The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey
A teenager loses her head to satisfy the paranoia of a vengeful queen known as Bloody Mary.
Dawn broke in a London sky heavy with clouds on the morning of February 12th, 1554. The city lay cloaked beneath a light drizzle that dampened the cobblestones and kept the streets quiet and forlorn. An eastern wind blew frigid off the English Channel, rattling the bare branches of the copper beeches.
Inside her rooms in the Tower of London, Jane Grey must have felt as cold and dreary as the weather outside her window. Sometime in the late morning, a horse-drawn cart trundled by on the paving stones below, carrying the mortal remains of her husband, whose head had just been parted from his body. Not long before, she had watched him walk by her window, sobbing.
Determined not to lose her dignity, she held back her emotions as the executioners came to her room to escort her to the Tower Green.
On the orders of Queen Mary, she was to have a private execution — a singular honor for someone doomed to die. Her face was pale, but she was otherwise composed as she was led to the place where she would lose her head.
As she walked across the grass of Tower Green, staring at the scaffold which stood in the center, she must have wondered at the disturbing turn of events that had led her to this spot.
Called “one of the finest female minds of the century” by historian Alison Weir, Lady Jane Grey was born near Leicester at Bradgate Park in central England. Her mother, Frances Brandon, was the granddaughter of Henry VII, making Jane a cousin of the royal family.
Jane was a bright child and poured herself into academics. She mastered many languages from a young age, including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and became a devoted Protestant.
In May of 1553, when she was about 15 years old, she married Guildford Dudley. Her new husband was the son of John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland and one of the most powerful men in the kingdom. Dudley was head of the regency council that governed on behalf of the teenage King Edward VI.
When it became apparent, during 1553, that the sickly Edward would not live to adulthood, Jane’s new father-in-law led a not-so-private campaign to ensure that Edward’s older sister Mary — who was a staunch Catholic — did not ascend to the throne.
Dudley, like other Protestant nobles, knew that Mary would deconstruct the Protestant reforms made by her predecessors. More importantly, he and others feared the land they had gained when the monasteries were disbanded would be lost if Mary reestablished state-sponsored Catholicism.
Led by Dudley, this anti-Mary faction convinced the ailing Edward to name his cousin, Jane, as his heir. From Dudley’s point of view, this would not only ensure he kept his lands and wealth, but it would also make him father-in-law to the new monarch. Intent on keeping the throne in Protestant hands, Edward agreed.
A short time later, on July 6th, 1553, Edward died at the age of 15. Jane had been told of the machinations to make her Edward’s heir only the day before. Shocked, she’d felt wholly unqualified for the job. But now, with Edward dead, she was set to become the first ruling queen in English history.
She soon discovered the ugly truth of how she was being used to enact her father-in-law’s secret plan for power. The Lord Treasurer brought a number of jewels, including a crown, for Jane to try on. Seeing her hesitation to put the crown on her head, the Lord Treasurer encouraged her to take it, remarking that another would be made for her husband, Guildford, when he was crowned king.
Jane was enraged, realizing for the first time that her father-in-law’s interests lay not on religious principles, but instead on the hopes that he could elevate his son to the kingship.
Jane’s accession was proclaimed on July 10th, 1553.
To the surprise and disappointment of Dudley and the other conspirators, the announcement was met with hostility by the public.
The English people, it seemed, supported Mary. Despite widespread distrust of Catholicism by the largely Protestant population, Mary’s legitimate right to the throne was unassailable.
Knowing Mary was the only thing standing in the way of his grand plan, Dudley had already attempted to kidnap her. In the last few days before Edward’s death, he had summoned Mary to the king’s deathbed. Mary was warned, however, that it was a trap and retreated instead to East Anglia. Dudley sent some of his lackeys after her, but they were unable to find her.
Knowing Mary had the power of popular sentiment behind her, Dudley began making preparations for battle. He left Jane in the Tower, watched over by a regency council that had sworn allegiance to her, and went to find Mary.
