Lady Jane Grey: The Tragic Nine Day Queen

so hello and welcome to another episode of biographics I'm your interim host Carl Smallwood yep you heard that correctly Carl small W jokes in the comments if you please and today we're talking about Lady Jane gray the tragic nday Queen and at this point in top 10's Geographics and biographics videos I like to point out these are by no means a solitary effort on my part I'm neither the first second third or fourth person to get my eyes on the script the first is of course the original author in this case Larry holsworth give them a follow on the social media link provided below and cheers to everyone working behind the scenes for making these videos the success that they are I'm just here reading words from a page for nine days in 1553 Lady Jane gray claimed the Thrones of England and Ireland an impertinence that caused her to be executed for high treason in February the following year Jane was a descendant of King Henry II a first cousin once removed of Elizabeth the Mary the first and King Edward II and a grand niece of their Collective father the arguably more famous King Henry VII by right of the last will in Testament of king Edward II she was the successor to the British throne largely because her Protestant Faith made her a less disagreeable Monarch than the Catholic Mary at least to British Protestants of the day so apologies for all those like you know Edward I 6 Mary the first there just just when you talk about British history a lot of it is going to be like that at first the privy Council of England agreed with her Ascension and supported her claim to the throne but in less than 2 weeks political support for Mary Tuda led to her being proclaimed Queen instead and Jane's confinement to the Tower of London as a treasonous usurper Lady Jane's story like many surrounding the English Monarchy of the time is one of intrigue treachery betrayal religious intolerance fear of Spanish power and ultimately royally sanctioned murder in that it's not unlikely many tales which swirl around the British Monarchy and its long complicated history Tales of hooded executioners imprisonments in the Tower of London min ministers both loyyal and duplicitous secret missions and public executions are all part of the history of the monarchy Lady Jane's tale then is a relatively small part of that history yet it's one still worth telling and we'll start as we often like to do at the beginning [Music] with the dates and location of Lady Gray's birth are somewhat disputed among Scholars and historians by long-standing tradition her birth occurred in October 1537 in Le sh the daughter of Henry gray Duke of suffk and Francis Brandon early 21st century scholarship disputes this tradition placing her birth earlier possibly as early as May 1536 in or near London rather than in the country baptismal records are one of the few tools available to historians to learn about births of individuals in a time when they usually occurred at home infants were commonly baptized within days of their birth a safeguard against their Immortal Souls being banned from heaven in case they were to scum to one of the many many hazards a threaten infants and their mothers in those very dangerous times yet there is no baptismal record for Jane gray British law did not require the recordings of baptisms in church records until 1538 and Jan was evidently overlooked by whatever cleric performed the right to establish a time of birth recent Scholars have looked to the other end of Jane's life her execution on February 12th 1554 where documents declared her to be 17 years of age assuming those documents to be correct this establishes her birth as occurring for February 1537 though it does little to clarify the location in which she was born it will likely remain a subject of heated debate unless baptismal records one day do appear after the late five centuries that seems somewhat unlikely at any rate as the daughter of nobility Jane received a liberal education her primary tutor was John Almer an Anglican bishop and chaplain to her father Almer to a Jane in Greek in Latin and in Hebrew the languages of the scriptures from another tutor Michelangelo Florio she learned Italian she preferred the study of languages and their corresponding cultures to the more scientific studies skewing mathematics and astronomy but she also exhibited a disdain for the more physical activities expected of the nobility including riding with the hounds during the Hunts and attendance at the festivals and joust popular among her peers even Sports such as tennis which is a popular game among the nobility of 16th century Britain was not to her taste she preferred to quietly read books at home so yeah icon she also exhibited somewhat of a resentment to discipline referring to criticism by her parents behavior and decorum as harsh claiming that sometimes and I quote think myself in hell she grew to resent being told how to sit when to speak and when to remain silent and