The Tower of London today is considered one of history’s most brutal and terrifying
prisons, in which two of Henry VIII’s queens were executed within the walls.
Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were not the only Queens who were executed inside the
Tower, as there was another Queen during the reign of Bloody Mary I who was beheaded on
Tower Green.
Lady Jane Grey is known as the 9 day queen, who was ousted off the throne by Mary I after
the Privy Council switched their support from the young Protestant girl, to the Catholic
eldest daughter of Henry VIII Mary.
But having Lady Jane Grey imprisoned inside the Tower of London was dangerous for Mary,
as she was seen by Protestants and by many as the rightful Queen, and the one who should
have been reigning as she was named the successor by the previous monarch Edward VI.
So join us today as we look at, ‘The BRUTAL Execution and Death of Lady Jane Grey.’
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Lady Jane Grey was born around 1537 in Bradgate Park in Leicestershire.
She had a fine and brilliant humanist education, and was stated to have been one of the most
learned young women of her time.
She was the great grand-daughter of Henry VII so had royal blood, and she directly inherited
the crown from her cousin Edward VI on the 9th July 1553.
Edward VI, Henry VIII’s son had fallen very ill in January 1553, and ever since then he
seemed frail, and despite being only young, he wished to make sure that his successor
was a male protestant.
He because of this disinherited his half sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and he looked towards
his cousins as successors, but none had produced a male heir.
However due to her strong protestant faith, he turned to Lady Jane Grey, the eldest Grey
child to become his successor.
Jane it was said would reign as Queen, but the crown at the time could only go to a male
heir.
It was said that if Jane died without having a son, then the crown would pass further to
one of the sons of her sisters, and this was passed off by the privy council.
Edward’s new plan, caused a significant degree of changes.
John Dudley the Duke of Northumberland sought to manipulate his way into power, and the
throne by marrying Lady Jane Grey to his son, Lord Guildford Dudley.
Because of this marriage, John Dudley himself was placed in a very strong position, and
could through his daughter in law get what he wanted.
Lady Jane and Guilford would have reigned together as King and Queen, and when she was
16 Jane married, and Guildford was about 2 years older.
Their match was seen as beneficial to both the Dudleys and the Greys, as with the new
law around succession it was believed that future grey children would rule over England.
It was John Dudley, Guildford’s father who was involved in getting Edward VI to pass
over the throne, but when Edward died on the 6th July 1553, Jane was immediately summoned.
She was taken to soon House, where she was informed that she was going to be crowned
the Queen of England.
This surprised the young Jane, as she became very distressed at the time and it confused
her privy counsellors.
Becoming Queen was seen as a good thing, but it’s believed that Jane was not prepared
for this, and neither did she wish to become the Queen.
She became very distressed, and this continued even when her husband and parents arrived.
She was very reluctant to be Queen, but the following day Jane along with her parents
and Guildford went to the Tower of London, with her entourage.
A procession of barges took her to the Tower along the Thames, where plans were being drawn
up for her coronation.
It was tradition for English Kings and Queens to stay briefly inside the Tower to await
their coronations, and this had been done for centuries.
When entering, Jane wore a long green dress of velvet, and looked every part the Queen
wearing very extravagant jewellery too.
She would never leave the Tower’s walls.
Jane was asked to wear the Crown, but she refused to do so, but her husband Guildford
had strong ambitions to become the ruler, unlike his reluctant wife.
Jane however continued to refuse to make him the King, which angered him greatly.
Jane had a number of problems with her husband, but her biggest problem would soon come in
the form of Henry VIII’s eldest child, Mary.
Mary had learned of the fact Jane had been made successor, and she saw her as a usurper,
and Mary wrote to the privy council, demanded that she should be Queen as the rightful heir.
Many of the members of the council believed that support for Mary would be futile and
would easily be able to be defeated, and they sent a reply demanding that Mary should back
Jane, and told her to silence herself.
Mary refused to do so, and she had a large amount of Catholic support.
She was the major threat behind Jane, and an army was even sent from London to go and
capture Mary.
Mary raised her own army, and John Dudley was told to go and capture Princess Mary so
she could be silenced.
However, whilst Dudley was out trying to fight Mary’s army, the Privy Council changed their
minds and switched their vital support from Lady Jane Grey to the woman who would be known
as Queen Mary I. Mary was proclaimed Queen after riding victorious into London on the
19th July, ending the 9 day reign of Lady Jane Grey.
The place which Jane was supposed to be enjoying the luxuries of being Queen, the Tower of
London now became her prison.
She was imprisoned in the Tower’s gentleman jailer’s apartments along with her husband
who was being held in the Beachamp Tower.
Inside this tower in particular is some interesting prison graffiti saying the words Jane, this
even could have been attributed to Guildford.
