Mary I is remembered as Bloody Mary for the burnings at the stake of hundreds of people
across England during her reign.
Tudor England was changed during her short reign as she tried to restore catholicism
to the country, but when Mary came onto the throne it was not easy for her.
She was not the successor stated by Edward VI, as that was the Protestant Lady Jane Grey,
who became known in History as the 9 day queen, as she was deposed shortly after becoming
Queen.
But many believed Mary was the legitimate heir, and when she took the throne she ordered
the execution of Lady Jane later as she believed she was a rebel who could have been involved
in plots against the Catholic queen.
However Jane did have a husband who despite also being a young man was executed for treason
and had his head hacked off by an executioner on Tower Hill.
Join us today as we look at the horrific execution of the 9 day King, Guildford Dudley.
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Lord Guildford Dudley was born around 1535, and his father was the influential John Dudley
the First Duke of Northumberland.
His family were prominent landowners and courtiers during the Tudor Period, as his brother Robert
would later be the rumoured love interest of Queen Elizabeth I. Guildford was given
a very good humanist education and was raised Protestant, and his father continued to be
influential during the reign of Edward VI as he was given the title the Lord President
of the Council for the young King that helped him rule.
This ensured the Dudley’s had much power across the country, especially following the
execution of the Lord Protector Edward Seymour the Duke of Somerset.
John Dudley made changes to much of the King’s court, and he became the Grand Master of the
Kings household, and was involved in raising Edward VI to become a King.
He then also became the Head of the Privy Council and with this was practically ruling
as King in the country.
Guilford was a good young boy, and his father tried to marry him to Margaret Clifford the
surviving daughter of the Earl of Cumberland.
But after her father refused this, John Dudley looked for a new wife for his son, and then
in Spring 1553 he was engaged to Lady Jane Grey.
Jane was linked to the throne, and she was the great grand daughter of Henry VII, and
when they married on the 25th May 1553, John Dudley set his plan into action to try and
get the pair onto the throne.
The wedding was huge and lavish, with huge celebrations and many European ambassadors
came to witness the spectacle.
But around 1553, Edward VI the boy King became rather unwell.
He had a fever and a cough that got much worse over the months, and he suffered from tuberculosis.
As time went on, Edward became gravely ill and because of this he would succumb to his
illness and then die.
But before his death, the King sorted out the succession to bar his half sister Mary
I from the throne.
She was seen by Edward as a Catholic meddler, and she had been declared illegitimate, following
Henry VIII’s split from Mary’s mother Catherine of Aragon.
His other half sister Elizabeth I was also deemed illegitimate as her mother Anne Boleyn
had been executed inside the walls of the Tower of London years before.
But because of this Edward passed a law that wrote his half sisters out of the succession,
and Lady Jane Grey the daughter in law of John Dudley was now made the heir.
Edward died on the 6th July 1553, and following this Jane was given the throne.
Initially she did not like this, and she did not want to become Queen.
4 days later her reign was announced, and the Duke of Northumberland now had his son
as the consort of the Queen.
He would continue to manipulate Jane and Guildford to get what he wanted, but his son was now
the de facto King of England.
The royal couple were very young at the time and were teenagers, and the Protestants across
the Kingdom were likely happy with Jane’s appointment as it was believed they would
continue Edward’s work with the church.
However it was clear that Guilford did not want to just become a consort, he wanted to
become the King and the ruler for himself.
This demand put a lot of strain on their young marriage, and Jane continued to deny Guildford
the power of being a King in his own name.
Guildford was made the Duke of Clarence to appease him, but he didn’t want to become
a Duke, he wanted to become a King.
The couple had a huge argument, and the Duchess of Northumberland Jane’s mother was outraged
by what was happening.
She banned Guildford from entering Jane’s bed chambers, and he was also told to go home
and to leave the Tower of London, but Jane did back.
She asked him to remain at the Tower and court and to stay by her side, but there were a
number of daily meetings that were overseen by Guildford.
By doing this he was practically ruling as a King, and he also addressed himself as royalty.
