Jane (Grey) Dudley (1537 - 1554)

Ancestors

Lady Jane Grey Dudley was proclaimed Queen of England on 10 July 1553 and briefly reigned until 19 July, when her cousin Mary I acceded to the throne following the defection of Jane's supporters. She was beheaded 12 February 1554.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Royal Descent 1.2 Childhood 1.3 Jane the Quene 1.4 In the Tower 2 Research Notes: The Succession Crisis 3 Sources

Biography

Royal Descent

The root of Jane Grey's tragedy lay in her parentage and royal ancestry.^[1] She was a great-grandchild of King Henry VII of England, founder of the Tudor dynasty, and a granddaughter of Mary Queen of France. Mary Tudor was the younger surviving daughter of Henry VII. She was married unwillingly in 1514 to Louis XII of France and secondly in 1515 to Charles Brandon, who was then made Duke of Suffolk; Mary was generally known in England as "the French Queen". She had two surviving daughters, of whom the elder was Frances, born 16 July 1517. In May 1533 Frances Brandon married Henry Grey, third Marquess of Dorset, and they had three surviving daughters, of whom Jane, born probably in 1536 at Bradgate, Leicestershire, was the eldest.^{[2] [3]}

Mary Tudor Brandon, as sister of Henry VIII, the sole surviving son and heir of their father, became a close friend of his queen Catherine of Aragon. Her husband Charles Brandon was the king's closest friend and jousting companion. When their daughter Frances Brandon was born, she became a friend and companion of the princess Mary, sole surviving daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine. However, when Henry VIII became obsessed with the need to produce a legitimate male heir to perpetuate the Tudor dynasty, Queen Catherine was divorced and her daughter declared illegitimate; they were separated from their friends and supporters. In 1537 Henry VIII finally had his legitimate son, Edward VI, but he had no further children to secure the succession completely.^[4]

Childhood

The young Jane Grey was notable for her classical scholarship and her zeal for the reformed protestant religion. In this, she was not unique. The Reformation sprang largely out of the textual analysis of scripture as initiated by the classical scholar Erasmus, ^[5] and in the early Tudor period, it was not uncommon for girls of the reformed faith to be educated to a high standard, as for example the daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke.^[6] Indeed, about 1552 Mildred Cooke Cecil, considered the most learned of the Cooke sisters, sent her a book in Greek with the discourses of Basil the Great: "an author most suitable for you, who are of noblest origin, Illustrious for learning and piety."^[7]

In these respects, Jane was doubtless encouraged by her father Henry Grey, a firm protestant in religion and, if not a scholar himself, a patron of scholars, from whom he enjoyed flattery.^[8] He was also politically ambitious, and after the 9 year old Edward VI succeeded his father on the throne in 1547, Grey sought to take advantage of his daughter's place in the line of succession, when the young king's uncle Thomas Seymour tempted him with the prospect of marrying Jane Grey to her cousin King Edward.^[9] This was unlikely, given that England was at that time making war on Scotland to force a marriage between Edward and his other cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.

Henry Grey at some point sold Jane's wardship to Thomas Seymour, who then married the dowager Queen Catherine Parr, widow of the late king Henry VIII, where Jane lived for about 18 months. This was in many respects a proper arrangement. Catherine Parr was of the highest rank, reformed in religion, as well as being educated herself and a promoter of education for young women.^[10] The king's daughter Elizabeth was being fostered with her at the same time, but Thomas Seymour took advantage of the situation by engaging in unseemly behavior with Elizabeth, who was removed from the household the next year.^{[10] [11]}This malfeasance was undoubtedly one factor behind Seymour's arrest and execution in 1549.

In September 1548, Catherine Parr died after giving birth to a daughter.^[10] At this point, Henry Grey requested the return of his daughter to the care of her mother. "Considering the state of my daughter and her tender years, wherein she shall hardly rule herself as yet without a guide, lest she should for lack of a bridle take too much the head . . . Seymour being then destitute of such one as should correct her as a mistress and monish her as a mother."^[12] It could have been that Henry Grey saw control of his asset slipping away, or he could have been alarmed at the signs of the bad influence of Thomas Seymour.

