Edward VI ___ 1537-1553 ___ British ___ sovereign

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Edward IV, the boy king, was the only legitimate son of Henry VIII. His mother Jane Seymour died 12 days after his birth in 1537. Edward became king when he was nine years old, and he ruled until his death of tuberculosis in 1553. He was a precocious child, and, while king, kept a brief and fairly dull 'Chronicle' of events. Among other things, it demonstrate his interest in bear baiting and his objections to the Catholic faith of his sister Mary. Despite Henry VIII's decree that at a council of regency should control the government, Edward Seymour, the Duke of Northumberland, Edward's father-in-law was the effective power behind the throne, and it was he who persuaded Edward to pass his crown on to Northumberland's daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. But it only took nine days before Mary took the throne, and she went on to restore the country to Catholicism.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1549-1552 ___ religious family royalty historyeye people childhood

WEB TEXT LINKS
extracts
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
British Library, Manuscript Collections

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Literary Remains of King Edward Sixth
England's Boy King: The diary of Edward VI, 1547-1553
 

May 2005, June 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.