How did Edward die?
What exactly was wrong with King Edward that caused him to die? Does anyone know if it is true that he was kept alive, but in great pain, by using arsenic?
shareEdward's health became worse in the last years of his reign. In April 1552 he had measles and smallpox which he recovered from (and he recorded this in his chronicler, which was like a kind of diary he kept). But he recovered from the illness and he didn’t appear to be dying. But he fell ill again nearly a year after in the early spring of 1553. His symptoms strongly suggest that he suffered from consumption (which today we know as tuberculosis). His health rapidly declined and by July the same year, he was dead.
It appears that Edward’s doctors gave him medicines, first in an attempt to improve his health and hopefully cure him and then later it was used as means to prolong his life. But historians aren’t sure who was behind this and whether this was actually maliciously done. So some historians believe that John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland was purposely prolonging Edward’s life in order for him to change the succession in favour of his daughter-in-law. Other historians have stressed how Edward was really the one who changed the will due to his dismay over the possibility that his Catholic sister would be his heir. So this suggests he wished to be alive for as long as possible. Personally I think Edward, knowing he was ill, spent as much time possible altering his succession and would have welcomed the extra time the medicines could provide. But I think in his last days this advantage turned into misery and dread when he wished to die and yet his life was prolonged. I think in the last days Dudley advised the medicines to continue because he needed time to secure Jane grey’s position and his own. But I do think Edward in the beginning of his illness agreed with the treatment in order to give himself time for his plans.
‘Noli me tangere; for Caesar's I am’
The Medicine used for King Edward to live longer even though he was suffering so badly from the affects was Arsenic
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