2D - The crisis over the succession 1553: attempts to avoid the succession of Mary
Edward VI's approaching death placed the Protestant settlement at risk because his statutory heir was his Catholic half-sister Mary. Explain the attempt to replace her with Jane Grey, why apparent control of the government proved insufficient, and how Mary's accession brought down Northumberland.
The statutory succession and religion
Edward had no children when he became seriously ill in 1553. Under the Succession Act of 1544 and Henry VIII's will, Mary followed him in the succession, with Elizabeth after her. The daughters had not been formally legitimated, but Parliament had nevertheless restored their places. Illegitimacy and exclusion from this statutory order were therefore not the same thing.
For Edward, Mary's Catholic convictions threatened the reforms associated with his reign. She had resisted changes to her own worship, while Edward's government had adopted the 1552 Prayer Book and intended the Forty-Two Articles to establish Protestant doctrine. The succession involved the future of religion as well as the identity of the next monarch.
Northumberland also faced personal and political risks. He had dominated government under Edward and helped enforce changes Mary opposed. A successor attached to the Protestant regime offered greater security to him, his allies and the reforming Church. These interests overlapped with Edward's beliefs, but they were not identical: protecting doctrine, preserving office and advancing a family could support the same policy for different reasons.
Jane Grey offered a Protestant alternative. She was the daughter of Frances Grey and the granddaughter of Henry VIII's younger sister Mary Tudor. Her ancestry placed her in a recognised dynastic line, but she followed Edward's sisters in Henry's arrangements. Choosing her required changing the existing order, rather than simply discovering an uncontested nearest heir.
In May 1553 Jane married Guildford Dudley, Northumberland's son. The marriage connected the proposed successor to the leading minister's family and strengthened suspicions of ambition. Yet the existence of that benefit cannot, by itself, establish that Edward was a passive victim. Explaining the crisis requires evidence of the King's own decisions as well as the Duke's opportunities.
Edward's devise and legal obstacles
Edward's handwritten devise for the succession initially envisaged male heirs in the Grey family line. As his illness made a near-term successor necessary, it was amended to allow Jane herself to inherit, followed by her male heirs. The change from a future male line to an immediately available female ruler shows a response to the urgency created by the King's declining health.
Both Mary and Elizabeth were excluded. Illegitimacy provided a stated argument against both sisters, while religion supplied a particular reason to oppose Mary. Excluding the Protestant Elizabeth complicates an explanation based on faith alone: dynastic and legal reasoning also mattered. Jane's selection similarly bypassed the older generation represented by her mother Frances.
Edward pressed councillors and lawyers to give effect to his plan. Letters patent of June 1553 formalised the proposed succession, and many leading figures signed support. Judges raised objections, while pressure from the King and Northumberland helped secure compliance. Henry's statutory authority to arrange the succession did not automatically give his underage son an equally secure power to reverse it by a document of his own.
The central problem remained that the devise contradicted an existing parliamentary settlement. A future Parliament was expected to confirm the new arrangement, but Edward died before this happened. Supporters could appeal to the reigning King's authority and the safety of religion; Mary's supporters could appeal to an established statute, Henry's will and her position as his daughter. A signed document did not remove the conflict between these bases of legitimacy.
Rival claims and Mary's mobilisation
Edward died on 6 July 1553. Jane was proclaimed Queen on 10 July, supported by the council and Northumberland's apparent control of central government. Possession of the machinery of government gave her regime important advantages, including the ability to issue orders and organise forces. It also concealed a weakness: some supporters had accepted the arrangement under pressure or while Edward was alive, rather than making an irreversible commitment to Jane.
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