Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey
The Streatham Portrait, discovered at the beginning of the 21st century and believed to be a copy of a contemporary portrait of Lady Jane Grey.
Queen of England and Queen of Ireland (disputed)
Reign	10 July 1553 – 19 July 1553 (9 days)
Predecessor	Edward VI
Successor	Mary I
Born	1536/1537
Died	12 February 1554 (aged 16–17) Tower of London, London
Burial	St Peter ad Vincula, London
Spouse	Lord Guilford Dudley
Father	Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Mother	Lady Frances Brandon
Signature

Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who occupied the English throne from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed. A great-granddaughter of Henry VII by his younger daughter Mary, Jane was a first-cousin-once-removed of Edward VI. In May 1553 Jane was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. When the 15-year-old King lay dying in June 1553, he nominated Jane as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act. During her short reign, Jane resided in the Tower of London. She became a prisoner there when the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as queen on 19 July 1553. She was convicted for high treason in November 1553, though her life was initially spared. Wyatt's rebellion in January and February 1554 against Queen Mary's plans of a Spanish match led to Jane's and her husband's execution.

Lady Jane Grey had an excellent humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned women of her day. A committed Protestant, she was posthumously regarded as not only a political victim but also a martyr.

Early life and education

Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Lady 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, in late 1536 or in the spring of 1537. Lady Frances was the daughter of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, the younger sister of Henry VIII, and was thus the first cousin of Edward VI. Jane was Edward's first cousin, once removed. Jane had two younger sisters, Lady Catherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey; through their mother, the three sisters were great-granddaughters of Henry VII and grandnieces of Henry VIII. Jane could claim descent twice from 15th-century royal consort Elizabeth Woodville: paternally through Woodville's first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby, and maternally through her second husband King Edward IV. Jane received a comprehensive education, and studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew as well as contemporary languages. Through the teachings of her tutors, she became a committed Protestant.

Lady Jane Grey, engraving by Magdalena van de Passe and Willem van de Passe, published 1620, based on a painting in the collection of Lord Hastings.

Even by the relatively harsh standards of the 16th century, Jane's mother was a domineering woman who held her under a strict regime. Jane, who preferred book studies to hunting parties, felt that nothing she could do would please her parents. To the visiting scholar Roger Ascham, who found her reading Plato, she said:

"For when I am in the presence of either 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, yes presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs and other ways ... that I think myself in hell."

In 1546 Jane was sent to live in the household of Queen Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII. At this time, if not earlier, Jane became acquainted with her royal cousins, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth.

Contracts for marriage

After Henry VIII died, Catherine Parr married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. Catherine died not long after the birth of her only child, Mary Seymour, in late 1548, leaving the young Jane once again bereft of a maternal figure. Jane acted as chief mourner at Catherine's funeral. Jane returned to her parents after Catherine Parr's death, yet Seymour showed continued interest in her, and she was again in his household for about two months when he was arrested at the end of 1548. Seymour's brother, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, who ruled as Lord Protector, felt threatened by Thomas' popularity with the young King Edward. Thomas Seymour was charged, among other things, with proposing Jane as a royal bride.

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 Privy Council, he proposed his daughter Jane as a bride for the Protector's eldest son, Lord Hertford. Nothing came of this, however, and Jane's next engagement, in the spring of 1553, was to Lord Guilford Dudley, a younger son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Her prospective father-in-law was then the most powerful man in the country. According to tradition, Jane stated her preference for a single life, but her mother made her submit to the arrangement. On 21 May 1553, the couple were married at Durham House in a triple wedding, in which Jane's sister Catherine was matched with the heir of the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Herbert; and another Catherine, Lord Guilford's sister, with Henry Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon's heir.

Claim to the throne and accession

See also: Third Succession Act

"My devise for the Succession" by Edward VI. The draft will was the basis for the letters patent which declared Lady Jane Grey successor to the Crown. Edward's autograph shows his alteration of his text, from "L Janes heires masles" to "L Jane and her heires masles".