Opinion is mixed on the subject of Frances Grey as a mother. She seems to have been a strict disciplinarian, but the story of her cruelty^[13] seems to rest on a single anecdote related much later by the scholar Roger Ascham, to whom Jane in 1500 made complaint of her "sharp and severe parents."

For when I am in 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 any thing 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) so without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell.^[14]

Having escaped destruction in the downfall of Thomas Seymour, Henry Grey attached himself to John Dudley, who was soon after created Duke of Northumberland and Lord Protector of the king. Grey was named to the Privy Council. In 1511, he inherited the title Duke of Suffolk. At about this time, Jane Grey began to appear at court in an adult capacity. She met Mary Tudor, her mother's childhood friend, in 1552 restored to favor at Edward's court.^[15]

In 1553, Lady Jane Grey was about 16, an age when she was considered ready for marriage. With Thomas Seymour out of the way, there was no more thought of her marrying the king. Instead, the two Dukes arranged an alliance between their families, with Jane to marry John Dudley's fourth son Guildford. Many historians have long considered this marriage as part of a conspiracy whereby John Dudley, through his son Guildford, would take control of England when Jane Grey inherited the throne after Edward VI's impending death.^[16] However, there is evidence, through William Cecil, that the match was originally proposed by the Marchioness of Northampton.^{[17] [18]}

Eric Ives has argued persuasively^{[19] [20]} that the alteration in the succession was the original idea of Edward VI, and that Jane had not yet been named as the successor when the first known arrangements for the marriage between her and Guildford Dudley were made, in April 1553.

Some reports claimed that Jane at first opposed the match and only yielded after "violence of her father." ^[21] These claims are not conclusively credible. There is no indication given why Jane would have been against the match, though it is conceivable that Jane was still attached to a previous proposed match - Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, son of the former Protector.^[22]

The marriage took place on 25 May.

Jane the Quene

King Edward VI died on 6 July 1553, by which time he had indeed named Lady Jane Grey to succeed to the throne of England. The letters patent declaring the succession had been signed by 102 officials of the Privy Council and court. Many hundreds of others undoubtedly knew. Jane's parents certainly knew. Yet they all appear to have kept the change in the succession a secret from Jane herself until three days later, on 9 July. The news came as a profound shock to her. One foreign report claims she said, "The crown is not my right and pleases me not. The Lady Mary is the rightful heir." Later, in a letter to Mary, she wrote: "Declaring to them my insufficiency, I greatly bewailed myself for the death of so noble a prince, and at the same time, turned myself to God, humbly praying and beseeching him, that if what was given to me was rightfully and lawfully mine, his divine Majesty would grant me such grace and spirit that I might govern it to his glory and service and to the advantage of this realm."^[23]

No official proclamation was made until the day afterward, on 10 July. This inexplicable delay might have been fatal, and it seems to suggest indecisiveness on the part of the Council. While Jane was installed in the royal apartments of the Tower, seated under a cloth of state and waiting on events, her cousin Mary Tudor was already claiming the crown. A letter from Mary, dated 9 July, was delivered to the Council on the 10th,^[24] in which she declared herself "not ignorant of your consultations, to undo the provisions made (by Henry VIII) for our preferment, nor of the great bands, and provisions forcible, wherewith ye be assembled and prepared - by whom and to what end, God and you know, and nature cannot but fear some evil."^[25] Unfortunately for Queen Jane, the Council's "great bands and provisions forcible" were not in fact sufficiently assembled and prepared.

Mary had been summoned earlier in the month to attend her sick brother and was waiting at the royal manor of Hunsdon in Hertfordshire. On the morning of 7 July, the king having died the night before, John Dudley's son Robert was sent with 300 men to arrest her. But someone having already informed Mary of the truth, she immediately rode toward her manor of Kenninghall in Norfolk, where she began to recruit followers even before Jane was officially proclaimed.^{[26] [27] [28]}

There appears to have been no real popular support for the new Queen Jane; the people did not know her. John Dudley, marching against Mary, remarked that "the people press to see us, but not one saith God spede us."^[29]