the other rules of social decorum which dictated the proper behavior of the denisons of the courts and Noble houses she preferred quiet periods of private correspondence in Greek and in Latin to the socialization of receiving guests dancing and behaving as a courtier she was withdrawn and frequently silent encouraging her father to seek different living conditions for his daughter [Music] at the age of about 10 her father sent her to reside in the household of Thomas seore the baron of suday where she attended Katherine par the Widow of Henry VII and for anyone familiar with the British Monarchy or perhaps anyone who watched our video on King Henry vi8 the name Seymour may seem familiar to and that's because Thomas Seymour was the brother of Jane Seymour King Henry the H's third wife just yeah like join your watch Game of Thrones and you think wow this is really weirdly incestuous and then you hear that it was like Loosely based on British history and you're like surely British history isn't that weird and then he hears stories like that and go oh maybe it was so Katherine par died in September 1548 also of complications from child birth as Jane Seymour had done in 1537 as a feral Lady Jane gray served as the chief mner she was all of 11 years old moving back to Thomas Seymour his master as inations among the members of Court were extraordinary even in those times of intrigue and deception he ingratiated himself to the young King Edward even while openly flirting with Edward's half sister the future Elizabeth the in the case of the latter sour was known to visit Elizabeth in her private Chambers playfully tickling the teenage girl while he was often clad in his own nightclothes he was a fully grown man it's just going to be like this a lot of this has gone because that's what British history was it kind of sucked so his brother Edward Seymour the Duke of Somerset and law protected to the young King Edward viewed Thomas with quite warranted suspicion the Duke of Somerset joined with others suspicious of Thomas's Ambitions to eliminate his influence at court among the many charges which were eventually brought against Thomas was one that he had proposed marriage to the king to Jane gray Jane's father instead countered with a proposed marriage of his daughter to Edward Seymour Lord Herford son and the Lord protector though nothing ever came of this suggestion it did protect his daughter from the charges of treason which were eventually leveled against Thomas Thomas Seymour the suggested marriage sered to distance Lady Jane from Thomas Seymour by binding her at least in the mind of courus to Edward seore instead Thomas Seymour was arrested in January 1549 outside the king's bed chamber at Hampton Court Palace armed with a pistol some recountings of this incident state that he had shot one of the king's beloved spaniels when the dog had the tarity to bark sounding the alarm of an intruder near his master's person well discharging a pistol to silence a dog to prevent an alarm seem somewhat contradictory in logic Seymour soon found his new residence to be in the Tower of London as a result of his actions and yeah I don't imagine shooting one of the king's dogs is going to result in uh all that much leniency when it comes to sentencing yeah so he was unable to explain why he was near the king's private rooms in the middle of the night armed with a pistol or why he shot one of his dogs he was convicted without trial of high treason and executed in March 1549 and thus ends his tale moving back to Jane she managed to avoid Chargers thanks to her father's timely suggestion of marriage to another Lord though suspicion of her own Ambitions remained among some members of the Court remember she was a teenager in May 1553 her engagement arranged by her father and emissaries from her betro was announced she was engaged to Lord Guilford Dudley the son of John Dudley the Duke of North umberland who served as the law president of the privy Council making him for all intents and purposes one of the most powerful and influential men in all of England Lady Jane gray and Lord Guilford Dudley were married on May 25th 1553 and they were not the only bride and groom to stand before the altar at Durham house London that joyous day Jan's own sister Katherine gray wed Henry Herbert at the same ceremony Lord guilford's sister also like kind of awkwardly named Catherine married Henry Hastings alongside the other two happy couples thus Lady Jane gray was denied the opportunity of being the center of the celebrations on her own wedding day becoming instead just one of several people enjoying being the center of attention and happiness just her life was kind kind of sucky is what we're [Music] saying Lady Jane gray had been married just 6 weeks when the king of England Edward v 6 died on July 6th 1553 the king had not yet reached his 16th birthday making him younger than Jane and during his brief Reign he had been largely at the mercy of his own advisers unfortunately