Edward VI Coins

King Edward VI History

Edward VI was the son of 46-year-old King Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour. He was not Henry's first son, but that child died in early infancy and Henry's other living son was illegitimate.

Henry VIII had two daughters aside Edward; Mary and Elizabeth. The Tudors were the only Welsh family to rule England, and the shortest house to reign. Their spectacular history, filled with marriage and divorce, wars, and the feud for the throne, has left them as one of the most well-known royal families in history.

Edward VI Religion

Edward the 6th was the first English monarch to be raised Protestant, following on from the Church of England's takeover during the reign of Henry VIII. He was educated as a child in matters regarding Catholicism and Protestantism, but concluded that there were many flaws with the Roman Catholic church and pushed for Protestantism to be the default English religion. In 1549, he introduced the Book of Common Prayer.

Edward VI Death

King Edward took ill in January 1553, developing a cough and a fever. History remembers Edward as a sickly child, but in reality he was very rarely ill. During his early years he had Quartan Fever briefly - a form of Malaria - but it wasn't until 1552 that anything significant occurred. At this point the King fought off a bout of Measles and Smallpox, but the result is the belief that his immune system was now compromised.

In 1553, Edward the Sixth's illness progressed rapidly, with the King dying after five months of illness. Many historians believe the testimony of the Venetian Ambassador at the time, who told the public that the illness had been Tuberculosis, though the late historian Jennifer Loach argues that Edward suffered from an acute case of Bronchopneumonia, which in turn caused a lung abscess and Septicaemia - blood poisoning.