a long and difficult one at first Queen Jane seemed to recover then she caught portal fever within a week of the christening she was dead it would be easy to exaggerate the emotional impact on Edward of his mother's death at such an early age even when their mothers were alive royal babies especially boys wouldn't normally spend much time with them moreover there were many substitutes on which Edwards affections could fix Edwards infant years was spent amongst the women like any other tutor boy accounts of the time described Edward as both Mary and pretty a promising future King loved and spoiled by his father on his infrequent visits but looked after by his devoted nurses he was moved between the various royal residences but spent much time in a house in Hartford where for a while both his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth lived with him in a strange game of happy families [Music] this picture was painted in 1544 when Edward was 6 years old it's normally called the family of Henry the eighth but it's not about family in the modern sense in which relationships are about love and affection instead its dynasty in which relationships are about power that's why in the middle so much bigger than everybody else is there the King Henry the eighth's next to him is the Queen but it's not the actual Queen of 1544 instead it's Jane Seymour she's long dead but she shone next to Henry because she's the mother of Edward the air and he is on his Father's right hand snuggling up to him not out of affection but to symbolize that he's a successor on either side are Edward's two half sisters Mary is the daughter of Henry's first wife Catherine of Aragon elizabeth is the daughter of Henry's second wife and belen Mary and Elizabeth were declared bastards when their mothers were divorced but the appear in this picture because Henry had decided once more to include them in the succession and to do it moreover by Act of Parliament this laid down that the air was first Edward if he died without heirs second Mary and if she died without heirs third Elizabeth the seeds of more than a decade of trouble was so remarkably edward has left us his own account of the turbulent years of his childhood written as if he were a character in his own drama our Lord 15:37 to Prince Paul to King Harry yes by Jane Seymour then Queen when he was six Edward was brought back here to Hampton Court to begin his education the ambition and scope of which he faithfully recorded the learning of tongues if the scripture of philosophy and all liberal sciences he'd already learned of course to read and write in English but now the serious business of teaching him Latin got underway his tutor was dr. Richard Cox Cox was an able man but he was also arrogant and dogmatic and it's clear that the early encounters between Cox and Edward were bruising affairs literally so because Cox did not spare the birch on his princely pupil thus overcoming his captain will as he described it but perhaps most importantly Richard Cox was a Protestant as were all of Edwards later tutors and this was the faith which Edward himself was passionately to adopt all across Europe Protestantism was spreading from its original heartland in Germany it was more than just a different form of church service it represented a different way of seeing and experiencing the world we still have many of Edwards school romp essays which show us just how much influence is tutors Protestantism and their hatred of the Pope had on the young prince this for instance is the draft of Edwards French treatise against the papal supremacy the subject on which Edward felt and expressed himself very strongly so much so indeed that at times is Tudor Jean Belmar feels obliged to tone his language down that's for example in this passage here in which Edward describes the torments inflicted by the Pope on the faithful to show his identification with the faithful throughout Edward refers to them as new we this is too much for a bellman he crosses out the we and replaces it with a is more impersonal more royal Edward dutifully incorporates the changes into the next draft of the treatise but I think it rather went against the grain because in the fullness of time Edward was to show that he was prepared to be just as radical in practice as he'd been here at first on paper [Music] On January the 28th 1547 King Henry the eighth's died when Edward and his sister Elizabeth were told they both worked England had lost a king an Edward that lost a father for the small boy Henry must have seemed a lot to live up to from the earliest moments of his consciousness Edward would have known that he was the son of a great man nowadays we don't think of Henry as Henry the great but that is how he was presented at the time and certainly how he will have been presented to his son the first portrait of Edward painted when he was only 18 months old has underneath it some Latin verse the essence of which is the exhortation to Edward to try and be like your father these words would have been dimmed into him at every stage but even as the Kings goldsmith was creating a miniature crown to fit on the boy Kings head Edwards position was becoming more awkward Henry had left explicit instructions for a council to rule collectively on his son's behalf until he was old enough to take control but in the few days after his father's death the arrangements unraveled as the councilors scrambled for power one man emerged triumphant it was uncle Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset his ambition was to cast a long shadow over Edwards reign [Music] Edwards coronation officiated over by the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was controversial to it heralded the start of a religious conflict that would lead to rebellion against the crown when Edward came here to Westminster Abbey to be crowned king of England France and Ireland he was only nine years old he wasn't the