Episode 16 is all the tragic life of Lady Jane Grey.

Suggested links:
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey
Episode 051: Rebellions One

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Episode transcript:

Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast. I’m your host, Heather Teysko, and happy autumn everybody. Well, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, at least happy spring to those for whom it’s appropriate. So I was going to do this whole episode on the soap opera that was Queen Elizabeth’s early life. But I realized that when we left off the story back in December, Henry’s son, King Edward had only just passed away. And we have the whole tragic story of Lady Jane Grey that we need to talk about first, plus Mary I. I don’t know why I thought we’d already progressed to Elizabeth. So for those of you who are hoping to hear some juicy Thomas Seymour gossip, you’ll just have to wait a little bit longer, I’m afraid. So let’s go back and recap a bit where we were.

Henry VIII dies with a son by Jane Seymour, his third wife. He also has a daughter Mary by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and he has a daughter Elizabeth by Anne Boleyn. So when Edward dies still a child, we have a bit of a conundrum. Well, in particular, the Protestants have a conundrum. Because Mary, you see is still ardently Catholic, and she has vowed to make the religion of her mother the state religion again, and to persecute all the Protestant heretics. This makes the Protestants who had gained significant ground during the short reign of Edward very nervous.

One particular Protestant, who was also particularly power-hungry, was John Dudley, Edward’s, Chief Minister, and he thought himself up quite the clever plan. Well, it would have been clever if it would have worked. With the benefit of hindsight, It now looks pretty stupid. But at the time, he must have thought quite highly of himself for devising it. So John Dudley knows about the Grey family, Frances Grey, who was born Lady Frances Brandon, has all kinds of royal blood in her. She’s Henry VIII’s niece and was Henry VII’s granddaughter. Her mother was Henry’s sister Mary, who married Henry’s good friend Charles Brandon. So she’s fourth in line for the throne behind Henry’s children. By the time of Henry’s death, she has a daughter, Jane, for whom she has secured a place as a ward at court.

Jane becomes good friends with Edward and she was about his age. Jane’s parents, by all accounts, were not very loving and gentle parents that we would wish that all children had. They were scheming and constantly playing politics and Jane was upon in their plans. Whether she was beaten as a child or not is still debated, but the truth is, she never had a very happy home life.

Frances her mother had become very close with Katherine Parr, Henry’s final wife; and sensing an opportunity to advance her daughter, she sent Jane to live with her after Henry died and Katherine had her own household. Jane loved Katherine and was able to have a happy childhood with her. Happier at least for a little while. And during this period, Frances was planning to marry Jane to King Edward, which would have united the two families and solidified their hold on power. But there were some snafus with that plan.

The first was that as Katherine Parr had married Thomas Seymour, Seymour was Jane’s ward. So Katherine dies in childbirth in 1548. And Seymour begins getting himself into more and more trouble. He saw his hold on power and influence was shrinking. And this was no good for him. And so he tries all sorts of schemes to get into King Edward’s good graces, and he finally resorts to attempted kidnapping of the young king. And in the act, he winds up shooting the king’s dog, which is never a very good thing to do if you’re going to try to kidnap a king and it makes him very angry. So, for this act of treason, Thomas Seymour’s executed. So how that relates to Jane is that as part of his household, she and her family were seen as suspects in his plans.

So she goes back home and her mother starts thinking up a new plan. And this is where John Dudley would come in. Jane is forced to marry John Dudley’s son Guildford. And as King Edward was dying, John Dudley convinces King Edward to change his will, so that instead of his sister Mary being his heir, the Protestant Jane becomes his heir, which John Dudley likes because then his son is married to the queen and his grandson will be the king. It’s all very complicated. But it’s really just this guy trying to scheme to have his daughter-in-law become the queen. And he does it while the king is dying. And it’s just a mess. But anyway, it’s actually not that complicated.