The Council belatedly began on 11 July to issue proclamations, and on the 12th they replied to Mary's letter^[30] by declaring her disqualified for the crown "both by good order of old ancient laws (on inheritance)" and the patent of the late king. Mary was denounced for that she did "stir and provoke the common people of this realm to rebellion but also means to bring in great forces of papists, Spaniards and other strangers for the aid of her unjust and unnatural pretence . . . "^[31] Also at that time, the Council decided to send an armed force against Mary's stronghold in East Anglia, originally meant to be Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, but this selection was vetoed by Jane on grounds that the sources do not make clear - although it might have been at the instigation of her mother Frances Grey, Mary Tudor's good friend.^{[32] [33]}

John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, then taking the command, set out about the 13th, but his expedition was doomed from the outset, as the sailors in the fleet at Yarmouth had already declared for Mary and put their cannons at her disposal, so that Mary had artillery in place at her castle of Framlington, while Dudley's artillery train was well behind him when he arrived at Bury in Suffolk on the 18th. He retreated to Cambridge, where he discovered that, in his absence, the Council had already lost its nerve and declared for Mary. Dudley was placed under arrest.^{[34] [35]}

Mary I was proclaimed by the Council on the 19th. That day, there was great popular rejoicing in London, a witness writing: "I saw myselfe money was throwne out at windows for joy. The bonefires weare without nomber, and, what with the showtynge and crienge of the people, and ringinge of the belles, theare could no one heare almoset what another sayd . . ." ^[36] This, exactly the response that was not made at the proclamation of Jane, nine days previously.

In the Tower

Henry Grey removed the cloth of state from Jane's royal chamber and told her she was no longer queen, which she considered just as well. She was then abandoned. Her ladies and her mother Frances Grey were allowed to leave the Tower, and Frances went as soon as possible to Mary, where she begged for her husband's release, which was granted. It is not clear whether Frances supplicated also for Jane and was refused, or if she failed to do so.^[37]

Mary believed in Jane's innocence and had no intention of executing her. ^[21] Her cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, thought otherwise, and his ambassador, Simon Renaud, persisted in pressuring her to "have justice done."^[38] Charles wanted her to marry his son Philip, soon to be Philip II of Spain, and restore England to Catholicism. Mary yearned to be united with her mother's Spanish family. The match was agreed to in November 1553, immediately reminding the English of the Council's earlier warning about Mary's intentions " to bring in great forces of papists, Spaniards and other strangers."

It was thus no surprise when an uprising took place in January 1554, attempting to place Mary's younger sister Elizabeth on the throne while marrying her to a leftover Plantagenet nephew, Edward Courtney. The rebellion was led by a staunch protestant, Sir Thomas Wyatt, whose few followers included Henry Grey. Courtney, no way involved in the plot, betrayed it, Elizabeth strenuously denied involvement, and Grey was discovered cowering in a hollow tree.^{[39] [40]} On 10 February, he was sent to the Tower to await execution.

It is impossible to tell what Grey was thinking. He claimed he had no idea how he could be accused of conspiring on behalf of his daughter Jane, but it is almost certain that his actions condemned her to death. Following the uprising, Ambassador Renaud again pressed for her execution. Some reports suggested that Mary was again considering clemency, but "judging that such an action might give rise to new riots, the Council ruled it out." Catholic bishop Stephen Gardiner preached a sermon at court urging Mary not to give in to the impulse to mercy.^[41]

During her last days, Jane Grey devoted herself to the consolation of religion. The farewell messages she wrote to her family and for her own comfort were focused on eternal salvation, on martyrdom. She wrote in prayer: "I beseech these, with thy armour, that I may stand fast, above all things taking to me the shield of faith, wherewith I may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and taking the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is thy most holy word."^[42]

Execution day was 12 February 1554. Guildford Dudley died first, on Tower Hill, Jane afterward, on Tower Green. Dudley died quickly and well. Jane saw his body removed from the scaffold, then came to the block herself, where she spoke briefly and prayed before the axe fell.

There had been no preparation for her burial, with her body left to lie on the scaffold for hours before it was taken to the chancel of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower's inner ward and laid beneath the stones in an unmarked grave, probably near Guildford. Her remains have not been found. ^{[43] [21]}

Research Notes: The Succession Crisis

What is strangely notable about Jane Grey's succession to the throne is how so many of the persons who proclaimed her queen believed she was not the legitimate heir to the throne.

