She Wolves (32 page)
Jane did not have an easy relationship with her parents and she may have been glad of any excuse to leave their household. It was common for young girls to be boarded out in the households of ladies of higher status and since Jane was the great-niece of the king, the only suitable household was that of the queen. By late March 1547, Jane is recorded as a member of the Queen Dowager, Catherine Parr’s household at Chelsea.
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She was probably sent there soon after Henry VIII’s death and must have welcomed the chance to be away from her bullying parents for the first time. Catherine Parr was fond of Jane and she flourished in the queen’s household. It was probably in Catherine Parr’s household that Jane became exposed to the radical Protestantism that would shape her later life and lead eventually her to her death.
Soon after Jane joined Catherine Parr’s household, the queen married Thomas Seymour, the uncle of the new king, Edward VI. Seymour was an unscrupulous figure and quickly saw the advantage to his wife’s possession of Jane, approaching the Dorsets and offering to arrange a marriage for Jane to the king.
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In reality, Edward’s marriage was never in Seymour’s hands and the king himself had already made it clear that he wished to marry a foreign princess. However, the Dorsets, unaware of the emptiness of Seymour’s words and excited at the prospect of their daughter marrying the king, agreed to sell Jane’s wardship and marriage to Thomas Seymour for money. Jane was probably also interested in the possibility of becoming a queen and certainly relished in the flattery that rumours of her engagement to the king brought. She engaged in a correspondence with the European religious reformer Henry Bullinger, who wrote to her as though she were a future queen.
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Jane was probably flattered by the sudden interest in her and it must have been a disappointment to her when these schemes came to nothing. Jane remained in Seymour’s household following the death of the queen in September 1548 and was still there when, on 17 January 1549, Seymour was arrested for treason.
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When the Dorsets heard of this they whisked Jane back to Bradgate away from the scandal. It is unlikely that Jane was glad to be back with her parents.
As she grew older, Jane was expected to play more of a public role. By the terms of Henry VIII’s will, Jane was fourth in line to the throne, after Edward VI’s two sisters and her own mother, and her family was in high favour at court.
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On 4 October 1551 Jane’s father was created Duke of Suffolk and she accompanied her parents to court later that month for a visit from the Scottish queen, Mary of Guise.
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Frances Brandon was also very friendly with her cousin, Mary Tudor, and Jane is known to have gone with her mother to visit the heir to the throne on at least two occasions.
By the early 1550s, Jane had become a radical Protestant and was extremely critical of Catholic Mary’s way of life. On a visit to Mary’s house at Newhall in summer 1552, Jane offended Mary by openly criticising one of Mary’s ladies for following the Catholic habit of curtseying to the altar in church.
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On another occasion, Mary who was fond of children gave Jane some tinsel cloth of gold and Jane refused to wear it, saying she preferred the sombre black of Protestantism.
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These incidents show Jane’s precocity and intelligence but they also highlight a less congenial side to her character, showing religious bigotry and a complete disregard for the feelings of a woman who had been kind to her. Lady Jane Grey seems to have become a religious fanatic incapable of seeing such matters from alternative points of view.
However Mary’s Catholicism was not only a cause of concern to Lady Jane Grey and by 1552 it had become an important matter of state. In March 1552, Edward VI fell ill and although he seemed to make a good recovery, he fell ill again that summer. Like Jane, Edward had been raised to be a radical Protestant and was deeply troubled by the thought that his Catholic half-sister would succeed him. Early in 1553 he wrote, apparently of his own initiative and in his own hand, his device for the succession, disinheriting both his half-sisters due to their supposed illegitimacy.
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Edward’s will for the succession left the throne to any sons of Frances Brandon and failing that, the sons first of Lady Jane Grey and then the sons of her younger sisters. It is probable that, in early 1553, Jane was completely unaware of her increasing political importance.
