To Henry succeeded his only son, under the title of Edward VI, but, being yet a child, he was King in name merely. The real power was in the hands of a Council of Regency. The majority of the Council were Reformers of an advanced type, and they desired to introduce in England, and to extend to Ireland, a State Religion, differing, to an extent never contemplated by Henry VIII, from the faith of the Roman Church—and, in fact, denying some of her most fundamental doctrines.

These innovations found no genuine supporters in Ireland. Many, even of those who had been content to accept the Royal Supremacy, declined to go further, and obstinately insisted on celebrating or attending Mass, and rejecting the new Prayer Books. The bishops who owed their promotion to the royal favour showed, as a rule, but little zeal, except in the violence and vehemence of their abuse of the disobedient Irish people ; of their less compliant brethren, who still clung to the old order of things, and not infrequently of one another.

St. Leger, who continued in office for over a year, carried out his conciliatory policy towards the chiefs with a fair measure of success, but the ascendancy party in England considered him lukewarm in pushing the Reformation, and, in April 1548, he was recalled, and Sir Edward Bellingham sent in his place. Bellingham was a man, straightforward and honest enough, but rough, imperious, and a believer in stern direct methods.