Lady Jane Grey

In a recent Facebook post, I told a few people that I was watching the film Lady Jane Grey with my sisters, and I found it highly amusing that they didn’t know the ending... I mean, it’s like asking what happens at the end of Titanic?!

However, I realise that I may have to eat a bit of humble pie, as there are several periods in history that I know absolutely nothing about either... and were they ever to make a film about King Charles – the fugitive king who had to hide in an oak tree.. well let’s just say I had to use Google and Wiki to ensure I actually got his name right?!

It’s not their fault that they don’t love the Tudor period as much as I do... therefore I thought that I would wax lyrical for a while about the history around Lady Jane Grey – and hopefully give you a better understanding of who she was, and when she lived.

So – you all know Henry the 8th right, he was the tyrant with 6 wives?
Well, his first wife was Catherine of Aragon, she was mother to Mary (a devout Catholic)
his second wife was Anne Boleyn, mother to Elizabeth (a protestant)
his third wife was Jane Seymour, mother to Edward (a devout protestant reformer)
Henry didn’t have any more children after that, even though he went on to marry Ann(divorced) Kathryn(beheaded) and Katherine (she outlived him).

Well, in order to marry Anne Boleyn, Henry had to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and in the process disinherit Mary from the throne. He claimed his marriage with Catherine had been unlawful and therefore Mary was a bastard. Elizabeth therefore became first in line for the throne.
When he beheaded Anne Boleyn, he did so by accusing her of adultery – and therefore making Elizabeth also a bastard. (Even though her red hair and fiery temper proclaimed her a Tudor through and through!)

When Edward was born then, he became heir to the throne. Jane Seymour’s brother was also Edward, and as uncle to the future king, given lots of privileges at court.

What you may not know is that Henry the 8th had 2 sisters, Margaret and Mary.
Mary had been married to the King of France, however when he died, she married a man called Charles Brandon in secret.
Mary and Charles had a little girl called Frances (Henry the 8th’s niece – are you keeping up!)
Frances went on to marry a man called Henry Grey, and they had a daughter – Jane.

Jane Grey was born at roughly the same time as Prince Edward, so they were about the same age.
Well, on his deathbed, King Henry the 8th had a qualm of conscience, and although he had declared both Mary and Elizabeth bastards, he wrote up a document called ‘The Act of Succession’ which stated that Edward would be king, should anything happen to him, the throne would pass to Mary, should anything happen to her it would pass to Elizabeth. The next step of course was that if anything happened to Elizabeth the throne would go to his sister Mary’s descendants; his niece Frances Grey – or by default to her daughter Jane.

Once Henry the 8th died, Jane then was 3rd in line for the throne.

When Henry the 8th died, Edward became King. He was of course too young to rule, so his Uncle Edward Seymour declared himself ‘Lord Protector’ and basically ruled in young King Edward’s place. This, plus the reformation of England at the time, gained Edward Seymour an awful lot of enemies; one man in particular was a man called John Dudley.
John Dudley bided his time, won over King Edwards confidence and eventually led a rebellion against Edward Seymour, who was eventually executed sometime later.

John Dudley got rid of the title ‘Lord Protector’ and set King Edward up a parliament, however still influenced the boy – King Edward was merely the mouthpiece for John Dudley. To gain King Edward’s confidence, one of the things John Dudley did was to keep him away from his sister Mary, and also to press forward Edward’s reformation plans for England, which meant Mary was forbidden from following her Catholic beliefs. John Dudley knew if Mary ever got to the throne – he wouldn’t have his head on his shoulder’s for very long!!

Not so great then, for John Dudley, when King Edward contracted measles. Although the measles didn’t kill him, they left him extremely weak with a compromised immune system. King Edward was pushed back into state visits too soon, and it became apparent that he was now so sick he wasn’t going to live very long.

Grasping at straws to keep Mary from the throne of England, John Dudley’s mind turned to Henry’s great-niece, the Lady Jane Grey, 3rd in line to the throne. He reasoned that if Mary and Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate, that then made Jane 1st in line to the throne, not second.

This was no use to John Dudley though, if he had no way of controlling the Lady Jane... so he approached Henry Grey and between them, they hatched a plan to marry Jane to John Dudley’s eldest son Guildford and put Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley on the throne of England.

Cruelly prolonging weak King Edward’s life with the use of arsenic, John Dudley wrote up King Edward’s will, declaring Jane Grey heir to the throne, trying to overruling the Act of Succession written by Henry the 8th. John Dudley bullied, bribed and blackmailed parliament into counter-signing it, and persuaded King Edward to sign it, most likely by emotionally blackmailing him about how all his Protestant Reformation would be worth nothing if a Catholic Queen came to the throne.
King Edward died in July 1553 and 4 days later Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen.

Jane was as shocked as anyone else. She proclaimed she didn’t want the crown, it rightfully belonged to the Lady Mary. Her parents and John Dudley soon hushed her up, and again used the argument that Jane would not want to see a Catholic Queen on the throne again...

Jane resigned herself to her duties as Queen, however refused to let Guildford be crowned King (he threw a temper tantrum). Stories of undying love between Jane and Guildford, especially the film with the gorgeous Cary Elwes and Helen Bonar Carter(?) are not true! It is true that Guildford did carve the name ‘JANE’ on his cell in the Tower of London.

When Jane was proclaimed Queen, the people were sullen and confused – Jane had spent most of her life in the Country, they didn’t even know who she was! They wanted their Queen Mary, daughter of Henry the 8th!

Meanwhile Mary was not idle. As soon as she heard her brother was dead, she refused to go and walk into the trap John Dudley had set for her, instead she gathered an army about her and marched on London.

It was, as they say, a very close call. Had Mary fallen for the trap John Dudley set her, had John Dudley’s army won, had Parliament not deserted and run to Mary’s side, Queen Jane may have ruled for many years! However we know that it was not God’s plan, as Mary’s army won, and 9 days after Jane was proclaimed Queen, she was removed from the throne and placed in the tower of London.
So that is the story of Lady Jane Grey, the 9 day queen of England.

Are you still with me? Do you want to hear more?

Ok... well Mary was not inclined to start her reign as Queen with executions; besides which she had known Jane as they were cousins of sorts and Mary had a soft spot for Jane. So after John Dudley had been executed, Mary pardoned Jane’s parents, Frances and Henry and left Jane and Guildford in the Tower; inclined to free her once Mary herself had heirs and Jane was no threat. Mary’s parliament and advisors begged her to execute Jane, but she wouldn’t.

A few months into her reign, and Mary’s popularity was waning. Taxes, Catholicism and the rumour she was going to marry a Spanish prince had made her pretty unpopular.

It wasn’t Jane’s fault that her father Henry, with a taste of big things in his mouth, was not content to live a quiet peaceful life in the country. With Mary’s popularity waning, he formed an army and marched on London with the intent of putting Jane back on the throne.

Again it was a close call, but Mary won the day – and of course after that she had to listen to her advisors.

Lady Jane Grey was beheaded on February 12th,1554, after being found guilty of treason.

She was 16 years old.

Before she was executed, Jane said that she had never wanted the throne of England and that she would die a "true Christian women".