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EDWARD. VI.

Born 1537. Began to Reign Jan. 29, 1547. Died July 6, 1553. Reigned 6 Years.

Was the only son of Henry VIII. He came to the throne at nine years of age. His father had fixed his majority at eighteen, and appointed sixteen executors; the Duke of Somerset, with the title of Protector at their head. Dudley, Earl of Warwick, a crafty man, started forth as rival to Somerset. He got some others to join him, and did not rest till he accomplished the ruin of the Protector. Edward, whose health was fast declining, continued to languish ; few had access to him, but the creatures of Dudley, who had, by this time, become the Duke of Northumberland. At length the young king was put into the hands of an ignorant woman, who very confidently undertook his cure. After being a short time under her treatment, he expired at Greenwich, in the sixteenth year of his age.

Eminent men in this reign :-Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; Lord Seymour ; Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland; Guildford, Lord Dudley.