Imagine this scene: It is the beginning of the year 1547. In the beautiful Westminster Abbey, London, there is a magnificent assembly. Nobility, clergy, European envoys all richly dressed in elaborate clothing are gathered in the chapel to witness the coronation of King Edward the Sixth. Seated on a huge carved throne, wearing a crown made especially to fit his small head, is a thin, fair-haired boy who is dressed in crimson velvet, gold and furs. He is only nine years old and he is England’s new king.

‘The British Josiah’

The boy, surrounded by splendour and majesty, listens solemnly to the words being addressed to him, in the hearing of all assembled there, by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer: “Not from the bishop of Rome,” Cranmer is saying, “but as a messenger from my Saviour Jesus Christ, I shall most humbly admonish your Royal Majesty, what things your highness is to perform. Your Majesty is God’s vicegerent, and Christ’s vicar within your own dominions, and to see, with your predecessor Josiah, God truly worshiped and idolatry destroyed… You are to reward virtue, to revenge sin, to justify the innocent, to relieve the poor, to procure peace, to repress violence, and to execute justice throughout all your realms.” Cranmer ends his speech crying, “God save the king!”[i]

Thus began the reign of a young man who John Knox described as the “most godly king of England”. As Thomas Cranmer suggested in his speech, Edward VI’s reign would be in many ways like the reign of the biblical King Josiah who also began his reign as a young boy and who brought Judah back to the worship of the true God.  (You can find Josiah’s story in 2 Kings 23:1-24:30) In fact, Edward VI became known as ‘The British Josiah’.

No Ordinary Boy

Perhaps the first major event that showed how Edward VI would be no ordinary king was one that took place before his coronation. Before the coronation there was to be a procession where three swords were to be carried before the young king. It is said that when Edward saw these swords he said that the most important sword of all had been forgotten. When the surprised nobles asked what he meant he replied, “The Bible” and added, “That book is the sword of the Spirit and to be preferred before these swords… Without that sword we are nothing, we can do nothing, we have not power.”[ii] Even at his young age ‘The British Josiah’ recognized the importance and power of God’s Word.

The Solid Foundation

You might be surprised that the son of the infamous Henry VIII respected the authority of God’s Word so much. Although Henry VIII was not the best example to his son, he did provided Edward with very good education and with teachers whose example made a huge impact on the young prince. Many of these tutors were faithful Christians and included men like Thomas Cranmer who was later burned at the stake during the reign of Mary I for his Reformation theology. Edward VI also regularly listened to the powerful preaching of the martyr Hugh Latimer, who Edward invited to the palace over and over again.

Reformation in England

With the help of Cranmer and his Protestant uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, Edward worked hard to reform England. Of course, his father had already unintentionally cleared the path for this by breaking away from the Catholic Church and England was ripe for reformation.

When he was twelve years old ‘The British Josiah’ wrote his Treatise Against the Primacy of the Pope, a brilliant literary work in which he uses texts from the Bible to show why the pope should not be the church’s ultimate authority. When one reads this in-depth, complex work one can hardly imagine that it was written by a twelve-year-old.  King Edward also commanded that church services be conducted in English instead of Latin so that common people could understand them. Removing some Roman Catholic traditions and replacing them with Protestant ways of worship was no easy task for the people often resisted the changes. Sometimes the Duke of Somerset made decisions and proclamations that further confused matters.

Difficulties

Although Edward VI was gifted with a deep understanding of God’s Word that was well beyond his years, he was not always as mature when faced with political issues. Sadly, some of his advisors sometimes succeeded in manipulating him to do what they wanted.  In 1552, the evil Duke of Northumberland confused the young king with false accusations and tricked him into signing the death warrant for the Duke of Somerset. When Edward realized how he had been tricked he was deeply grieved and humbly acknowledged his own fault in the matter.

Not long after this, the king became very ill with smallpox and measles. Edward VI had always been quite sickly and he never fully recovered from the effects of these illnesses. In July 1553, ‘The British Josiah’ died a few months before he turned sixteen. No one seems to agree on what he died of. Many say that he died of tuberculosis. Some say that the Duke of Northumberland poisoned him. Both theories might be true. John Calvin said of Edward’s death in a letter to Farell, “I consider that, by the death of one youth the whole nation has been bereaved of the best of fathers.” [iii]

A Lasting Legacy

Short as it was, Edward’s reign had changed England. Besides his work to reform the church, he worked to help the poor and needy in his country, established over sixteen grammar schools, and, most wonderfully of all, increased the circulation of the English Bible throughout his realm. Less than twenty years earlier, William Tyndale had been burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. Now it was becoming more and more available to anyone who wanted to read it.

Edward’s reign would be followed by a time of great suffering for Protestants during the reign of his sister, Mary I, but these short six years had been enough to light a fire in England that could not be extinguished. The reign of the ‘British Josiah’ allowed the Reformation in England to blossom, gave great Christians like Latimer and Cranmer freedom to teach truth and it gave the English people a chance to hear God’s Word and read it for themselves. Even Queen Mary’s ruthless executions could not crush the power of God’s truth in men’s hearts.  Difficult as the young king’s life was, it was a life spent storing up eternal treasure. As Amy Carmichael, the 19^th century missionary to India says, “…the eternal stuff of history and of life is never found in the thunder-clouds of dark enfolding circumstances, but always in the light that pierces the clouds. It is never the material, but always the spiritual that is deathless and abides.”

Bibliography and Endnotes

Woychuk, N.A. The British Josiah, SMF Press, St. Louis, 2001

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Edward_VI_of_England

Rusten, E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, The One Year Christian History, Tyndale, USA, 2003

Carmichael, Amy, Gold By Moonlight, S.P.C.K, London, 1948

[i] Writings of Edward the Sixth, The Religious Tract Society, London, 1831, quoted by N.A.Woychuk in The British Josiah

[ii] Ibid

[iii] G.C. Gorham, Gleanings of a Few Scattered Ears, During the Period of the Reformation in England, Bell and Daldy, London, quoted by N.A.Woychuk in The British Josiah

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