Living
Sex: M
Spouses and Children
1. *Unknown
Children:
1. Edgar the Peaceful , King of England (0944-0975)
Edmund II Ironside , King of England
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 989
Christening:
Death: 30 Nov 1016
Burial: Gastonbury Abbey, Somerset, England
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: AEthelred II the Unready King of England (0968-1016)
Mother: Elfreda (AElfgifu) (Abt 0963-1002)
Spouses and Children
1. *Ealdgyth (Unknown - Unknown)
Marriage: 1015 - Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England
Status:
Children:
1. Edward the Outlaw Atheling (Abt 1016-1057)
Notes
General:
Acceded: April 1016, St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England.''
Reigned Apr-Nov 1016
Edmund II was murdered at the instigation of his brother-in-law, Edric.
Edmund of Woodstock , 1st Earl of Kent
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Unknown
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Edward I (Longshanks) , King of England (1239-1307)
Mother: Marguerite of France (1282-1317)
Living
Sex: F
Spouses and Children
1. Living
Children:
1. Living
Edred
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Unknown
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: AEthelred II the Unready King of England (0968-1016)
Mother: Elfreda (AElfgifu) (Abt 0963-1002)
Edward
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Unknown
Christening:
Death: Unknown
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: AEthelred II the Unready King of England (0968-1016)
Mother: Elfreda (AElfgifu) (Abt 0963-1002)
Edward I (Longshanks) , King of England
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 17 Jun 1239 - Westminster Palace, London, England
Christening:
Death: 7 Jul 1307 - Burgh-by-Sands, Carlisle, Cumberland, England
Burial: in Westminster Abbey, London, England
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: King Henry III Plantagenet (1207-1272)
Mother: Eleanor of Provence Berenger (1223-1291)
Spouses and Children
1. *Eleanor of Castile (1244 - 24 Nov 1290)
Marriage: 18 Pct 1254 - Abbey of Las Huelgas, Burgos, Castile.
Status:
Children:
1. Eleanor Plantagenet (1264-1297)
2. Joan Plantagenet (1265-1265)
3. John Plantagenet (1266-1271)
4. Henry Plantagenet (1267-1274)
5. Julian (Katherine) Plantagenet (1271-1271)
6. Joan Plantagenet , Countess of Gloucester (1272-1307)
7. Alfonso Plantagenet , 8th Earl (1273-1284)
8. Margaret Plantagenet (1275-1318)
9. Berngaria Plantagenet (1276-1279)
10. Mary Plantagenet (1278-1332)
11. Isabella Plantagenet (1279-1279)
12. Alice Plantagenet (1279-1291)
13. Princess Elizabeth (Isabel) Plantagenet (1282-1316)
14. Edward II (Edward of Caernarvon) Plantagenet , King of England (1284- )
15. Beatrice Plantagenet (1286- )
16. Blanche Plantagenet (1290-1290)
2. Marguerite of France (1282 - 14 Feb 1317)
Marriage: 8 Sep 1299 - Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, Kent, England
Status:
Children:
1. Thomas of Brotherton , 1st Earl of Norfolk ( - )
2. Edmund of Woodstock , 1st Earl of Kent ( - )
3. Eleanor ( - )
Notes
General:
King Edward I of England (June 17 , 1239 – July 7 , 1307 ), popularly known as "Longshanks" because of his 6 foot 2 inch frame and the "Hammer of the Scots" (his tombstone, in Latin, read, Hic est Edwardvs Primus Scottorum Malleus, "Here lies Edward I, Hammer of the Scots"), achieved fame as the monarch who conquered Wales and who kept Scotland under English domination. He reigned from 1272 to 1307, ascending the throne of England on November 21, 1272 after the death of his father, King Henry III of England.
Edward was said to be a magnificent creature, standing head and shoulders above the ordinary man of his time. He was healthy, athletic, with a fine head of hair and a handsome face, marred only by a drooping eyelid, which he inherited from his father, Henry III.
Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on June 17 or 18, 1239. He married twice; his first marriage was to Eleanor of Castile which produced sixteen children, and her death in 1290 affected Edward deeply. He displayed his grief by erecting the Eleanor crosses , one at each place where her funeral cortege stopped for the night. His second marriage was to Marguerite of France (known as the "Pearl of France" by her English subjects), the daughter of King Philippe III of France (Phillip the Bold) and Maria of Brabant , produced three children.
