Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey (c. 1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 to 19 July 1553.

Jane was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, through his youngest daughter Mary, and a great-niece of Henry VIII, and cousin to Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Under the will of Henry VIII, Jane was in line to the throne after her cousins. She had a humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day. In May 1553, she was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward VI's chief minister John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. In June 1553, the dying Edward VI wrote his will, nominating Jane and her male heirs as successors to the Crown, in part because his half-sister Mary was Catholic, while Jane was a committed Protestant and would support the reformed Church of England, whose foundation Edward laid. The will removed his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, from the line of succession on account of their illegitimacy, subverting their lawful claims under the Third Succession Act. Through Northumberland, Edward's letters patent in favour of Jane was signed by the entire privy council, bishops, and other notables.

After Edward's death, Jane was proclaimed queen on 10 July 1553, and awaited coronation in the Tower of London. Support for Mary grew rapidly and most of Jane's supporters abandoned her. The Privy Council of England suddenly changed sides, and proclaimed Mary as queen on 19 July 1553, deposing Jane. Her primary supporter, her father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland, was accused of treason, and executed less than a month later. Jane was held prisoner in the Tower, and in November 1553 was also convicted of treason, which carried a sentence of death.

Mary initially spared her life, but Jane soon became viewed as a threat to the Crown when her father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, became involved with Wyatt's rebellion against Queen Mary's intention to marry Philip of Spain. Jane and her husband were executed on 12 February 1554. At the time of her execution, Jane was either 16 or 17 years old.

Early life and education
Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Frances Brandon. The traditional view is that she was born at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire in October 1537, while more recent research indicates that she was born somewhat earlier, possibly in London, sometime before May 1537 or between May 1536 and February 1537. This would coincide with the fact that she was noted as being in her seventeenth year at the time of her execution. Frances was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary. Jane had two younger sisters: Lady Katherine and Lady Mary. Through their mother, the three sisters were great-granddaughters of Henry VII; great-nieces of Henry VIII; and first cousins once removed of the future Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Jane received a humanist education from John Aylmer, speaking Latin and Greek from an early age, also studying Hebrew with Aylmer, and Italian with Michelangelo Florio. She was particularly fond, throughout her life, of writing letters in Latin and Greek. Through the influence of her father and her tutors, she became a committed Protestant and also corresponded with the Zürich reformer Heinrich Bullinger.

She preferred academic studies rather than activities such as hunting parties and allegedly regarded her strict upbringing, which was typical of the time, as harsh. To the visiting scholar Roger Ascham, who found her reading Plato, she is said to have complained: For when I am in the presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it as it were in such weight, measure and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs and other ways (which I will not name for the honour I bear them) ... that I think myself in hell.

Around February 1547, Jane was sent to live in the household of Edward VI's uncle, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, who soon married Henry VIII's widow, Katherine Parr. After moving there, Jane was able to receive educational opportunities available in court circles. Jane lived with the couple at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire as an attendant to Katherine, until Katherine died in childbirth in September 1548. About eleven years old at the time, Jane was chief mourner at Katherine's funeral. After Thomas Seymour's arrest for treason, Jane returned to Bradgate and continued her studies.

Contracts for marriage




Lady Jane acted as chief mourner at Katherine Parr's funeral; Thomas Seymour showed continued interest to keep her in his household, and she returned there for about two months before he was arrested at the end of 1548. Seymour's brother, the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, felt threatened by Thomas' popularity with the young King Edward. Among other things, Thomas Seymour was charged with proposing Jane as a bride for the king.

In the course of Thomas Seymour's following attainder and execution, Jane's father was lucky to stay largely out of trouble. After his fourth interrogation by the King's Council, he proposed his daughter Jane as a bride for the Protector's eldest son, Lord Hertford. Nothing came of this, however, and Jane was not engaged until 25 May 1553, her bridegroom being Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. The Duke, Lord President of the King's Council from late 1549, was then the most powerful man in the country. On 25 May 1553, the couple were married at Durham House in a triple wedding, in which Jane's sister Katherine was matched with the heir of the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Herbert, and another Katherine, Lord Guildford's sister, with Henry Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon's heir.

Claim to the throne and accession


The Third Succession Act of 1544 restored Henry VIII's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the line of succession, although they were still regarded as illegitimate. Furthermore, this Act authorised Henry VIII to alter the succession by his will. Henry's will reinforced the succession of his three children, and then declared that, should none of them leave descendants, the throne would pass to heirs of his younger sister, Mary, which included Jane. For reasons unknown, Henry excluded Jane's mother, Frances Brandon, from the succession, and also bypassed the claims of the descendants of his elder sister, Margaret, who had married into the Scottish royal house and nobility.

