Edward VI of England Edward VI of England Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, and England's first monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a regency council because he never reached his majority. The council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (1547–1549), and then by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick (1550–1553), from
Mary Seymour, Duchess of Somerset in Wiltshire and Devon. On 11 September 1744, the unexpected death of George Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp (1725–1744), the only son of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, made Sir Edward the heir presumptive to the dukedom and to the barony of Seymour. On 23 November 1750 the 7th duke died, and Seymour succeeded to the dukedom, his wife then becoming a duchess. The principal Percy family estates and houses of Alnwick Castle, Northumberland House, Petworth House, and Syon House, had been divided between the 7th duke's daughter Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, and his nephew, Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of