As Mary I held Jane prisoner, she was left with no-one, as all the privy councillors
sought to impress Mary and save their own skins.
Jane and Guildford were soon placed on trial for high treason.
Mary I at king offered both of them a reprieve, believing that the pair were nothing more
than pawns in the manipulations of more powerful men who sought to exert their own control.
Jane because of this was granted a number of comforts and she was allowed a number of
servants to attend upon her.
She was also allowed to take walks inside of the Queen’s garden and to meet up with
her husband there.
When her trial came, there were a number of other defendants including her husband, and
all those brought to trial were found guilty.
Jane along with all the defendants including her husband was sentenced to death.
It was believed that Jane when she signed a number of documents as Jane the Queen, and
with this she assumed the role of Queen and the title of it, and with this was guilty
of being treasonous.
Jane received a sentence that she was to be burned alive on Tower Hill, or beheaded as
the Queen pleases, however it was later reported that Lady Jane Grey’s life had been spared
by Mary I.
But this leniency did not last long at all.
The Queen’s religious beliefs and the plans Mary had to marry the hated Prince Phillip
of Spain made her incredibly unpopular in England.
Because of this, there was a great fear had by the Queen that a Protestant rebellion could
see her overthrown and assassinated, and at the expense of this Lady Jane Grey would become
the Queen.
A number of rebellions did break out across England, and the most serious was Wyatt’s
rebellion.
The conspirators in this did not explicitly state they intended to put Jane on the throne
but her father was closely linked to the plot.
Mary then knew that to keep Jane alive was too dangerous for her, and she decided to
offer her an ultimatum.
Mary said to Jane, she would spare her life if Jane and her husband converted to catholicism
and support Mary, but Jane refused to do so and with this Mary signed Guildford and Jane’s
death warrants and ordered their executions.
It was a cold February morning that Jane first witnessed the power and brutality of Mary
I. On the 12th February 1554, prison guards took Guildford Dudley Jane’s Husband from
the Beauchamp Tower, out towards Tower Hill.
The short walk was accompanied by thousands who had came to witness the beheading of Lady
Jane Grey’s husband, the man who wished so greatly to become the King.
Jane refused to meet with him one final time, as she worried it would be too hard for them
both to say goodbye.
Guildford was taken to Tower Hill and was beheaded in front of a huge crowd, in an execution
that told the public of London to fall into line and support Mary I. As Jane gazed out
of a window at the tower where she was sitting, she saw a horse and cart bring back the remains
of her Husband into the Tower of London, with his head separated from his body.
Jane saw her husband’s corpse and cried and wailed, distressed by what she saw.
Mary did allow Jane some reprieve during her execution, and as she was a former Queen of
England and also a woman of high status, Mary consented to allow her the be executed in
public within the walls of the Tower of London.
This spared her being taken out of the Tower and being executed in front of the public.
An hour after she had witnessed her husbands remains being brought into the Tower to be
buried inside the chapel, Jane was summoned by the Tower’s guards.
They knocked on the door of her chamber, and told her she was due to die within the next
few moments.
Jane prepared dressed in black, and then left her room and she was escorted to Tower Green.
On this small area of grass, bloodshed was sown into the lawn with the executions of
Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two former Queens being beheaded on this spot.
She walked slowly and calmly to the scaffold, and she made her final speech to those few
witnesses who were sent to watch the proceedings.
Jane said, ‘Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the
same.
The fact indeed, against the Queen’s highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto
by me, but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my
hands thereof in innocency, before God and the fact of you, good Christian people, this
day.
Jane read then Psalm 51 written in her prayer book, and turned to one of her ladies and
gave her, her gloves, handkerchief collar and gown.
The prayer book was then passed to the Leftenant of the Tower, and she turned to her executioner
who was armed with his axe and said, ‘please dispatch me quickly.’
Jane up until this point had faced her mortality with calm and resolve, but as panic set in
this waned.
The executioner tied a blindfold around her eyes, and Jane then panicked and started looking
for the block to rest her head, and she cried, ‘What shall I do, where is it?’
And this would have been very distressing for people to have seen.
The young teenage girl on her hands and knees scrambling for the executioners block.
A witness then helped her to lay her head on the block, and she said ‘Lord into thy
hands I comment my spirit,’ before in one swift blow, Lady Jane Grey the 9 day Queen’s
head was taken off by the axeman.
Lady Jane Grey today is seen as the shortest reigning monarch in English History, but she’s
also viewed as an innocent victim in the scheming of a number of men who sought to claim power
for themselves and manipulate her.
She’s seen as a Protestant martyr when was offered the chance to convert to catholicism
stayed loyal to her faith and beliefs.
However at just the age of 16 or 17, Lady Jane was executed in one of the most barbaric
ways.
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