Both Mary and Elizabeth had been named illegitimate by statute during the reign of Henry VIII after his marriages to Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn had been declared void. When the 15-year-old Edward VI lay dying in early summer 1553, his Catholic half-sister Mary was still his heir presumptive. Edward, in a draft will ("My devise for the Succession") composed earlier in 1553, had first restricted the succession to (non-existent) male descendants of Jane's mother and her daughters, before he named his Protestant cousin "Lady Jane and her heirs male" as his successors, probably in June 1553; the intent was to ensure his Protestant legacy, thereby bypassing Mary, a Roman Catholic. However, his advisors warned him that he could not disinherit just one of his older half-sisters: he would also have to disinherit Elizabeth, even though she was also Protestant. Possibly instigated by Northumberland, Edward decided to disinherit both Mary and Elizabeth, thus contravening the Succession Act of 1544, and appointed Jane Grey as his heir.

Edward VI personally supervised the copying of his will which was finally issued as letters patent on 21 June and signed by 102 notables, among them the whole Privy Council, peers, bishops, judges, and London aldermen. Edward also announced to have his "declaration" passed in parliament in September, and the necessary writs were prepared. The King died on 6 July 1553, but his death was not announced until four days later. On 9 July, Jane was informed that she was now queen, and according to her own later claims, accepted the crown only with reluctance. On 10 July, she was officially proclaimed Queen of England, France and Ireland after she had taken up secure residence in the Tower of London, where English monarchs customarily resided from the time of accession until coronation. Jane refused to name her husband Dudley as king, because that would require an Act of Parliament.

Princess Mary was last seen by Edward in mid-February, and both her advisors and the imperial ambassador were keeping her informed about the state of her brother's health. At the end of June, Mary was invited to visit her dying brother, however her advisors warned her that it was a plan devised by Northumberland to capture her and thus facilitate Jane's accession to the throne. Therefore, a few days before Edward's death, the Princess left Hunsdon House, near London, and sped to her extensive estates around Kenninghall in Norfolk, where she could count on the support of her tenants. Northumberland sent part of the Royal Navy to the Norfolk coasts to prevent their escape or the arrival of reinforcements from the Continent.

To claim her right to the throne, Mary began assembling her supporters in East Anglia. Northumberland soon realized that he had made a grave mistake in failing to capture and neutralize the Princess before she fled to her estates in Norfolk. Although many of those who rallied to Mary were Catholics hoping to reestablish the traditional faith and defeat Protestantism, her supporters also included many for whom her lawful claim to the throne overrode religious considerations. On 9 July, from Kenninghall, she sent a letter saying that she was now Queen and demanded the obedience of the Council. The letter arrived on 10 July, the same day as Jane's proclamation in London. Jane's proclamation in London was greeted by the public with murmurs of discontent. The council replied to Mary's letter that Jane was queen by Edward's authority and that Mary, by contrast, was illegitimate and supported only by "a few lewd, base people". Dudley interpreted the letter as a threat, although at that time he had not yet decided to take concrete action against Mary, since he needed at least a week to try to build up a larger force. He was in a dilemma over who should lead the troops. He was the most experienced general in the Kingdom, but he did not want to leave the government in the hands of his colleagues, in some of whom he had little confidence. Jane decided the issue by demanding that her father should remain with her and the Council.

On the night of July 10, during dinner, the Duchess of Suffolk, Jane's mother, and the Duchess of Northumberland broke into tears, due to the arrival of Mary's letter, as the duchesses knew that they could be left in a vulnerable position if Mary triumphed and acceded to the throne.

On 12 July, Mary and her supporters gathered an army of nearly twenty thousand at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, Duke of Norfolk's property, to eventually confront the forces led by Dudley.

On 14 July Northumberland was obliged to relinquish control of a nervous council in London to pursue Mary into East Anglia. That same day, Northumberland left London and headed to Cambridge with 1,500 troops and some artillery, having reminded his colleagues of the gravity of the cause, "what chance of variance soever might grow amongst you in my absence".

