Woman Hidden in History - The Forgotten Queen of England, Lady Jane Grey

Une chronique historique par Alisa Shi, 11e année

The story begins with the sudden illness of Edward VI, the only son of the infamous King Henry VIII who is known for having 6 wives, and Edward VI is the son of the third wife, Jane Seymour. After the death of Henry VIII in 1547, Edward VI, the first heir to the throne, proclaimed his reign at the age of barely nine years old. However, the king soon became very ill, and died in 1553.

Next to succeed the throne are two well-known women: Mary and Elizabeth I, two queens, two sisters, two rivals. However, the situation wasn’t that simple, for another element needs to be urgently taken into account, and that is religion. The next one in line is the older sister of the two, Mary, by the first wife of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, who was raised Catholic, and therefore feared the protestant court. Many deem that Mary couldn’t be allowed to reign, because this would mean that the national religion, Protestantism, needs to be changed, and changing a nation’s religion in the 16th century was a great risk and danger, because anyone who did not follow the national religion would be considered a heretic and would be put to death.

Urgently, the court needed to find another possible successor to inherit the throne.

There was no male heir other than the 8 female heirs who were mostly cousins to the young King Edward VI. In that period of time, the notion of a woman ruling the country was unprecedented and doubtful, and Edward shared his father’s prejudice toward women ruling. Beside all that, strictly according to the law at that time, Mary and Elizabeth were considered illegitimate, since their mothers were abolished wives of Henry VIII.

Jane Grey, a cousin of Edward VI and a protestant, was quickly decided to be suitable to be queen by the privy council. (The duke of Northumberland, a powerful politician who has influenced many of the decisions of the young king, was close to Henry Grey, Jane’s father, and thus had a great impact in making Jane Grey the successor of the throne.) Jane Grey, who was soon later married to the teenage son of Duke Northumberland, Lord Guildford Dudley, was supposed to be a puppet of Northumberland’s political party, since she has no actual power herself and is married into Northumberland’s family. Northumberland’s ambition isn’t just to control the court, but also, to make his own son, king, through Jane Grey, which is his ultimate goal. After the death of King Edward, the court immediately sent troops to the most dangerous threat toward the throne, Mary, who gathered her own army and was supported by many catholic supporters. The death of Edward wasn’t hidden for long. Rapidly, the death of the young king and the unfamiliar name of the new queen, Jane Grey, spreaded throughout the whole country. Yet, Jane was the last to be informed of her own fate. When she was finally told that she would be the new queen, she had been very hesitant, but of course what she wants doesn’t matter.

Outside the palace’s walls, people don't agree, they weren’t happy at all for Jane, an almost completely unknown woman. At the same time, Mary threatened the court to surrender or else there would be a civil war. The privy council soon found that Mary’s force was too strong, so they quickly changed sides, and all at once went down on their knees in front of Mary to beg for her pardon. Jane called for allies, but her time as queen was already trickling away, for almost immediately, Jane lost all her support and she was completely alone.

Finally, after the coronation of Mary I, Jane was considered to be a great threat and was sentenced to death for committing treason.

On 12th February, 1553, Jane was executed on Tower Green, at the age of 17. Indeed, history left us nothing of Lady Jane Grey other than being the monarch of England with the shortest reign, but this doesn’t mean that her tragedy and her fate shouldn’t be discovered and sympathized with.

‘The Execution of Lady Jane Grey’, by Paul Delaroche,1833