youngest person to be crowned King nevertheless his was the most extraordinary coronation in English history before the high altar here the Archbishop of Canterbury first anointed and crowned then he delivered a sermon which undercut the whole meaning of the service it was a fitting start to what was to be a radical reign all things being prepared for the coronation the king came to the Palace of Westminster then he was crowned king of England France and Ireland and so is brought to the Hall to dinner very sat with the crown on his head naturally Edward neither recognized nor recorded what was really new and remarkable about his coronation service that is that it was a sustained attack on the Church of England as then constituted it was Cranmer's own sermon that struck the heaviest blows nothing that the church could do he told the startled congregation neither the anointing nor the coronation could add anything to Edward's intrinsic power instead Edward's power came directly from God and he was answerable for exercise only to God and that power was given to him for a single purpose to reform and to purify the Church of England [Music] despite the revolution of his father's reign in which the Kings Authority had replaced that of the Pope religious life in the typical English parish church had changed relatively little there was still the old services in the old language Latin and everywhere there was the color the light the sounds the smells of the imagery of the old religion there were daily painted pictures of saints on the woodwork the walls and in the stained glass of the windows and above all and dominating everything there was the ruled high on its screen in the center there was the image of the suffering Christ crucified on his right hand his grieving mother the Virgin on his left John the beloved apostle when Edward came to the throne a handful of parishes in religiously radical areas like London began to destroy all this after short hesitation brought about by fears for public order the government decided to make the destruction official the pictures were painted over the stained glass was smashed the candles were extinguished and even the Rood itself the image of the suffering Christ was torn down burned and replaced by Edwards royal arms [Music] as a Protestant Edward was in full accord with these reforms but his own life was far removed from the realities of the world outside he remains safe in the Royal Palaces study riding and playing with his best friend Barnaby Fitzpatrick who had been brought up with him since they both aged six [Music] when they were apart Edward would write to Barnaby in the warmest of turns urging him to write more often and assuring him that Edward was the gladder the oftener I hear from you it was to be the closest friendship of Edwards life for the moment Edward was only the figurehead at the center of the court the real power lay in the hands of his uncle the Duke of Somerset the man who now ruled as his Lord Protector and who kept Edward carefully under control as the problems of government washed around them it was Somerset who made the decisions and often in his own interests while Edward continued to study and play his money and his power were controlled by his uncle Somerset did not even allow the king any pocket money [Applause] Somerset's tanginess provided an opportunity for Edwards other younger uncle Lord Sood Lee he tried to usurp his brother's place by slipping coins to the young king this was behavior that Somerset could not tolerate Sood Lee was condemned for treason and was beheaded of instigation of his own brother [Music] it would recorded the event in typical deadpan style there was a notable disputation of the sacrament in the parliaments house also the Lord sued Lee was condemned to death that died the March ensuing Edward was becoming inure to loss but Somerset's power was coming into an end in 1549 the government introduced a new prayer while its theology was hardly radical his language was it was in English not in the familiar Latin this was enough to lead to rebellion the uprising started in the western counties and the rebels burned the prayer-book [Music] overrun enslave them then they rose in Sussex Hampshire Kent Gloucestershire [Music] Edouard followed the progress of the revolts day by day in his chronicle there's no sign that he understood the causes which had driven his people to revolt much less that he sympathized with them instead he treated the story of the suppression of the revolts as a set of military exercises in siege warfare in ambushes he was particularly excited when 900 of the rebels were massacred in a single day but at the beginning of October there's a sudden change of tone in his Chronicle in the meantime in England arose great stirs likely to increase much if it had not been well foreseen because the troubles had shifted they were no longer out there in the Shires of England instead they'd come to the heart of the palace they were in the council chamber they'd even penetrated into the inner sanctum of Edward's own private apartments and when the troubles began the king was here at Hampton Court Somerset had seemed hesitant even sympathetic to the rebels and the council turned against him fearing a coup Somerset made a rush and desperate decision on October the 6th 1549 he dragged Edward out of bed and took the king with him to the fortified castle of Windsor [Music] this was the night on which Edward would grow up from boy to king [Music] commanded the armor to be bought out of the armory at Hampton Court and people to be raised that night with all the people at nine or 10 o'clock at night I went to Windsor and there was watching ward kept every night Somerset hoped that his position would be unassailable now that he had Edward secured inside the massive walls of the keep at Windsor Castle for centuries winds had been a stronghold of the English cleaners and it was still well