After marching to Cambridge, the Northumberland army spent a week practically without action, until on 20 July, the Duke learned that the previous day the Council had declared for Mary. Supported by the gentry and nobility of East Anglia and the Thames Valley, Mary's support grew daily and, through luck, came into possession of powerful artillery from the Royal navy. Given the circumstances and the fact that the Council had changed sides, the Duke felt that launching a final campaign against Mary was a counterproductive and desperate measure. Stranded in Cambridge, Northumberland surrendered and proclaimed Mary in the Marketplace, as he had been ordered in a letter from the Council. The Catholics William Paget and Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, rode to Framlingham to beg Mary's pardon, on behalf of the majority of the Council, for having signed the document removing her from the succession and placing Jane Grey on the throne. Arundel arrested Northumberland on the morning of 21 July. The Council switched their allegiance and proclaimed Mary queen in London, on 19 July. A majority of the councillors moved out of the Tower before switching their allegiance. Becoming aware of his colleagues' change of mind, Jane's father abandoned his command of the fortress and proclaimed Mary I on nearby Tower Hill. The historical consensus assumes that this was in recognition of overwhelming support of the population for Mary. However, there is no clear evidence for that outside Norfolk and Suffolk, where Northumberland had put down Kett's Rebellion, and many adherents to the Catholic faith and opponents of Northumberland, lived there. Rather, it seems the Earl of Arundel, together with William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke orchestrated a coup d'état in the Privy Council in Northumberland's absence. Arundel, one of the leaders of the Conservative faction within the Council and a staunch opponent of the reformist religious policies of both the King and Northumberland, had been imprisoned twice by Dudley for having sided with the previous Protector, Somerset; but it is not clear why Pembroke participated in the coup, especially since his son and heir Henry had married Jane's sister, Katherine, the same day as Jane and Guildford Dudley's wedding. On 19 July, the Council met at Baynard's Castle, Pembroke's property, to end the claim of Lady Jane Grey to the throne and proclaim Mary as Queen of England. That same day, a few hours before Queen Mary's proclamation in London, the baptism of one of the Gentlemen Pensioners' children took place. Jane had agreed to be the godmother and wished the child's name to be Guildford. The Bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner, who had been imprisoned in the Tower for five years, took great offence at this fact as he heard of it.

Mary rode triumphantly into London on 3 August, on a wave of popular support. She was accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen.

Jane is often called the Nine-Day Queen, although if her reign is dated from the moment of Edward's death on 6 July 1553, it could be reckoned to have lasted for almost two weeks (13 days). On 19 July 1553, Jane was imprisoned in the Tower's Gentleman Gaoler's apartments, and Guildford was imprisoned in the Bell Tower. There he was soon joined by his brother, Robert. His remaining brothers were imprisoned in other towers, as was Northumberland, who was for the moment the only prominent person to go to the scaffold. Despite the Duchess of Northumberland's desperate pleas to the Queen not to execute him, nothing changed the final sentence and Dudley was beheaded on 22 August 1553. The day before his execution, the Duke attended Catholic Mass, taking communion and returning to that faith, abjuring Protestantism, much to the indignation of Jane, who was a fervent Protestant. In September, the first Parliament of Mary's reign revoked the provisions of Edward's will favoring Jane Grey's succession, declaring Mary her brother's rightful heir, and denounced and revoked Jane's proclamation as a usurper.

For centuries, the attempt to alter the succession was mostly seen as a one-man plot by Northumberland. Since the 1970s, however, many historians have attributed the inception of the "devise" and the insistence on its implementation to the king's initiative. Diarmaid MacCulloch has made out Edward's "teenage dreams of founding an evangelical realm of Christ", while David Starkey has stated that "Edward had a couple of co-operators, but the driving will was his". Among other members of the Privy Chamber, Northumberland's intimate Sir John Gates has been suspected of suggesting to Edward to change his devise so that Lady Jane Grey herself—not just any sons of hers—could inherit the Crown. Whatever the degree of his contribution, Edward was convinced that his word was law and fully endorsed disinheriting his half-sisters: "barring Mary from the succession was a cause in which the young King believed".

Trial and execution


Referred to by the court as Jane Dudley, wife of Guildford, Jane was charged with high treason, as were her husband, two of his brothers, and the former archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. Their trial, by a special commission, took place on 13 November 1553, at Guildhall in the City of London. The commission was chaired by Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Other members included Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, and John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath. As was to be expected, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. The Duke of Suffolk was also accused of high treason and sentenced to death, but thanks to the close friendship his wife had with Mary, he was prevented from being immediately executed. Jane's guilt, of having treacherously assumed the title and the power of the monarch, was evidenced by a number of documents she had signed as "Jane the Quene". Her sentence was to "be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases" (burning was the traditional English punishment for treason committed by women). The imperial ambassador reported to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, that her life was to be spared.