So Edward dies and then John Dudley’s able to keep Edward’s death a secret while he writes to Mary telling her that Edward is very, very sick and wants to see her. He wanted to get her out of her house and away from all of her servants and the people that were familiar with her. So Mary starts heading to London, and Dudley’s planning to kidnap her on the road. But on the way, she learns that Edward is actually dead, but she still doesn’t realize that there’s this plot against her. And she thinks it’s a little bit odd that she only heard about her brother’s death two days after the fact. But she still rides ahead to the Council, and she’s assuming that she’d be crowned queen. So Dudley manages to persuade the Council that Mary was unfit to be queen for three reasons.

First, she was declared illegitimate when Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon. Second, she’s a Catholic. And third, of course, she’s a woman. The Council was already into deep with covering up Edward’s death. And they pretty much had to go along with Dudley, plus a lot of them were Protestant. And Dudley was saying “You got to do this,” and they were sheep and so they did it.

So along they went, plotting against Mary, and the Council decides to name Jane, the queen, and then tell Mary after the fact. So Jane is just sitting at home, and she’s called to appear before the Council. And also doesn’t know that Edward’s died. So here she is, the 16 or 17-year-old girl, and she’s being led into this giant stateroom up to a dais where her parents and Dudley and all of the noblemen of the whole country pay homage to her. And then Dudley gives a speech. He announces Edward’s death formally and he says that Edward’s dying wish had been for Lady Jane to be queen.

And she goes ballistic. I mean, you can imagine, she’s like 17 years old, right? Witnesses describe her reaction as stupefied and troubled. And of course, she was. She’s like a teenage noble girl. She’s not a princess, and she’s certainly not a queen. And she stood on the dais crying, and no one is tempted to help her. She finally gained enough composure to say “The crown is not my right. It pleases me not. Mary is the rightful heir.”

Dudley and her parents just yelled at her saying she needed to obey her parents, and she needed to do what they said. And she’s just getting berated by them in public in front of all the noble people. And so she finally accepts that she has no choice. And the next day she’s dressed in the green and white of the Tudors, and sent by barge with her husband, Guildford along the Thames to the Tower, where the crown jewels and the state apartments were prepared for her. And if you remember, all the queens and kings usually spend time in the Tower before they’re crowned. So it wasn’t unusual, it was what happened. And normally crowds would line the route greeting their new sovereign, but not this time. The crowds also knew that Mary was the rightful heir and they were silent. Still did not bode well.

She was greeted at the tower and presented with the keys. But of course, Dudley steps forward to take them just proving that he’s going to be the power behind the throne. Jane walks through the Tower, and she would never leave the Tower of London. She did try to demonstrate that if she was going to be queen, however reluctantly, she would try to do her best for England. One of the first places that she put her foot down was when Guildford her husband demands that she makes him the king, and she refuses, saying that he would be a duke but not king. As tenuous her right to be queen was, she knew that he had no right at all to be king.

The council sent a letter to Mary declaring her bastard and demanding that she accept Jane is queen. That Sunday, July 11, the sermon at St. Paul’s supported Jane and also declared Mary and Elizabeth bastards. Mary responded by declaring herself queen and ask that they all give in peacefully because she didn’t want to have a war over it. Mary did start gathering an army though, and started marching to London. And Dudley and his force who started trying to consolidate their position, they sent this letter to Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, announcing that Jane had been declared queen and he shouldn’t take Mary’s claim too seriously. And it’s all this kind of back and forth thing. But most of the population didn’t want Jane as their queen at all, and they supported Mary.

As Mary headed to London, she continued to gather support as her army grew. Dudley left to go meet Mary and fight if necessary. And back at the tower, everybody’s in a state of confusion. Jane is called the Nine Days’ Queen because on the ninth day, things really fell apart officially. The entire council had left to go support Mary and beg her forgiveness. And even Thomas Cranmer, one of the last to leave her, finally had to go and save himself.

