Edward VI, Somerset and Northumberland

Regency Council

• 16 members - supported by 12 more
• Administrators and lawyers
• Religious conservatives
  • Thomas Wriothesley - Lord Chancellor/ Earl of Southampton
  • William Paulet - Lord St John/ Marquis of Winchester
  • Cuthbert Tunstall - Bishop of Durham
• Religious reformers
  • Edward Seymour - Earl of Hertford/ Duke of Somerset
  • Thomas Cranmer - Archbishop of Canterbury
  • Sir Anthony Denny - MP for Hertfordshire

• Presided as Lord President of the Privy Council
• Moved away from conciliar government
• Had William Paget committed to the Tower
• Crushed the 1549 rebellions
• Brought some stability to the country
• Educated Edward in government
• Supported Protestant reform
• Supported the work of Cranmer
• Not universally popular
• Got his power through Edward's survival

• Edward's health declined rapidly in 1553
• Princess Mary was next in line under the 1544 Succession Act
• Mary was a Catholic so Northumberland would be ruined
• Northumberland encouraged Edward to write the Devyse for the Succession
• Mary and Elizabeth were declared illegitimate
• Lady Jane Grey was declared
• Edward died in 1653 before parliament could ratify this
• Northumberland still proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as Queen
• The crews sent to prevent Mary from sailing the throne changed alliance
• Lady Jane Grey was committed to the Tower and executed in 1554
• Northumberland was executed in 1553

• Somerset inherited a state of war with Scotland and France
• Somerset hoped to marry Edward to Mary Queen of Scots
• Somerset defeated Scotland at the Battle of Pinkie
• The French took Mary to France in 1548 to marry the French Dauphin
• France threatened England with an invasion in 1549 
• Northumberland abandoned the remaining 25 garrisons and returned Boulogne to France