maintained against possible attack but Somerset had completely underestimated Edward himself the young King was outraged by his uncle's actions he soon made it clear that he was very unhappy he exaggerated the symptoms of the coal that he'd caught on the night ride from Hampton Court and he complained vociferous Lee about the quality of his accommodation it was damp there were no galleries or Gardens to walk in with any other twelve-year-old it would have been a bad case of the songs with Edward it was a signal that the royal favor on which the power of all tudor ministers depended even during a minority had been withdrawn faced with Edwards hostility and the arm strength of the other councillors Somerset lost his nerve and surrendered while Edward returned to Hampton Court Somerset was taken to the tower there he was interrogated and confessed to 29 charges of treason two years later he would be dead a fate which Edward regarded with between eight and nine o'clock in the morning why had Edward turned so decisively against his uncle in his chronicle he carefully notes down the official charges false ambition vainglory entering into rush wars enriching himself of my treasure following his own opinion and doing all by his own authority for Edward this last was the real nub of the matter he was already profoundly irritated with Somerset for continuing to treat him as a child but dragging him to Windsor was the last straw I am the prisoner the King said no Tudor would ever put up with that [Music] by 1550 Edward was 13 years old and ready to begin to step into his father's shoes Somerset had no successor as protector instead a council ruled in the King's name and increasingly at his direction for Edward was mature and driven far beyond his years he was cold too and the coolness with which he recorded both his uncle's executions and become second nature to him for a king he knew was not there for sentiment but as the direct agent of God's purpose but as Edward reached out for this god-given God driven kingship the force of his convictions led him into confrontation with his elder half-sister Mary [Music] since their father's death Mary had stayed well away from court living quietly on the estate she had been given in East Anglia she was now in her thirties unmarried and frequently ill but she could not be ignored since as heir to the throne she was a powerful figurehead for any opposition and what divided headward and Mary was religion in particular the prayer book of 1549 which Edward had so warmly endorsed the people of the western counties had already risen in revolt against the religious changes imposed by the prayer book was Edward's own sister about to do the same Mary was a devout Catholic who refused to give up saying her beloved Latin prayers and rituals even though they were now illegal it would object it to her behavior on religious grounds but also for more pragmatic reasons if Mary were allowed to continue practicing her faith she would act as a focus for further resistance and rebellion the struggle between Edward and Mary commenced in the spring of 1550 and it was Mary side who made the first move a powerful cousin the emperor charles v sent embassadors to london to ask edward and the Privy Council if she could be exempted from the new legislation ideally she will be given permission formally and by letters patent to continue to hear the mass both her and also for the members of her household the council listened to the demand courteously but Edward's own mind was closed April 1550 the emperor's ambassador desired leave by letters patent that my Lady Mary might have leaved to same mass it was denied him The Chronicle shows just how central the young king was to his own government it's what he saw what he heard what he himself actually discovered it's often the very best account of the political events of the reign but sadly the Chronicle is not a confidential diary and he tells us very little of Edwards private thoughts instead he's very matter-of-fact he was writing to record what he thought was important the political events the battles the details of debts and trade not to hold up an emotional mirror to himself what does come across very clearly however is the strength of Edwards feelings about his sister's persistent Catholicism and the strength of his support for a full-blooded Protestant reform of the church [Music] The Chronicle is full of details about such reforms the removal of altars the abolition of Saints days the destruction idolatrous images the whole face of English Christianity was changing beyond recognition Mary now decided that life in Edwards Protestant England was intolerable and she asked the Emperor for help to flee abroad Charles sent a squadron of ships and a clandestine meeting took place in an Essex country churchyard between Mary's envoi and the Imperial commander Edward was outraged that his sister's defiance and his loyalty he followed eagerly the English countermeasures troops were sent to cut Mary off by land and ships to intercept the Imperial fleet but it was as much Mary's own hesitations as the actions of the English that led her to abandon the scheme brother and sister would now have to fight it out at home the crux of the argument between Edward and Mary was over the mass a central sacrament that separates Protestant from Catholic Mary might be prepared to stay England but she was not prepared to give up hearing the mass Edward was not prepared to let matters rest he ordered that Mary's chaplains should be taken away from and then he commanded her to come to see him in London reconciliation how now I could not bear it she answered that her soul was God's and her faith she would not change nor dissemble her opinions with contry doings it was said I c'n strains not her faith but willed her not as a king to rule that has a subject to obey and that her example might breathe too much inconvenience assume omnipotent but