DA345.1 D9 S53

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
D. NEWTON BARNEY FUND

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
D. NEWTON BARNEY FUND

"JANE THE QUENE"

JANIi Tllli <„>UKNK.

JANE THE QUENE"

BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND
LITERARY REMAINS OF LADY JANE DUDLEY
COMMONLY CALLED LADY JANE GREY

BY \1 oP-
t/>
Author of " Memoirs of the Sidney Family ''

PHILIP SIDNEY

LONDON
Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Lim.
1900

YALE

6 5-3

o

Contents.

I' AUK
CHAr. I. Birth and Early Years i
II. Marriage to Lord Guii.di'ord Dudley 17
III. Northumberland's Conspiracy 28
IV. "Jane the Quene" 46
V. Execution of Northumberland 59
VI. Captivity and Death 74
VII. Character and Literary Remains 107
Genealogies 121, 122
Notes 123

list of 3Iluetrations.
i. "Jane the Quene" (Frontispiece)
2. Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset
j. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland

Xtable of tbe H>rlnctpal authorities Consulted
in tbe preparation of tbls Morli.
Acts of the Privy Council. (1550-54.)
Aschain's Scholemaster.
Baker's Chronicle.
Baoardo's Tract.
Calendar of State Papers (Foreign). Edward VI. and Mary.
Chronicle of a Resident in the Tower of London.
Collins' Sydney Papers.
D. C. Bell's Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula.
M. Florio's Historia.
Foxe's Acts and Monuments.
Froude's History of England.
Grafton's Chronicle.
H. Dixon's Her Majesty's Tower.
Heylyn's Ecclesia Restaurata.
Holinshed's Chronicles.
Howard's Lady Jane Grey and her Times.
J. Bailey's History of the Tower of London.
Life of Lady Jane Grey. ( 1615. )
Lingard's History of England.
Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey. (Sir N. H. Nicolas.)
Machyn's Diary.
Nichols' History of Leicestershire.
Oldmixon's History of England.
Strickland's Lives of the Tudor Princesses.
Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials.
S. Turner's History of England.

"Jane tbe <&uene."

CHAPTER I.
Birtb anb J£arl£ Jljears.
THE Lady Jane was the eldest surviving
child of Henry Grey, Marquis of
Dorset, by his wife Frances, elder daughter
and eventual heiress of Charles Brandon, Duke
of Suffolk. By the lineage of both her parents
she could claim kinship with the blood royal,
although it was solely on the grounds of her
maternal descent from the family of Tudor
that she was persuaded to usurp the throne.
By the marriage of her grandfather, Charles,
Duke of Suffolk, with Mary, sister to
Henry VIII., she was directly descended
from the Houses of York and Lancaster ;
whilst her father's ancestress, Elizabeth, widow
of Lord Grey of Groby, had become the
wife of Edward IV. 1

2 "3ane tbe Quene."
The precise date of Lady Jane's birth is
unknown, but it is clear that she must have
first seen the light in the month of October,
1537, at Bradgate Park, the country-seat of
her parents, in Leicestershire. It was at
beautiful Bradgate that she passed the greater
portion of her short and sorrowful career. Of
a sweet and amiable disposition, as handsome
as she was both pious and clever, she failed,
nevertheless, from her earliest days to win the
good-will of her father and mother. Strict
as were the rules to which parents used at
that epoch to lay down for the guidance of
their children, the domestic discipline to which
the juvenile Lady Jane was subjected was as
cruel as it was absurd. Lord and Lady
Dorset seem to have ever experienced an
unholy delight in tormenting her. If, when
introduced into their company, she apprehended
an outburst of reproaches, and consequently
remained silent, they would tax her with
being cross and disagreeable. If, on the other
hand, she tried her utmost to prove lively

Birtb ano BavVg H>eai*s. 3
and loquacious, they would reprimand her for
being too forward and self-assertive. What
ever she did, or wherever she went, the same
Argus-eyes pursued her. Over her embroidery,
at the music-stool, at the dance, at the dinner-
table, she was always the recipient of her
seniors' sarcasms.
Notwithstanding this undue severity, Lady
Jane obtained ample compensation from her
father in other ways. Lord Dorset was, in
the first place, a sound Protestant, holding
in genuine abhorrence the superstitions of the
Church of Rome. He was a Protestant from
sincere religious fervour and conviction, and
not, like Northumberland and others of the
nobility, merely for the sake of the extra
advantages accruing thereby for the develop
ment of political ends. It was to his zeal
on behalf of the Reformers that Lady Jane
owed her truly Christian piety, and love of
reading the New Testament, which was to prove
such a consoling companion in those dark hours
when she lay awaiting execution on Tower- Hill.

4 "Sane tbe Quene."
Her education was consigned to the tender
care and teaching of John Aylmer,* chaplain
to the household at Bradgate, where this divine,
who, in after days, was to wear a mitre, had
taken refuge at an asylum during the last years
of Henry VIII., when the new-born Anglican
ism was struggling against the hard-dying
mediaeval Church.
Bearing a deep affection for this learned
priest, Lady Jane was never happy unless in
his company, seeking to acquire from him
further knowledge. By Aylmer she was, at
an unusually early age, instructed in the
Greek, French, and Latin tongues.
With so many lives extant between her and
the succession to the throne, Lady Jane had,
until well in her " teens," no suspicion that she
would ever be called upon to assume any part
on the world's stage more prominent than that
of an English matron of noble family— hence,
when, in 1 546, she was appointed to the house
hold, and to wait on the person of Queen
* Vide Notes; "Bishop Aylmer."

Birtb anb Barlg feat's. 5
Catherine Parr, no political significance could
be attached to her presentation to such a post.
During her service under the last of Henry's
wives, the pretty face and charming ways of
the maiden evoked the most favourable com
ment, whilst, as she took great pains to study
the most ornate means to display her little person
in the most costly and beautiful dresses that
could be procured for her, she was fully sensible
of cutting a fine figure in the beau monde.
The bashful, retiring, society-hating heroine of
Foxe, and other ultra- Protestant writers, was,
as a matter of fact, with all her virtues, literary
talent, and strict religious observances, like the
vast majority of her sex, a lover of finery, of
pretty garments, and sparkling jewels. It may
be safely said that she delighted in displaying
her figure to the best advantage, as most girls
of her age do, to-day and have in past ages
always done.
On the death of Catherine, September 7th,
1548, the juvenile Lady Jane actually played
the important role of chief-mourner at the

6 "Jane tbe Queue."
funeral, which took place within a suspiciously
short time after the Queen's death in the chapel
of Sudely Castle. As chief-mourner, Lady
Jane had the privilege of being allowed a lady
to wait in attendance behind her at the funeral
rites, and carry her train in the procession.
So little regard, apparently, did Lord and
Lady Dorset pay their eldest and most prom
ising daughter at this date — there being so far
no special value for her, as it were, in the sordid
political market of the moment — that she was
formally made over to the care of Lord
Seymour,* who soon busied himself in pro
jecting a matrimonial alliance for his ward.
This was no less than to draw up a marriage
contract between her and the boy-king, Edward
VI. That Seymour was actuated by self-
interest in projecting such an alliance is plain,
but he must be considered to have endeavoured
to complete what would have been, had circum
stances permitted its consummation, one of the
* She was, as a matter of fact, actually offered as a pledge by her
father, in lieu of security for a loan of money lent him by Seymour.

3Btrtb anb Earls Jt)ears. 7
most proper, sensible, and splendid espousals
recorded in history. Had Edward been granted
a longer lease of life, with a constitution less
impaired by infirmities, it is impossible to
conceive a more judicious arrangement, both
as regards his interest and those of the nation.
By the marriage of Edward and Jane, two
different scions of the house of Tudor would
have been peacefully united, whilst one of the
most learned and most virtuous youths then
living would have had the good fortune to
obtain for a bride a young lady as learned and
as virtuous as himself. Such a match would
have ranked without parallel in the annals of
Britain, if not in those of all countries, in all
eras, ancient or modern. .
But Seymour's scheme was never destined
to reach maturity. His brother, the Duke of
Somerset, Lord Protector of the Realm, des
iring one of his own daughters to assume the
place of Jane as Edward's fiancee, all the
negotiations were abruptly broken off, and
Seymour was soon after sent to the Tower,

8 "3ane tbe Quene."
and finally to the block. Bereft of her ill-fated
and ambitious guardian, Lady Jane, sick and
wearied with the intrigues of Court, returned
to Bradgate to find peace, rest, and enjoyment
in the delights of study. Yet she had not,
during her absence, let the grass grow under
her feet. Her occupations in the royal house
hold had comprised other matters besides the
fitting-on and display of expensive dresses.
Queen Catherine Parr, as behoved an ardent
student of belles lettres and the classics, had
encouraged her to persevere with her books,
as she had also, with excellent results, simi
larly encouraged the Princesses Mary and
Elizabeth. Jane's sweet seclusion at Bradgate was soon
interrupted by an incident that afforded her the
utmost pleasure, as well as literary profit.
This was the arrival in the month of July,
1550, of Roger Ascham,* the most erudite of
contemporary English scholars who visited
* He had been formerly employed at Bradgate as a tutor when Lady
Jane was quite young.

Birtb anb Barls HJears. 9
Bradgate, en route from Cambridge University
to the south coast, whence he was to take ship
for Germany. This visit with its intercourse
between the veteran scholar and Lady Jane
has achieved a permanent place in the pages of
history, and is best described in Ascham's own
words : —
" Before I went into Germany, I came to
Brodegate, in Leicestershire, to take my leave
of that noble lady, Jane Grey, to whom I was
exceedingly much beholding. Her parents, the
Duke and Duchess, with all the household
gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in
the park.
" I found her in her chamber alone, reading
' Phaedo Platonis ' in Greek, and that with as
much delight as some gentlemen would read
a merry tale of Boccace. After salutation
and duty done, with some other talk, I
asked why she would lose such pastime in
the park ?
" Smiling, she answered me, ' I wist all their
sport in the park is but a shadow of that

10 "Jane tbe Quene."
pleasure I find in Plato. Alas! good folk,
they never felt what true pleasure meant.'
" 'And how came you, Madam,' quoth I, 'to
this deep knowledge of pleasure ? And what
did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing not many
women, and but very few men, have attained
thereto ? '
"'I will tell you,' quoth she, 'and tell you a
truth which perchance you may marvel at.
One of the greatest benefits God ever gave me
is, that he sent me so sharp and severe parents,
and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am
in presence of either father or mother, whether
I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat,
drink, be merry, or sad, be sewing, playing,
dancing, or doing anything else, I must do as
it were in such weight, number, and measure,
even so perfectly, as God made the world, or
else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly
threatened, yea, presently, sometimes with
pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways (which
I will not name for the honour I bear them), so
without measure raisordered, that I think my-

Birtb anb Earlg Jl)ear9. n
self in Hell, till time come that I must go to
Mr. Elmer,* who teacheth me so gently, so
pleasantly, with such fair allurements to
learning, that I think all the time of nothing.
while I am with him. And when I am called
from him, I fall on weeping, because whatso
ever I do else beside learning, is full of grief,
trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me.
And thus my book hath been so much my
pleasure, and bringeth daily more pleasure and
more that in respect of it, all other pleasures,
in very deed, be but troubles and trifles unto
me.' " I remember this talk gladly, both because
it is worthy of memory, and because also it was
the last talk I had, and the last time that ever I
saw that noble and worthy Lady."
On Ascham's arrival in Germany, he
commenced a correspondence with Lady Jane,
who wrote to him both in Greek and Latin,
and as he lost no opportunity of extolling the
praises of his young friend's learning among
* Alynier. '

12 "Jane tbe Quene,"
the Swiss and German savants with whom
he was acquainted, Lady Jane quickly found
herself inveigled into the pleasant toils of
maintaining a further correspondence concern
ing the classics with other famous continental
scholars, such as the learned Bullinger, and his
friend, John Ullmer.
Amid these occupations so delightful to her,
Lady Jane passed away her time in the
seclusion of beautiful Bradgate until the latter
end of the year 155 1, when she was taken by
her parents to reside permanently at Court,
where her father's political position had
considerably improved, thanks to his close
friendship with John Dudley, Duke of North
umberland, and to the sudden and successive
deaths of the brothers, Henry and Charles
Brandon,* Dukes of Suffolk : whilst Lady
Dorset became sole heiress and representative
of the Brandons, and Edward VI. revived
the vacant Dukedom, with the rest of the
family honours, in favour of her husband, who
* Vide Notes i " Henry and Charles Brandon."

JSirtb anb Earls U?ears. 13
was created Duke of Suffolk, October 4th,
1 55 1. Grateful, therefore, for the Dudley
interest, exerted on their behalf with such
pleasing results, the parents of Lady Jane
encouraged the establishment of friendly
relations between their daughters and the
children of Northumberland.
The establishment of this newly-cemented
friendship between these ducal houses was to
prove of vast and even fatal importance to the
prospects of Lady Jane. Hitherto her career,
in spite of her parents' harshness, had been
spent happily and nobly, but now, at the early
age of fourteen, the remainder of the short
span of life allotted to her was to be marred by
becoming the unconscious tool of shameless
and ambitious politicians, to further whose
designs the innocent maid of Bradgate was
to be cajoled into the meshes of a conspiracy,
whence she was to emerge a prisoner attainted
of treason, with the penalty of a traitor's death
upon the scaffold.
The first duties, worthy of note, that occupied

i4 "Jane tbe Quene."
Lady Jane on her return to a public career,
comprised her appearance at the festivities,
which greeted the journey of Mary of Lorraine,
Queen-Dowager of Scotland, during her visit
to London, on her way from France to Edin
burgh. Shortly after this she paid a visit to
her cousin, the Princess Mary, at Newhall, in
Essex. That between Mary, the bigoted
Catholic, who after the straitest sect of her
religion had lived a Pharisee, a bigot of bigots,
a believer in all the superstitious legends which
it has ever been the custom of the Roman
priests to impose upon their credulous peni
tents, and Jane, the frank and open-hearted
child of the Reformation, well skilled not only
in the classics, but (unlike Mary) also in the
Scriptures, there could be but little in common.
It is not surprising, then, that the visit failed to
pass without discord, a discord which was never
forgotten by the stern and unforgiving daughter
of Catherine of Arragon. This difference
between the cousins arose upon the following
grounds.

Birtb anb Earls Hears. 15
Walking, one afternoon, in the company of
Lady Anne Wharton, a personal friend and
attendant of Mary's, Lady Jane, on passing by
the Catholic chapel which was attended by
her hostess, was astonished to note that her
companion made a profound obeisance in its
direction. Surprised at this sudden homage,
and thinking that it was probably a somewhat
exaggerated piece of respect to Mary, occupied
perhaps in her devotions therein, Lady Jane,
with all the impetuous curiosity of youth, asked
if it was to the Princess that her companion
had bent her knee ?
" No," was the reply, "the curtsey had been
made to Him that made us all." (Referring to
the Blessed Sacrament confined within the
chapel.) "But how," answered Lady Jane, "can he
be there who made us all ? Did not the baker
make him ? "
This ingenious and spirited reply was duly
reported to Mary, who, according to John
Foxe, the martyrologist : " this hir answere

16 "Jane tbe Quene."
comming to the Ladye Marie's eare, she did
never love hir after, as is credibly reported."
It was the commencement of the very event
ful year 1553, that arrangements were at length
seriously made with regard to procuring a
husband for Lady Jane. Although not
sixteen years old, she was, according to
the customs of that age, considered to be by
no means too young to enter upon the holy
state of matrimony. Heiresses and ladies of
rank were often married before they were
fifteen, and more often still, formally engaged
to be married by the time they were ten. But
before dealing with the negotiations which
preceded her marriage, it will be well to pause, -
and examine into the complicated condition of
politics obtaining at this momentous period.

CHAPTER II.
flfeatTfaae to Xoro (Bulloforb Duole^.
THE history of the reign of the "boy-
king," Edward VI., presents from be
ginning to end extraordinary reading. To the
student, wading through this vast maze of
interminable intrigue, of plot against plot, of
creed against creed, of partisan against partisan,
it seems as if the annals of England, from
1547 to 1553, had transformed themselves into
a fairy-tale, so replete with sensational incidents
were those half-dozen tragic years.
From the time when the breath was scarcely
out of the body of Henry VIII. until the
execution of Lady Jane Grey, English politics
may be said to closely resemble the vicissitudes
peculiar to the existence of South American
Republics in our day. The reign of Edward
VI. was not, in fact, that of a single sovereign,
but the reign of a pair of self-constituted rulers

1 8 "Jane tbe Quene."
of the kingdom, respectively the leaders of two
different parties, each vainly anxious only to
further his own private ends, and both utterly
regardless of the welfare of their fatherland.
By dint of carefully manipulating the strings
of government whilst Henry VIII. was lying
on his death- bed, the Lord Protectorate of the
Rdalm, on the accession of King Edward, was
assumed by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somer
set, a man of boundless vanity and ambition,
who represented the Protestant interest as
opposed to the Catholic, represented by the
Howards. Until the commencement of the
year 1549, Somerset succeeded in ruling with
all the authority of an absolute monarch, until
he suddenly discovered the integrity of his
position to be menaced by the audacious
schemes of his younger brother, Lord Seymour
of Sudely. But the pride of the Protector
brooked no interference, not even from a
brother, and Seymour was, by his express
order, attainted of treason, proved, or rather
found guilty, and executed on Tower- Hill.

Marriage to Xorb (Builbforb Dubles. 19
Such was the standard of the shameless
code of ethics which regulated the principles
of the ambitious men who ruled England
at that lawless epoch, when religious authority
was at a low discount owing to the recent
collapse of Catholicism, and the slow progress
effected by the doctrines of the Reform,
that even Somerset, outwardly a most sincere
and zealous Christian, and an ardent Pro
testant, hesitated not to commit the crime of
parricide in order to benefit his own ignoble
purposes. But his brother's blood was to
cry out for vengeance against him, and he
himself lived to encounter the same doom
which he had, with a shallow show of remorse,
meeted out to Seymour. He was himself to
fall a victim to the selfishness and sordid
ambition of one of his own supporters, John
Dudley, successively created Viscount Lisle,
Earl of Warwick, and Duke of Northum
berland, a nobleman supporting the same
Protestant interest 'as Somerset, but with even
less sincerity, endowed also with even more

20 "Jane tbe Queue."
ambition, but with greater genius and skill
in the art of government. With consum
mate craft, Dudley plotted secretly to depose
Somerset with a view to putting himself in his
place, and in this he was completely successful.
Somerset was beheaded on the same spot as
his brother before him, on January 22nd, 1552.
the young King, his own nephew, signing his
death-warrant just as he had signed the death-
warrant of Lord Seymour.
The Duke of Northumberland was now left
the Master of the Realm, whilst his family were
enabled to maintain a semi-royal position,
and as the Suffolks went to reside in 1551 at
Sheen, Lady Jane was consequently placed in
close proximity to the Dudleys, whose chief
residence was Sion House, formerly Sion
Abbey, situated on the banks of the Thames,
in the immediate vicinity of the towns of
Richmond, Isleworth, and Brentford.
It was not long after the initial steps had
been taken to cement a durable friendship
between the Ladies Grey and the younger

¦LiiyHiiwos ho sui mi 'hooivahs oav-waa

flftarrtage to Xorb (Bnilbforb IDubley. 21
and unmarried members of the House of
Dudley, when Northumberland's eagle eye
fixed itself on Lady Jane as offering another
puppet, whose possession would provide him
with yet one more useful piece to place upon
the political chess-board. He, accordingly,
resolved to accomplish this by endeavouring
to contract a marriage between Lady Jane
and his son, Guildford, the senior of his
unmarried children.
The object of effecting this matrimonial
alliance was of immense importance to North
umberland. The health of the King gradually
growing visibly weaker, day by day, the
question of the succession to the throne had
become the topic of the hour, and this question
involved either victory or death to the
Dudleys and their party.
By the terms of the will of Henry VIII.,
the crown had been bequeathed, in the event
of Edward dying without issue ; thus :
1. To the Princess Mary, and the heirs of
her body ;

22 "Jane tbe Quene."
2. to the Princess Elizabeth, and the heirs
of her body ;
3. to the heirs of the body of Frances
Brandon (Lady Jane's mother).*
By this arrangement, the Scotch line, as
represented by the issue of Margaret Tudor,
whose ¦ heirs should lineally have ranked as
number three in the above table, and con
sequently have deposed the claims of Lady
Jane into number four, were entirely ignored.
That Henry, although perhaps not strictly
acting within his legal rights, was wise according
to his views in ignoring the claims of the
Scottish branch to the throne, may be soundly
argued, because the succession of a Stewart
prince or princess to the English throne was
sure to prove unpopular. But admitting the
justice of his decision, then there were left
* It is very important to note that Henry did not nominate Lady
Frances as an heiress to the throne, but only the heirs of her body.
Nearly all our leading historians have misinterpreted this, and have
censured Northumberland for putting aside the Duchess of Suffolk in
favour of her daughter. It is probable that Henry very reasonably
anticipated — not expecting his will would be tampered with — that by
the time the succession devolved on Lady Frances' branch of the family,
she would herself have long been dead.

Marriage to Xorb ©uilbforb Dubles. 23
two heirs standing between Lady Jane Grey
and the succession, and, notwithstanding the
provisions of the will, it might be still argued
that the Duchess of Suffolk had a better right
than Lady Jane. It needed an extremity of
audacity, even for such an ambitious and law
less politician as Northumberland, to conceive
that the nation could be peaceably induced to
accept Lady Jane as Queen, on the decease of
Edward. To set aside the Tudor princesses
for Lady Jane involved the adoption of plans
as dangerous as they prove treasonable, bristling
as they did with innumerable legal and political
obstacles. Yet Northumberland nerved him
self to the task, and in endeavouring to procure
Lady Jane as a husband for Lord Guildford,
he designed to make his son King-consort,
while he himself should — with both Queen
and King as mere wax in his hands — govern
England with all the autocracy of an Emperor.
It may at once be objected, why was it so
vital to the interests of the Dudleys that Lady
Jane should succeed Edward ? The answer to

