John Dudley, duke of Northumberland

John Dudley, duke of Northumberland (born 1504—died August 22, 1553, London, England) was an English politician and soldier who was the virtual ruler of England from 1549 to 1553, during the minority of King Edward VI. Almost all historical sources regard him as an unscrupulous schemer whose policies undermined England’s political stability.

His father, Edmund, was executed by King Henry VIII in 1510. Dudley became deputy governor of the English-occupied port of Calais, France, in 1538, and in 1542 he was made Viscount Lisle and appointed lord high admiral. He served under Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, in the invasion of Scotland in 1544. In September of the same year he captured the French city of Boulogne. The title earl of Warwick was conferred upon him in 1546.

Upon Henry VIII’s death (January 28, 1547), Warwick became a member of the regency council set up to govern the country during the minority of Edward VI. He acquiesced while Hertford assumed almost supreme power as protector with the title of duke of Somerset. At first the two men continued to work together. Warwick’s military ability was chiefly responsible for Somerset’s victory over the Scots at Pinkie in September 1547. But in 1549 Warwick took advantage of popular unrest generated by Somerset’s policies to join with the propertied classes and the Roman Catholics in a coalition that deposed and imprisoned the protector. When the coalition collapsed, Somerset was released (February 1550), and the two rivals were ostensibly reconciled. But Warwick was now in complete control of the government.

Warwick’s foreign policy included the abandonment of English efforts to obtain control of Scotland. At home he reversed Somerset’s liberal agrarian policies by suppressing peasants who resisted enclosure—normally the taking by propertied classes of arable land held in common by the peasants. In continuing the consolidation of the Protestant Reformation in England, he seized for himself and his henchmen much of the remaining wealth of the Church. A second Book of Common Prayer was imposed by another Act of Uniformity (1552).

The general unpopularity of his rule caused him to strengthen his position by making himself duke of Northumberland (1551) and by having the potentially dangerous Somerset arrested and (on January 22, 1552) executed. Thereafter he imposed strict conformity to Protestant ceremony and doctrine. The only aspects of his policies that historians have applauded were his attempts to deal with England’s economic ills by fighting inflation, stabilizing coinage, and expanding trade.

When it became evident in 1553 that the 15-year-old Edward VI would die of tuberculosis, Northumberland caused his son, Guildford Dudley, to marry Lady Jane Grey and persuaded the king to will the crown to Jane and her male heirs—thereby excluding from the succession Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Edward died on July 6, 1553, and on July 10 Northumberland proclaimed Jane queen of England. But the councillors in London and the populace backed Mary Tudor. Northumberland’s supporters melted away, and on July 20 he surrendered to Mary’s forces. A month later he was executed for treason.