Year: Day to Day Men: February 12
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The twelfth of February in the year 1554 marks the death of Lady Jane Grey, also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage and as the ‘Nine Days’ Queen. A first cousin once removed of Edward VI, King of England and Ireland, Lady Grey was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from the tenth to the nineteenth of July in 1553.
Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII through his daughter Mary Tudor and was thus a grandniece of King Henry VIII. She was well educated in the humanities and considered one of the most learned women of her time. In May of 1553, Lady Grey married Lord Guildford Dudley, one of the younger sons of King Edward VI’s chief minister John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.
In June of 1553, the dying King Edward VI wrote his will and testament in which he nominated Lady Jane Grey and her male heirs as successors to the Crown. Edward VI, who had laid the foundation for the reformed Church of England, removed his half-sister Mary Tudor from the succession, partly due to the fact she was Catholic, and nominated Lady Grey, a committed Protestant who would support the reformed church.
King Edward VI’s will and testament also removed Elizabeth I, the only surviving child of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate after Anne’s marriage to Henry was annulled. Although Elizabeth had been reinstated under the Third Succession Act of 1543, King Edward ignored those statutes of reinstatement in favor of Lady Grey as successor.
After Edward VI’s death on the sixth of July in 1553, Lady Jane was officially proclaimed Queen on the tenth of July and waited for her coronation in the Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London. Jane’s father-in-law John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, made an attempt to consolidate his power through the capture of Mary Tudor on the fourteenth of July. The attempt failed and Dudley was accused of treason; he was executed less than a month later.
Support for Mary Tudor grew rapidly and most of Lady Jane’s supporters abandoned her. The Privy Council of England, a body of advisors to the sovereign, gave their support to Mary Tudor and proclaimed her queen on the nineteenth of July. Lady Jane and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were arrested and held prisoner in the Tower of London. Queen Mary I originally had decided to spare Lady Jane’s life; however she was soon viewed as a threat to the Crown. Lady Jane’s fate was sealed after her father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, led a rebellion against the marriage of Queen Mary and King Phillip II of Spain.
Referred to by the court as Jane Dudley, wife of Guildford, Lady Jane was charged with hight treason as were her husband, two of his brothers, and the former archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. They were tried on the thirteenth of November in 1553 at London’s Guildhall. As expected, all were found guilty and sentenced to death. Jane was guilty of treason as she had assumed the title and power of the monarch, as presented in the documents she had signed as Queen. Her sentence was to be beheaded or burned alive on Tower Hill as the Queen pleases.
Scheduled for the ninth of February in 1554, Lady Jane’s execution was postponed for three days to give her a chance to convert to the Catholic faith. On the morning of the twelfth of February, Lord Guildford Dudley was beheaded and the remains were brought inside the tower where Jane was staying. Lady Jane was taken outside to the Tower Green where she blindfolded herself and was beheaded with one stroke. At the time of her death, Jane was no more than seventeen years old.
Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley are buried in the Chapel of Saint Peter ad Vincula on the north side of the Tower Green. No marker was ever erected on their gravesite. Her father Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, was executed for treason on the twenty-third of February in 1554, eleven days after his daughter and son-in-law.