Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 12 February 1554), married name Jane Dudley, also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman and de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553. She was subsequently executed. The great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, Jane was a first cousin once removed of Edward VI.
In May 1553 Jane was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister, John Dodley, Duke of Northumberland. When the 15-year-old King lay dying in June 1553, he nominated Jane as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act. During her short reign, Jane resided in theTower of London. She became a prisoner there when the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as Queen on 19 July 1553. She was convicted of high treason in November 1553, though her life was initially spared. Wyatt's rebellion in January and February 1554 against Queen Mary's plans of a Spanish match led to her execution at the age of 16 or 17, and that of her husband.
Lady Jane Grey had an excellent Humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day. A committed Protestant, she was posthumously regarded as not only a political victim but also a martyr.
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ReplyDelete"The traitor-heroine of the Reformation", as historian Albert Pollard called her, was merely 16 or 17 years old at the time of her execution. During and in the aftermath of the Marian persecutions, Jane became viewed as a Protestant martyr for centuries, featuring prominently in the several editions of the Book of Martyrs by John Foxe. The tale of Lady Jane grew to legendary proportions in popular culture, producing a flood of romantic biographies, novels, plays, paintings, and films, one of which was the 1986 production Lady Jane, starring Helena Bonham Carter.