Somerset suffered from the unpopularity of the new religious policy in some quarters and from that following the peasants' rebellion in others.

As usual, the government was blamed for the economic evils of the time and for once, in having debased the coinage, justly.

Moreover the Protector had been {316} involved by scheming rivals in the odium more than in the guilt of fratricide, for this least bloody of all English ministers in that century, had executed his brother, Thomas, Baron Seymour, a rash and ambitious man rightly supposed to be plotting his own advancement by a royal marriage.
Among the leaders of the Reformation belonging to the class of mere adventurers, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, was the ablest and the worst.

As the Protector held quasi-royal powers, he could only be deposed by using the person of the young king.

Warwick ingratiated himself with Edward and brought the child of thirteen to the council.
Of course he could only speak what was taught him, but the name of royalty had so dread a prestige that none dared disobey him.