Jane submitted a letter of explanation to the Queen, "asking forgiveness ... for the sin she was accused of, informing her majesty about the truth of events." In this account, she spoke of herself as "a wife who loves her husband".

In December, Jane was allowed to walk freely in the Queen's Garden. Lord Robert and Lord Guildford had to be content with taking the air on the leads of the Bell Tower. Jane and Guildford may have had some contact with each other, and at some point Guildford wrote a message to his father-in-law in Jane's prayer book: Your loving and obedient son wishes unto your grace long life in this world with as much joy and comfort as ever I wish to myself, and in the world to come joy everlasting. Your humble son to his death, G. Dudley



Mary initially decided to spare the lives of Jane and her husband, believing them to be mere pawns in the midst of a much larger political scheme designed and orchestrated by Northumberland, and the Duke was executed on 22 August 1553, a month after Mary's accession to the throne. However, the Wyatt's Rebellion in January 1554 against Queen Mary's marriage plans with Philip of Spain sealed Jane's fate. Jane's father along with Robert and Henry Dudley, Guildford's brothers, joined the rebellion, so the Government decided to go ahead with the verdict against Jane and her husband. It troubled Mary to let her cousin die, but she accepted the Privy Council's advice. The Queen signed the order on 19 January. Bishop and Lord Chancellor Gardiner pressed for the young couple's execution in a court sermon, and the Imperial ambassador Simon Renard was happy to report that "Jane of Suffolk and her husband are to lose their heads." Their execution was first scheduled for 9 February 1554, but was then postponed for three days to give Jane a chance to convert to the Catholic faith. Mary sent her chaplain, Father John Feckenham to see Jane, who was initially not pleased about this. Though she would not give in to his efforts "to save her soul", she became friends with him and allowed him to accompany her to the scaffold.

The day before their executions, Lord Guildford asked Jane to have one last meeting, which she refused, explaining it "would only ... increase their misery and pain, it was better to put it off ... as they would meet shortly elsewhere, and live bound by indissoluble ties."

On the morning of 12 February 1554, the authorities took Guildford from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill, where he was beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower, past the rooms where Jane was staying. Seeing her husband's corpse return, Jane is reported to have exclaimed: "Oh, Guildford, Guildford." She was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower, to be beheaded. According to the account of her execution given in the anonymous Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, which formed the basis for Raphael Holinshed's depiction, Jane gave a speech upon ascending the scaffold:

"Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the Queen's highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day."

While admitting to action considered unlawful, she declared that "I do wash my hands thereof in innocence". Jane then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. The executioner asked her for forgiveness, which she granted him, pleading: "I pray you dispatch me quickly." Referring to her head, she asked, "Will you take it off before I lay me down?", and the axeman answered, "No, madam." She then blindfolded herself. Jane then failed to find the block with her hands, and cried, "What shall I do? Where is it?" Probably Sir Thomas Brydges, the Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower, helped her find her way. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted in the Gospel of Luke: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"

Jane and Guildford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. No memorial stone was erected at their grave. Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, was executed 11 days after Jane, on 23 February 1554. Her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, married her Master of the Horse and chamberlain, Adrian Stokes, in March 1555. She maintained good relations with Mary who allowed her to live at Richmond and employed the Duchess's surviving daughters as maids of honour. She died in 1559.

Legacy
In 1836, American poet Lydia Sigourney published a poem, "Lady Jane Grey", in her volume Zinzendorff and Other Poems. In 1911, the British historian Albert Pollard called Jane "the traitor-heroine of the Reformation". During the Marian persecutions and its aftermath, Jane became viewed as a Protestant martyr, featuring prominently in the several editions of Foxe's Book of Martyrs (Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Dayes) by John Foxe. The story of Jane's life grew to legendary proportions in popular culture, producing romantic biographies, novels, plays, operas, paintings, and films, such as Lady Jane in 1986, and Amazon Prime’s My Lady Jane series that débuted in June 2024.

Family tree
Italics indicate people who predeceased Edward VI; Arabic numerals (1–5) indicate Edward VI's line of succession at his death according to Henry VIII's will; and Roman numerals (I–III) indicate Edward VI's line of succession at his death according to Edward's will.