Edward’s protector, the Duke of Northumberland was also concerned about the prospect of Mary succeeding. He had publicly attacked her religion and knew that she would not look kindly on him after her accession. Northumberland, therefore, also cast around looking for a way to debar her from the throne. In late April or early May he wrote to Suffolk asking that he persuade either his wife, Frances Brandon, or his daughter, Jane, to accept the crown.
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It is unlikely that Northumberland ever contemplated making Frances Brandon queen. According to the
Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae
, Northumberland secretly manipulated Edward VI so that he left the crown to Lady Jane Grey.
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Edward VI was probably easy to persuade and he altered his will with his own hand, leaving the crown to Jane and her heirs male.
Northumberland’s price for supporting Jane was that she marry his youngest and only unmarried son Guildford Dudley. The Suffolks willingly accepted this match, seeing it as Jane’s best chance of a crown and her betrothal was announced in late April or early May.
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Jane tried to reject Guildford, showing that same independence of spirit which she showed throughout her life. Nonetheless, she was forced to comply with both physical and verbal abuse from her parents.
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It is possible that Jane had a personal dislike for the spoilt Guildford Dudley and she never seems to have been very well disposed towards him. Jane’s feelings were of no consequence, however, and they were married in a magnificent ceremony at Northumberland’s London residence on 25 May 1553.
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The French ambassador and most of the English nobility were present, although the king was too ill to attend. Jane’s hair was decorated with pearls and she wore finery borrowed from the royal stores. Despite the glamour of the ceremony, Jane must have been thoroughly miserable at having to marry a man she detested.
Jane disliked Guildford and appears to have been frightened of his family. Despite her obvious dislike of her own parents, Jane begged to be allowed to remain with them after the wedding but was forced to stay with her husband’s family. She stayed only a few days in Northumberland’s house, however, before falling ill and was sent to Chelsea to rest.
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Jane apparently believed that Northumberland was trying to poison her, a surprising belief given how important she was to him. Jane probably enjoyed the quiet of Chelsea and the chance to be alone with her books. She was there on 9 July when Guildford’s sister, Mary Sidney came to take her to Syon House in London.
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Edward VI died on the evening of 6 July.
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The next day, Northumberland kept his death secret but began secretly to fortify the Tower. On 8 July, he summoned the Lord Mayor of London and six aldermen and informed them that Edward VI had died and had named Jane as his successor. On 9 July, the Council joined Northumberland and the Suffolks at Syon House and bowed low before Jane when she was brought into the room. Jane must have been terrified when she entered the room to find the royal council together with her parents, husband and parents-in-law bowing to her and she fell to the ground weeping.
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According to one report, Jane then tried to refuse the crown:
That the laws of the kingdom, and natural right, standing for the king’s sister, she would beware of burdening her weak conscience with a yoke, which did belong to them; that she understood the infamy of those, who had permitted the violation of right to gain a sceptre, that it were to mock God, and deride justice, to scruple at the stealing of a shilling, and not at the usurpation of a crown.
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Lady Jane Grey clearly knew that to accept the crown was to do wrong. However, from where she lay, weeping on the floor, she was also tempted. According to her own account, Jane ‘humbly prayed and besought Him that he would make it so that what had just been given to me was rightfully and legitimately mine’.
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Jane apparently expected a sign from God if he was displeased by her and receiving none took it as a sign of God’s wish that she should accept the crown. From that moment, Lady Jane Grey agreed willingly to usurp the crown of England.
In the afternoon of 10 July, Jane was conveyed by water to the Tower, where she was received as Queen.
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Jane may have felt a certain satisfaction that it was her mother who had to hold her train in the procession to the Tower and she wore platform shoes in order to appear taller to the watching crowd.
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According to Jane herself in a letter to Mary she:
was brought to the Tower and the Marquis of Winchester, the great treasurer, gave me the jewels and together with them, he also brought the crown. It so happened that, without my asking him or others asking him in my name, he wanted me to put the crown on my head, to see if it fitted or not. I refused to do it, resorting to a number of excuses, but he added that I should be brave and take it, and also that he would make another to crown my husband. I listened to these words with a discomforted and reluctant spirit; and an infinitely displeased heart.
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Jane was overwhelmed and frightened by her sudden elevation but even then showed an independent spirit that suggests she was no passive victim. On hearing that another crown would be prepared for Guildford, Jane refused point blank to crown him, saying that she would make him a duke and nothing more.
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Guildford, who was present, rushed to complain to his mother. The Duchess of Northumberland came storming into Jane’s presence shouting that her son would not stay another night with such an ungrateful wife. She and Guildford then tried to leave the Tower but Jane sent the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke to stop them from leaving, anxious to prevent the public slight that Guildford’s leaving would be to her. This incident, although almost farcical, indicates that Jane might not have proved to be quite the compliant puppet queen that Northumberland had hoped. She was certainly prepared to stand up to the bullying of her husband and his mother once she was queen.
Jane must have felt in a more stable position once she was established in the Tower and it is likely that she believed the council when they said her accession was secure. It was therefore a blow to everyone in the Tower when, on 12 July, a letter was delivered from Mary, in which she claimed the crown. Northumberland had attempted to capture Mary before Edward VI’s death but she had escaped him, travelling to her manor at Kenninghall where she quickly began to attract supporters. Mary’s letter caused consternation in the Tower and Jane must also have been concerned for her position. When it was suggested that Suffolk should lead a force against Mary, he was ‘cleane dissolved by the speciall meanes of the lady Jane his daughter, who, taking the matter heavily, with weeping teares made request to the whole councell that her father might tarry at home in her company’.
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Jane must have been gratified to see that, once again, the assembled lords were forced to obey her and it was decided that Northumberland would be sent instead.
The next morning, Northumberland began to recruit an army. After dinner, he went to Jane and she gave him his commission to lead her army and leave to depart. He set out the next morning with 600 men but was clearly uncomfortable with the reception he received from the hostile populace, pointing out to one of his men that, ‘the people prece to se us, but not one sayeth God spede us’.
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Mary had always been popular with the people in England whereas Jane was unfamiliar and simply could not command public support. By the time Northumberland left, word had already been brought to Jane that Mary had been proclaimed in Buckinghamshire and Norwich. A further blow came when word reached the Tower that six royal ships that had been sent to Yarmouth to capture Mary had deserted Jane for Mary, the crews mutinying and threatening to throw their captains in the sea if they would not agree.
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Jane must have been glad to see Northumberland leave the Tower, as it is clear that she hated him. She must have been worried by the threat of Mary, however, especially when it was realised that with Northumberland gone, many of the council were actively trying to leave the Tower. On 16 July, the treasurer, the Marquis of Winchester, was found to have left the Tower secretly.
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Jane acted decisively when she heard this and, at 7pm, ordered that the gates of the Tower be locked and the keys brought up to her. It was officially announced that a seal had been stolen but everyone in the Tower knew the truth. At midnight that same night, the Treasurer was found in his London house and taken back to the Tower by Jane’s guards.
By 18 July, however, most of the council had managed to escape and on the evening of 19 July, they proclaimed Mary at Cheapside.
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By 18 July Northumberland had also come to realise that his cause was lost. Knowing that reinforcements would never come, he left Bury St Edmunds to return to Cambridge.
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During the night of 19 July he heard that Mary had been proclaimed in London. The next morning he proclaimed her himself at Cambridge before being arrested. Jane probably first realised that her cause was lost when her father came to her on the 19th as she was eating dinner and tore down the cloth of estate above her head with his own hands. He then went out onto Tower Hill and proclaimed Mary himself before fleeing to his London house.
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The loss of her crown cannot have been entirely unexpected for Jane and the sound of rejoicing at Mary’s accession could be heard from the Tower.
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When Lady Throckmorton returned to the royal apartments that evening from standing proxy for Jane at a christening, she found them deserted and was told that Jane was now a prisoner in the Deputy Lieutenant’s house in the Tower.
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