12th February 1554 saw one of the greatest
injustices of English history, namely the execution by beheading of Lady Jane
Grey, a 16-year-old girl who had been made queen by virtue of the machinations
of powerful men but who had to pay the ultimate price when their plotting came
to nothing.
Jane Grey was the daughter of Henry Grey, the Marquess of
Dorset, and his wife Frances Brandon, whose own mother was the sister of King
Henry VIII. This made Jane a cousin of Henry’s son Edward, who reigned as King
Edward VI for only six years before dying in 1553 at the age of 15.
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, had been the real power
in the land during Edward’s reign, and he was determined to exclude Mary,
Edward’s Catholic sister, from the throne when Edward died – an event that was
long expected given his poor health.
There is, however, much conjecture over how much influence
Edward himself had in this matter, as his will excluded both his sisters from
the succession, including the Protestant Elizabeth. He regarded them both as
being illegitimate, which left Jane as the next in line.
Northumberland was certainly all in favour of this plan, and
he sought to cement his own position by marrying Jane to his son, Lord Guildford
Dudley. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Jane was not at all happy
with this arrangement, nor with Guildford’s demand that when she became queen
he would be declared king.
Jane also had to be persuaded to accept the crown on
Edward’s death. However, she was a 16-year-old girl who was honour bound to
obey her parents, who, along with her father-in-law Northumberland, demanded
that she become queen.
However, the plot fell apart mainly due to the attitude of
the common people. It is often thought that the whole population of England switched
allegiance from Catholic to Protestant during the reign of Henry VIII, but this
is far from the truth. This meant that, even though mighty lords such as
Northumberland and Dorset could not stomach the thought of a Catholic monarch,
the same did not apply to those further down the social scale.
The net result was that Princess Mary was accepted by the
vast majority of the people as the rightful queen and support for Lady Jane was
very thin on the ground. Mary entered London in triumph and “Queen Jane” was
deposed after only nine days.
At first, Mary was inclined to be lenient towards Jane, whom
she saw, rightly enough, as having been merely a pawn who had been promoted to
queen in a ruthless chess game being played out by others who were far more
blameworthy.
Indeed, Jane may well have escaped the axe had it not been
for her father’s foolish action in supporting the plot of Sir Thomas Wyatt to
unseat Queen Mary by force of arms. Mary knew that she had to remove the focus
of such rebellions from the scene, and this meant that Jane had to die to
prevent anyone else trying to restore her to the throne.
All accounts state that Lady Jane went to her death
courageously and refusing to blame anyone else for her downfall. However, it is
still a tragedy that a beautiful and intelligent young woman had to die due to
the accident of having been born into a situation that determined her fate.
© John Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment