One of the most tragic Tudor monarchs was Edward VI.
He was just a young boy when he came onto the throne, and his reign was marked by economic
problems and social unrest.
But he was the son of the notorious and brutal Henry VIII, and it was hoped that Edward would
carry the Tudor dynasty forward and that his descendants would rule over England for centuries
to come.
This did not happen, as at the age of 15 inside of Greenwich palace, Edward VI died after
suffering from a serious bout of illness.
Following his death, further turmoil would occur as the 9 day queen Lady Jane Grey came
onto the throne, but then she was ousted by Mary I, who went on to be known as Bloody
Mary I.
But Edward VI’s reign was one which was short-lived in the years following his father,
and it was dominated by Edward Seymour the Duke of Somerset and uncle of the King who
would later be executed for treason.
But after his death, Edward was interred inside of Westminster Abbey in a huge ceremony, however
his tomb would be broken into centuries later, and his coffin would be disturbed.
During January 1553, Edward VI became ill with a fever and a cough which got worse.
An ambassador reported, ‘he suffers a good deal when the fever is upon him, especially
from a difficulty in drawing his breath, which is due to the compression of the organs on
the right side.’
But he would live a number of months more, and many believed in May that he had recovered.
But in June his health went very downhill again, and he was said to have been suffering
with coughing up a ‘greenish, yellow and black sometimes pink,’ mucus from his lungs.
The doctors believed he was suffering from a tumour, and they believed that he was terminal
and that he would die from this.
The Imperial Ambassador described his condition in late May 1553 and said, ‘“The King
of England is wasting away daily, and there is no sign or likelihood of any improvement.
Some are of opinion that he may last two months more, but he cannot possibly live beyond that
time.
He cannot rest except by means of medicines and external applications; and his body has
begun to swell, especially his head and feet.
His hair is to be shaved off and plasters are going to be put on his head.
The illness is judged to be the same as that which killed the late Earl of Richmond.”
Those around him knew the situation was grave, and they drew up plans for the succession
that shockingly named Lady Jane Grey his cousin as the heir to the throne.
In early June, Edward did receive a number of visitors and he continued his education,
but then on the 11th June he was hit by a bout of very sever fever.
It was reported, ‘“Since the 11th, he has been unable to keep anything in his stomach,
so he lives entirely on restoratives and obtains hardly any repose.
His legs are swelling, and he has to lie flat on his back, whereas he was up a good deal
of the time (i.e. before the violent attack of the 11th).
They say it is hardly to be believed how much the King has changed since the 11th.”
8 days later, it was then written, ‘“The King of England has sunk so rapidly since
my last letter of the 15th, that the physicians no longer dare to answer for it that he will
last one day more.
His state is such that the King himself has given up hope, and says he feels so weak that
he can resist no longer, and that he is done for.’
The King Edward VI would make his final public appearance on the 1st July where he appeared
in the window of Greenwich Palace, and his gaunt and thin condition shocked the onlookers.
But within a week he would be dead.
Edward died at 8pm on the 6th July 1553, at Greenwich Palace, and it was reported his
last words were, ‘I am faint, lord have mercy upon me, and take my spirit.’
What is shocking is that the Tudor king that great hopes were pinned on lived for just
15 years, and there have been many throes that he suffered from the same illness that
his uncle Arthur Tudor would succumb to at a young age, or that he suffered from tuberculosis.
On the 8th August 1553, Edward VI was buried inside Henry VII’s Lady Chapel in Westminster
Abbey.
The funeral was described as, ‘“The 8th day of August was buried the noble king Edward
the vi, and 7th year of his reign; and at his burying was the greatest moan made for
him of his death as ever was heard or seen, both of all sorts of people, weeping and lamenting;
and first of all went a great company of children in their surplices, and clerks singing; and
then his father’s bedmen, and then 2 heralds and then a standard with a dragon, and then
a great number of his servants in black, and then another standard with a white greyhound,
and then after a great number of his officers and after them came more heralds, and then
a standard with the head officers of his house; and then heralds, Norroy bore the helmet and
the crest on horseback, and then his great banner of arms embroidered, and with diverse
other banners, and then came riding master Clarenceux with his target, with his garter,
and his sword, gorgeously and rich, and after Garter with his coat armour embroidered, and
then more heralds of arms; and then came the chariot with great horses trapped with velvet
to the ground, and every horse having a man on his back in black, and every one bearing
a banner-roll of diverse kings arms, and with escutcheons on their horses, and then the
chariot covered with cloth of gold, and on the chariot lay on a picture lying richly
with a crown of gold, and a great collar, and his sceptre in his hand, lying in his
robes and the garter about his leg, and a coat in embroidery of gold; about the corpse
were borne four banners, a banner of the order, another of the red rose, another of queen
Jane (Seymour), another of the queen’s mother.