Edwards fury at his sister had little effect she continued to celebrate Mass even though several of her chaplains languished in the town but Mary herself was safe she was Edwards legal heir at the end Edward could not touch her 18 months later came Edwards most decisive move towards a truly Protestant England this is the prayer book of 1550 - written and compiled by Edwards mentor Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Edwards coronation the archbishop had told the young king that he was to be a second Josiah whose Duty it was to bring a reformed Protestant faith to England and to abolish idolatry and Catholicism this the second prayer book is the greatest single step to the achievement of that goal of a Protestant England gone were the halfway houses the compromises and the fudges of the prayer book of 1549 in the text of the communion service for instance in 1549 there are two crosses these represent the making of the cross by the priests and it allowed the people to believe that the old catholic miracle of transforming the bread and the wine into the actual body and blood of Christ was still taking place in 1552 those crosses have gone there's no question of the Catholic sacrifice instead there is the pure unadulterated Word of God taken eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy heart by faith with Thanksgiving a whole world of Catholic religiosity is dead and between the covers of this book a new Protestant England Edwards England is born within the next two months Edward himself would set off to inspect his Inn [Music] at 14 Edward might be a king but he was still a boy he loved games and competition and he loved to win recording the details of victories and defeats faithful in his chronicle I lost the challenge of shooting it rounds and won at rovers Barnaby Fitzpatrick remained his most favored companion [Music] above all he enjoyed hunting when Barnaby went abroad to France it would root him some telling if rather pompous advice for women as for fourth you may avoid their company you may sometimes dance but apply yourself to riding hunting such honest games [Music] in the summer of 1552 Edward got his own chance to see a little more of the world this is the ancient highway between Salisbury and Wilton almost certainly Edward and his party would have ridden along this road on the summer progress of 1550 - the progress was when the king and court abandoned the heat stench and disease of summertime London for the country the king would stay for a few days at a time in the houses of his aristocratic courtiers hunting their parks and being wined and dined but for Edward it was his first real opportunity to see and to be seen he was determined to make the most of it when Edward set off on his progress he was accompanied by nearly 4,000 men all mounted within days most of them were sent back to London because there were far too many defeat Edward Roode on with a more intimate group [Music] this was his first chance to inspect England his England the country had ruled for five years and had begun to make truly Protestant it was also a chance to think on his and his country's future and their past like many of the houses that Edward had stayed in during the progress Motta's font is a former abbey 20 years before it was father Henry the eighth's dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their land and buildings the land had been sold off to aristocratic families who'd often converted the buildings into fine stately homes as here and behind me you can actually see bits of the Gothic arches of the former a be roughly incorporated into the masonry of the present house the site was so common that Edward probably never even noticed it and if he did he would have thought simply good riddance to bad papist rubbish in any case he had other things on his mind among them was that most central of all subjects money Edward was accompanied by the Privy Council and the royal cash reserves which were carried in a couple of coffers of chests and the Ches weren't very big because the incompetence and corruption of Edwards Council that nearly destroyed the royal finances Edward who like all the Tudors was interested in money was distressed at this near bankruptcy he worried about it he tried to work out what to do how to rescue the position Edward was directly involved in the management of money during the progress because poverty had reduced his government to the meanest kind of penny-pinching just before they left London for example his former stepmother and of Cleves had been told that she couldn't have her allowance paid Edward had a very powerful sense of honour so it was humiliating for him to be so poor especially when his father had been so rich indeed one of the purposes of the progress from Edwards point of view was that it gave him the chance to show that he could live up to even improve upon his father's legacy the beginning of August the Royal party came down to the south coast at Portsmouth Henry the eighth's had turned this whole area the Isle of Wight the great arc of the Solent into a huge naval military complex of dock yards and fortifications his son Edward came viewed his father's work with a cool and expert eye first to be inspected was South Sea Castle here this was one of the most modern and up-to-date of Henry the eighth's fortifications nevertheless Edward suggested a few minor improvements then he turned his attention to Portsmouth itself about half a mile up the coast there he infused about the harbour superb a mile long and able to take the greatest ships in Christendom it was less enthusiastic though about the 2/4 which protected the camber the narrow interest of a harbor these were ill built old fashioned and wrongly cited he ordered them to be reconstructed forthwith what Edward had seen at this stage of the progress gave him confidence confidence to set the agenda literally because when he got back to London and drew up