Edward VI of England

“ Whilst men were now expecting that Edward VI would arrive at manhood, and take the government completely into his own hands, and conduct it in the sense he had hitherto foreshadowed—not merely carrying out the Reformation thoroughly at home, but assuming the leadership of the Protestant world, symptoms appeared in him of the malady to which his half-brother Richmond had succumbed at an early age. ”

“ Henry VI., Margaret, Edward, called Prince of Wales, the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, the Earls of Northumberland, Devonshire, and Pembroke, and a vast number of lords, knights, and gentlemen, were attainted. Edward IV. was declared to be the only rightful king; and all those of the York party who had been declared traitors by the Lancaster party, and expelled from honours and estates, were restored. Edward did not omit to reward his friends out of the forfeited domains of their enemies, and he conferred additional honours on some of them. ”

“ This ascendency was lost under the disastrous reign of Henry VI., but was regained by Edward IV., a monarch who, notwithstanding his voluptuous character, was fully alive to the vast benefits accruing to a nation from foreign trade, and thought it no dishonour to be, if not a merchant-prince, a prince-merchant. He had ships of his own, and in time of peace he did not suffer them to remain useless in harbour, but freighted them with goods on his own account, and grew rich by traffic. ”

“ His realm was in such profound peace that he could safely leave it. Accordingly in May, 1286, he took ship for France. With him went his wife Eleanor of Castile, his chancellor Bishop Burnell, and a large number of his nobles. He entrusted the regency to his cousin, Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, the son and successor of Earl Richard; and England saw him no more until August, 1289. Edward first made his way to Amiens, where he met the new King of France, Philip the Fair. The two kings went together to Paris, where Edward spent two months. ”

“ Only fourteen years old when he was crowned king, young Edward had already impressed all those who came in contact with him. Men saw in him a worthy successor of Edward I., whose great qualities stood out in shining contrast after the second Edward's disastrous reign. He was strong, he was brave; he, like his grandfather, passionately loved justice and passionately loved England. Nothing could have been more unfortunate than his boyhood or his early education. ”

“ On the other hand, we do not find in him—we have indeed no opportunity of finding in him—the great legislative power of Edward the First. But he was not unmindful of his duties as a king, and in the midst of his campaigns he found time for the cares of civil government. England never had a more popular sovereign, though he made demands upon it in men and money which, considering the shortness of his reign, must have exceeded all precedent;155 and even in the country which he ruled as a stranger he won a general admiration and respect. ”

“ George W. Smalley, for so many years the American correspondent of the New York Tribune in London, could write recently in the Century the belief of a foreigner and a republican that "England is a very democratic country, but there does not exist in England the vestige of a republican party."
King Edward, therefore, came to the throne of Great Britain and its Empire at a time when the influence of the Sovereign was growing in proportion as the influence and popularity of Parliament appeared to be waning. ”

“ Addressing a British Parliamentary Delegation to Paris on November 26th, the Premier, M. Combes, eulogized King Edward and toasted him as the sovereign to whom they owed the treaty. At the annual banquet of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris on December 3d, its president, Mr. O. E. Bodington, made a similar reference to the King. To the Montreal Witness on December 7th, Senator Dandurand, who had just returned from England, paid the following French-Canadian tribute to His Majesty: "The King is the most popular crowned head in Europe to-day. ”

“ Till the days of George III. every English king also called himself king of France.
Despite his victory at Sluys, Edward was so exhausted by his land campaign that he was forced before the end of 1340 to make a truce and return to England. He unfairly blamed his chief minister, Archbishop Stratford, for his financial distress, and immediately on his return vindictively attacked him. Before the truce expired a disputed succession to the duchy of Brittany gave Edward an excuse for renewing hostilities with France. In 1342 he went to Brittany and fought an indecisive campaign against the French. ”

“ No red-stained laurels rest upon his head,
⁠But olive-boughs of peace around him wake
Sweet memories, and crown him,—living or dead—
⁠With praise, and love, and tears,—for England's sake.
May Byron
The Golden Book of
King Edward VII.
IT will always be my most ardent and sincere wish to walk in the footsteps of good men who have preceded me, and with God's help to fulfil the duties which I have been called upon to occupy to-day. ”

“ He gave his best, his last—for England's sake.
⁠⁠
The regal purple and the ring of gold
⁠As fraught with new significance, he wore:
The sceptre handed from his sires of old
⁠Had meanings it had never known before:
To heal the sick, the sorrowful to cheer,
⁠The poor and desolate his friends to make,
He held as sovereignty: and, void of fear,
⁠Counted no cost too great—for England's sake.
⁠⁠
King among Kings, man among simple men,
⁠With all humanity for kith and kin,
What better guerdon can we wish him, then,
⁠Than Peace—that peace where he has entered in? ”

“ A false chivalry had gradually been taking the place of the old feudal sentiment, and Edward was [219] open to be moved both by the impulses of a spurious knight-errantry and by personal motives of ambition and passion. When once engaged in the war, however, he acted both energetically and prudently. His marriage with Philippa of Hainault, and the close commercial interdependence of England and the countries on the North-east of France, gave him an opening which he eagerly employed. He entered into alliances with the Princes of that neighbourhood, with Brabant, Gueldres, Juliers and Cologne. ”

“ He was not the man to sit quietly under insult, and when it came from King Edward, who owed all that he was to him, it was more than he could endure. Yet it was only when he found his every project thwarted, and especially those that were dearest to his heart, that he was driven into open warfare with the king. His treason is capable of much justification: he cannot be accused of forsaking his master. He had in him the making of a great king, and how great and useful might have been his career had fortune placed him over the councils of a Charles VII. or a Henry VI.! ”

