Lady Jane Grey

Jane Grey remains one of the most compelling and tragic figures in Tudor history. She was unfortunately, like many women of her day, used by powerful, scheming men vying for political power. She possessed royal blood through her grandmother, Princess Mary Tudor, and this heritage brought her to death at the scaffold in 1554. Jane had been named heiress to the English throne in her great-uncle Henry VIII's will, but only if his son Edward and daughters Mary and Elizabeth died without issue. But Edward ruled for just six years and his ambitious advisor, John Dudley, was determined to remain in power. To that end, he persuaded Edward to write his own will and leave the throne to his pious cousin, Jane Grey. Though just fifteen at the time, she was known for her Protestant piety and learning; it was this religious devotion which persuaded Edward to alter the succession. Deeply pious himself, he could not leave the throne to his Catholic sister, Mary (aka Mary I). Jane was quickly wed to Dudley's son and crowned queen of England in July 1553. But she ruled for just nine days, trapped and unhappy. Mary Tudor claimed the throne with great popular support and Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Her subsequent execution was a political necessity for Mary Tudor. Despite her youth, Jane met her end with great dignity and courage. 'I think that at the supper I neither receive flesh nor blood, but bread and wine; which bread when it is broken, and the wine when it is drunken, put me in remembrance how that for my sins the body of Christ was broken, and his blood shed on the cross. ...I ground my faith upon God's word, and not upon the church... The faith of the church must be tried by God's word, and not God's word by the church; neither yet my faith.' Jane Grey to John Feckenham - 1554

Article by Alexander S