Posted on 02/12/2021 9:47:48 AM PST by CheshireTheCat
February 12 is the anniversary of Lady Jane Grey‘s beheading at the Tower of London. The Protestant teenager was the designated successor of sickly boy-king Edward VI, but popular and aristocratic support went for Mary Tudor in a landslide.
The Nine Days’ Queen landed in the Tower and copped to a treason charge on a tenuous deal for mercy (not applicable to her sponsors and allies, many of whom went to the block). But a January 1554 Protestant rebellion that had Protestant restoration as part of its programme made it a dangerous indulgence for Mary to keep her cousin’s neck attached to its shoulders.
On this auspicious anniversary, Executed Today is pleased to welcome Jane Grey expert J. Stephan Edwards, Ph.D. Dr. Edwards runs the Some Grey Matter site, and is working on a forthcoming book about our day’s famous beheadee.
ET: The conventional wisdom on Jane Grey is that she was basically destroyed by the machinations of the men around her. Is that a misapprehension? Was she more involved in events than she’s given credit for? Can one take seriously the notion that she didn’t want to be queen?
JSE: Having spent almost ten years researching the life of Lady Jane Grey Dudley and her very brief reign as Queen of England in July 1553, I am confident that she was not directly involved in the plans to make her Edward VI’s successor to the throne. At the same time, however, I am completely convinced that she was well aware of those plans at least six weeks before she actually became queen. And it is beyond question that she knew of the plan at least a week before her accession. Thus the standard mythology that portrays Jane as utterly unaware and totally innocent until the last possible second....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
According to Ancestry.com, (which I take with a grain of salt), she’s supposed to be my 2nd cousin 12x removed, and her husband Guildford Dudley is supposed to be my 3rd cousin 13x removed. Her mother was Frances Brandon, who was the daughter of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. Mary had first been married to Louis XII of France.
Fascinating, if somewhat morbid.
Was this the wife of Mary’s second husband?
I visited the Tower in 2006 and 2007, and enjoyed both visits very much. One of the Warders we spoke to had guarded Rudolf Hess when he was in Spandau. There's a British TV series titled "Inside the Tower of London." The third season aired not long ago. I download British programs from a UK torrent website I've been a member of for many years. The first season of the series is supposed to be airing at some point on The Smithsonian Channel. They bought the rights to the first 8 part series. Here's a link to the article about it if you're interested:
Tracy Borman is an historian, and co-curator of Historic Royal Palaces. She did a three-part TV series recently, which was titled "The Fall of Anne Boleyn." According to her, the scaffold used for Anne's execution was set up in the area in front of the building where the Royal Crown Jewels are kept, and not over on the green where the actual memorial is.
If you do a video search for "Tracy Borman" or "The Fall of Anne Boleyn tv series," the three episodes are available for viewing on YouTube.
According to Ancestry.com, Anne is supposed to be my 1st cousin 14x removed.
It just occurred to me that I recall having heard or read somewhere that Rudolf Hess was imprisoned at the Tower for a short time. If that's true it's a very interesting tidbit indeed!
Interesting. BTW: Anyone read Lady Jane Grey’s letters (linked in the article at website) written to her sister, father, and Queen Mary on the eve of her “suffering”? LJG is queen for 9 days but not quite 18 y/o when she lost her head. Willing bet no more than one in a thousand 17 year-old teenagers in USA today (setting aside nuances of 16th century dialectics) could match her displayed level of composition and literary skills.
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