Great references:

·      The King is Dead: The Last Will and Testament of Henry VIII by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb

·      Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson

            The whole idea of the royal succession was for the throne to pass from the King to his adult, prepared, son. That’s the pattern that makes the “The King is dead, long live the King” thing work. But in English and Scottish and British history, that didn’t always happen. Sometimes there wasn’t an adult son ready to take the throne. Sometimes (gasp!) the throne went to a woman! And sometimes (double gasp!), it went to a child. Throughout Medieval times, when the King needed to rule and a strong King meant a strong country, a child on the throne was a bit of a problem. It was right there in the Bible: “Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child.”

            It was not automatically a full disaster. But it was certainly less than ideal. Let’s take a look.

Edward VI

            We’ll start with the last child King, Edward VI. If a child becomes King, that means his father died too soon. It’s hard to imagine many people feeling that way about Edward’s father—Henry VIII. Although he lived and ruled longer than his father had, Henry VIII failed to achieve one of his father’s greatest accomplishments: a peaceful succession from King to adult son. It had taken Henry VIII nearly 30 years of his reign to have a son, so by the time Edward was born, the King was in his final decade. Henry’s health was failing by the end of 1546. So he did everything he could to help smooth the way for his son to take and keep the throne.

            Henry had passed three different Succession Acts, the final of which put his daughters back in the succession. So the crown was to pass to Edward and his heirs, then to Mary and hers, and finally to Elizabeth and hers. But that wasn’t enough. Henry VIII wrote a will that did an unprecedented amount of micromanaging the future for generations to come. It reiterated the third Succession Act, adding that after Edward’s heirs, the crown would go to any children he would have with Kateryn Parr or any future wife. Yes, any future wife. OK, Henry. Then to Mary and Elizabeth.

            But it didn’t stop there. It then went on to identify what would happen if Elizabeth died without heirs. Henry specifically bypassed his elder sister Margaret and her family, which included Mary Queen of Scots. Instead, after Elizabeth would come the sons of his younger sister Mary’s daughters, Frances Brandon and then Eleanor Clifford. That’s six contingencies: Edward, his own future children, Mary and her heirs, Elizabeth and her heirs, Frances’s sons and their heirs, and Eleanor’s sons and their heirs.

            In all, Henry VIII devoted nearly 60 percent of his will to arranging the future according to his wishes. For a fantastic discussion of this, I refer you to Professor Suzannah Lipscomb’s The King is Dead: The Will and Testament of Henry VIII. For Edward’s reign, Henry VIII designated 16 Privy Council members and others to Edward’s Regency Council and 12 other men to aid and assist the council. There would be no Regent or Protector. But unfortunately, for Henry, his wishes were set aside almost as soon as he died. By the time the King’s death was announced, Edward Seymour had managed to navigate his way to being recognized as “Protector of the Realm and dominions of the King’s Majesty” and head of the Council. 

            Later that month, Edward Seymour was created Duke of Somerset and was given power to appoint members of the Privy Council, which meant he pretty much had full control of the country. His brother, Thomas Seymour, objected to his brother’s power play and went after some power of his own by marrying Kateryn Parr and getting close to the throne that way. Ultimately, both of the King’s uncles were arrested and found guilty of treason. Edward VI signed both death warrants, and he recorded the deaths with a chilling lack of emotion in his journal.

            Although young, Edward was a determined and dedicated reformer and his reign saw significant reforms and the beginning of the use of the term “Protestant.” Edward’s second Book of Common prayer provided a model for worship that would be used for 400 years. He was beginning to write in his journal about his frustration with those who didn’t follow his religious laws—it’s likely that if he had lived longer, his persecution of Catholics would have increased. But Edward was one of the few child Kings who did not grow to adulthood and rule on his own. 

            Edward’s religious conviction was a key factor in his attempt to completely overthrow his father’s succession plan and instead put the like-minded Lady Jane Grey on the throne. He knew his half-sister Mary would undo his religious reforms, so he declared that she and Elizabeth were not qualified for the Succession because of the illegitimacy. He did succeed in having Jane Grey declared Queen, but ultimately the popular support for Mary Tudor swept her to the throne. After Mary’s reign, Edward’s other half-sister Elizabeth took the throne, becoming the longest-reigning Tudor monarch. So Henry VIII’s Succession Plan was enacted after all.