24 "Jane tbe Quene."
this is easy of explanation. The succession of
Mary implied in the first place the return of the
Papists to power, which simply meant the fall
and perhaps execution of Northumberland,
Suffolk, and their supporters. To exclude
Mary he had, therefore, to appeal to the plea
that she, by reason of her mother, Catherine of
Arragon's divorce, was illegitimate. But he
was yet left with the Princess Elizabeth to
face, and notwithstanding the array of pretexts
furnished by historians to demonstrate that
having excluded Mary, Northumberland was
logically bound to exclude her sister, it seems
open to argument whether he did not commit a
grave error by not promoting Elizabeth to the
throne, either as an unmarried woman, or as
married to one of his sons. That the haughty
and proud-spirited Elizabeth would have agreed
to marry a Dudley is, however, doubtful ; and
she would have proved very troublesome to
manage. Northumberland resolved, meanwhile,
to exclude Elizabeth on the grounds that she,
too, had been declared illegitimate by a previous

Marriage to Xorb (Builbforb Dubles. 25
Act of Parliament* Although both Mary and
Elizabeth eventually ascended the throne, it is
clear even now that one of these queens was of
illegitimate birth, for if Catherine of Arragon
was legally divorced, then Mary was an illegiti
mate child. If, on the other hand, Catherine
was to the day of her death Henry's lawful
wife, then Elizabeth was an illegitimate child,
and her father, Henry, had committed bigamy !
But it was a more difficult task to obtain
Jane as a wife for his son than the wily North
umberland had supposed. The young lady
was totally opposed to the match. Her parents
were in favour of it, since by Northumberland's
help alone could their daughter become Queen.
As to Lord Guildford, so far as can be ascer
tained, considering that next to nothing is
definitely known of his character, he was
genuinely in love with Lady Jane, and was
only too eager to be allowed to name the happy
day, which, regardless of all Lady Jane's pro-
* It would be tedious to recapitulate all the arrangements entered into
by Henry VIII. regarding the legitimacy of his daughters, and (heir
succession tu the Ihrono, before drawing up his final will.

26 " Jane tbe Quene."
tests, was at last fixed for May 2ist, 1553, the
Duke of Suffolk threatening to drag her by force
to the altar should she not yield to his wishes.
Yield she was tacitly compelled to, and her
nuptials were celebrated on the above date,
with a ceremonial and marriage-feast of unusual
splendour, at the chapel attached to Durham
House, the London residence of Northumber
land. The extravagant festivities, with which
the nuptials were followed, gave rise to unusual
comment amongst the general public, since it
was held that owing to the feeble state of the
King's health, it would have been proper if his
cousin, the Lady Jane, had been more privately
and quietly wedded. In the same chapel, also,
on the same day, Lady Catherine Grey (Jane's
sister)* espoused Lord Herbert ; t and Lady
Catherine Dudley (Lord Guildford's sister) was
married to the Earl of Huntingdon. J The
* Viild Notes : " Lady Jane's Sisters."
+ Afterwards Earl of Pembroke, who eventually married Mary,
daughter of Sir Henry Sidney, K.G.
t This nobleman had also a slight presumptive claim to the throne,
since he could trace descent from the Duke of Clarence, brother to
Edward IV.

Marriage to Xorb (Builbforb ©ubles. 27
astute Northumberland, who never procrastin
ated when his mind was once made up, had
thus brought off no less than three mariages
de covenance within the space of a single
morning. He had united his eldest daughter, the
Lady Mary, to Sir Henry Sidney, in 155 1.
By this union Northumberland became the
grandfather of the illustrious Sir Philip Sidney,
and his sister, the talented Countess of Pem
broke. Sir Henry Sidney, it is worth while
remarking from the view of genealogical in
terest, was grandson of Anne Brandon, aunt to
Charles, Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane's grand
father.

CHAPTER III.
fflortbumberlanb's Conspiracy.
NORTHUMBERLAND had hastened
on the preparations for the wedding of
Lord Guildford and Lady Jane, since he was
afraid that the moribund King might be gone
before the nuptial knot was tied. As it was,
his arrangements had not been finished a bit
too soon, for Edward died at Greenwich, in the
arms of Sir Henry Sidney, on July 6th; that
is, within seven weeks after Lady Jane had
changed her maiden name for that of Dudley.
Meanwhile, as soon as Northumberland
perceived that the young monarch's hours were
numbered, he set about the concoction of a
plan to obtain his sanction to the alteration of
the succession to the throne. In this he was
warmly supported by the Duke of Suffolk and
the Marquis of Northampton. On approaching
Edward with details of his plan, the dying boy

iRortbumberlanb's Conspiracs. 29
readily assented to the advice that the safety of
the reformed religion, and the delivery of
England from the clutches of the Papacy,
necessitated the exclusion of the Princess Mary.
But he was less pliant with regard to the
exclusion of Elizabeth, to whom he was deeply
attached. But his crafty adviser, pretending to
sympathise with him in this respect, yet
pointed out that it would be a monstrous
injustice to exclude Mary on the grounds of
her illegitimacy, without also excluding Eliza
beth, although by what process of reasoning he
supported these arguments it is difficult to
conceive,* notwithstanding the facility with
which historians seem to have satisfied them
selves thereon. Edward, at length, weary and
worn out with sickness, with the shadow of
death already looming over him, gave way, and
consented to nominate Lady Jane, who was
kept in profound ignorance of the plot, as his
heiress.
* " Mary could have no title if she was a bastard, but, if her mother's
marriage was good, and she legitimate, Elizabeth could have none,"
(Algernon Sidney. )

30 "Jane tbe Quene."
The King's sanction thus obtained, North
umberland had next to procure the consent
of the Council, whose members, after much
diffidence, were induced to assent, although,
considering the Catholic tendencies of many of
them, it is clear that nothing short either of
absolute force compelled them to do so, or else
they must have done so with the object of
gaining time in order to secretly communicate
with Mary as to the best means of overthrow
ing the hated house of Dudley. Cranmer,
whose name was the first on the list for
signature to the deed nominating Lady Jane
as successor, was the last to sign, and accord
ing to the excuses of ultra- Protestant writers,
he appended his signature with the utmost
possible reluctance, since he was, so his
defenders allege, conscious of committing a great
crime in thus aiding the deposition of the
Princess Mary. But surely the excuses
adduced on behalf of the Archbishop must
prove but of a little moment when we examine
closely into them ! Cranmer, in fact, had as

IWortbumberlanb's Consplracs. 31
much to dread from the accession of Mary as
Northumberland himself, for as soon as he
found that there was no hope of securing the
crown for Elizabeth, he was, in self-defence,
bound to connive at the succession of the next
Protestant heiress, Lady Jane. His conduct
on this occasion, and, moreover, his whole
character, has been so ably summed up by Lord
Macaulay, that it is only fit to quote the great
essayist's exact words herewith : —
" The apology made for him by his admirers
only renders his conduct more contemptible.
He complied, it is said, against his better judg
ment, because he could not resist the entreaties
of Edward. A holy prelate of sixty, one would
think, might be better employed by the bed
side of a dying child, than in committing crimes
at the request of the young disciple. If
Cranmer had shown half as much firmness
when Edward requested him to commit
treason as he had before shown when
Edward requested him not to commit murder,*
* Referring to the execution of the Duke of Somerset.

