The Boy King: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch

The Boy King: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation Reviews

• 
  Sarah W.

  This is less a biography of Edward VI than an academic study of the course of the English Reformation during Edward's six-year reign. Edward VI himself barely warrants a mention in this volume, as the momentum behind religious reform was managed almost entirely by the adults on his council, men such as Cranmer, Somerset and Northumberland. While an excellent look at the religious changes enacted in this period, MacCulloch excludes or hardly alludes to other significant events during Edward's rule, making this a very narrow history of his reign.
• 
  Susan

  I recently listened to the excellent Tombland by CJ Sansom. In it he wrote about the 'confrontations' and the Kett Rebellion, Protector Somerset and Edward VI - if you have not read any Sansom I urge you to do so, he writes amazing Tudor based fiction. Anyway, this sparked my interest in finding out more about this period between Henry VIII and the accession of Mary I.
  
  I found this in the library and it is a wonderful book. It provided answers to all of my questions relating to who was who and why. Clearly written and readable but full of scholarly information and further references. Read it and shed some light on the brief reign of Edward VI.
• 
  Kieran

  The reign of Edward VI often gets skipped over in the history of the Tudors, sandwiched between his larger than life father, the bloody reputation of his half-sister, and then the long reign of his other half-sister.
  
  But it is in the short reign of the boy king that the English Reformation really got underway, unleashing creative and destructive energies. The evangelical Church of England of 1553, which looked more Swiss than English or German, was a far cry from the mish mash of Henrician compromise inherited in 1547.
  
  This book charts how that happened, and how the fossilised remains of Edward’s Church lived on in the Elizabethan religious settlement. Definitely helps to have a good head for theological history on you!
• 
  Jason Wilson

  Between Henry Viii and the brief Jane Grey, the Marian reversion to Catholicism and the Elizabethan synthesis came Edward , the boy king who died at 15. Dealing with such a brief reign by a minor begs the question of how much was him and how much is regents and the author teases this out well. There is also good coverage of how it fits into the aftermath. It’s right that this is a period of change in its own right, not just an interlude. It’s also an intriguing what if.
• 
  Nigel Ewan

  A good overview, though I found myself at times wishing for more narrative and less minutiae. MacCulloch's personal uneasiness toward the very evangelical/Reformed faction of the English Reformation made for some interesting dissonance in my mind. Merits more thinking.
• 
  Simonetta Carr

  Excellent overview of an important but neglected time in English history
• 
  Virginia Rounding

  Clear, concise yet comprehensive.
• 
  Stuart Jennings

  A engaging narrative leads the reader through the vicissitudes of the Protestant reformation under the boy king Edward