“ From United States newspapers, the exponents of public opinion in a great kindred nation, came a wonderfully unanimous and kindly expression of real feeling. To the New York Herald the late King appeared as blessed with "a genial personality, a kind heart and a strong common sense, together with that highest quality of supreme importance in a ruler and statesman—tact"; to the Buffalo News King Edward was "the ablest Royal ruler England has known in centuries;" ”

“ On this theory Edward himself was doubtless the true heir to the321 French monarchy. But even admitting the claims of Edward, his rights had certainly not descended to Henry V, seeing that even in England neither he nor his father was true to the throne by lineal right. A war with France, however, was sure to be popular with his subjects, and the weakness of that country from civil discord seemed a favorable opportunity for urging the most extreme pretensions. ”

“ And throughout his reign the nation understood Edward. His was a great simple character which appealed to them. His faults were the faults of a strong man who will not be turned aside from his purpose; his ambitions were bound up in England only. To make her a strong united kingdom was the dream of his life, and though in this cause, he fought relentlessly, alike against Llewellyn of Wales and Wallace of Scotland, he strove with equal vigour to give his people good laws, fair taxation, and just representation. ”

“ There is not a reign among those of the ancient English monarchs which deserves more to be studied than that of Edward III, nor one where the domestic transactions will better discover the true genius of that kind of mixed government which was then established in England. ”

“ EDWARD V. (1470–1483) , king of England, was the elder son of Edward IV. by his wife Elizabeth Woodville, and was born, during his father’s temporary exile, in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey on the 2nd of November 1470. ”

“ Edward III., King of England, was a very warlike prince. When the King of France died he was succeeded by his nephew Philip, but Edward declared that he, being a grandson of the late king, had a better right than a nephew; and he set off with a gallant army and many knights and nobles to enforce his claim.
The war proved a much longer one than Edward had expected. Six years after the English king's first march into France the two nations were still fighting. By this time King Edward's eldest son was fifteen years of age, and he implored his father to let him accompany him to the French war. ”

“ He joined the expedition fitted out by the Duke of Lancaster in the summer of 1355 to aid the king of Navarre, which was finally abandoned, and the earl sailed later with the king to Calais, and took part in Edward's campaign in northern France [see under Edward III] . Returning to England with the king, he accompanied him in his campaign in Scotland, which lasted until the spring of 1356. Meanwhile his brother Sir Richard followed the Prince of Wales into France in 1355, was sent by him with letters to England in December, rejoined his army, and fought at Poitiers on 19 Sept. ”

“ Interested in music, and devoted to play-acting, he was badly educated, taking the coronation oath in the French form provided for a king ignorant of Latin. Vain, irritable, and easily moved to outbursts of childish wrath, he was half-conscious of the weakness of his will, and was never without a favourite, whose affection compensated him for his subjects' contempt. The household of so careless a master was disorderly beyond the ordinary measure of the time. While Edward irritated the nobles by his neglect of their counsel, he vexed the commons by the exactions of his purveyors. ”

“ He seized the property of Walter, Bishop of Lichfield, who in the late reign had opposed him in his office as treasurer, and bestowed it on Gaveston; and after that young man had, by his ostentation, by his success in the lists, and by a reckless use of his happy gift of applying nicknames, excited the anger of the great nobles, Edward was foolish enough, on leaving England to do homage for his French dominions, to leave him as Governor of the country. Consequently, no sooner was he crowned than the Barons demanded in Parliament the dismissal of the favourite. ”

“ All vices ever vanish in success! Hurrah for King Edward! THE MAN OF THE AGE suited the age, had valour for its war and cunning for its peace, and the sympathy of the age was with him! So there stood the king; at his right hand, Elizabeth, with her infant boy (the heir of England) in her arms, the proud face of the duchess seen over the queen's shoulder. By Elizabeth's side was the Duke of Gloucester, leaning on his sword, and at the left of Edward, the perjured Clarence bowed his fair head to the joyous throng! ”

“ Two of the King’s own brothers-in-law were serving with the German forces, while, on the other hand, he not only had many close ties with France, but from childhood had always regarded the Emperor and Empress of the French with special affection. When public subscription lists were opened in aid of the ambulances, which distributed medical aid impartially to the sick and wounded on both sides, King Edward gave a liberal donation; and when the Empress Eugénie fled to England, one of the first visits which she received at Chislehurst was from the King and Queen Alexandra. ”

“ As grandson of Louis X. he aspired to the French throne, and was anxious to prevent John's return. Edward had no good-will for a possible rival, but it was his interest to keep up the anarchy, and he had no scruple in backing up Charles. There was talk of Edward becoming King of France and holding the maritime provinces, while Charles as his vassal should be lord of Paris and the interior districts. English mercenaries, who had lost their occupation with the truce, enlisted themselves in the service of Navarre. ”

“ As for Edward himself, whatever selfish satisfaction he may have derived from the result of the campaign,—such as Commines has already suggested—it must have weakened his popularity both with his nobles and with his people, whilst it terminated the former cordiality that had existed with his brother of Burgundy. The king of England had now become the pensioner of France, the great {xlviii}absorbing power of that age, which was soon to swallow up England's nearest and best allies, the duchies of Burgundy and Britany. ”

“ Edward VII. made the Crown throughout all classes of society a popular power which it had not been in England for long ages. And while the growing rivalry between England and Germany, in international relations, was continually threatening danger, his influence in cementing British friendship on all other sides was of the most marked description. His sudden death was felt, not only throughout the empire but throughout the world, with even more poignant emotion than that of Queen Victoria herself, for his personality had been much more in the forefront. ”