Page "Tudor dynasty" Paragraph 26

Lord Protector Somerset was also losing favour.

After forcibly removing Edward VI to Windsor Castle, with the intention of keeping him hostage, Somerset was removed from power by members of the council, led by his chief rival, John Dudley, the first Earl of Warwick, who created himself Duke of Northumberland shortly after his rise.

Northumberland effectively became Lord Protector, but he did not use this title, learning from the mistakes his predecessor made.

Northumberland was furiously ambitious, and aimed to secure Protestant uniformity while making himself rich with land and money in the process.

He ordered churches to be stripped of all traditional Catholic symbolism, resulting in the plainness often seen in Church of England churches today.

A revision of the Book of Common Prayer was published in 1552.

When Edward VI became ill in 1553, his advisers looked to the possible imminent accession of the Catholic Lady Mary, and feared that she would overturn all the reforms made during Edward's reign.

Perhaps surprisingly, it was the dying Edward himself who feared a return to Catholicism, and wrote a new will repudiating the 1544 will of Henry VIII.

This gave the succession to his cousin Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor, who, after the death of Louis XII of France in 1515 had married Henry VIII's favourite Charles Brandon, the first Duke of Suffolk.

Lady Jane's mother was Lady Frances Brandon, the daughter of Suffolk and Princess Mary.

Northumberland married Jane to his youngest son Guildford Dudley, allowing himself to get the most out of a necessary Protestant succession.

Most of Edward's council signed the Devise for the Succession, and when Edward VI died on 6 July 1553 from his battle with tuberculosis, Lady Jane was proclaimed queen.

However, the popular support for the proper Tudor dynasty – even a Catholic member – overruled Northumberland's plans, and Jane, who had never wanted to accept the crown, was deposed after just nine days.

Mary's supporters joined her in a triumphal procession to London, accompanied by her younger sister Elizabeth.