After Anne Boleyn had a daughter, Henry VlII distrusted Mary and thought that her behavior came from her mother. So he purposefully separated Mary and Catherine of Aragon. He also banished them both from court and he removed Mary from the line of succession. Mary had to become one of her servants. After Anne Boleyn was killed by the King, Mary's half-sister also became a servant. A month later, Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. Queen Jane gave birth to Edward, Prince of Wales. 12 days later, Queen Jane died.
Mary lost a faithful friend and also her pride. She had acknowledged her parents' marriage as invalid and herself an illegitimate daughter. The rest of Mary's life with Henry VIII gave her a quick succession of stepmothers. Henry VIII died soon after marrying his last wife, Catherine Parr.
Henry had decided that the young prince was to succeed him. If he had no heirs then his older half-sister, Mary, was to be Queen.
If Mary did not produce a child, then Mary's half-sister, Elizabeth, was to be Queen. After Elizabeth and her heirs, would come Henry's sister Mary Tudor's side of the family.
Edward succeeded to the throne as King of England and Ireland. Edward began to show signs of a coughing disease.
Edward did not want Mary to succeed him. Edward went ahead with a plan to let his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey become Queen after he died. Lady Jane Grey was only queen of England for nine days. Mary executed Jane Grey and married Philip II of Spain.
Mary had two phantom pregnancies, but had no child. The phantom pregnancies were cancer in her liver. After Mary died Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, becoming the new Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Edward VI of England
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland, from 28 January 1547, until his death on 6 July 1553.
Edward was the son of Henry VIII of England and Jane Seymour. His mother died 12 days after his birth. He became king at the age of 9 when his father died.
When their father died, Edward's half-sister Elizabeth was 13 years old. His other half sister, Mary was 31. Despite being the youngest, Edward was the heir apparent because he was male. Because he was such a young king, the realm was governed by a Regency Council. He died when he was 15 and a half years old. His successor was his cousin, Lady Jane Grey.
He had two advisors (or regents). The first was his uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who became Lord Protector. For the first two-and-a-half years of Edward's reign, Lord Somerset advised and guided the young king. Somerset was replaced by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Both men wanted major changes made to the Church of England.
As a result of their advice and his beliefs, Edward's reign is mainly remembered for the changes made to religion while he was king. Though his father, Henry VIII, had removed the Pope as Head of the Church in England, he had not changed much else. Most of the major changes to the Church of England happened during Edward's reign.
In July 6th 1553, at age 15 he died, probably from tuberculosis. Before he died, he and his Council wrote a "Devise for the Succession". This was an attempt to prevent the country returning to Catholicism. Edward named his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as his heir and excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. However, this was disputed after his death; Jane was deposed by Mary within 13 days. Mary I reversed Edward's Protestant reforms, which nonetheless became the basis of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559.
Laws were passed to make churches more plain. Catholic churches were rich in decorations and colour. Now under Edward, stained glass windows and icons were removed from churches; the furniture within churches became very basic and plain.
The actual services became more plain and the common person could now understand what was being said at services – now called Holy Communion – were in English rather than Latin. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer also in English. Priests did not have to dress in the bright clothing associated with the Catholic Church and under Edward. They were also allowed to marry. The king remained as Head of the Church.
All of these changes were a major break from the traditions of the Catholic Church. In parts of Germany and Switzerland, religious groups had also broken away in protest against the wealth and corruption of the Catholic Church. They became known as Protestant, and England under Edward, became a Protestant country with an independent Church of England.
Edward had never been a healthy boy and his health failed in 1553. After the nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey, his Catholic half-sister Mary became queen of England and the country went through another period of religious changes.
Richard I of England
Richard I of England (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was the king of England from 1189 to 1199. He is sometimes called Richard the Lionheart. Richard was the son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As the third son and not expected to inherit the throne, he was a replacement child. In 1168 he became Duke of Aquitaine.
Richard was one of the leaders of the Third Crusade against Saladin, which never actually succeeded. During his journey, he conquered Sicily and Cyprus. He fought in the Battle of Acre and the Battle of Arsuf. In the end, as he was unable to win back Jerusalem from the Muslims, he decided to return home to England. On his way back from the Crusade, Richard was captured by the Austrian Duke, Leopold I. The English people had to pay a huge ransom to set him free. He was considered a very brave and noble king, but he did not spend a lot of time in England - only six months of his eleven-year reign were spent in his country.
He died after being shot with a crossbow while besieging a castle in Limousin. His remains were buried at different places. His body was buried at Fontevraud Abbey near Saumur in France, as are his father and mother. His internal organs were buried at Chalus, near Limoges in central France. His heart was buried in the Notre Dame Cathedral at Rouen. It was found in 1838 and was examined by scientists in 2012. They did tests for poisons, as one medieval story claimed Richard had died from a poisoned arrow. There is no evidence to support this idea, and he probably died from gangrene or septicaemia from the arrow wound.
Richard was succeeded by his younger brother, John.
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (c.1508 – 24 October 1537) was the third wife of King Henry VIII of England and queen consort from 1536 until 1537. She was the mother of Edward VI of England, who died a the age of 15. Edward was the only male child of King Henry VIII to survive infancy.
Jane Seymour was the child of John Seymour and Margaret Wentworth. She was not educated as much as King Henry's wives before her, for example, Catherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn. She could read and write a little but was much better at needlework and managing the house. These were considered much more necessary for women. Jane's needlework was said to be beautiful and complex. Some of her work was kept till 1652, where it is recorded to have been given to the Seymour family. After her death, it was noted that Henry was an "enthusiastic embroiderer".
She was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. When Henry divorced his first wife and married Anne Boleyn, Jane continued to be a lady-in-waiting. Henry VIII noticed Jane at court and had already fallen in love with her by the time Anne Boleyn was executed. He became engaged to Jane on the day after the execution, and they were married ten days later, on May 30, 1536. When Jane became queen, she ran the royal court in a strict and formal way, and her only close friends were Anne Stanhope and Elizabeth Seymour.