The Tudor Queens

The young King Edward VI resembled the late Prince Arthur, the uncle he had never known, more than he did his own father. Studious, thoughtful, and idealistic, especially in matters of religion, he understood from the start the gravity of his role in life with a thoroughness that belied his age of just nine years. Less fortuitously, his earthly shell was frail and sickly, again more like that of his uncle than his father. King Edward VI, as probably painted by William Scrots. (Public Domain) He took as his Lord Protector another uncle, this time from his mother’s side. Edward Seymour, who was now made Duke of Somerset in addition to his other new title, was a far more committed Protestant than Henry VIII had ever been. The same could be said of King Edward himself. Together, the two Edwards worked to complete the transformation that Henry had begun. By order of the king, church services were now to be conducted in English rather than Latin; the concept of Purgatory was abolished, and…