for the king those advisers were ambitious men Covetous of personal power and divided by religious beliefs and loyalties arguably Edward's most powerful and influential adviser was the aforementioned Duke of North umberland a Protestant distrustful of all Catholics and their links to Roman Spain he was also not coincidentally Lady Jane Gray's father-in-law at the time of Edward's Death so Edward had been ill for some time first complaining of the ailment which would claim his life in February 1553 exactly what the disease was remains open to some amount of speculation the attending surgeon who performed the postmortem on the Royal corpse determined his majesty was succumb to consumption as tuberculosis was known of a time yet rumors of poison reasonings began almost immediately such rumors assign responsibility for the crime to agents of Spain agents of the Pope supporters of the Catholic monarchy and others no evidence of these poisonings ever emerged but evidence was of little importance to extremist when possession of the throne was the ultimate goal whisperings of poisonings and other connives joined with legitimate charges throughout the Maran and Elizabethan Reigns during the king's illness councilors led by North umberland convinced his majesty to alter his will designating his rightful heir to the throne by law at the time rightful Heir was his half Sister Mary the daughter of Henry VII and Catherine of aragan Mary as well as her sister Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate after the shall we say marital and religious Shenanigans of their father that had led to their marriage being annuled in 1533 again we talk about this in more detail in our video on Henry VII it's kind of a trip in 1543 Parliament overturned that religious decision with the third succession act as Edward lingered near death it was evident that Mary would succeed him to the throne placing a Catholic at the the head of the church as well as the head of state Edward and perhaps more importantly North umand opposed the idea of a Catholic Monarch in part because of the potential influence of Catholic Spain on British Affairs and in part because they simply just distrusted Catholics North umand convinced the dying King to issue a document forcefully expressing the Royal will regarding the succession Edward's document called and I quote my devise for the succession ignored the claims of his half sisters Maran Elizabeth and established a succession of male descendants only of Francis gray James mother or of Janes or any of her sisters norblin then persuaded the dying King to alter his original draft of the devise in doing so Edward confirmed the illegitimacy of Mary and Elizabeth as have been declared by their own father Henry VII he then extended the right of inheritance to women only in the absence of legitimate male heirs and in doing so established Lady Jane gray as the heir to the throne followed by her Sisters in accordance with their ages his devise contravene to the third succession act which will prove to be if you'll forgive the pawn the demise of of the devise moving on in 1544 parament had enacted the third succession act though it did not reestablish the legitimacy of either Mary of Elizabeth Tuda both Daughters of Henry VII it did restore their positions in the line of succession following their half brother Edward according to the provisions of the act upon the death of Edward Mary was the rightful heir to the throne English law did not provide for the late King's will circumventing or overturning a law enacted by Parliament in this case according to supports of parliament the divine right of kings was not above the right of law Edward had taken steps to ensure his divis gain the force of law including the rits prepared for the document to be taken up and passed by parliament he' obtained the support of numerous Noble the influential for mentioned privy Council and the bork of officials which made up London's government and political power including Bishops or the clergy magistrates BFFs and aldermen yet despite all of these efforts at the time of his death the devise remained merely a statement of his will while the act of secession remained a force of law Edward v 6 died on July 6th 1553 North umand and his supporters somehow suppressed the news of the King's death knowing that Mary Tuda then at hunon near the Welsh border would act on her own claim to the throne on July 9th Lady Jane gray was informed that by the will of the late King she had ascended to the throne and according to all sourcers she accepted the Judgment of the late Edward hesitatingly expressing her reluctance to become Queen on July 10th after she'd been secured in a safety of the Tower of London the Council under the urging of North umberland declared her Queen of England Ireland and France all titles under which Edward v 6 had been styled and for anyone curious about why Lady Jane gray was in the Tower of London instead of say the palace is because at the