After him went a goodly horse, covered with cloth of gold unto the ground, and the master
of the horse, with a man of arms in armour, which was offered, both the man and the horse.
There was set up a goodly hearse in Westminster abbey with banner rolls and hung with velvet
about.”
He was interred in the Lady Chapel close by where his grandparents would be buried inside
the heart of the beautiful and ornate part of Westminster Abbey.
It’s possible that at this point, this would have been the place where the future Kings
and Queens were buried, but Edward’s father Henry VIII was actually interred in Windsor
Castle, a distance from the centre of London in a vault alongside his third wife Jane Seymour.
Edward was buried close to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York his grandparents, and he would be
the second Tudor Monarch interred inside Westminster Abbey.
However, around 300 years after his burial, he was disturbed and his remains were moved
as the vault containing the boy Tudor king’s remains were opened.
Dean Arthur Stanley had obtained permission from Queen Victoria to conduct a thorough
search of Westminster Abbey, as he was looking for the remains of the Kings and Queens and
conducting a register of where they were buried.
In particular he was looking for the remains of King James I, the first Stuart monarch
that reigned after Elizabeth I the final Tudor Monarch and half sister of Edward VI.
He would spent much of his time searching for James, and he found his coffin next to
that of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, and the first Tudor monarch’s coffins had been
stripped off their wood to make way for James, and only their lead inner coffin remained.
However before Dean Stanley found this, he searched the tomb of Edward VI.
In an area directly west of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York’s monument, they dug down
and searched and they came across a ‘shallow vault containing one leaden coffin.’
It was described as looking as ‘rent and deformed as well as wasted by long corrosion
and perhaps by having been examined before.’
What Dean Stanley meant by this is that the lead coffin of Edward VI was badly corroded
and was also damaged.
He also speculated that it may have been broken in before by someone who was looking for something,
leading to the conclusion as to whether there was a grave robber inside of the Abbey, and
this wasn’t investigated.
The narrow vault Stanley broke into was right at the heart of the Lady Chapel, showing that
this coffin inside belonged to someone incredibly important.
He looked inside the vault and he saw the coffin was 7.5ft long and 2.5ft wide, and
that it was the only coffin inside.
Inside the vault was also something incredibly, the remains of the lost Torregiano altar which
was once place in front of the west end of the Henry VII and Elizabeth of York memorial
with their effigies on.
This altar was considered priceless at the time, and parts of it were found inside the
vault of Edward VI, to protect it from the hands of rebels during the English Civil war.
However what was curious about Edward VI’s vault was that someone had definitely been
in it before Stanley broke in during the 19th century.
There was some other debris there, and someone had been and in part cleared away the wooden
case of Edward VI’s coffin.
Also at the lower end of the vault was the original coffin plate which was loose and
not fastened to anything, and it had been ‘cured up.’
Once it was cleaned the coffin plate read, ‘Edward the sixth by the Grace of God King
of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and on earth under Christ supreme
head of the churches of England and Ireland and he migrated from this life on the 6th
day of July in the evening at the 8th hour in the year of our Lord 1553 and in the 7th
year of his reign and in the 16th year of his age.’
But with this, someone had been inside the vault, and had moved away the wooden outer
shell of his coffin, and also unfastened this memorial inscription to the Tudor boy king.
Edward VI is sometimes considered a forgotten Tudor Monarch, as despite his reign causing
a huge amount of chaos and turbulence with religion, it was a reign that was short-lived,
and Edward’s influence was rather minor as his power was dominated by the regency
council established for him and this itself was dominated by Edward Seymour and John Dudley
the Duke of Northumberland.
His insignificance in the eyes of many throughout the centuries is alluded to by the fact his
burial place was left unmarked up until 1966, when an inscribed stone was laid in the chapel
floor the commemorate Edward VI.
It reads, ‘In memory of Edward VI Buried in this this chapel, this stone was placed
here by Christ’s hospital in Thanksgiving for their founder, 7th October 1966.’
But Edward VI was the great hope for the Tudor dynasty, but at the age of just 15 the Tudor
torchbearer would succumb to a brutal and horrific illness, and with this the heir of
Henry VIII’s life would be tragically cut short.
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