During these gray days of winter, I’ll bring you just a little more gray. Or grey.
The life of Lady Jane Grey.
Yes. She is English but not to be confused or associated with Lord Earl Grey, the tea moniker.
Lady Jane Grey was born on October 13, 1537. She only stayed on Earth until February 12, 1554, dying tragically at the age of 16. That’s right. Sixteen.
You see, her claim to fame is that she held the shortest reign as a monarch in English history. Just nine days.
I’ll tell you. That whole Tudor Period in England was tough. You could lose your head over a little bit of nothing. Or end up in some dungeon somewhere, chained to a wall and pooping in the corner near the rat section.
Such was the case for young Jane.
First, a little bit about her. She was born into royalty. Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and she was the great-grand-daughter of Henry VII. That’s where the trouble began.
She was proclaimed Queen of England after the death of her cousin, the protestant King Edward VI.
To be clear, Jane was fifth in line to the throne after Edward’s death. But. She was his personal choice as she was a Protestant, like him. Had she been a good Catholic girl, none of this would have happened, probably.
Anyway. There she was. Queen Jane.
Don’t believe me about the Catholic thing.
Edward’s half-sister Mary was actually next in line for the throne. But, half-sister Mary was a devout Catholic. She was completely out of favor with Edward. So. No crown for Mary.
Edward wanted to keep England firmly Protestant, and he knew that Mary would take England back into the Catholic faith.
The Protestant advisors around Edward persuaded the dying young king to give his crown to Lady Jane Grey.
So that is how it all played out. Edward died on July 6, 1553 and Lady Jane ascended to the throne with her husband Lord Guildford Dudley at her side. As I mentioned. She was just a sweet sixteen. She probably didn’t even have her driver’s license yet. (For carriages. Same as cars.)
Oh. But those English. They can be a cranky bunch. And that’s what they were. They rose in favor of the direct and true royal line. Keep things spit spot and all. So the Royal Council proclaimed that Mary should be queen some nine days later. Easy come. Easy go.
Those Catholic folks might not have killed Jane if she could have just quietly slipped away into some country cottage. But no. Her grossly incompetent advisors, including her father demanded a rebellion.
This was called the Wyatt Rebellion, named after Sir Thomas Wyatt, who was an English soldier and a so-called ‘rebel.’
They came up with this whole big conspiracy idea against the marriage of the new Queen Mary to Phillip of Spain. This Wyatt guy raised an army and marched on London. But he wasn’t so good at being a rebel. Sir Thomas Wyatt was captured and later beheaded.
The attempted Wyatt Rebellion seemed to push things over the top.
After it was quashed, Lady Jane and her husband, who had been locked in the Tower of London, were taken out and beheaded on February 12, 1554.
First, they executed her husband and took his body by horse and cart right by Lady Jane. She was then taken to Tower Green within the Tower, where the chopping block was waiting for her.
Those who were near say she died bravely. She told the executioner, “Please dispatch me quickly’.”
Then she went over and laid her head down on the block. She stretched out her arms, saying, “Lord, into thy hands I commit my soul.”
Again, she was just 16 years old. And now has the distinction of being the shortest reign of any English monarch, before or since. For nine days.
And today is her birthday. She would have been 486 if not for the whole beheading thing.
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“When things go wrong, don’t go with them.”
― Elvis Presley
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“Even in the grave, all is not lost.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
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If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Farnham’s Freehold
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