Richard II 

            Let’s look at a child King who did grow up to rule on his own. We’ll see that growing up didn’t necessarily make things better.

            Richard was grandson of King Edward III, and son of Edward of Woodstock (also known as Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester, and Prince of Wales). Prince Edward was everything you want in a Prince of Wales: fierce warrior, successful in fighting the French in the Hundred Years War, founding member of the Order of the Garter. But Edward of Woodstock was sick and died in 1376. And that made Richard heir to his grandfather’s throne.

            Richard took the throne in 1377 at age 10. He was surrounded by a series of councils that were designed to help him rule and keep his ambitious uncle John of Gaunt on the sidelines. As members of the councils gained the young King’s trust and began influencing his decisions, the Commons discontinued the councils in 1380. 

            The next year, King Richard faced his first great challenge with the Peasants’ Revolt. The source of the discontent was the devastation of the Black Death and other illness that racked the nation, the effects of which were made worse by the incessant taxing to support a war that had lasted forever and was no longer yielding many victories. Things came to a head and Wat Tyler, John Ball, and Jack Straw led a revolt. It started in Kent and moved quickly to London.

            One of the interesting things about the reign of Richard II was that he had one of his best royal moments while still in his minority. Although just 14 years old, Richard responded decisively. He met the rebels at Mile End and agreed to some of their demands. The rebels grew restive and the King’s men responded, pulling Tyler off his horse and killing him. Despite the rebels’ outcries, Richard shouted that he was their true captain and led them away from the scene. It was not the end of outbreaks of rebellion, but Richard had shown his potential as a leader and exercised authority in the defeat, capture, and execution of the rebels. Ironically, Richard’s success with the Peasant’s Revolt turned out to contribute to his downfall. It seemed to fuel Richard’s belief in his absolute power as King—and he started to exercise it.

            Richard married Anne of Bohemia in 1382. The marriage had been negotiated by Michael de la Pole, a favorite of Richard’s who was quickly promoted to the role of Chancellor and made Earl of Suffolk. The established aristocracy resented the favoritism shown Suffolk and Robert de Vere. In 1386, Richard called Parliament to ask for more money for the wars in France. Parliament responded by demanding the removal of Suffolk from court. According to legend, the King responded that he would not remove even a kitchen scullion to please Parliament. But Parliament threatened to depose the King, and Suffolk had to go. Furious, Richard tried to raise support to regain total control. The Lords Appellant, a group of nobles, demanded the removal and even execution of many of Richard’s most loyal supporters.

            For awhile, a sense of peace followed. Richard and his uncle John of Gaunt patched things up, which helped settle things at court. The King made peace with France. He led troops to Ireland where his army was successful. All this helped Richard rebuild his confidence. In 1397, he flipped the script. He arrested and tried several of the Lords Appellant. He banished his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, Gaunt’s son. After Gaunt’s death, when his lands and title should have passed to his son, Richard seized them instead. Bolingbroke returned to England in 1399, finding widespread discontent with the King. He challenged Richard for the throne. According to different reports, Richard was either forced or willingly gave up his throne, and Bolingbroke was crowned King Henry IV on 13 October 1399.

            In the big job descriptions for a King, Richard suffered for the lack of good guidance. He did not promote peace at home, he was inconsistent with policies abroad, and he did not leave a son to succeed him. So not a huge success.

Henry VI

            If it’s bad to have a king who’s a child, imagine the potential disaster if the King is an infant. Especially in the midst of a huge war with France. There’s a moment at the end of Shakespeare’s Henry V, after the “band of brothers” speech and the glories of Agincourt and the humor of King Henry and Princess Katherine where the Chorus comes back on stage and rips the thrill of victory right out from under us. Henry V’s victories were followed shortly by his early death.

            Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown’d King

            Of France and England, did this King succeed;

            Whose state so many had the managing,

            That they lost France and made his England bleed.

