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The Tudors / Re: Edward VI and Jane Grey
« on: February 08, 2011, 04:07:34 PM »
Edward himself showed no great desire to marry his first cousin once removed though he admired her learning - everything he wrote that has survived and was reported during his lifetime show a young man growing into the character of his father - he had an absolute determination to forge a foreign dynastic alliance - unlike his sisters there was no taint of illegitimacy and he was already King.
The rough wooing delayed early betrothals with anyone else religion was no bar - in fact it was in Charles V's and his son's interests to ensure Edward married someone amenable to Spain and the Hapsburgs as a block on France - equally the French would have happily seen Edward married to a French princess to avoid an anglo spanish alliance - Edward's religious preferences might have made a protestant german or scandinavian princess more suitable but in erms of poltical and dynastic prestige (with the failure of the rough wooing) France and the Hapsburgs were still the best game in town.
Northumberland was keen on Elizabeth Valois (who later married Philip II of Spain) and an alliance with France (once it was generally accepted that Mary Stuart was lost to France and Elizabeth's brother Francis.)
On the marriages of the three senior descendants of Edwards Aunt Mary Tudor - Jane Grey, Catherine Grey and Margaret Clifford - there is evidence that Northumberland was working on these alliances before Edward's illness and before it became clear that the young King was dying - and given Northumberland's power it would have been sensible for him to have tied up these individuals - Jane in her own right would in time be a great heiress irrespective of her relationship to the throne and Margaret Cllifford was also her father's heir. The only descendant of Henry VII that would have suceeded under the intial semi salic succession that Edward VI seemed to favour would have been Henry Lord Darnley (excluded under Henry VIII's will) which is why the device initially left the throne to the heirs male of Lady Jane Grey (on the grounds her mother was unlikely to have further children) - it was changed when it became apparent how close to death Edward was to the Lady Jane Grey and her heirs male and then to the heirs male of Lady Catherine, Lady Mary and Margaret Clifford.
The rough wooing delayed early betrothals with anyone else religion was no bar - in fact it was in Charles V's and his son's interests to ensure Edward married someone amenable to Spain and the Hapsburgs as a block on France - equally the French would have happily seen Edward married to a French princess to avoid an anglo spanish alliance - Edward's religious preferences might have made a protestant german or scandinavian princess more suitable but in erms of poltical and dynastic prestige (with the failure of the rough wooing) France and the Hapsburgs were still the best game in town.
Northumberland was keen on Elizabeth Valois (who later married Philip II of Spain) and an alliance with France (once it was generally accepted that Mary Stuart was lost to France and Elizabeth's brother Francis.)
On the marriages of the three senior descendants of Edwards Aunt Mary Tudor - Jane Grey, Catherine Grey and Margaret Clifford - there is evidence that Northumberland was working on these alliances before Edward's illness and before it became clear that the young King was dying - and given Northumberland's power it would have been sensible for him to have tied up these individuals - Jane in her own right would in time be a great heiress irrespective of her relationship to the throne and Margaret Cllifford was also her father's heir. The only descendant of Henry VII that would have suceeded under the intial semi salic succession that Edward VI seemed to favour would have been Henry Lord Darnley (excluded under Henry VIII's will) which is why the device initially left the throne to the heirs male of Lady Jane Grey (on the grounds her mother was unlikely to have further children) - it was changed when it became apparent how close to death Edward was to the Lady Jane Grey and her heirs male and then to the heirs male of Lady Catherine, Lady Mary and Margaret Clifford.