Edward's character greatly contrasted that of his father, who reigned in England throughout Edward's childhood and consistently tended to favour compromise with his opponents. Edward had already shown himself as an ambitious and impatient man, displaying considerable military prowess in defeating Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 . He gained a reputation for treating rebels and other foes with great savagery. He relentlessly pursued the surviving members of the de Montfort family, his cousins. In 1270 he travelled to Tunis, intending to fight in the Eighth Crusade alongside Louis IX of France, who died before Edward arrived; Edward instead travelled to Acre , in the Ninth Crusade. While in the Holy Land his father died; Edward arrived back in England in 1274.
One of Edward's early achievements was the conquest of Wales. Under the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery , Llewelyn ap Gruffydd (meaning 'Like a Lion') had extended Welsh territories southwards into what had been the lands of the English Marcher lords, and gained the title of Prince of Wales although he still owed homage to the English monarch as overlord. Edward refused to recognise the Treaty which had been concluded by his father. In 1275 , pirates in Edward's pay intercepted a ship carrying Eleanor de Montfort , Simon de Montfort's only daughter, from France (where her family had lived in exile) to Wales , where she expected to marry Llywelyn the Last , then ruler of the principality. The parties' families had arranged the marriage previously, when an alliance with Simon de Montfort still counted politically. However, Llywelyn wanted the marriage largely to antagonise his long-standing enemy, Edward. With the hijacking of the ship, Edward gained possession of Eleanor and imprisoned her at Windsor. After Llywelyn repeatedly refused to pay homage to Edward in 1274-5, Edward raised an army and launched his first campaign against the Welsh prince in 1276-77. After this campaign Llywelyn was forced to pay homage to Edward and was stripped of all but a rump of territory in Gwynedd. But Edward allowed Llywelyn to retain the title of Prince of Wales, and the marriage with Eleanor de Montfort went ahead.
However, Llywelyn's younger brother, Dafydd (who had briefly been an ally of the English) started another rebellion in 1282 . Llywelyn died shortly afterwards in a skirmish. Subsequently, Edward destroyed the remnants of resistance, capturing, brutally torturing and executing Dafydd in the following year. To consolidate his conquest, he commenced the construction of a string of massive stone castles encircling the principality, of which Caernarfon Castle provides a notable surviving example. Wales became incorporated into England under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 and in 1301 Edward created his eldest son Edward Prince of Wales, since which time the eldest son of each English monarch has borne the same title.
To help finance his war to conquer Wales, Edward I taxed the Jewish moneylenders. However, the cost of Edward's ambitions soon drained the money-lenders dry. When the Jews could no longer pay, the state accused them of disloyalty. Already restricted to a limited number of occupations, Edward furthermore abolished their right to lend money at interest, and eventually restricted their extra-curricular movements and activities. Edward decreed that all Jews wear a yellow patch in the shape of a star attached to their outer clothing to identify them in public (compare Star of David , Yellow badge).
In the course of King Edward's persecution of the Jews, he arrested all the heads of Jewish households. The authorities took over 300 of them to the Tower of London and executed them, while killing others in their homes. Finally, in 1290, the King banished all Jews from the country.
Edward then turned his attentions to Scotland and on May 10, 1291 Scottish nobles recognised the authority of Edward I. He had planned to marry off his son to the child queen, Margaret of Scotland (Called 'The Maid of Norway') but when Margaret died the Scottish nobles agreed to have Edward select her successor from the various claimants to the throne, and he chose John Balliol over other candidates. Edward was anxious to impose his overlordship on Scotland and hoped that John Balliol would prove the most biddable candidate. Indeed, Edward summoned John Balliol to do homage to him in Westminster in 1293 and made it clear he expected John's military and financial support against France. But this was too much for Balliol, who concluded a pact with France and prepared an army to invade England.
Edward gathered his largest army yet and razed Berwick </wiki/Berwick-upon-Tweed>, massacring its inhabitants, proceeding to Dunbar </wiki/Dunbar> and Edinburgh. The Stone of Destiny was removed from Scone Palace and taken to Westminster Abbey. Until 1996, it formed the seat on King Edward's Chair, on which all English monarchs since 1308 have been crowned, with the exception of Mary I. In 1996, the stone was returned to Scotland, to return only during royal coronations. Balliol renounced the crown and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for three years before withdrawing to his estates in France. All freeholders in Scotland were required to swear an oath of homage to Edward, and he ruled Scotland like a province through English Viceroys.