According to cognatic primogeniture, the Suffolks—the Brandons and, later, the Greys—comprised the junior branch of the heirs of Henry VII. The Third Succession Act restored Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession, although the law regarded them 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 his three children leave heirs, the throne would pass to heirs of his younger sister, Mary Tudor, who included Jane. Henry's will excluded the descendants of his elder sister Margaret Tudor, owing in part to Henry's desire to keep the English throne out of the hands of the Scots monarchs, and in part to a previous Act of Parliament of 1431 that barred foreign-born persons, including royalty, from inheriting property in England.

When the 15-year-old Edward VI lay dying in the early summer of 1553, his Catholic half-sister Mary was still the heiress presumptive to the throne. However, Edward, in a draft will composed earlier in 1553, had first restricted the succession to (non-existent) male descendants of Frances Brandon and her daughters, before he named his Protestant cousin Jane Grey as his successor on his deathbed, perhaps under the persuasion of Northumberland. This may have contravened customary testatory law because Edward had not reached the legal testatory age of 21. More importantly, many contemporary legal theorists believed the monarch could not contravene an act of Parliament, even in matters of the succession; Jane's claim to the throne therefore remained weak. Other historians believed that the king could basically rule through divine right. Henry VII had, after all, seized the throne from Richard III on the battlefield.

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. Four days later, Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen of England 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 by letters patent and deferred to Parliament. She offered to make him Duke of Clarence instead.

Official letter of Lady Jane Grey signing herself as "Jane the Quene"

A Genoese merchant, Baptista Spinola, who witnessed Jane's stately procession by water from Syon House to the Tower, describes her in these words, "This Jane is very short and thin, but prettily shaped and graceful. She has small features, and a well-made nose, the mouth flexible and the lips red. The eyebrows are arched and darker than her hair which is nearly red. Her eyes are sparkling, and reddish brown in colour." He also noticed her freckled skin, and sharp, white teeth. On the day of her procession she wore a green velvet gown stamped in gold.

Northumberland faced a number of key tasks to consolidate his power after Edward's death. Most importantly, he had to isolate and, ideally, capture Lady Mary to prevent her from gathering support. As soon as Mary was sure of King Edward's demise, she left her residence at Hunsdon and set out to East Anglia, where she began to rally her supporters. Northumberland set out from London with troops on 14 July; in his absence the Privy Council switched their allegiance from Jane to Mary, and proclaimed her queen in London on 19 July among great jubilation of the populace. Jane and her husband were imprisoned in the Gentleman Gaoler's apartments at the Tower of London. The new queen entered London in a triumphal procession on 3 August, and the Duke of Northumberland was executed on 22 August 1553. In September, Parliament declared Mary the rightful queen and denounced and revoked Jane's proclamation as that of a usurper.

Trial and execution

Jane and Lord Guilford Dudley were both charged with high treason, together with two of Dudley's brothers. Their trial, by a special commission, took place on 13 November 1553, at the Guildhall in the City of London. The commission was chaired by Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, and included Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath. The two principal defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. Jane's sentence was that she "be burned alive (the traditional English punishment for treason committed by women) on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases." However, the imperial ambassador reported to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, that her life was to be spared.

The Protestant rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the younger in late January 1554 sealed Jane's fate, although she had nothing to do with it directly. Wyatt's rebellion started as a popular revolt, precipitated by planned marriage of Mary to the future Philip II of Spain. Jane's father (the Duke of Suffolk) and other nobles joined the rebellion. Charles V and his ambassadors pressed Mary to execute Jane to put an end to any future focus for unrest. Five days after Wyatt's arrest, Jane and Guilford were executed.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, by the French painter Paul Delaroche, 1833

On the morning of 12 February 1554, the authorities took Guilford from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill and there had him beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower of London, past the rooms where Jane remained as a prisoner. Jane was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower of London, and beheaded in private. With few exceptions, only royalty were offered the privilege of a private execution; Jane's execution was conducted in private on the orders of Queen Mary, as a gesture of respect for her cousin.