an action list his government item number one was the fortification of Portsmouth and Edwards to-do list was becoming extensive he'd already drawn up detailed plans for the creation of an English textile model to rival that of Antwerp as well as writing a long treatise on the further reform of the church soon he would devise a scheme to make the Privy Council more efficient Edward was a great moderniser he believed in planning central control and efficiency but the progress also shows he was quite capable of pleasure he'd written a kind of report on the progress to his friend Barnaby Fitzpatrick who was on seconded to the armies of the French King Henry the second in its own quiet way the letter is one of the most revealing documents about Edwards character it shows above all that he was capable of enjoying himself he'd enjoyed the hunting the fine food the handsome houses that he'd stayed in and above all the beautiful English countryside through which he passed indeed there's more than a note of little Englander complacency and isolationism about this letter Edward had seen his England and he'd seen that it was good moreover unlike the French king he told Barnaby he wasn't interested in laying waste the territories of his friends and neighbors he was only concerned to fortify and to defend his own this England [Music] there is little left today of Edwards England cadre house where once he was subtly banqueted beneath vivid wall paintings showing his father's victories over the French has long been a ruin but one can still see the traces of its splendor and imagine the optimism with which Edward planned his and England's future Edward was tremendously ambitious if he had been able to do what he wanted to then England would have been the truly different place it would have been militarized with a vast standing army and a network of efficient fortifications he would have begun to centralize the economy planning markets and investing in industry in a way that didn't happen in Europe for at least another century he would have created an England of extreme religion a puritanical religion that would have been rigorously enforced and policed in short he would have created the modern Protestant state more akin to what happened in Prussia or Sweden than anything we now associate with England but none of this was to be it would return to London for the progress fit and well but in February he started to cough by March he looked very weak and thin by April he was vomiting blood and black and greenish matter he had what doctors would now diagnose as a suppurating pulmonary infection then they called it a consumption and they could do nothing about it [Music] the fate of Protestant England was slipping out of Edwards grasp [Music] Edward knew that he was dangerously ill perhaps even that he was dying so his thoughts naturally turned to the succession by law that is by his father's will sanctioned by Act of Parliament his successors were first his half-sister Mary and second his other half-sister Elizabeth but Mary was Catholic if she were to succeed it would undo everything the whole Protestant achievement of Edwards reign so Mary had to go Elizabeth on the other hand was Protestant but equally she was resolutely committed to the principles of legitimacy and legality she would never agree simply to be substituted for Mary this meant that Elizabeth had to go as well so who was Edwards heir the young king's own answer to this question is contained in this document here it's got the rather Adrian Mole like title of my device for the succession and it's written in the unformed hand of a 15 year old boy but the mine behind it is entirely adult and mature if Edwards half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth were to be excluded from the succession then the obvious heirs were the descendants of his aunt Mary but these were all women her daughter Frances and her eldest granddaughter Jane Grey but Edward is a good Protestant disapproved of women rulers so he doesn't leave the crown to Francis and Jane instead he leaves it to their sons there as males but the production of sons takes time at least nine months and at some point after the drafting of this document Edward discovers that he doesn't have time he's dying so very quickly and with the minimum change he alters his device the Lady Jane's as males becomes by removing an S and adding and her over a karat it becomes the Lady Jane and her heirs male with three strokes of the pen the dying boy had made Jane Grey heir of England in the last days of his life a dude himself bullied and cajoled members of the Privy Council into endorsing his will he died on July the 6th 15:53 in the faith in which he had been educated his last words were a prayer in English of his own devising and words death was kept secret even from his sisters there were no last farewells for nothing must get in the way of his scheme to say Protestant ink but it was all to be in vain [Music] despite the dying Edwards heroic efforts of will his scheme for the succession failed for Edward preserving Protestantism was all that mattered but the English decided differently they wanted a real Tudor as the next monarch and for that they were prepared for anything even the Edwards worst nightmare a return to Catholic England next week the story of Edwards sister Mary driven by her own burning faith she condemned hundreds of Protestants to burn at the stake queen of a divided country her own life was one of love and loss trusts betray [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

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Keywords: history history documentary funny history fun history school, timeline, bloody mary, henry viii, the tudors, edward vi, mary i, absolute history, full length documentaries, history documentary, documentary history

Id: On89_g0qXKw

Length: 48min 29sec (2909 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2019