The succession crisis was the consequence of Henry VIII's obsession with obtaining a legitimate male heir. For this, he delegitimized the daughters of his first two wives: Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, to ensure they could not challenge the succession of the children of his third wife, Jane Seymour. The common law of England did not allow bastards to inherit. But when he found himself with only a single son, still a boy, he decided it was necessary to provide for the chance that his heir Edward would not survive to produce an heir of his own. In his Will, backed up with an Act of Succession from Parliament, he provided that his two bastard daughters could inherit the throne, contrary to established law.

Henry could have, had he wished, legitimatized his daughters to allow for their succession, but he did not so wish. Henry held that his first two marriages were "against the law of God", which could not be altered by legislation, and he refused to change this stance.^[19]

Will of Henry VIII: Will

Act Fixing the Succession Act

Act of Succession 1543: Act

In 1533, with no heirs of his body and facing his own death, Henry VIII's son Edward VI decided to revise his father's instrument of succession to eliminate Henry's daughters on the grounds of bastardy: "the said ladie Mary and ladie Elizabeth, being illegitimate and not lawfully begotten . . . and therefore by the auntyent laws, statutes, and customes of this realm be not inheritable unto us, although they were legitimate, as they be not indeed."^[44]

Edward VI had also intended at first to restrict the succession to "heirs male", but it became apparent that there were none such in being within the limitations of the line of Henry VII, so that he altered the succession in default of heirs male to allow the crown to pass to the Lady Jane Grey, eldest daughter of the eldest daughter Mary Tudor Brandon, daughter of Henry VII. Edward's drafts of the "Devise" still exist, showing the alteration from "the Lady Jane's heirs male" to "the Lady Jane and her heirs male".^[45] This appears to be consistent with the language in the 1543 Succession Act allowing Henry VIII, as king, "full power and authority to give, dispose, appoint, assign, declare and limit, by his gracious letters patent under his great seal . . . to such person or persons in remainder or reversion as shall please his highness . . ." ^{[46] [47]}

The crucial question, however, is why Edward made the decision to eliminate Henry VIII's daughters from the succession in favor of the heirs of Mary Tudor Brandon. Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, had been accepted as heir presumptive for ten years, since the 1543 Succession Act. She had, as recently as February, been welcomed to court in great state, befitting the heir to the throne, with courtiers who "did duty and obeisance to her as if she had been queen of England." She was also granted "her full arms as princess of England, as she used to bear them in her father's, the late king's lifetime."^[48]

Perhaps the most obvious reason was religion. Edward had spent much of the previous three years struggling with his half-sister over her promotion of the Catholic Mass and other practices that did not belong, as Edward saw it, in his reformed church. She had declared, "I intend not to rule my conscience."^[49] How could he believe that she would not re-institute the Mass throughout the kingdom if she succeeded to its throne? If the Devise were not motivated by an abhorrence of bastardy, religion would seem to be the only alternative. And while Elizabeth, second in line to Mary, was of reformed views, there was no plausible way of excluding Mary without her equally-bastard sister.

TIMELINE^[50]

April - Edward begins work on the draft of the Devise

25 May - Jane Grey marries Guildford Dudley

28 May - June 11 - Doctors declare Edward's condition as terminal. He alters the draft of the succession, at about this time, to name Jane as heir

18 June - Final draft of Edward's Declaration ready for signature

6 July - Edward dies

Appendix I - Devise for the Succession: Devise

Table of Succession: Table

Tables of Succession: Ives, pp. xv-xix.

The mystery then, if the issue was preserving the reformed church, is why so many councilors and other high officials with strong reformist views in religion were reluctant to sign Edward's Declaration. Archbishop Cranmer, for example, who must have been aware that he could face burning at the stake under a Queen Mary, only signed after a personal appeal from Edward. William Cecil, who almost fled to the continent rather than live under a Catholic queen, would only sign as a witness. The excuses these signatories gave later, in exculpation, can not entirely be trusted, but there seems to have been a sense that Edward's declaration was illegal, in terms of the 1543 Succession Act. Edward had intended to call a Parliament in September and pass a new Act, but he died before he could accomplish this.^[51]

Would that have been enough? Would the same country gentry who rejected Jane Grey as queen have accepted an Act to make her so? They did not know Jane. They knew Mary; they had known and loved her mother, Queen Catherine. It was expected that Mary become queen; it was right. Would Edward have been able to persuade them otherwise?

