The rough beginning of a timeline
POD: Edward VI recovers and lives for a few years longer, but eventually grows sick again and dies. He marries Jane Grey at 15, and when they are 17 Jane becomes pregnant. When Jane is five months along, Edward falls sick again and dies on January 28, 1556 leaving the fate of his kingdom in a precarious state. Jane is decided to rule as regent until she gives birth. Mary is perturbed at this, but advisors tell her that once the her brother’s child is born she will be proclaimed Queen—they assume the child is a girl and await only confirmation of the child’s birth. Mary however is not so confident about the gender of the child and fears that if it is a boy that she’d be forced to have to wait to have her rightful rule as Queen. So to hedge her bets, Mary arranges for the midwife to be paid off and smother the child if it’s a boy.
In May of 1556 Jane goes into labor, a long one that lasts well into the night. Just after midnight on May 16th Jane gives birth to a baby boy who is named after his father, thus becoming Edward, Prince of Wales. Before the midwife can smother Edward however, Jane screams out, apparently still in labor, and another boy, Edward’s twin brother, is delivered. This boy is named Henry by Jane, after her father-in-law and is named the Duke of York. Jane is exhausted from being in labor and falls unconscious. Northumberland has been in the room since the Prince’s birth (he heard that the Queen had given birth and burst into the room to see the child, and after doing so was chased out while the Queen continued in her labor). After Henry’s birth is over, Northumberland and the other lords of the Privy Council burst into the room, eager to see the new kings of England. The midwife takes the young princes to get one of the few baths they’ll get in their lives. Unsure of what to do the midwife steals Edward, leaves Henry, and hurries off for Mary. The midwife presents Mary with Edward, the heir to the throne.
“You wench! Why is he still alive? I told thee to smother him.” said Mary as the midwife entered with the young Prince.
“Milady, you will forgive me but there was no time to smother the babe, what with his twin being born—“ answered the midwife.
“Twin? Did you say he has a twin?”
“Aye, milady, a twin brother.”
“And he is my brother’s eldest son?”
“Aye, milady. The Queen named him after his father, she did.”
Mary takes Edward from the midwife and looks at him.
“He looks like a healthy boy. Thank you for your pains, you will be rewarded hereafter.”
The midwife leaves and Mary stares at her nephew.
“Your father might have been poisoned by these heretics, but you won’t.”
~Salamon2