            As he was dying, Henry V arranged for his brothers to be assigned to various responsibilities in his son’s reign. But there were some responsibilities that lay with the King himself. Lauren Johnson’s Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI includes a couple of examples of why things are so out of joint when a baby is King. According to law, the King himself was required to play some of the ceremonial and symbolic roles himself, whatever his age. (Of course, the laws were written assuming an adult King.) For example, the King had to hand the Great Seal off from the Lord Chancellor to the keeper of the chancery rolls. So on 28 September 1422, when the King was just nine months old, members of the interim council gathered at Windsor Castle and had an audience with the King. They touched the white leather bag containing the Great Seal to his tiny fingers before handing it to the keeper, who then delivered it to the treasury where it would remain until a new chancellor was appointed.

            That was the law, so absurd as it may seem to us to go through that kind of effort to touch a bag to a baby’s fingers, it was an important part of maintaining the monarchy.

            A similar event happened the next fall when the King was headed to his first Parliament a few weeks before his second birthday. When his mother and attendants tried to get him settled into the carriage, he threw such a tantrum they had to give up. They tried through the morning and eventually just allowed the royal baby to spend another night at the Inn. The next morning, he was in a better mood, and the royal entourage was able to travel. Everything waited on the King, the embodiment of the government.

            A few years later, the appearance of Joan of Arc in France gave the French troops a needed boost and shifted the outcome of battles. By now, Henry VI was King of France as well as England as a result of Henry V’s victories. But Charles VII of France contested Henry’s claim to the throne. After the French arranged a coronation ceremony for Charles VII, the English decided to counter by having Henry VI’s coronation as well. Henry was just seven years old when he took part in the processions and ceremonies associated with the coronation of a King of England in Westminster Abbey in 1429. Contemporary reports say that two bishops had to help hold St. Edward’s crown because it was too heavy for Henry to wear unassisted. After the ceremony, Henry was celebrated as “Born by descent and title of right/ Justly to reign in England and in France.”

            Henry VI was the first English King to claim to inherit the French crown. But as that inheritance was contested, crowning him King in France would not be easy. The royal party sailed for France in April 1430. Fighting was fierce across the country, and progress was slow. Finally, in December 1431, Henry VI was crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. He attended one session of the French “Parlement” but did not perform the usual traditions of releasing prisoners or cutting taxes. Within about a month, he returned to England.

            Ultimately, pageantry was no substitute for real leadership. Even as Henry VI grew older, he struggled. Eventually, most of France was lost. At home, he was unable to create a working council or court. His marriage to Marguerite of Anjou was very unpopular and revealed greater divisions among the nobility. When the Duke of York demanded a stronger position at court, even the appearance of unity splintered.

            Henry VI came down with an unknown illness in 1453 that left him unable to speak, feed himself, walk, or recognize what was happening around him. The Duke of York was appointed Protector. The King recovered, but it was clear he was not really in control. In 1455, the King’s forces and York’s forces faced off at St. Alban’s, and the battle there marked the beginning of what we call the Wars of the Roses. The battles among the descendants of Edward III for the crown would continue for years, long after Henry VI had died. Henry died in mysterious circumstances in the Tower of London in 1471 after being captured by the forces of Edward IV. It’s thought he was probably murdered. He had been King most of his life, but even though he lived to adulthood, he had never really ruled effectively.

The Stuarts of Scotland

            Of course, England wasn’t the only country with child Kings. The Stuarts saw a series of Kings named James take the throne as children. In 1406, James I was 12 and in captivity when he became King. James II became King at age 6 after his father was assassinated. The exact birth of James III is disputed, but he certainly was no older than 10 when he became King. James IV became King of Scotland at age 15 after his father died in battle. James V was only 17 months old when he became King after his father’s death in battle. And James VI was only 13 months old when he became King. So from 1406 to 1567, the incoming King was a young boy. There was, of course, one exception. Still a child, but not a boy.

            The exception is, of course, Mary Queen of Scots. We usually pick up her story as a challenger to Elizabeth I, which starts when she claims Elizabeth’s throne in 1558. But let’s take a look at Mary Queen of Scots and her early years as Queen.

