Edward VI was a pale-faced, sickly child. Just nine years old when declared king in 1547, he would be a puppet of powerful courtiers and die, aged 15, in the summer of 1553. His six-year kingship is a near-forgotten interlude between the rule of his larger-than-life father, Henry VIII, and the reigns of his wilful half-sisters, ‘Bloody’ Mary and ‘Gloriana’ Elizabeth I.
At least, that has been the conventional view of the young king. Recent reappraisals, however, paint a far more intriguing picture of a surprisingly athletic, intellectually precocious chip off the old Henrician block whose reign, though short, was still of considerable consequence.
Henry wept tears of joy at the birth in 1537 of his desperately longed-for male heir. The Tudor dynasty now seemed secure and