32 "Jane tbe Queen."
he might have saved the country from
one of the greatest misfortunes that it ever
underwent. He became, from whatever motive,
the accomplice of the worthless Dudley. The
virtuous scruples of another young and amiable
mind were to be overcome. As Edward had
been forced into persecution, Jane was to be
seduced into treason. No transaction in our
annals is more unjustifiable than this."
That Macaulay is correct in alluding to the
great weight which his advice carried in the
mind of Edward admits of no reasonable
doubt. Cranmer — the promartyr of the Anglican
Church — was really as guilty as Northumber
land. Nay, further, he is worthy of the greater
odium, for whereas to Northumberland's credit
it must, at least, be allowed that he acted bravely
and openly in his audacious design, staking his
head upon the success of the venture, Cranmer,
on the other hand, did his work in a cowardly
and underhand manner, leaving others to run
the risk he was too timid to incur.
But Northumberland's greatest difficulty in

IRortbumberlanb's Conspiracy?. 33
obtaining signatures to attest the letters patent,
which Edward had issued, limiting the succession
on the heiress of the Duchess of Suffolk, was
encountered in overruling the opposition of the
judges, who replied that to frame such a docu
ment was to lay themselves open to a charge of
high treason. But their arguments, their
protests, their appeals, their applications for
a delay fell on unheeding ears. Northumber
land, in a white heat of passion, called the
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas a villain
and a traitor, and with furious gestures threat
ened to "fight any man in his shirt" who should
venture to thwart him. Even Edward was
hardly less amenable to reason. With a force
of character little to be expected in one on the
point of death, he angrily insisted on their
signatures. At his command they unwillingly
assented, still, however, murmuring that the
powers of the document in question were—
from its illegality — but null and void.
It was a strangely mixed company of men
who signed the document. Papists, Protestants,

34 " Jane tbe Quene."
supporters of Mary, friends of Jane, noble
men, lawyers, courtiers, and clergy all signed it
indiscriminately, the complete list of whom was
composed as follows : — Archbishop Cranmer ;
the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland ; the
Lords Winchester,* Northampton, Arundel,*
Oxford, Bedford,* Westmoreland, Shrewsbury,*
Worcester, Huntingdon, Pembroke, Clinton,
Darcy, Abergavenny, Cobham, Grey, Windsor,
Bray, Wentworth, Paget, Willoughby, Rich ;
the Bishops of London and Ely ; Lords
Warwick, Fitzwalters, Talbot, St. John, Russel,
Fitzwarren, Bath, Gerald Fitzgerald, Strange,
and Thomas Grey ; Sirs R. Cheyne,* W.
Cavendish, Henry Sidney, R. Cotton, J.
Gates, W. Petre, W. Cecil,* J. Cheke, J.
Mason, R. Sadler, R. Sackville, E. North, A.
St. Leger, R. Southwell, T. Wroth, M.
Berkeley, N. Throgmorton, R. Blount, H.
Gage; the Judges, Sirs R. Cholmeley,* E.
Montagu,* J. Baker,* H. Brown, W. Portman,
R. Bowes, and Judge Bradshawe. The docu-
* Indicates those who manifested the greatest reluctance to sign.

IRortbumberlanb's Conspiracy. 35
ment was also signed by the Solicitor-General,
J. Gosnold;* the King's Serjeant, James Dyer;
by the Lord .Mayor and Aldermen ; by the
Sheriffs of Kent, Surrey, and Middlesex ; and
by a dozen leading merchants.
Such was the Napoleonic power wielded by
Northumberland, who could, by sheer strength
of will, succeed in inducing so many hostile
partisans to combine together to commit treason.
The ink had not many days dried upon the
papers to which this formidable list of signa
tures was attached, when Edward died. Ill
as he had been for months past, his decease
had not been expected quite so soon, and was
a little too premature to suit the complete
development of Northumberland's scheme. In
order, therefore, to gain time, this master-spirit
of the conspiracy, with great ingenuity, con
trived to conceal the news of the King's
death.t with the ulterior object of securing the
* Indicates those who manifested the greatest reluctance to sign.
t Northumberland is said to have had Edward lifted out of bed after
death, and his face shown at the palace window, in order to deceive the
people,

36 "Jane tbe Quene."
person of the Princess Mary, and of instructing
Lady Jane how she was to assume the reins of
power. So cleverly was the secret kept that
news of Edward's death was not publicly
announced in London until two full days after
he had actually died at- Greenwich. As soon
as the news did become public property, the
tongue of rumour gave vent to a score of
scandalous tales, circulated by the' enemies
of Northumberland, to the effect that the
young King had died of poison, administered
by Northumberland's own order. In support
of the veracity of these idle stories no proof
has ever been adduced, and as all the existing
circumstances tend to demonstrate, it was
to Northumberland's interest that Edward
should have survived for a space of at least
several more months. Moreover, all efforts —
by concealing the report of Edward's death—
to capture Mary were fruitless. Timely infor
mation was sent to her of her danger, and she
immediately rode off for refuge from Hertford
shire into Suffolk to Framlingham Castle,

IRortbumberlanb's Conspiracy. 37
where she was speedily joined by large numbers
of adherents.
Lady Jane, meanwhile, had been removed
from Chelsea, where she was living, to Sion
House, during the crisis. It was a convenient
retreat, whence Northumberland could, in the
space of a few hours, convey her when occasion
needed to the Tower of London.
It is not precisely known to what extent she
was acquainted with the process of the tragedy
being enacted on behalf of her succession to
the throne. But although it is probable that she
had received some slight account of what was
going forward, it is equally probable that she
was totally unaware both as to how near her
cousin was to his death, and as to the audacious
and treasonable extent of her father-in-law's
plans. The news of Edward's imminent death,
and that she was nominated his successor —
news brought to her by Lady Mary Sidney
— proved, at any rate, a complete surprise as
well as a severe blow to her. Her health,
moreover, was at that moment ill-prepared for

38 "Jane tbe Quene."
additional strain, since it had suffered much
from the worries of married life, concerning
which had been her hope and the wish of her
intimate friends, that until she reached a more
mature age she might, after marriage, be per
mitted to reside with her parents, and not at
the residence of her husband's family. The
latter, unfortunately, wished otherwise, and she
was forced to enter into a dispute with her
father-in-law and his imperious spouse, for both
of whom she gradually learned to feel the
deepest abhorrence, before she could be per
mitted to remain with her mother.
On it being made manifest to her by both
her father-in-law and father together at an
interview with other members of the Council,
that it was imperative for the joint welfare of
the Realm and the Reformed religion that she
should, forthwith, ascend the vacant throne,
her distress was so acute that she is said
even to have fallen into a swoon, so sharp was
the shock occasioned by these ominous tidings.
"Coming to her senses, she was not long in

Iflortbumberlanb's Conspiracy. 39
recognizing the extreme gravity of her
position.* To assume the crown, she knew
well, was to imperil her head, to unfairly take
precedence over her cousins, as well as her
mother," and, worse still, to render herself a
tool in the hands of the hated Dudleys. Much
as her soul recoiled with horror at the thought
of committing the flagrant injustice of excluding
Mary, she was hardly less alarmed at the
thought that any acquisition of power accruing
to her would be marred by the constant super
vision of Northumberland, and she inwardly
resolved to struggle hard, whatever fate might
do for her, to break off her domestic bonds.
In the words of Peter Heylyn in his " Ecclesia
Restaurata," " the poor lady found herself in a
great perplexity, not knowing whether she
should more lament the death of the King, or
her adoption to the kingdom : the first loss not
to be repaired, the next care possible to be
* To show how utterly illegal was Lady Jane's position, it should be
mentioned that Northumberland had arranged that even if the Duchess
of Suffolk were yet to have a boy born lo her, Lady Jane should slill be
Oueen.

