Portrait of Edward VI of England, circle of William Scrots, via Wikimedia Commons
King Edward VI of England (1537-1553) was the long desired, enough to kill my wives, only surviving son of Henry VIII (and Queen Jane Seymour). His father died when he was only nine years old. Raised a staunch Protestant, he was raised even MORE of a staunch Protestant after he came to the throne — of course, he was under the power of various courtiers, especially those who served as his regents.
Edward can be portrayed as a sickly child, but he was actually fine (health-wise) until the year he died, age 15. Had he grown to maturity and become king in his own right, he’s likely to have brought England closer to Protestantism than his successors and likely in not-a-nice way; that also would have meant no Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and the counter-reformation, or Elizabeth I. Specifically, his second regent, the Duke of Northumberland, is the one who possibly pressured Edward to change his will in favor of Lady Jane Grey shortly before he died, leading to all of THOSE shenanigans. Edward died unmarried and childless (just dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s!), and was succeeded by Lady Jane Grey Mary I.
There’s two portrayals of Edward on screen I can’t find:
- Forbes Dawson in Lady Jane Grey; Or, The Court of Intrigue (1923)
- Ashley Gyngell in England’s Forgotten Queen: The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey (2018)
For the rest, let’s do this!
Tibi Lubinsky in The Prince and the Pauper (1920)
An Austrian silent film adapting the famous Mark Twain story, in which a poor boy looks like Edward and the two swap places for a time.
Desmond Tester in Tudor Rose (1936)
A feature film focused on Lady Jane Grey.
Bobby Mauch in The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
Another Twain adaptation!
Rex Thompson in Young Bess (1953) & The Prince and the Pauper (1957)
Young Bess was about the teenage years and accession of Elizabeth I; you can guess what P&P was about…
Sean Scully in Disneyland: “The Prince and the Pauper” (1962)
An episode of the Disney-hosted TV series adapting the Twain story.
Jason Kemp in Elizabeth R (1971)
The famous BBC miniseries about the famous queen.
Nicholas Lyndhurst in The Prince and the Pauper (1976)
More Twain!
Mark Lester in The Prince and the Pauper (1977)
Yet More Twain!
Warren Saire in Lady Jane (1986)
The romanticized but truly entertaining feature film about Lady Jane Grey.
Philip Sarson in The Prince and the Pauper (1996)
Twain Fiesta!
Jonathan Timmins in The Prince and the Pauper (2000)
Twain Yet Again!
Byron Long as Edward in Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor (2000)
A TV movie adaptation of a Young Adult book about Elizabeth.
Hugh Mitchell in Henry VIII (2003)
The terrible TV miniseries that purports to be about Henry VIII and fails at most everything.
Eoin Murtagh & Jake Hathaway in The Tudors (2007–10)
Showtime’s terrible Henry VIII series.
Oliver Zetterström in Becoming Elizabeth (2022)
The recent TV series about preteen Elizabeth I.
Which portrayal of Edward VI on screen has been your favorite?
The bald woman is likely Jane Foole, also known as Jane the Foole, and The Queen’s Foole. She was a female jester for Catherine Parr and Mary I. She’s bald because head was shaved just like the heads of male jesters were.
Having just reread the “Royal Diaries” book on which this is based, can confirm. Although she is referred to as Jane the Bald in the book, presumably for the sake of visual evocativeness.
I was reasonably impressed by the costumes in Becoming Elizabeth! They’re reasonable for a Starz production
I read that one too! It’s how I recognized her in the first place and how I looked her up to see if she was a real person and not just a character created for the book.
BECOMING ELIZABETH first, no-one second: it’s the only version of His Late Majesty Edward VI who registered as an actual character (Rather than a cameo), but more than that, King Edward and Lady Mary absolutely make the series (The fact the young fellow playing King Edward manages to keep up with Romola Garai herself is something to behold to boot).
That we wouldn’t get to see more of these two at work in Tudor England is the major reason I was sorry the show was cancelled before we even got to Queen Mary I (Though credit to the chap playing Lord Protector Somerset for doing yeoman work).
That’s a lot of adaptations of The Prince and the Pauper!
Wow, young Nicholas Lyndhurst! He became much better known later in life for TV comedy series like Only Fools And Horses (about two brothers trying to get rich in contemporary London) and Goodnight Sweetheart (time-travel comedy about a two-timing man who uses a portal to the 1940s to have relationships with a different woman in each era).
the Mark Lester one. Looking back, it was terrible, but it’s the one I remember. Nobody got Edward VI right. He was worse than his father, because he was more of a religious fanatic.
He was also a character in that one season fantasy series “My Lady Jane.”