That part of the mystery remains.

Sources

1. ↑ Tittler, p. 104. [https://archive.org/details/reignofmaryi0000titt/page/104/mode/2up Table II}
2. ↑ Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. pp. 152 & 158. London: Vintage, 2008.
3. ↑ Ives, Eric. Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery. p. 33-36. Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
4. ↑ Ives, pp. 33-41.
5. ↑ MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History, p. 99. New York: Penguin, 2004.
6. ↑ MacCulloch, p. 612.
7. ↑ Ives, p. 65.
8. ↑ Ives, pp. 60-63.
9. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23: Grey, Henry (d.1554) by Emily Tennyson Bradley. Grey, Henry
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09: Catherine Parr by James Gairdner. DNB Parr
11. ↑ Ives, p. 44.
12. ↑ Ives, pp. 45-50.
13. ↑ Wikipedia: Frances Grey Frances
14. ↑ Ives, p.52.
15. ↑ Ives, pp. 57 & 94.
16. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 16: Dudley, John (1502?-1553) by Richard Watson Dixon Dudley
17. ↑ Ives, p. 153.
18. ↑ Tallis, p. 131.
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} Ives, E W. "Tudor Dynastic Problems Revisited." Historical Research, Volume 81, Issue 212, May 2008, Pages 255–279. Tudor
20. ↑ Ives, pp. 137-158.
21. ↑ ^{21.0 21.1 21.2} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 16: Dudley, Jane by Sidney Lee. DNB Jane
22. ↑ Ives, p. 185.
23. ↑ Ives, p. 187.
24. ↑ Tittler, p. 84. Document 1
25. ↑ Ives, pp. 191-192.
26. ↑ Ives, p. 171.
27. ↑ The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary, and especially of the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat. pp. 1-2. John Gough Nichols, ed. The Camden Society, 1850. Chronicle
28. ↑ Tittler, Robert. The Reign of Mary I" pp. 8-9. London: Longman, 1983. Reign
29. ↑ Chronicle, p. 8.
30. ↑ Tittler, p. 85. Document 2
31. ↑ Ives, p. 192.
32. ↑ Ives, p. 198.
33. ↑ Chronicle, pp. 5-8. Reign
34. ↑ Ives, pp. 199-212.
35. ↑ Chronicle, pp. 8-11. Reign
36. ↑ Chronicle, pp. 11-12. Reign
37. ↑ Ives, p. 245.
38. ↑ Ives, p. 248.
39. ↑ Tittler, pp. 18-22. Reign
40. ↑ Chronicle, pp. 36-54. Chronicle
41. ↑ Ives, pp. 267-8.
42. ↑ Tallis, Nicola. Crown of Blood. p. 269. London: Michael O'Mara Books, Ltd. 2016.
43. ↑ Tallis, pp. 270-278.
44. ↑ Devise for the Succession: Devise
45. ↑ Ives, pp. 137-149.
46. ↑ Act Fixing the Succession Act
47. ↑ Guy, J A. Tudor England p. 226. Oxford University Press, 1988. Guy
48. ↑ Ives, p. 94.
49. ↑ Ives, p. 92.
50. ↑ Ives, p. 158.
51. ↑ Ives, pp. 160-168.

See also:

• https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/lady-jane-grey-proclaimed-queen
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tragic-story-englands-nine-day-queen-180964042/
• Pedigree Resource File CD 49. Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserve, Inc. 2002
• S3 Ancestral File (TM). LDS June 1998 (c), Repo:R1
• "Wikipedia: 'The Execution of Lady Jane Grey'"
• Father's "Wikipedia: 'Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk'"
• "Wikipedia: 'Wyatt's Rebellion'"
• Wikidata: Item Q162356
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Jane_Grey
• https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66202/pg66202-images.html