4o "Jane tbe Quene."
avoided. She looked upon the Crown as a
great temptation, to resist which, she stood in
need of all the helps which both philosophy
and divinity could suggest unto her — and she
knew also that such fortunes seldom knocked
twice for entrance at the same man's gate ; but
that if once refused they are gone for ever.
Taking sometime, therefore, for deliberation,
she summoned a council of her purest thoughts ;
by whose advice, half drowned in tears (either
as sorrowing for the King's death, or foreseeing
her own), she returned an answer in these
words, or to this effect : —
" 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 not belong to them ; that she
would understand 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. Besides," she
added, " I am not so young, nor so little read

Iftortbumberlanb's Conspiracy. 41
in the guiles of fortunes, as to suffer myself to
be taken by them. If she enrich any, it is but
to make them the subject of her spoil ; if she
raise others, it is but to pleasure herself with
their ruins. What she adored but yesterday,
to-day is her pastime. And if I now permit
her to adorn and crown me, I must to-morrow
suffer her to tear me in pieces. Nay, with what
Crown doth she present me ?
" A Crown which hath been violently and
shamefully wrested from Catherine of Arragon,
made more unfortunate by the punishment of
Anne Bulloign, and others who wore it after
her. And why then would you have me add
my blood to theirs ; and be the blind victim
from whom this fatal Crown may be ravished,
with the head that wears it ?
" But in case that it should not prove fatal
unto me, and all its venom were consumed ; if
fortune should give me warranties of her con
stancy, should I be well advised to take upon
me these thorns which would dilacerate, though
not kill me outright, to burden myself with a

42 " Jane tbe Quene."
yoke which would not fail to torment me, though
I were assured not to be strangled with it ?
" My liberty is better than the chain you offer
me, with what precious stones soever it be
adorned, or of what gold soever framed. I will
not exchange my peace for honourable and
precious jealousies, for magnificent and glorious
fetters. And if you love me sincerely, and in
good earnest, you will rather wish me a secure
and quiet fortune, though mean, than an exalted
condition, exposed to the wind, and followed
by some dismal fall."
Providing that Heylyn has not here followed
in the steps of Ascham, Foxe, and other eulo
gists of Lady Jane, and resorted to considerable
exaggeration in magnifying her virtues and
abilities, the above discourse was indeed a
creditable and powerful exposition of her case
from the lips of a mere girl. Heylyn has,
however, I should certainly imagine, relied
largely on his imagination in compiling this
speech, and " in these words, or to this effect,"
serves to very conveniently endow the author

IRortbumberlanb's Conspiracy. 43
with plenty of license to illustrate his subject.
There were no shorthand reporters in those
days to take down the speaker's words. Nay
more, although it is most probable that this
formal offer of the crown was made her at Sion,
it is by no means certain that it was so, and
Heylyn himself even fixes it elsewhere. Seeing,
therefore, that controversy exists as to where
the ceremony took place, and undoubtedly as
to the personality of those who came to offer
Lady Jane the crown ; it also is surely open to
controversy as to the exact nature of the words
spoken on the occasion. The above represents,
at any rate, a powerful defence in favour of
the " ten days' " Queen, combining a concise
epitome of English history since the divorce
of Catherine of Arragon. All authorities are,
moreover, agreed that she, at first, resolutely
refused to accept the crown, which had, as
Lady Jane pertinently pointed out, been a
pecularly fatal gift to those of her sex who had
recently worn it. Queen Catherine of Arragon,
for example, had died a divorced woman, in

44 "Jane tbe Quene."
loneliness and bitter sorrow ; Anne Boleyn had
. perished on the scaffold ; Jane Seymour had
succumbed to the agonies of child-birth ; Anne
of Cleves had been ruthlessly put aside ;
Catherine Howard had been beheaded ; and
Catherine Parr had died, under suspicious cir
cumstances, before Lady Jane's own eyes.
Edward VI. even had reigned for a period of
but six sad and stormy years.
With her eyes fully open to the consequences
of her folly, it is somewhat surprising to find
Lady Jane quietly surrendering herself to be
led like a lamb to the slaughter-house ! To
her credit, she for some little time remained
proof to the united entreaties and commands
of Northumberland, the Council, and her
parents, but gave way eventually at the special
petition of her husband, who carefully tutored
by his father, dazzled by the alluring prospects
open to him as the consort of a Queen, most
earnestly besought her to ascend the throne.
With many misgivings as to the result, and
conscience-stricken at the wrong she was in-

IRortbumberlanb's Conspiracy. 45
flicting upon Mary, she then permitted herself
to be overruled, and to be proclaimed as Queen.
She was, according to a chronicle or diary
kept at the time by a resident in the Tower of
London, on "the 10th of July (the day after
her acceptance of the Council's offer), in the
afternoone, about 3 of the clocke, convayed
by water to the Tower of London, and there
received as quene."
Hardly had she entered the grim old pile,
with great ceremony and stately splendour, but
amidst the ominous silence of those who lined
the banks of the river from Sion to London to
see her pass, than a fanfare of trumpets called
attention to the voice of the herald proclaiming
her,* with the customary formalities, " by the
grace of God, Queen of England, France, and
Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the
Church of England, and also of Ireland, under
Christ on earth the Supreme Head."
* " At her proclamation, the people neither made any great feasts, nor
expressed any great satisfaction, neither was one bonfire made " (Perlin).
One bold youth amongst the crowd actually shouted " the Lady Mary
halh Ihe heller title," for saying which he was severely punished,

CHAPTER IV.
"3ane tbe (Stnene."
IT is a matter for private judgment as to the
exact duration of time Lady Jane remain
ed seated upon the throne of her usurpation.
The length of her reign varies in the different
histories, according to the data employed in
calculation by the respective historians. Lady
Jane is thus described as " Queen of England
for a week," as "the nine-days' Queen," "the
ten-days' Queen," and " the twelve days'
Queen,"* these various titles depending for
their warrantry on the various dates when her
reign is imagined both to start and finish.
For example, if we commence to measure from
July 6th, when Edward died, until July 19th,
when Mary was proclaimed at the Tower-gates,
we get one estimate ; but if we begin at July
* She was also called, in scorn, the "twelth-day Queen," by the
French Ambassador.

"Jane tbe Queue." 47
8th, until the 19th inst. (the 8th being the day
when Edward's death was publicly announced),
we get another ; then again, it is perfectly
reasonable to begin at the 10th or nth, and
end the reign at the 18th or 19th of the
month. But the most proper duration at
which to approximate the reign is, I think,
ten days, as has been adopted in " Baker's
Chronicle." The Tower of London — fortress, prison, and
palace all in one — had been selected for Lady
Jane's metropolitan quarters for two cogent
reasons ; because, in the event of danger or
alarm, her supporters could protect her there,
and because it was the hereditary custom of
English sovereigns to reside there prior to
coronation. Efforts were next directed towards having
Lady Jane proclaimed Queen in all the chief
towns, but it is hardly possible that she could
have been proclaimed in but very few, and the
only one of note of which we can be tolerably
sure was King's Lynn, in Norfolk, where

48 "Jane tbe Quene."
she was proclaimed by Lord Robert Dudley
(afterwards Earl of Leicester).
Mary, meanwhile, was not idle. The number
of her supporters grew larger hourly. With all
her faults, she was no coward. The pride and
courage inherited alike from both her parents
served her in good stead in the hour of peril,
and she was confident of quickly ousting the
usurper. In this hope she was buoyed up by
the knowledge that a large number of the
Council was secretly acting on her behalf, and
had found means to keep her cognisant of all
that was going on. She, accordingly, sent a
letter, couched in the concise terms of an
ultimatum, to the Tower, commanding the
Council to proclaim her as Queen. To this
demand an answer was returned, signed by
Cranmer, the Bishop of Ely, Lords North
ampton, Bedford, Northumberland, Arundel,
Pembroke, and several others, renouncing her
claim, and advising her to surrender. Such
was the extraordinary duplicity employed by
this crafty, cowardly, and time-serving Council,

