Today in 1547 Henry VIII’s son Edward was crowned Edward VI. He was only nine years old, so the festivities must have seemed awe-inspiring to him at the time. He was escorted along the processional route after his nobility, the council, and foreign diplomats, as well as his esquires and gentlemen. His uncle, Edward Seymour, and John Dudley walked with him, enjoying the plays and pageants. They made great use of his mother Jane Seymour’s badge of a Phoenix, and also featured a lot of imagery showing the new Protestant religion that Edward would so support. Following the coronation ceremony there were two days of jousting and feasting before Edward had to get on with the business of running the country.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th-century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Author Janet Wertman on Edward VI
Episode 074: Edward, Mary, and France
Episode 13: Edward VI
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.