the TUDOR TUTOR » Lady Jane Grey

After You, Who?

barbalexander — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:33:44 +0000

Here’s a stellar 5:40 bit from Showtime on life after Henry VIII . He was a tough act to follow, for sure, but someone had to do it! Take a gander at how the succession went for the remainder of the Tudor period.

Lady Jane Grey Meets Pop Art!

barbalexander — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:53:52 +0000

I just had to share this whimsical poster of Lady Jane Grey, featured in a new show at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. The show is called “Art for All: British Posters for Transport.” As you can see, the Nine-Days Queen (and a scissors, yikes!) are promoting the Tower of London. Cheeky!

A Not-So-Sweet Spot

barbalexander — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:51:37 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Nestled on the inner grounds of the Tower of London is a darling little stretch of grass called the Tower Green. Today it may strike you as a cozy place to get a fresh air break during your tour of the Tower, but in the Tudor period it played host to a handful of beheadings.

Most of the poor souls who were beheaded at that time met their fate on Tower Hill, just northwest of the Tower of London and a place that today is…well, the Tower Hill tube station. But a few very special prisoners were given the gift of a private execution on the secluded spot within the Tower walls. “Private” was a relative concept, as there could have been a hundred or so people present. The seven “priviledged” victims of a private Tower Green beheading were:

William, Lord Hastings in 1483 (two years before the Tudor dynasty began)
Anne Boleyn in 1536
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury in 1541
Katherine Howard in 1542
Jane, Viscountess Rochford (Anne Boleyn’s brother’s wife, and royal busybody who arranged for Kitty Howard to get a bit on the side) in 1542
Lady Jane Grey in 1554
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (a former Liz I fave who became too big for his britches) in 1601

Today a plaque marks the spot where the Famous Seven lost their heads, the only grisly reminder in an otherwise sweet and seemingly-peaceful spot.

There Will Be Blood!

barbalexander — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:00:11 +0000

Image by Clover_1 via Flickr

Get ready, because this is a particularly dark week in Tudor history. Today is the anniversary of Mary, Queen of Scots’ execution in 1587. It was a grisly affair, as it took more than one whack to do away with the poor girl.

On Wednesday the 10th, we have the murder anniversary of her husband (also her first cousin), Lord Darnley, in 1567. That same date marks the 1542 imprisonment of pathetic and misunderstood Kitty Howard.

Thursday the 11th marks the day Elizabeth of York died in 1503. The woman who gave birth to our tubby, turkey-leg eating womanizer fell victim to infection after having Henry’s little sister and died on her own birthday.

On Friday 12th we have the 1554 execution anniversary of poor nine-days-queen Lady Jane Grey, and her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley. And we continue the Headless Chronicles on Saturday the 13th, as we remember that day in 1542 when Kitty Howard and Jane Boleyn (Anne’s sister-in-law) were sent to the chopping block.

Whew! It’s getting bloodier than a Martin Scorcese movie. Stick around if you’re not the squeamish type.

Tudor Ghost-du-Jour: Lady Jane Grey

barbalexander — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:58:12 +0000

Lady Jane Grey’s story is a sad and complicated one. I detailed it here if you would like a recap (and if you’re wondering how this chickadee became queen to begin with, voilà). This poor teenager showed up for centuries as a white shimmering figure around the Tower of London’s battlements and also around Tower Green, where she was executed.

It wasn’t bad enough to have been beheaded, but poor Jane had a stressful last few minutes of her life as well. She was blindfolded and then worriedly asked the executioner, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?” His answer was no, so she attempted to lay her head down.

Not that she could see where the block was, being blindfolded and all. The crowd was still as she waved her arms around in the air, feeling for the block and in a panic asking, “What shall I do? Where is it??” A kind bystander guided her hands to it and that was the last Jane knew of this life. (This is a popular 17th century painting of the scene by Paul Delaroche.)

Jane would reportedly appear at the Tower on the anniversary of her death (these ghosts have twisted ways of celebrating anniversaries). The last time she showed up, she was spotted by two Tower guards on February 12, 1957, the 403rd anniversary of her execution. What has she been doing since then? Vacationing? Catching up on “Grey’s Anatomy”? No one really knows.

A Grey Area in the Succession, part 1

barbalexander — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:08:36 +0000

It’s 1553. Henry VIII’s long-awaited son, who became Edward VI, is only 15 and has been reduced to a nearly-bald, coughing, vomiting, bloated mass of ulcers. (Tuberculosis is not pretty.) Who’ll take over when the sole male heir of the Tudor dynasty kicks the bucket? It gets complicated, so let’s have a look at the family tree, moving up a bit to Henry VII.

Henry VII, who swept in from Wales and won the crown from Richard III back in 1485 (thus starting the famous Tudor dynasty), had four children. From oldest to youngest, they were:

1) Arthur — He’d been married to Catherine of Aragon for a short time and died before they could have any children. She moved on to the next son in line…

2) Henry VIII — He changed England’s history forever by breaking with Rome all to try to have a son … and that kid was now on his deathbed. Looks like those daughters might finally come in handy. Elizabeth, a Protestant, had been declared illegitimate when his marriage to that temptress Anne Boleyn was conveniently wiped off the books so that he could marry wife #3, Jane Seymour (sickly Edward’s mom). Who’s left? Mary, a Catholic. Not ideal, but let’s see what the other choices are …

3) Margaret – She’d been sent up to Scotland to marry James IV. Their granddaughter is Mary, Queen of Scots. She’s a Catholic, and not a direct threat right now since Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter Mary is closer in the line of succession. (But she will be important when (a) Elizabeth becomes queen and has to insure she has no other threats to her crown, and (b) after Elizabeth dies with no heirs. That’s some time away, though.)

4) Mary — She married Charles Brandon and had a daughter, Frances, who married a Mr. Henry Grey. Together they had a little girl named Jane.

That’s where Lady Jane Grey comes in: She’s the only legitimate Protestant in the line of succession, the great-granddaughter of Henry VII.

A Grey Area in the Succession, part 2

barbalexander — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:07:37 +0000

Did Lady Jane Grey sweep in like her great-grandfather had and claim the throne for herself? Not at all. The adult who’d been steering young Edward, the Duke of Northumberland, convinced the gasping and sputtering teenaged boy to accept Jane as his heir, since Eddie clearly did not have much time left. Only then would the country remain Protestant. Young Ed was a fanatical Protestant so he was cool with this. Not that he had much energy left to argue.

The Duke of Northumberland then made sure that Jane married his own son, to keep his own nose in the royal family business, and planted Jane on the throne as soon as Eddie was no more. When the fifteen-year-old girl learned that she was queen, she felt “stupified and troubled,” in her own words, and fainted straightaway. She came to momentarily and realized that the others in the room had stood around like bumps on a log and didn’t even help her, and then she began to cry right there on the floor!

When she’d finally gotten herself together, she snapped to the others “The crown is not my right and pleaseth me not. The Lady Mary [Henry VIII's Catholic daughter] is the rightful heir.” Well, that settles that, right?

Not even close. Northumberland and her parents let her know that she was embarrassing her family and that she had a duty to them. She would have to live her life as they wanted her to, for her family and for the country, which they wanted to remain Protestant. She still didn’t love the idea, but she gathered herself together and took on her new role as professionally as could be expected.

For nine days, anyway. During that time, Mary showed up with a vengeance and planned to take the crown back for herself. Jane was imprisoned and, seven months later, found herself kneeling before the chopping block. Turned out she’d had her work cut out for her, after all.