time residents in the tower by the Monarch when they were awaiting coronation was just the accepted custom while Jane remained there North umberland took steps to arrest Mary Tuda before she gained substantial support for her claim as rightful Queen consolidating his own authority and control over the realm when he became aware of Mary's having moved e Anglia he set out to arrest her departing London with a small body of troops on July 14th on July 19th the privy Council just reversed their decision and declared Mary to be the queen exactly why the council changed its position remains unclear even to this day though significant evidence exists that a coup was engineered and executed by the Earl of arund Henry Fitz Allen a longtime enemy of North umland a Catholic and supporter of Mary with the announcement of Mary as Queen Jane gray became a pretender an enemy to the monarchy and thus by extension guilty of high treason overnight she went from being the Queen of England residing in the tower while awaiting coronation to a prisoner in that same Tower accused of treason against the Queen the job she'd had just 24 hours earlier British history is wild sometimes so moving [Music] on on July 19th 1553 both Jane and her husband Guilford were imprisoned in the tower she was in the jailer's apartments and he in the other less shall we say accommodating rooms that's the room where guards would just beat you and stuff the following day North umberland acquiesced to the will of the privy Council and pronounced his support of Mary as Queen nonetheless he was arrested and taken to the tower where he was held until his trial in August he attempted to assuage Mary's anger towards him by claiming he just suddenly decided to become Catholic again but to no avail he was executed by beheading on August 22nd having disposed of North umberland the attention of the Court turned to Lady Jane and Guilford Jane was referred to in the court simply as Jane Dudley stripped of her honorifics and titles she remained in the tower isolated from her husband a girl still in her teens no doubt bewildered by the turn of events which had reduced her to a situation the former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas cranmer who had committed the crime of announcing his loyalty to his Queen when she was so named by the privy Council was charged alongside her so was her husband cranmer managed to elude punishment as a result of his association with Lady Jane though he was eventually convicted of heresy and bird of a stake in 1556 as mentioned it kind of sucked back then Guilford and Lady Jane were tried in November 1553 before a special commission assembled for the sole purpose in London their guilt was predetermined and accordingly announced after a brief trial Jane was sentenced to death either by beheading or by being burned at the stake the latter being the preferred punishment for treasonous women at the time the choice of which punishment Lady Jane would suffer was left to the sole discretion of the queen there were appeals to the queen of course to show Mercy to Lady Jane and for several weeks following a conviction she remained a prisoner in the tower with no date for her execution scheduled during this time it was established that the evidence against Lady Jane was somewhat unsubstantial with the exception of a few documents to which she had fixed her signature during her brief remember nday Reign they showed her assigning her name as Jane the queen with Queen spell wrong so that obviously that education really really paid off whether or not this signature was actually hers remains unknown and debated to this day but to the commission of her accusers which tried her they established that she had attempted to exercise the power of the Monarch user the title and in doing so committed high treason in essence she quite literally signed her own death warrant in January 1554 the announcement of Queen Mary's engagement to King Philip of Spain raised significant opposition in England from British Protestants the idea of a Catholic Queen of England marrying a Catholic king of Spain was a fearful one to those who profess Protestant beliefs Thomas Wyatt an English political figure was himself a Catholic and supporter of Queen Mary but witnessed the Spanish persecution of so-called infidel join the Inquisition and feared their spreading into Britain as such he led a revolt against the proposed Union of Mary and Phillip there is little if any real solid evidence that Wyatt supported the restoration of Lady Jane to the throne but hard evidence was not a requirement of those who wish Lady Jane eliminated in addition Jane's father Henry gray Duke of suffk joined in the rebellion led by Wyatt though Wyatt formed a substantial military force and demand of the tower be surrendered to him the rebellion was quashed with minimal Bloodshed Wyatt himself surrendered to the queen forces after the queen offered pardons to most of his followers Wyatt was tried for treason in