            James V and his wife Marie of Guise had two sons, but they both died in 1541. The deaths were devastating. In the midst of a losing battle against the English, the King hoped his wife would have another son, but Mary was born December 1542. James is reported to have said, “It began with a lass, it will end with a lass”—referencing the matriarch of the Stuart dynasty, Marjorie Bruce as the beginning and his own daughter Mary as the end. Well, King James V was wrong and right. He was wrong about the dynasty ending with Mary Queen of Scots, but he was right a Queen would be the final Stuart monarch. That would be Queen Anne, who died in 1714, more than 125 years after Mary Queen of Scots.

            Faced with defeat in battle and the birth of a daughter, King James V died in despair. This catapulted Mary to the throne at a week old. The Regent of Scotland, James Hamilton, agreed to the Treaty to establish peace between the nations and included a plan for Queen Mary to marry Henry VIII’s heir, Prince Edward. When Mary was 9 months old, she was crowned Queen at Stirling Castle. Although Marie of Guise continued to maintain publicly she was in favor of the alliance with England, she was more interested in sending Mary to France. Henry VIII sensed hesitation on behalf of the Scots and launched the “Rough Wooing” at the end of 1543.

            In 1548, the Scottish Parliament had decided to send Mary to France to strengthen the relationship between France and Scotland. The five-year old Queen sailed from Scotland to France in August 1548. She was accompanied by her own court, including the “four Maries”—four daughters from the noble households of Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston who were Mary’s age and all shared her name. Mary was very popular in the French court, establishing a warm relationship with the dauphin Francois and winning over French King Henri II. She became good friends with French Princess Elizabeth de Valois. Her maternal grandmother, Antoinette de Bourbon, was also close to Mary and served as an advisor. About the only person who wasn’t charmed by the little Queen of Scots was her future mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici.

            As Mary I’s reign drew to a close in England, Henri II of France was preparing. Catholics didn’t accept Elizabeth Tudor’s claim to the throne. Henry VIII’s exclusion of Margaret Tudor’s heirs notwithstanding, many in Europe considered Mary Queen of Scots the heir to Mary I of England. Henri II moved forward with the marriage between his son and the Scots Queen. By the time Mary I died in November 1558, he had prepared his new daughter-in-law to claim the English throne. Mary Queen of Scots was just 16 years old, but she was the crowned Queen of Scotland, claimed to be Queen of England, and was on her way to becoming Queen of France. Not bad.

            Francois and Mary became King and Queen of France a few months later after Henri II died in a jousting accident. They quartered the arms of England in their coat of arms, and their royal coins stated they were King and Queen of France, Scotland, England, and Ireland. Even after her representatives signed the Treaty of Scotland, recognizing Elizabeth’s right to the English throne in 1560, Mary refused to agree to it. This was a sign of things to come.

            Mary was probably her happiest while in France. Tragically, Francois died in December 1560 and Mary’s life was turned upside down. She was no longer Queen and she had lost her beloved friend and husband. Francois’s younger brother became King, with Mary’s old nemesis Catherine de Medici acting as Regent. No longer welcome in France, Mary headed back to Scotland in 1561. Mary was now 19, so her time as child Queen was definitely over.

            Mary’s adult reign was exciting, that’s for sure. In 1565, she married Henry Lord Darnley, someone almost no one thought was the right choice. Even though she became pregnant quickly, her marriage fell apart. Her son James was born in June 1566, a big highlight but also eventually a rival. Then someone murdered Darnley in February 1567. Mary’s supporter Lord Bothwell was implicated, and Mary ended up marrying him (by choice? By force?) in May. Bothwell was unpopular, and the confederate  lords turned against them both. Mary and Bothwell confronted the lords on 15 June. Mary was taken to Edinburgh, where she miscarried twins. She was forced to abdicate in favor of her baby son not long after his first birthday. Mary was imprisoned, and Bothwell was exiled. A year later, Mary escaped and fled to England, arriving in May 1568. Her time as Queen was over, just about 25 years after it began in her infancy.

            So having a child on the throne may have been as bad as prophesied: “Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child.” Those minor rulers created major problems.

            Thank you for joining me to explore the chaos and fun of kids on the throne!

            And next week we wrap up season one with my friend and colleague Rebecca Larson of Tudors Dynasty podcast when we’ll look at one of the most fascinating family feuds of Tudor England.