The French ambassador referred to him as ‘The New King,’ and other documents state he
was referred to as ‘King Guildford.’
But cracks then appeared with Lady Jane Grey’s claim to the throne.
Compared to the living dependents of King Henry VIII, Princess Mary and Elizabeth, her
claim to the throne was very tenuous and distant, and there were more direct descendent on the
throne who should have been there instead of her.
Because of this, Mary I would rise up as she believed she should have been Queen, and she
gathered a number of troops to try and take the throne.
Her supporters backed her and the fact she said she was the rightful Queen, and the Privy
Council who had sworn support to Jane later changed their ideas and they then backed Mary.
With this, they proclaimed Mary I the Queen on the 19th July 1533, and the reign of the
9 Day Queen Lady Jane Grey was brought to a short and sharp end.
John Dudley had failed to see off Mary’s rebellion, and now his son Guildford and the
9 Day Queen became prisoners of the Tower of London.
They had been preparing for coronation, but now they were state prisoners.
The Privy Council fled the Tower and Jane was then moved from the royal apartments inside
the Tower to the Gentleman’s Jailer lodgings.
Guildford was imprisoned inside of the Bell Tower, and his brother joined him later.
They were kept in different Towers and his father was also held at the Tower before he
was executed upon Tower Hill.
But Mary I sought to punish John Dudley, but it looked like she would spare Guildford and
Lady Jane.
The pair were accused of high treason and were placed on trial on the 13th November
1533.
They were convicted of treason and plead guilty.
Guildford was convicted of compassing to depose Mary I by sending soldiers to defeat her rebellion,
and of proclaiming and honouring Jane as a Queen.
Jane was held in better conditions at the Tower than her husband was, and he was only
allowed to take a brief walk near the Bell Tower, but Jane could walk wherever she liked.
The couple may have briefly spoken during this time, however when Mary I planned to
marry the Catholic Prince Philip of Spain, rebellion broke out in England.
Protestants rose up and it was believed Jane could be reinstated and be seen as a symbol
of protest.
But because of this, it was thought by Mary that it was too dangerous to have Guilford
and Jane alive.
Through gritted teeth, Mary I ordered their executions.
The privy council supported this, and Jane and Guilford were told that they would lose
their heads for their treasons.
The day before the executions, Guildford asked to Emet his wife one final time but this was
refused by Jane as she worried it would only cause more heartbreak for the pair.
But Jane believed they would be reunited in heaven shortly.
But around 10 o’clock on the 12th February 15543, Guildford Dudley was led out of the
Tower of London from his cell.
He made the short walk north of the Tower to Tower Hill where the scaffold stood that
took the heads of influential Tudor figures such as Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More.
He was to be beheaded by an axeman.
The chronicle of Lady Jane Grey states of his execution that, ‘Guildford went out
of the Tower to the Scaffold on Tower Hill, the Lord Guildford Dudley, son to the late
duke of Northumberland, husband to the lady Jane Grey, daughter to the Duke of Suffolk
who at his going out too by the hand Sir Anthony Brown, John Throckmorton and many other gentlemen
praying them to pray for him.
The Sheriff recieved him and Brought him to the scaffold, where after a small declaration
having no ghostly father with him, he kneeled down and said his prayers.
Holding up his eyes and hands to god many times, and at last after he had desired the
people to pray for him, he laid himself along and his head upon the block, which was at
one strong of the axe taken from him.’
Guilford Dudley’s execution was quick as his head was taken clean off by the axe and
the skilled executioner.
Lady Jane was greeted by a sight of horror after she witnessed her husbands remains being
taken back into the Tower of London, with the headless corpse then being interred inside
the chapel at the Tower of London.
But shortly later she would be also executed, but was allowed a private execution within
the Tower of London.
Guildford Dudley was the man who wanted to be king, and played at the role for a short
period of time, however he was ultimately seen as a treasonous figure.
It’s believed he suffered from the manipulations of his father, but he was seen as too dangerous
to have alive in the eyes of Mary I.
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