Edward VI

“ In 1540 he signed, as a member of convocation, the casuistical opinion as to the invalidity of the king's marriage with Anne of Cleves (State Papers, Henry VIII, i. 633) . When Edward VI came to the throne, though he was placed on the commission to examine and revise the offices of the church, he joined with a small minority in the Lords in protesting against the introduction of the new liturgy, and against several other changes. He seems to have had some difficulty in those days in maintaining the rights of his see ”

“ During Edward VI's reign he made himself prominent as a reformer, and on Mary's accession fled to Basle, where he remained throughout the reign. While there he engaged in controversy with William Kethe [q. v.] and Robert Crowley [q. v.] , two of the exiles at Frankfort. About 1559 he returned to England, presented a declaration of protestant doctrines to Elizabeth, and was presented by his fellow-exile, Grindal, to the rectory of East Ham, Essex, in 1560. In the same year he was granted the living of Long Bredy, Dorset, by letters patent. He died before November 1562. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The reign of Edward VI was a singularly merciful one for those harsh times. Now that we are taking leave of him let us try to keep this in our minds, to his credit. ”

“ Queen Victoria passed peacefully away, at half-past six in the evening of 22nd January, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.
Then every one turned in their grief to His Majesty King Edward VII. Hardly for a moment could he be simply the devoted son weeping by the death-bed of his beloved and venerated mother. He was now the ruler of a great Empire, and bravely did His Majesty meet what must have seemed the almost impertinent intrusion of State business and State ceremonial. ”

“ At the coronation of Edward VI he was dubbed a knight of the carpet, and on 15 Oct. 1549 was made one of the four principal gentlemen of the privy chamber. In January 1549–50 he was confined to his house in connection with the misdemeanours of the Earl of Arundel, whom he had doubtless assisted in his peculations. But he was soon free, and on 21 June 1550 had a pension of 50l. granted to him. As an ardent protestant he deemed it prudent to go abroad in Queen Mary's days. ”

“ 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.! ”

“ On July 27th, Lord Salisbury introduced a measure in the House of Lords authorizing the Sovereign "to make such addition to the style and title at present appertaining to the Imperial Crown of the United Kingdom and its Dependencies as to His Majesty may seem fit." Speaking unofficially, the Premier intimated that the Royal title would probably be "Edward VII., by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of all the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India." ”

“ This struggle was fought over the Protector's attitude towards the momentous social revolution of the sixteenth century, a movement which lay at the root of most of the internal difficulties of Tudor governments, and vitally affected the history of the reign of Edward VI. It was in effect the breaking up of the foundations upon which society had been based for five hundred years, the substitution of competition for custom as the regulating principle of the relations between the various classes of the community.
Social organisation in medieval times was essentially conservative ”

“ On these principles, therefore, King Edward VII. was educated, namely, that the best way to build up a noble and princely character was to bring it into intelligent sympathy with the best movements of the age.
After some further discussion Prince Albert opened negotiations with Mr. Henry Birch, afterwards rector of Prestwich, near Manchester, the gentleman who was ultimately entrusted with the responsible position of tutor to the future ruler of the British Empire. This young man had been educated at Eton, where he had been captain of the school and obtained the Newcastle medal. ”

“ During forty years of his career as Prince of Wales, King Edward VII. was probably the most talked-of man in the United Kingdom. Good-natured stories, ill-natured anecdotes, criticisms grading down from the malicious to the very mild, praise ranging from the fulsome to the feeble point, falsehoods great and falsehoods small, have found currency not confined to the English language and ranging through "yarns" of gutter journals in London, Paris, Berlin, New York or Calcutta, in varied languages, and in many degrees of fabrication. ”

“ Certainly we have become more cosmopolitan since those days; we have come to see that the manners and customs of foreign nations are not perhaps always so absurd as our forefathers, at any rate, supposed, and may even in some few respects be worthy of adoption and imitation.
In this salutary process of national illumination King Edward VII. undoubtedly played a considerable part. From the beginning of his public career he endeared himself to his future subjects by his natural bonhomie, his tact, and a certain indefinable touch of human sympathy which characterised all his actions and speeches. ”

“ His attack on France, 1415.This really was wicked; whatever right Edward II might have had to the French crown, Henry V could have none, for he was not the best living heir of Edward II. The Earl of March was the best living heir of Edward III, for he was descended from Edward's second son, King Henry V only from his third; but March had been quietly shoved aside when Henry IV seized the English crown. However, France was in a worse condition than England; her king, Charles VI, was mad, and her great nobles were tearing each other and their beautiful country to pieces. ”