"Jane tbe Quene." 49
the majority of which, only a few days hence,
was to declare with joy in her favour, and
clamour for the arrest and execution of the
minority! Arundel and Pembroke, in particular,
vied with one another in the depth of their
perfidy, and told lie after lie to delude North
umberland into taking them into his confidence,
and then, Judas-like, betrayed him the very
instant they foresaw the imminence of his fall.
Lady Jane signified her recognition of the
royal power by issuing three proclamations, in
all of which she signed herself " Jane, the
Quene ; " and despatched a gentleman named
Shelley as her Ambassador to the Emperor,
Charles V.
Whilst Mary's cause was gaining ground
every moment, Lady Jane, the hapless instru
ment of the Dudleys' base ambition, was
playing her dismal part in the comedy, so
soon to be transformed into tragedy. It was
in vain that she was surrounded with all the
emblems of sovereignty ; in vain that the crown
itself was specially placed upon her head to see

so "Jane tbe Quene."
if it fitted; in vain that she ordered the prepara
tion of the most costly and magnificent dresses ;
in vain that she steadfastly repelled the arrogant
and presumptions airs assumed by her husband's
relatives — all in vain ; atra cura possessed
her, body and soul. Lonely in the midst of
crowds, sorrowful and dejected amid all the
glories of a court pageantry, humbled and dis
mayed amid the homage of her courtiers, she
was, in truth, sick at heart and uneasy with
forebodings of the future. She had scarcely
entered the Tower, ere her husband, backed
up by his parents, began to insist upon being
raised to share her throne as king, and her
firm refusal to this unrighteous request pro
duced a violent quarrel between her and his
kindred. Whilst adherents were daily flocking to
Mary, who had in the commencement of her
flight into Suffolk successfully resisted an
attempt made by Lord Robert Dudley to
arrest her, the opposition of the Londoners
to their de facto Queen grew swiftly on the

"Jane tbe Quene." 51
increase. All the eloquence of Bishop Ridley*
in his sermons, extolling the justice of Mary's
exclusion, delivered before large congregations
at St. Paul's, fell on unheeding ears. Nine-
tenths of the populace of London, Catholic
and Protestant, was in favour of the daughter
of Queen Catherine.
Quickly perceiving the fulness of the un
popularity of the Dudley regime", Arundel and
Pembroke, with the rest of Mary's secret
supporters in the Council, now began to
arrange a plan to get Northumberland to
leave the shelter of the Tower. Once outside
its strong walls, and his fall and arrest were
rendered easy. Northumberland, however,
recognized his enemies' object, but was con
strained by force of hostile circumstances to
yield himself a victim to their designs, which
were to induce him to head the armed force
on the point of starting to fight the little army
* Ridley's cowardice was on par with that of the Council, for a day
or two after his last sermon he fled to Mary, and, in abject terms,
asked her pardon ; but " this sermon rose up in judgment against him "
(Strype).

sa "Jane tbe Quene."
under Mary. He perceived that to follow this
advice would prove fatal to him. He declined
the command accordingly, and nominated the
Duke of Suffolk as general in his stead. Un
fortunately for him, his crafty enemies, care
fully prompted by Simon Renard, the Spanish
Ambassador, to whose, exertions perhaps more
than to any of her own countrymen Mary
eventually owed her crown, managed to work
on Lady Jane's natural and ever-increasing
antipathy to her father-in-law, to such an ex
tent that Suffolk was actually commanded by
his imperious daughter to remain with her in
London, and let Northumberland depart forth
with with the troops ready to attack Mary
(July 1 2th).
Now thoroughly alarmed and suspicious at
the behaviour of his colleagues, Northumber
land made one final endeavour to ascertain the
real intentions of the conspirators. For if, said
he to the Council, they should be tempted to
waver in their allegiance from Queen Jane in
his absence, could they not easily save their

"Jane tbe Quene." 53
lives, and "make themselves seem innocent in
his guiltiness." To this pertinent remark
Lords Arundel and Pembroke, with a crafti
ness worthy of a Jesuit, replied to the effect
that they had committed themselves too far to
seek reconciliation, or obtain pardon from
Mary, and they were only sorry that their
marred inferiority in military capacity to the
Duke prevented them from leading the ex
pedition themselves !
Early in the morning of the fourteenth of
July, Northumberland, vainly endeavouring to
check the misgivings which were secretly vexing
him as to the danger of his position, and the
future of his cause, rode out of London, at the
head of a force of some eight thousand men,
horse, foot, and artillery. He was accompanied
by Lords Northampton and Grey. Large
crowds of Londoners pressed forward to see him
and his cavalcade, but there was no cheering,
and the fact that many of his soldiers were
mercenaries brought over from Germany only
seemed to render him and his troops more

54 "Jane tbe Quene."
unpopular. As he went through Shoreditch he
could not help admitting to Grey, "the people
press to see us, but not one saith God speed

us. *

Pressing forward without delay, he found to
his dismay, on arriving at St. Edmondslney, that
Mary's army had now reached the formidable
total of over thirteen thousand men ; while
town after town all over England, as the news
of Edward's death became gradually spread
further abroad, was formally proclaiming her
Queen, Norwich being the first to do so, before
he had even left the Metropolis. Worse news
than this was also forthcoming when he was
informed that the crews of some ships of war,
sent to watch the coast, and thereby prevent
Mary's escape to the Continent, had abandoned
their task, and espoused the cause of the
legitimate heiress.
* "The people prece to se us, but not one sayeth God spede us."
( " Chronicle of a Resident in the Tower of London.") This is somewhat
parallel to Cromwell's famous complaint, when the people pressed
forward to greet him as (unlike Northumberland) a popular general,
" though there were many people present to greet him, there would
be yet more to see him hanged ! "

"Jane tbe Quene." 55
From all East Anglia, from the Midlands,
from the North, and from the West, the
country gentry and nobility hastened with their
retainers to the succour of their lawful Queen.
To gain the men of Suffolk, a county already
renowned for its strong Protestantism, Mary
promised perfect toleration of their religion on
her accession to the throne, a promise which she
most shamefully broke. Before attacking such
a formidable force, Northumberland had to wait
the advent of reinforcements from London, but
the reinforcements not arriving,* he retreated
on Cambridge, which he had made his head
quarters. Here perceiving his men were rapidly
deserting him, he saw that the game was up,
and publicly proclaimed Mary as Queen, in that
town, with bitter tears of mortification running
down his cheeks the while (July 19th).
The recreant Council had by this juncture
thrown off the mask of hypocrisy, and with the
* " the duke, perceaving howe their succours came not, and also
receyving from some of the counsell at the Tower lettres of discomfort,
rctourned from Bury, and came back again lo Cambridge." ("Chronicle
of a Resident in tlie Tower of London.")

