Not Becoming of A Christian Princess

It is - and was - not a secret that Princess Mary and Prince Edward did not see eye to eye on religious matters but as it turns out, the siblings had different views on royal behaviour.

Prince Edward wrote to Catherine Parr, asking her to keep the Princess Mary from dancing foreign and exotic dances. In his own words Mary should "attend no longer to foreign dances and merriments which do not become a most Christian Princess." You can almost imagine Mary's indignation towards being reproved by her younger brother on her behaviour.
Despite personal pride, Mary may also have found a sort of comfort in the foreign dances since her mother had brought many Spanish and "Moorish" dances to the English court when she arrived to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales.

Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset

Edward Seymour was born in around 1500 and would be the brother of Queen Jane Seymour. When he was 14 he received an appointment in the household of Mary Tudor.
Edward married twice; his first marriage to Catherine Fillol was annulled due to her adultery and his second marriage was to Anne Stanhope in the time before March 9th 1534.

When Jane Seymour became the third wife of Henry VIII, Edward was created first Viscount Beauchamp on June 5th 1536 and Earl of Hertford in October 1537. He was sent to the Scottish border to "teach the King of Scotland a lesson" on behalf of Henry VIII - a task he carried out with extreme ruthlessness. Even after the death of his sister Edward remained in high favour with Henry VIII which turned out to last even beyond this Tudor-king.

Edward VI

The Boy King - the long-longed for son

Prince Edward was the son that Henry VIII had always wanted - and gotten rid of two wives for. When he was born on October 12th 1537 his mother, Jane Seymour, immediately rose in Henry's affection. But the young Prince never knew his mother who died just eleven days after giving birth to him.

Edward was a healthy baby and Henry doted on him. Despite the image of him as a sickly boy, he was actually of a rather good health and grew very fast as a child. The only real health issue - before his final illness - was a poor eyesight. Henry VIII wanted desperately to keep the child safe from both diseases and assassination. Edward was placed in the care of Lady Bryant and his household was run by Anne Stanhope's (Edward Seymour's wife) stepfather. Visitors who came to visit the Prince was met with an extremely clean household and a child that had all the toys he could imagine - nothing was to be missing for the King's only son.