Summer Tudor Queen – Lady Jane Grey

* FLASHBACK ARTICLE of 2019*

TUDOR SECRETS AND MYTHS EVENT: TUDOR SUMMER QUEENS FLASHBACK POST

Do you think you know the Tudors? LADY JANE GREY

Being ‘proclaimed’ in the July of 1553, could suggest that Lady Jane Grey was a Summer Tudor Queen…

What do we know of this woman we call, Lady Jane Grey?

Do we know her as the young girl who was friends with the King and only came to the throne because King Edward VI didn’t what his throne to be given to his Catholic older sister Mary?

Was she only on the throne for nine days, until Queen Mary I took it from her?

Amazingly, these questionable thoughts may not be strictly true. So shall we try to debunk some of these Myths today?

First of all, who was Jane?

Jane was the eldest daughter to Henry Grey, the first Duke of Suffolk and his wife Frances. This may not seem so important, yes Jane was born into nobility but what has that got to do with the King’s choosing for Jane to take the Tudor throne over his own sister?

Well, Jane was much more than a friend of the King, she was the daughter to Frances Grey née Brandon. Frances was the eldest daughter to Mary Tudor, King Henry VIII’s younger sister. This actually makes Lady Jane Grey a relation to King Edward VI, she was his cousin once removed and the great granddaughter of the King’s grandfather King Henry VII.

Her year of birth as been debated, however most think that she was born in 1536 or 1537, she had an excellent education which gave her, her reputation of being a learned woman, even at a young age. In the May of 1553, she married Lord Guildford Dudley, who it has been suggested tried to marry Margaret Clifford, Jane’s cousin first. However, it was decided that he should marry Jane instead, some say, due to the fact Jane was higher up the ladder of gaining the throne.

We may know her as Lady Jane Grey, however that wasn’t all that she was, was it?

It can be suggested that she became Queen of England although no coronation was ever made.

This suggestion comes from the previous monarch’s legal document called ‘Devise for the Succession’, which meant that on his death, Jane became Queen.

If we follow this suggestion it can mean that Jane broke the Tudor Line of succession and perhaps most interestingly of all, all this could suggest she actually was Queen of England, before Queen Mary I who normally has been portrayed as being the first Queen of England. An interesting notion to think about…

Lady Jane Grey has also been known as the ‘nine days Queen’, this is due to the fact that she was ‘proclaimed’ Queen on the 10th July 1553 and Queen Mary I was ‘proclaimed’ Queen on the 19th July 1553.

That would make ‘Queen’ Jane, a nine day Queen wouldn’t it?

However, King Edward VI, already knew that he was sadly dying and put Jane and any of her heirs on the throne in his ‘Devise for the Succession’, which meant that on his death, Jane became Queen. King Edward VI passed away on the 6th July 1553.

This could suggest ‘Queen’ Jane, if we are counting, was a thirteen day Queen, instead of a nine day Queen.

Perhaps because of Queen Mary I’s later reputation as ‘Bloody Mary’, we may have thought that when Jane was found guilty at the Guildhall, City of London, of treason and her sentence was to ‘be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases’, that Queen Mary I did just that.

However, against what you may think of Queen Mary I, she did not do this, straight away. Jane was instead imprisoned in the Tower of London…

However the rebellion, headed by Thomas Wyatt the Younger in 1554, sealed Jane’s fate. This rebellion was due to the public’s dislike of Queen Mary I’s choice of husband, in Phillip of Spain, so it was thought to replace Queen Mary I, with Jane Dudley, or if you prefer Lady Jane Grey. Although, there was no proof that Jane was involved in this rebellion, it highlighted the threat Jane was to the Tudor throne, if she remained alive.

So this ultimately led to Jane being beheaded on the 12th February 1554 inside the Tower of London, on Tower Green, after seeing her own husband go to the block, just before her, from the window of her prison.