The New Murrey and Blue blog

“….In the summer of 1553, a dying boy sat on England’s throne….”

Edward VI was dying. He was only fifteen and unmarried, (https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/King-Edward-VI/) so there was no chance of him producing a son or daughter. This left his two older half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, as heirs to the English throne.

We all know the story of the Tudors. They ruled England from the moment in 1485 when treachery and murder handed them Richard III’s crown, to the moment the first Queen Elizabeth breathed her last in 1603. The second Tudor king, Henry VIII, was a monster who in his efforts to sire a legitimate son worked his way through six queens. (https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/henry-viii-s-wives-six-queens-six-women/) The only legitimate son Henry produced was Edward VI. Otherwise there were two daughters. All three children were by different queens because the Pope refused to grant Henry a divorce from his first (Catholic) queen, Catherine of Aragón. She was now past childbearing age and had only given him a daughter, Mary, so Henry decided to have a younger, more fertile queen instead. He lusted after the beautiful, fascinating Anne Boleyn, who wouldn’t marry him without a wedding ring. So the only way to have her was to ditch Catholicism and set up a new, Protestant, church instead. . The result was another daughter, Elizabeth. By now fed up with Anne, after whom he clearly no longer lusted, Henry executed Anne on trumped up charges and married plain Jane Seymour instead. Ah, the Blessed Jane, she produced the longed-for son, Edward, and then promptly died, to be virtually sanctified by Henry forever after. There were three more wives: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard (also executed) and Catherine Parr, but no more children. So everything depended on little Edward.

It is a fact that modern science has proved that the fault didn’t lie with any of the queens, but with Henry VIII himself. It is the man’s sperm that dictates the sex of the child. Oh, how I’d love to see Henry’s face if he knew that! See https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2021-11-16-is-it-a-boy-or-girl-why-fathers-gene-determines-outcome.

Edward was brought up a fervent Protestant, and it was hoped he’d secure the House of Tudor with heirs aplenty. But no, he became ill and eventually it was clear he wasn’t going to survive. So his heirs were his two half-sisters, Catholic Mary and Protestant Elizabeth. But Mary was the elder, and it wasn’t to be tolerated that she (as fervently Catholic as Edward was Protestant!) should bring the Roman Church back to the throne. Elizabeth was Protestant, but not next in line. She came after Mary. So Edward turned his attention to his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, a Protestant girl of his own age who is known to posterity as the Nine Day Queen. (https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Lady-Jane-Grey/)

The article you’ll find at this link—https://tinyurl.com/2bs6uzwc by James Osborne—explains what happened next, how Edward set about securing the throne for Protestant Jane Grey and how terribly she fared as a result at the hands of the Catholic queen, Bloody Mary Tudor. (https://www.biography.com/royalty/mary-tudor)  Eventually we had the steady and successful Protestant reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, ( https://www.royal.uk/elizabeth-i) whose childlessness at death brought about the demise of the Tudors and the arrival of the Stuarts.