But Dudley’s plan was crumbling around him. Several prominent towns declared Mary the queen, and other towns followed suit. A fleet of ships Dudley had dispatched to cut off a possible escape route betrayed him and pledged allegiance to Mary instead.
When news of this desertion reached London, the councilors sworn to protect Jane began to vacillate. Fearing they would desert her, Jane ordered the doors of the Tower locked from the outside. She began distributing royal proclamations calling herself Queen Jane and urging the people to support her as the Protestant claimant to the throne.
It proved futile. The regency council pledged their support to Mary, claiming they had always been loyal to her and that Dudley had forced them to support Jane.
With Dudley’s coup all but over, Mary was proclaimed queen on July 19th, 1553. Jane, who had been ruling for nine days from her rooms in the Tower of London, now became a prisoner in the very place that had been her regnal base.
With no one else to plead her case, Jane wrote directly to Mary, attempting to explain her position and apologizing for accepting the crown. “I might have taken upon me that of which I was not worthy, yet no one can ever say either that I sought it…or that I was pleased with it.”
For her part, Mary believed Jane. She saw that her cousin had merely been an unwitting pawn in a grand conspiracy. Despite encouragement from several advisors, she resisted the idea of executing Jane.
Dudley and several of his cronies went to the execution block in mid-August, while Jane remained imprisoned. Mary, caught up in the planning of her wedding to Philip of Spain, paid little attention to Jane during this time. She seems to have been content to simply keep her under lock and key.
In November of 1553, Jane and her husband Guildford were put on trial for their role in the attempted usurpation. The pair pled guilty to high treason and were both sentenced to death.
Most people, however, believed the sentences were a mere formality. Queen Mary’s principle advisor — the same one who had encouraged her to execute Jane — wrote in his weekly dispatches, following the sentencing: “As for Jane, I am told her life is safe.” In addition, Jane’s mother was a favorite of Mary, and Jane’s younger sisters were ladies-in-waiting to the new queen. Most believed that Jane would soon be pardoned and allowed to return to her family.
In the end, Mary’s desire to marry Philip of Spain ultimately cost Jane her life.
When Mary’s engagement to the heir of the Holy Roman Empire was announced, it was met with great hostility from the same populace who had supported her claim to the throne. They feared England would become a pawn of the Holy Roman Empire, and they feared that foreign Catholics (namely Spaniards) would inherit the throne when Mary died.
Revolts broke out in January of 1554. Led by a young nobleman named Thomas Wyatt, the plan was to depose Mary and install her sister Elizabeth on the throne. But a fellow conspirator betrayed the plot to Mary and all the perpetrators were arrested.
Wyatt’s Rebellion shook Mary’s confidence. She felt she had been lenient and kind, and she was rewarded with rebellion. It didn’t help Jane’s case when it was discovered that her father was one of the rebels. Mary began to realize the only way to stem further rebellion was to deal harshly with those who threatened her throne.
As a figure around whom future rebels might rally, Jane’s fate was sealed.
Her execution was scheduled for February 9th, 1554. Mary, however, felt a last minute pang of guilt, and so she dispatched a priest to attempt to convert Jane to the Catholic faith. A strict Protestant to the end, she refused, even knowing it might save her life.
As a result, her execution went forward the following Monday, February 12th.
Standing by the scaffold at Tower Green, under a leaden winter sky, Jane Grey addressed the small crowd, admitting to treason but insisting upon her moral innocence. She then recited the 51st Psalm.
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.”
When she was finished, she thanked Marty’s priest for his kindness, and asked the executioner to give her a quick death. Then she turned to the execution block and, with her own hand, placed a blindfold around her eyes. She acted too quickly, however, and stumbled, unable to find the execution block.
“What shall I do? Where is it?” she is reputed to have said.
The priest stepped forward, gently guiding her to the spot. She stretched her body out…lay her head with dignity upon the block…
…and awaited the falling of the axe.