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.

She then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. John Feckenham, a Catholic chaplain sent by Mary who had failed to convert Jane, stayed with her during the execution. The executioner asked her forgiveness, and she gave it. She pleaded the axeman, "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 had resolved to go to her death with dignity, but once blindfolded, failing to find the block with her hands, began to panic and cried, "What shall I do? Where is it?" An unknown hand, possibly Sir Thomas Brydges', then helped her find her way and retain her dignity at the end. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" She was then beheaded.

Jane and Guilford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. Jane's father, Duke of Suffolk, was executed a week after Jane, on 19 February 1554. Her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, married her Master of the Horse and chamberlain, Adrian Stokes in March 1555 (not as often said, three weeks after the execution of the Duke of Suffolk). She was fully pardoned by Mary and allowed to live at Court with her two surviving daughters. She died in 1559.

Legacy

Main article: Cultural depictions of Lady Jane Grey

"The traitor-heroine of the Reformation", as historian Albert Pollard called her, was merely 16 or 17 years old at the time of her execution. During and in the aftermath of the Marian persecutions, Jane became viewed as a Protestant martyr for centuries, featuring prominently in the several editions of the Book of Martyrs by John Foxe. The tale of Lady Jane grew to legendary proportions in popular culture, producing a flood of romantic biographies, novels, plays, paintings, and films, one of which was the 1986 production Lady Jane, starring Helena Bonham Carter.

Ancestry

Family of Lady Jane Grey

16. John Grey of Groby 8. Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset 17. Elizabeth Woodville 4. Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset 18. William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington 9. Cecily Bonville, Baroness Harington and Bonville 19. Katherine Neville, Baroness Hastings 2. Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk 20. Nicholas Wotton 10. Richard Wotton 21. Elizabeth Bamburgh 5. Margaret Wotton, Marchioness of Dorset 22. Henry Belknap 11. Anne Belknap 23. Margaret Knollys 1. Lady Jane Grey 24. William Brandon (Marshal of Marshalsea) 12. William Brandon 25. Elizabeth Wingfield 6. Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk 26. Henry Bruyn 13. Elizabeth Bruyn 27. Elizabeth Darcy 3. Lady Frances Brandon 28. Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond 14. Henry VII of England 29. Lady Margaret Beaufort 7. Mary Tudor 30. Edward IV of England 15. Elizabeth of York 31. Elizabeth Woodville (= 17)

Bibliography

• Alford, Stephen (2002), Kingship and Politics in the Reign of Edward VI, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521039710
• Roger Ascham. The Scholemaster (London: Bell and Daldy, 1863).
• de Lisle, Leanda (2008). The Sisters who would be Queen - the Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey. London: Harper Press. ISBN 978-0-00-721906-3.
• Ives, Eric (2009). Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery. Malden MA; Oxford UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-9413-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Loades, David (1996), John Dudley Duke of Northumberland 1504–1553, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 0198201931
• Plowden, Alison (1998). The House of Tudor. Stroud: Sutton.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Waller, Maureen (2006). Sovereign Ladies: Sex, Sacrifice and Power: The Six Reigning Queens of England (First St. Martin's Griffin ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-33801-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Weir, Alison. Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII.

Further reading

• Bradford, Karleen. The Nine Days Queen.
• Chapman, Hester W. Lady Jane Grey (Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1962).
• Cook, Faith (2005). The Nine Day Queen of England. Evangelical Press. ISBN 978-0-85234-613-6.
• Plowden, Alison (1985). Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen.

External links

• Marie, Sonja. "The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum". Tudor History Web Ring. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
• Edwards, J. Stephan (2007–2009). "Annotated Secondary Source Bibliography". Some Grey Matter. Retrieved 19 November 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
• Lambert, Jane (2003). "Lady Jane Grey". Jane Lambert. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
• de Lisle, Leanda; Edwards, J. Stephan (2001–2009). "Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide". Tamise. Retrieved 19 November 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
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