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Guillaume Scrots, as court painter to Henry VIII's son and successor, Edward VI, was responsible for the design of the most important official portrait of Edward as king, of which the present painting is one of the rare extant examples. This full length portrait of Edward depicts the young king at about the age of fifteen and not long before his untimely death from consumption in 1553.
Edward VI (1537-1553) was the only son of King Henry VIII, by his third wife, Jane Seymour, and just nine years old when he succeeded to the throne. As he matured, Edward developed a deep interest in religious policy and his reign, although brief, is important as it marked a continuation and consolidation of the English Reformation, something which his sister Mary, who succeeded him as Queen of England, was unable to reverse.
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