“ The first year's reign of a Sovereign must always be important, and when that Sovereign rules over a third of the earth's surface and a quarter of its population, it is more than usually so. King Edward VII., when he came to the Throne, found himself the first of Mohammedan rulers, with more Moslem subjects than the Sultan of Turkey; the first of Brahmin and Parsee Sovereigns; the head of various Confucian colonies and the possessor of the most sacred of Buddhist shrines; the ruler of Christian sects and idolatries of every conceivable kind and variety. ”

“ The king himself (see Edward VII.) , who nobly earned the title of Edward the Peacemaker, played no small part in the domestic and international politics of these years; and contemporary publicists, who had become accustomed to Victorian traditions, gradually realized that, within the limits of the constitutional monarchy, there was much more scope for the initiative of a masculine sovereign in public life than had been supposed by the generation which grew up after the death of his father in 1862. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The change simply emphasised the fact that the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines are the loyal and devoted servants of the King, and it is another instance of that gracious tact for which Edward VII. is renowned.
Debarred by the tradition of his House from himself entering our first line of defence, the King nevertheless—as indeed he says in his gracious Message—chose the Navy for the early education of both his sons. In other ways he has never failed to demonstrate in every possible way his love of the sea, of which indeed he has had a pretty wide experience. ”

“ An excellent soldier who was popular with all ranks, he cherished the cultured traditions of his family. He exercised a wide hospitality at his London house, and his guests included representatives of literature, art, and science, as well as soldiers and men in public life. He was always on cordial terms with King Edward VII. He died at 16 Portland Place on 16 Nov. 1902, and was buried in Chichester Cathedral with military honours.
A portrait of Prince Edward by F. Marks is in the possession of the duke of Richmond and Gordon at Goodwood. ”

“ Lacking sympathy with the monastic virtues of the deposed Henry VI., and happy in the exile of Margaret of Anjou, the citizens of London had taken kindly to the regime of Edward IV. In 1467 Edward still owed to Warwick the support of the more powerful barons, as well as the favour of that portion of the rural population which was more or less dependent upon them. But he encouraged, to his own financial advantage, the enterprises of the burgesses, and his marriage with Elizabeth Woodville and his favours to her kinsfolk indicated his purpose to reign in fact as well as in name. ”

“ The Hallelujah Chorus ended the ceremony accordingly.
[9]
The Christening of King Edward VII.
From the Painting by Sir George Hayter
“It is impossible,” wrote Queen Victoria in her Journal, “to describe how beautiful and imposing the effect of the whole scene was in the fine old chapel, with the banners, the music, and the light shining on the altar.” It was significant of the [10] young Queen’s native simplicity that the Prince was only christened Albert, after his father, and Edward, after his grandfather, the Duke of Kent. ”

“ Shortly after the accession of Edward IV he was created a justice of the common pleas, his patent being dated in September 1461. His tenure of office was unbroken by the vicissitudes of the disturbed period which followed, his patent being renewed by Henry VI on his return to power in 1470, by Edward IV in the following June on the accession of Edward V in April, and on the accession of Richard III in June 1483. ”

“ Queen Victoria and King Edward VII.
After the Painting by Thorburn
When the King was fourteen he started on an incognito walking tour in the West of England with Mr. Gibbs and Colonel Cavendish. His father wrote to Baron Stockmar: [33] “Bertie’s tour has hitherto gone off well and seems to interest him greatly.” ”

“ Such an incident, followed by the cordial expressions of the French press and by a visible rapprochement between the two countries, could not but be of special interest to the French-Canadians of Quebec. Naturally monarchists at heart, the incident seemed to increase the personal loyalty already existing there. The Toronto Globe of April 20, 1903, voiced a strong feeling in Canada when it hoped for a future Royal visit to the Dominion and declared that "it would be a mistake to suppose that Edward VII. is merely an urbane gentleman, not to say a lover of the common people ”

“ 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. ”

“ The autumn of 1899 was signalised by the visit which was paid to this country by the German Emperor and Empress, who were accompanied by two of their sons, Prince Augustus William and Prince Oscar. Their Imperial Majesties were royally entertained at Windsor by Queen Victoria, to whom they had come to pay their respects, a great State banquet being the chief among the festivities. King Edward naturally took a prominent part in the reception of the German Emperor, who particularly enjoyed some capital shooting on his uncle’s estate at Sandringham. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After the homage of the Heir Apparent each Peer of the realm should have followed the traditionary form in the order of his rank and touched the Crown and kissed the King's cheek. This was modified, however, so as to enable each grade of the nobility to perform the function through its representative of oldest patent—the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquess of Winchester, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Viscount Hereford and the Baron de Ros. After this had been done the trumpets once more sounded their acclaims and the audience joined in shouting "God save King Edward." ”