King of England (1547–53). He was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. During his minority effective power was exercised by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset until 1549, and subsequently by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. He favoured the Protestant religion, endorsing Archbishop Cranmer’s English Prayer Books (1549 and 1552). Contemporaries noted his studious, unemotional nature, and a callous streak reminiscent of his father. Always a sickly child, he died of tuberculosis aged 16.