That evening, Mary was proclaimed Queen and a huge party started. There was drinking in the streets and music and wine and everybody was celebrating. Everybody except for Jane, who was still alone in the Tower. Her father found her sitting under the state canopy. And he told her that she had to come down that that was no place for her. And she was so relieved, and she gratefully asked her father if she could go home now. To her credit, Mary did want to be lenient with Jane, recognizing that she was just a pawn in all this and believing her that she never wanted to be queen. And though Jane was tried for treason, all the signs pointed to clemency.

Jane had plenty of room and servants with her, and she could still read books and walk outside in the tower grounds. And she had every reason to believe that she would be allowed to go home and live a quiet life, or at least go to court or Mary could keep an eye out on her. And perhaps it all would have gone that way. If it wasn’t for Thomas Wyatt’s Rebellion in early 1554.

The riot started as a popular protest because of the rumors that Mary wanted to marry the Spanish prince Philip, and the English didn’t like the idea of a Spanish prince becoming their king. And they let it be known quite loudly. Jane’s father, he was really stupid, and he was among the nobles who joined in the rebellion. I mean, seriously. You know, if six months earlier, your daughter’s trying to be queen, and then somehow you’re able to escape that, like, it’s really not the smartest thing to go join a rebellion. It’s just not. So he goes and joins the rebellion. And as long as Jane was alive and could still be a figurehead for revolt, even if she was an unwilling one, she was still a threat. And five days after Wyatt was arrested, Jane was executed.

Jane was determined to go to her execution with dignity. She was again about 16 or 17 at the time, and Mary allowed her to have a private execution, even though that was highly unusual for people who were being executed for treason. Jane recited Psalm 51 aloud and then declared that she was innocent of any wrongdoing. Mary had sent a Catholic chaplain, John Feckenham, to try to convert her and he stayed with her during the execution. She gave the executioner her forgiveness when he asked for it.

And she said, “I pray you dispatch me quickly.” And it’s really sad. As she turned to bend over the block, she asked the executioner if he was going to take her head off before she was properly positioned, and he responded that he would not. And then she blindfolded herself. And once blindfolded, she was unable to find the block with her hands, and she started to freak out. Someone unknown helped her find the block and keep her dignity. And when she finally was able to rest her head, she said, “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” and then she was beheaded.

Jane Grey is often seen as an early Protestant martyr. If Mary’s reign hadn’t been as bloody as it was, she might not have taken on this role posthumously. But given the number of Protestants who died later, Jane became at least in popular culture, the first of many Protestant martyrs. And in this case, it really did seem that Mary would have liked to have been lenient, but it was just too risky this early in her reign with these rebellions going on around her.

Jane Grey was romanticize starting in the late 18th century. And there are several famous paintings of her but probably the most famous is from 1833. It’s called The Execution of Lady Jane Grey and is by Paul Delaroche, a French painter. If you’re in London, it’s in the National Gallery. And actually, that painting itself has an interesting history, it was thought to have been ruined in a flood in 1928 in the Tate, and it was found almost 50 years later in 1973, by the curator when he was writing a book on a separate subject and was going through all the damaged canvases to find something for his book. So now it’s completely restored. And I’ve put a picture of it on the blog, so you can have a look. It’s very romantic, and sad, and tragic.

So that’s it for this week. Thanks for listening! The blog address is Englandcast.com. You can also connect with me on this podcast on Facebook at facebook.com/England cast. And you can follow me on my ramblings on Twitter @Teykso and email me or tweet me with show ideas, questions, or anything else, really. Thank you for your continued support. And I’ll chat with you again soon. Thanks a lot, everybody!

[advertisement insert here: if you like this show, and you want to support me and my work, the best thing you can do (and it’s free!) is to leave us a rating on iTunes. It really helps others discover the podcast. Second best is to buy Tudor-themed gifts for all your loved ones at my shop, at TudorFair.com, like leggings with the Anne Boleyn portrait pattern on them, or boots with Elizabeth I portraits. Finally, you can also become a patron of this show for as little as $1/episode at Patreon.com/englandcast … And thank you!]