Opposition sprang up (see Wars of Scottish Independence, and Edward executed the focus of discontent, William Wallace, on August 23, 1305, having earlier defeated him at the Battle of Falkirk (1298). His plan to unite the two countries never came to fruition in his era, and he died in 1307 at Burgh by Sands, Cumberland on the Scottish border, while on his way to wage another campaign against the Scots, energized by Wallace's martyrdom and under the leadership of Robert the Bruce. Against his wishes, Edward was buried in Westminster Abbey. His son, King Edward II of England , succeeded him.
King Edward I is villainously depicted in the film Braveheart .
Research:
p. 141. "Collins Gem Kings & Queens.".
p. 79-80 "The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England."
Edward the Elder King of England
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 869
Christening:
Death: 17 Jul 924 - Farndon-on-Dee
Burial: in Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, England
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Alfred the Great King of West Saxons (0849-0899)
Mother: Ealhswith of Gaini ( -0905)
Spouses and Children
1. *Ecgwyn (Unknown - Abt 901)
Marriage: Unknown
Status:
Children:
1. AEthelstand King of England (0894-0939)
2. Alfred ( - )
3. St. Edith ( -0937)
Notes
General:
Acceded: 31 May 900, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey
Reigned 899-924.
He defeated the Danes (918), taking East Anglia, and also conquered Mercia (918) and Northumbria (920).
St. Edward the Martyr , King of England
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 963
Christening:
Death: 18 Mar 978 - Corfe Castle, Dorset, England
Burial: in Wareham Abbey, Dorset, England
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Edgar the Peaceful , King of England (0944-0975)
Mother: AEthelflaeda the Fair ( -0965)
Notes
General:
Acceded: 9 Julu 978, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England.
St. Edward reigned 975-979
He was murdered, reputedly by his step-mother.
He was canonised in 1001, and his feast day is 20th November.
Edward VI , King of England
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 12 Oct 1537 - Hampton Court Palace, Richmond, England
Christening:
Death: 6 Jul 1553 - Greenwich Palace, London, England
Burial: in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, London, England
Cause of Death: Consumption (Tuberculosis)
Parents
Father: King Henry VIII Tudor , King of England (1491-1547)
Mother: Jane Seymour (1505-1537)
Notes
General:
Acceded: 19 Feb 1547 at the age of 9.
Edward VI (12 October 1537-6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. Edward, the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty, was England's first Protestant ruler. Although his father and predecessor, Henry VIII, had broken the link between English Catholicism and Roman Catholicism, it was during Edward's reign that the decisive move was made from Catholicism to a form of Protestantism which came to be known as Anglicanism.
Early life
Edward was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. He was the son of Henry VIII by his wife, Jane Seymour, who died twelve days afterwards from puerperal fever. It is sometimes asserted that Jane sacrificed her life by the performance of a Caesarean section, but such assertions are without basis. Edward automatically became Duke of Cornwall upon his birth; he was, however, never created Prince of Wales, as was (and still is) customary for the heir-apparent to the Throne.
Henry VIII was extremely pleased by the birth of a male heir. He had left his two previous wives, Catherine of Aragon (mother of Mary) and Anne Boleyn (mother of Elizabeth), because of their failure to produce male heirs. Both marriages had been annulled, and Anne Boleyn was also executed; Mary and Elizabeth were deemed illegitimate. Despite their illegitimacy, however, they were reinserted into the line of succession after Edward in 1544.
Edward was an extremely sickly child. It has been theorised that he suffered from congenital syphilis or from tuberculosis. His frailty led Henry VIII to quickly seek to remarry; the King's last three marriages, however, did not produce any children. Edward's physical difficulties did not impede his education; on the contrary, the young prince was a very bright child, already able to speak Latin at the age of seven. He later learnt to speak French and Greek; by the age of thirteen, he found himself translating books into the latter language. His principal tutors were Sir John Cheke, Leonard Cox, and Jean Belmain.
