Lady Jane Grey

Despite her protests and refusal, she was physically abused and forcefully married to John Dudley’s youngest son, Lord Guildford Dudley, in May 1553 at Dudley’s London residence, Durham House.

As part of a triple wedding, her sister Catherine was also married to Lord Herbert, Earl of Pembroke’s heir, while Lord Guildford’s sister, Katherine was paired with Earl of Huntingdon’s heir, Henry Hastings.

On February 12, 1554, her husband was publicly beheaded at Tower Hill, after which she was beheaded privately in a room at Tower Green, inside the Tower, due to her royal lineage.

Lady Jane Grey was born in October 1537 at Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, as the eldest daughter of Marquees of Dorset, Henry Grey, and Lady Frances Brandon, daughter of Henry VIII’s sister, Mary Tudor.

She, along with her two younger sisters – Lady Catherine Grey (1940) and Lady Mary Grey (1945), was related to Henry VII as his great-granddaughters.

Due to her strict upbringing and abusive behavior of her mother, she never developed a close relationship with her parents. She learned Greek, Italian, Latin, French, Hebrew and English from her tutors at an early age.

In 1547 at the age of nine, she went to stay in the household of Queen Katherine Parr, the sixth and last queen of Henry VIII, who after the death of the latter married her love, Thomas Seymour, the Lord Admiral.

She became the chief mourner at Parr’s funeral who died in childbirth in 1548, after which she was made a ward of Seymour who proposed her marriage with his nephew, King Edward VI.

In 1551, John Dudley became the Duke of Northumberland and the chief advisor to King Edward VI, thereby becoming the most powerful man in England behind the King.

Dudley was successful in convincing Edward in altering the line of succession in favor of the male heir born to Jane’s mother, or Jane and her male heirs, to crown his son as the king ultimately.

In June 1553, the ailing Edward, suffering from measles and tuberculosis, named Jane as his successor, sidelining his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, as illegitimate under influence from Dudley.

She was informed of Edward’s death two days later on July 9, 1553, upon her succession to the throne, despite being reluctant and claiming Mary to be the rightful heir and herself incapable of taking charge.

She was officially crowned as the Queen of England on July 10, 1553 at the Tower of London, but she refused to accept her husband as king and declared him as the Duke of Clarence, instead.