March 1554 during his trial Mercy was offered should he provide evidence any evidence that implicated Mary's sister the future Queen Elizabeth in the plot to the followers of Queen Mary no one was wor suspicion even a future queen or a past Queen for that matter in Lady Jane's case so either Wyatt had no such evidence or he just remained loyal to Elizabeth she was not charged though she was held under house arrest for several months Wyatt's association with Henry Gray was noted however despite the absence of anything pointing to the involvement of Lady Jane gray herself her enemies raised the issue that her continued existence represented a threat to Mary's Reign Mary agreed that Jane had to be eliminated since her presence served as a potential rallying symbol for Protestant enemies of her Reign so on February 9th 1554 while Wyatt's Rebellion remained unresolved Queen Mary offered Lady Jane gray a brief state of execution giving her 3 days to examine her mortal soul and convert to Catholicism she dispatched her personal Confessor John fenham to oversee the conversion Jane refused the opportunity to be baptized as a Catholic though she requested that the Catholic priest accompany her to the scaffold on the day of her execution speaking of which on February 12th 1554 Guilford Dudley was taken from his room in the tower to the place of public execution located on Tower Hill there he was beheaded his body was conveyed back to the tower passing the rooms occupied by Jane who saw it as it was trundled by without ceremony in a hor drawn cart the young Widow was then escorted to the tower green located inside the Fortress Jan was allowed to give a brief speech to Witnesses and she did so along with reciting Psalm 51 including the words and I quote have mercy upon me oh God according to thy loving kindness she then tied her own blindfold before attempting to find the chopping block upon which to lay her head unable to see she cried out in quite understandable frustration where is it AED to the block she then spoke a last time quoting the dying words of Jesus Christ according to Matthew and I quote into thy hands I commend my spirit it according to witnesses her head was severed in a single clean stroke Jane and Guilford Dudley were buried near Tower green their graves unmarked by a memorial or stone less than two weeks after her execution Jane's father met pretty much the same thing for his part in the ill- fated Wyatt Rebellion according to Legend his moried head was discovered in a London churchyard in the 1850s whether or not the P had actually been that of the father of Lady Jane gray has never been definitively determined and is today buried at St Balto's Church algate London so if so it's a check that could go do that I suppose but it would involve digging up a several hundred year old skeletonized head Lady Jane gray on the other hand came to be viewed as a Protestant Mar another victim of the purges carried out during the reign of Queen Mary the first known to posterity as Bloody Mary Quite fittingly given how many people she had a hand in having killed the young lady Jane came to be viewed by subsequent generations of British Protestants as a a courageous albeit tragic heroine she was celebrated in literature in song in poetry and art as innocent heroic scholarly and pure she became in Legend Peerless in her beauty her accomplishments her loyalty to her husband in her obligations to her country and her faith in truth Lady Jane gray though clearly well educated though not enough to spell the word Queen an accomplish she was more of a victim than anything else she was used by thoroughly ambitious manipulative and unscrupulous men to advance their own careers and goals with little regard to her and her well-being she did not reach the age of 18 meaning that by modern standards she never Advanced Beyond childhood yet her Legacy has endured for centuries since Protestant Faith still hold her in esteem as a Marty though she died not for her refusal to deny her beliefs but rather for her treasonous behavior of those who used her to advance their own causes in many ways she is still the unwitting symbol of those who would use her for their own purposes uncaring of how it affects her own reputation and unwilling to allow her to follow her own destiny a brief life beset with tragedy and an enduring reputation as to what others have chosen her to be be such is the True Legacy of Lady Jane gray so I hope everybody at home found this video to be educational informative and entertaining I certainly found the script to be all three of those things and if you are inclined to agree Larry holsworth the original author has provided with some social media links you can follow below otherwise I hope everybody at home enjoyed this video leave a like comment feedback suggestions all that good stuff below and subscribe for more content like this and as I always like to say to everyone watching at home go out there and have the day that you deserve cheers