Under Somerset
Henry died on 28 January 1547. His will named sixteen executors, who were to act as a Council of Regency until Edward achieved majority at the age of eighteen. These executors were to be supplemented by twelve assistants, who would only participate when the others deemed it fit. The executors were all inclined towards religious reformation, whose most prominent opponents, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Stephen Gardiner (the Bishop of Winchester) and Thomas Thirlby (the Bishop of Westminster), were excluded. Henry also appointed Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford to serve as Lord Protector of the Realm and Governor of the King's Person during Edward's minority. Lord Hertford, who was Edward's uncle, was only supposed to act on the advice of the other executors. A few days after Henry's death, Lord Hertford was created Duke of Somerset and appointed to the influential positions of Lord High Treasurer and Earl Marshal.
To allay all doubts regarding the validity of Henry VIII's will, all the executors sought reappointment from Edward. On 13 March 1547, Edward created a new Council of twenty-six members. The Council consisted of all the executors and assistants, except for Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (who, whilst serving as Lord Chancellor, had illegally delegated some of his powers to other officials) and Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. The Duke of Somerset was no longer merely a "first among equals"; instead, he was allowed to act without the consent of the Council, the composition of which he was permitted to change at his whim. The Lord Protector, then, became the real ruler of England; Edward VI was demoted to a ceremonial role.
Another powerful influence on Edward VI was Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Both Cranmer and the Duke of Somerset began the process of creating a Protestant England. Various Catholic rites were replaced with Protestant ones. The Duke of Somerset, however, did not encourage persecution; rather, he refrained from it, as he feared the wrath of Europe's powerful Catholic monarchs, especially the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
One of the Duke of Somerset's primary aims was to achieve a union between England and Scotland. In late 1547, an English army marched into Scotland and took control of the Lowlands. In 1548, however, Mary, the daughter of the Scottish King James V, married the Dauphin Francis, the heir-apparent to the French Throne, thereby strengthening the alliance between France and Scotland.
The Duke of Somerset was hardly in a position to oppose both France and Scotland, as his own position was insecure. His brother, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, the Lord High Admiral, had hatched a plot to depose him. Lord Seymour's conspiracy, however, was exposed in 1549. A bill of attainder was introduced and passed almost unanimously by Parliament; Lord Seymour was executed on 20 March.
Later in 1549, there was another uprising, this time by poor peasants. On 8 August, taking advantage of internal strife, the French formally declared war on England. The Duke of Somerset became extremely unpopular, and was deposed by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick. Lord Warwick did not make himself Lord Protector, and even encouraged Edward into declaring his majority as soon as he was sixteen. In 1550, Lord Warwick conciliated the peasant rebels and made peace with France, giving up all of England's possessions in Scotland without compensation.
Under Warwick
The rise of Lord Warwick was accompanied by the fall of Catholicism in England. Thomas Cranmer introduced the Book of Common Prayer for use in all Church services. All official editions of the Bible were accompanied by anti-Catholic annotations. Catholic symbols in churches were desecrated by mobs. Religious dissenters, moreover, were often persecuted and burnt at the stake. In 1550 and 1551, the most powerful Roman Catholic Bishops, Edmund Bonner (the Bishop of London), Stephen Gardiner (the Bishop of Winchester) and Nicholas Heath (the Bishop of Worcester) included, were deposed; and their places taken by Protestant reformers such as Nicholas Ridley.
Meanwhile, the Duke of Somerset, who agreed to submit to Lord Warwick, was released from prison and readmitted to the Privy Council. Within a few months, he found himself powerful enough to demand the release of other political and religious prisoners. He opposed the Council's attempt to curtail the religious liberty of Edward's sister, Mary. The Duke of Somerset's opposition to the religious Reformation irked Lord Warwick.
Lord Warwick attempted to increase his own prestige; on his advice, Edward created him Duke of Northumberland and bestowed honours on his numerous supporters. The Duke of Northumberland began a campaign to discredit the Duke of Somerset. The people of London were informed that the Duke of Somerset would destroy their city; Edward was told that the Duke would depose and imprison him and seize his Crown. It was also suggested that the Duke of Somerset had plotted to murder the Duke of Northumberland. In December of 1551, the Duke of Somerset was tried for treason on the grounds that he had attempted to imprison a member of the King's Council. The treason charge, however, could not be proven; instead, Somerset was found guilty of participating in unlawful assemblies, but was still sentenced to death. The Duke of Somerset was subsequently executed in January 1552.
On the day after the Duke of Somerset's execution, a new session of Parliament began. It passed the Act of Uniformity 1552, under which a second Book of Common Prayer was required for church services. Unauthorized worship was punishable by up to life imprisonment.
Later years
The fragile health of the King did not abate as his reign progressed. During his father's reign Edward had effectively been mollycoddled and kept in seclusion. Edward desperately wanted his own freedom, and indulged in the early years of his reign with other children of his age. He became extremely fond of sports such as tennis. During the winter of 1552-1553, Edward, strained by physical activities in the bitter weather, contracted a cold, which was made more serious as it was compounded by other illnesses (tuberculosis, and according to some, syphilis). Doctors tried to help by administering various medicines, but their efforts were in vain, leaving Edward in perpetual agony. Edward, who was by now dying in early 1553, was enough the master of his own destiny to have concerns about the succession. Having been brought up a Protestant, he had no desire to be succeeded by his older half-sister, Mary.
At the same time, the Duke of Northumberland was eager to retain his own power. He did not find the next two individuals in the line of succession, Mary and Elizabeth, conducive to his aims. The third individual in the line of succession under Henry VIII's will was Lady Frances Brandon (the daughter of Henry's younger sister Mary by Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk); she, too, was not to Northumberland's liking. Northumberland feared that the Frances' husband, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, would claim the Crown as his own.
The Duke of Northumberland then foolishly attempted to rule through the Duchess of Suffolk's daughter, the Lady Jane Grey. Jane was married off to the Duke of Northumberland's younger son, Guilford Dudley. On 11 June 1553, Northumberland commanded senior judges to draw up a draft will for Edward. The plan was illegal for many reasons; firstly, a minor did not have the authority to make a will. Furthermore, no Act of Parliament had not authorized Edward's will, whilst Henry's will (which Northumberland sought to abrogate), had been specifically authorized by an Act passed in 1544. The judges at first resisted giving in to the Duke of Northumberland's demands, as it was treason to attempt to vary the laws of succession established in 1544. Edward, however, ensured their co-operation by promising a pardon under the Great Seal.
The first draft of the will excluded Mary, Elizabeth, the Duchess of Suffolk and the Lady Jane from the line of succession on the theory that no woman could rule England. The Crown was to be left to the Lady Jane's heirs-male. This plan, however, was not to Northumberland's liking; the draft was changed to leave the Crown to Jane and her heirs-male. Mary and Elizabeth were excluded because they were officially illegitimate; the Duchess of Suffolk agreed to renounce her own claims.
Death
Edward VI died in Greenwich on 6 July 1553, either of tuberculosis, arsenic poisoning, or syphilis. He would later be buried in Westminster Abbey. As Edward lay dying, the Duke of Northumberland (according to legend) symbolically snatched the crown from him and gave it to his daughter-in-law, the Lady Jane.
Edward VI's death was kept a secret for a few days so that preparations could be made for Jane's accession. High civic authorities privately swore their allegiance to the new Queen, who was not publicly proclaimed until 10 July. But the people were much more supportive of the rightful heir under the Act of Succession, Mary. On 19 July, Mary triumphantly rode into London, and Jane was forced to give up the Crown. Jane's proclamation was revoked as an act done under coercion; her succession was correctly deemed unlawful. Thus, Edward's de jure successor was Mary I, but his de facto successor was Jane.
The Duke of Northumberland was executed, but the Lady Jane and her father originally spared. In 1554, when Mary faced Wyatt's Rebellion, the Duke of Suffolk once again attempted to put his daughter on the Throne. For this crime, both Jane and the Duke of Suffolk were executed.
After Edward's death at the age of fifteen, rumors of his survival persisted. To take advantage of the people's delusions, several imposters were put forward as rightful Kings. These impersonations continued throughout the reign of Mary I , and even far into the reign of Elizabeth I. Mistaken identities also feature in the American author Mark Twain's novel, The Prince and the Pauper, in which the young Edward VI and a pauper boy of identical appearance accidentally replace each other.
Style and arms
Like his father, Edward VI was referred to with the styles "Majesty", "Highness" and "Grace". His official style was of the same form as his father: "Edward the Sixth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head".
Edward VI's arms were the same as those used by his predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England).
Medical:
It is also suggested his death may have been due to Arsenic poisoning or possibly, congenital Syphilis, inherited from his father.
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