Edward VI was England's last boy king. He ascended to the throne at just nine years of age and was dead at fifteen.But what he lacked in time, he made up for in action. His six-year-long reign was defined by social unrest, economic hardship, war and factional strife. The Reformation of the Church was accelerated, setting the stage for a dramatic showdown on Edward's deathbed when he attempted to exclude his Catholic half-sister Mary from the line of succession.Like all great historical stories, these events can be read in many books. But it's also something of a rarity, for we have the opportunity to hear the story from Edward's own lips.Edward's Chronicle was a long-term project. Designed by his tutors as an educational exercise, he made regular contributions to it throughout his reign - detailing momentous events within his own court and across Europe.Both King and Chronicle matured as the years elapsed. It became increasingly sophisticated, touching on a wide range of themes - from administration, to finances, to diplomacy, to war, to religion - and remains one of the go-to sources for information on his life and times.Though inaccurate and naïve in places, it shows all the signs of a boy of great promise. And while his legacy is all too often overshadowed by the reigns of his imposing father, Henry VIII, and his accomplished half-sister, Elizabeth I, his impact on the English Church and society continues to be felt in the present day.Thanks to the Chronicle, his voice will never be silenced.

Throughout Edward's short reign the young ruler kept a journal, a detailed diary recounting events in his kingdom. It is a fascinating record of Tudor England through the eyes of its monarch. The diary narrates all the momentous events in the young king's life but also observes the wider world, noting down news from England and keeping a watchful eye on Ireland, Scotland and mainland Europe.

"This is Reformation history as it should be written, not least because it resembles its subject matter: learned, argumentative, and, even when mistaken, never dull."--Eamon Duffy, author of The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580

The struggle for the soul of England after the death of Henry VIII In the death of Henry VIII, the crown passed to his nine-year-old son, Edward. However, real power went to the Protector, Edward's uncle, the Duke of Somerset. The court had been a hotbed of intrigue since the last days of Henry VIII. Without an adult monarch, the stakes were even higher. The first challenger was the duke's own brother: he seduced Henry VIII's former queen, Katherine Parr; having married her, he pursued Princess Elizabeth and later was accused of trying to kidnap the boy king at gunpoint. He was beheaded. Somerset ultimately met the same fate, after a coup d'etat organized by the Duke of Warwick. Chris Skidmore reveals how the countrywide rebellions of 1549 were orchestrated by the plotters at court and were all connected to the (literally) burning issue of religion: Henry VIII had left England in religious limbo. Court intrigue, deceit and treason very nearly plunged the country into civil war. Edward was a precocious child, as his letters in French and Latin demonstrate. He kept a secret diary, written partly in Greek, which few of his courtiers could read. In 1551, at the age of 14, he took part in his first jousting tournament, an essential demonstration of physical prowess in a very physical age. Within a year it is his signature we find at the bottom of the Council minutes, yet in early 1553 he contracted a chest infection and later died, rumours circulating that he might have been poisoned. Mary, Edward's eldest sister, and devoted Catholic, was proclaimed Queen. This is more than just a story of bloodthirsty power struggles, but how the Church moved so far along Protestant lines that Mary would be unable to turn the clock back. It is also the story of a boy born to absolute power, whose own writings and letters offer a compelling picture of a life full of promise, but tragically cut short.

Henry's VIII's son, Edward VI, was the answer to a whole country's prayers, but he died tragically young. Straightforward and informative, Edward VI in a Nutshell gives readers a better understanding than they've ever had of the life, reign, and death, of England's last child monarch, including a new theory of what, exactly, caused his death.

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