56 "Jane tbe Quene."
perjured Lords Arundel and Pembroke, at their
head, had openly gone over to Mary. Arundel
even was sent to arrest Northumberland, who
had, however, been arrested before his arrival,
which circumstance clearly tends to show that
he and his intimate colleagues were, during the
whole of "ten days' reign," acting their parts
in the play with Mary's special approval, their
object being merely to allow Northumberland
sufficient rope to hang himself, and Mary
sufficient time to muster her forces.
Lady Jane, meanwhile, whilst Northumber
land was being captured at Cambridge, was
herself little better than a prisoner in the
Tower. She was now a sovereign not even
in name. She was like a May-Queen the
day after the fite her companions gone, her
sovereignty over, her finery cast aside, the
flowers and garlands perished, the plaudits of
the spectators hushed ! Instead of preparing
any longer for her coronation, she was now
in imminent peril of having to prepare for her
execution. The first person to announce that

"Jane tbe Quene." 57
her reign was finished was her own father, who
rushed into her room, and angrily told her to
divest herself of her royal robes ; her part as
a puppet was over, she was once more merely
Lady Jane. It is related that she obeyed his
commands with joy, but by Mary's express
orders she remained on within the Tower, as
a State-prisoner. Sic transit gloria mundi !
On the third of August, Mary entered
London in triumph, amidst the most extrava
gant demonstrations of joy on the part of all
creeds and all classes of her people. No
English sovereign ever commenced to rule
under brighter auspices, and yet in but five
years' time she was herself to die — unmourned
by those who had come forward to raise her
to the throne, hated and loathed by the Protes
tants, little liked by the Catholics, the deserted
spouse of a detested and perfidious King,
childless and worn out with disease, leaving a
name behind her that has lived in history,
soiled by an epithet that conjures up in the
memory naught but the flames and fires where-

58 "Jane tbe Quene."
with she despatched with the cruelty of a fiend,
all that was best and bravest of the reformed
religion to the most painful of violent deaths.
Her reign was to be in every sense a national
calamity. Lady Jane, a Protestant, and acting
under Protestant guidance, had failed to estab
lish Protestantism as the popular Faith, yet
Mary, the Catholic, was to successfully carry
out the work instead, for her detestable cruelties
to alienate the hearts of her countrymen, slowly
but surely, from all allegiance to the Church of
Rome.

CHAPTER V.
Execution of Ittortbumbetlano.
AS soon as Mary was firmly seated on
the throne, great public eagerness was
evinced to hear how she would deal with the
leaders of the conspiracy that had endeavoured
to exclude her from the succession. That the
Duke of Northumberland would be singled
out for immediate execution was the general
opinion, and it was thought probable that
Suffolk would share his fate, but it was con
fidently hoped that Lady Jane, if not Lord
Guildford also, would escape the death-penalty.
Northumberland was quickly hurried to his
doom. If ever a man had of his own free will
committed treason — it was he ; whilst, as to
there being any genuine excuses to urge in
defence of his conduct, there literally were none.
By far the ablest Englishman of his day, he
had merely employed his talents to suit the

60 "Jane tbe Queue."
gratification of his ambitious projects. But
guilty though he was, he had during the regime1
of Lady Jane been scarcely more culpable than
Suffolk, and it was, therefore, a great surprise
when it was officially announced that, although
Northumberland was to be brought to trial, his
partner in the late proceedings had actually
received a pardon. Yet so it was, although the
reasons for showing Suffolk such leniency are
difficult to discern ; and the plea that he
obtained his liberty at the Duchess of Suffolk's
supplication is insufficient to explain the
mystery, for the Duchess, after her support of
her daughter's illegal occupation of the throne,
was now by no means so powerful as to make
her interest felt at Court to much purpose,
even allowing for the fact that she had been
a personal friend of Mary's. The trial of
Northumberland, fixed for August 18th, at
Westminster Hall, and conducted with an
ostentatious show of law, was in fact a foregone
conclusion, as for several days previous it had
been whispered in London that his death had

Execution of IRortbumberlanb. 61
been decided upon.* He was accompanied to
the tribunal (presided over by the Duke of
Norfolk, lately released from imprisonment),
by the Marquis of Northampton, and his eldest
son, the Earl of Warwick. Arraigned before the
Peers, it was in vain the Duke urged in his
self-defence he had not committed treason, on the
plea that what he had done on behalf of Lady
Jane had been by warrant under the great seal
of England. It was in vain that he protested
against the unfairness of permitting men like
Lords Arundel and Pembroke rank amongst his
judges, — all in vain, he was sentenced to death,
as were his fellow-prisoners, of whom Lord
Warwick behaved with the greatest courage
and resolution, refusing not only to sue for
mercy, but even to take any advantage of the
hint given him that his judges were prepared
to accept the plea that owing to his youth he
had suffered himself to be seduced into treason

* " I hard saye this daye that the Duke of Northumberland, the
Marques of Northampton, the Earle of Huntingdon, Sir John Gates, and
Mr. Palmer were alredie condemned to dye." (August 5th. "Chronicle
of a Resident in the Tower.")

62 " jane tbe Quene."
bv his father. But the death-sentence was
carried out on Northumberland alone. North
ampton received a free pardon, and Warwick,
after some further imprisonment in the Tower,
died in October, 1554, a few days after his
release, at Penshurst, in Kent, the seat of his
brother-in-law, Sir Henry Sidney.,
On August 22nd, Northumberland, Sir John
Gates, and Thomas Palmer were beheaded on
Tower- Hill, in presence of an immense crowd
of people.
Thus perished the Duke of Northumberland,
the most ambitious and unscrupulous statesman
that has ever held office in England. A man
of great natural genius, the foremost general
of his day, of great courage, fine presence, and
winning manners. He had, after by sheer
perseverance and ability raising himself up to
high office in the State, suffered himself to be
tempted into the commission of an atrocious
crime. It is hard to find his parallel in history,
but in many points his career may be said to
resemble that of King Richard III., for like the

Execution of "IRortbumberlanb. 63
murderer of the little Princes, he fought his
way to the supreme power by cruelly removing
all those who stood between him and the goal
of his ambition. Like Richard he was skilled
in all the arts of war and politics. Like
Richard he held strong men bound under his
thumb ; and like Richard he died a violent
death. The story of his brief imprisonment and
hasty execution would afford little special
interest, except for the fact that during the few
days allowed him to prepare for death, he
showed the most extraordinary change in re
gard to his religious principles. From posing
as the champion of English Protestantism
he became converted to an ardent Catholic.
On the scaffold he addressed the spectators
most strongly in favour of the Catholic religion,
in which he declared himself to be proud to die,
utterly abhorring the heresies of his Protestant
life, and exhorting all who had wavered to
return to the one fold of Christ. On the 20th
of August he had been formerly re-admitted into

64 "Jane tbe Quene."
the Roman Church, had heard Mass said, and
received the Sacrament, when he had thus
addressed the congregation : — " My Masters, I
let you all understand that I do most faithfully
believe this is the very right and true way, out
of the which true religion you and I have been
seduced this sixteen years past, by the false
and eronyous preaching of the new preachers,
the which is the onely cause of the great plagues
and vengeance which hath lighted upon the
whole realm of England, and now fallen like
wise upon me and others here present for our
unfaithfulness. And I do believe this Holy
Sacrament here most assuredly to be our
Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ ; and
this I pray you all to testify, and to pray for
me."* But Northumberland was not alone in his
apostasy, Lords Northampton and Warwick,
Sir Andrew Dudley, Sir Henry Gates, and
Thomas Palmer also embracing the opportunity
offered them to return to the Catholic faith.
* " Chronicle of a Resident in the Tower."

Execution of mortbnmberlanb. 65
That Northumberland may have been sincere
in his rapid return to the faith of his fathers is
quite possible, though scarcely probable. He
had, at any rate, never been either a devout or
sincere Protestant. Like his old master,
Henry VIII., it was hatred of the political pre
tensions of the Papacy which led him, in the
first instance, to give ear to the doctrines of the
Reform. With the Protestant clergy, too, he
had been sadly disappointed. Ridley had basely
betrayed him. Knox had repaid many kind
nesses with ingratitude and insolence. During
the reign of Edward religious anarchy had
prevailed. A man, dying as he was to die,
could at that juncture discover but little food
for consolation in the new doctrines. The old
church, with all her faults, was ever a consol-
atrix afflictorum to her children in extremis.
There would have been nothing extraordinary
in his conversion, therefore, but for the fact
that interior evidence points strongly to the
truth of Foxe, the martyrologist's information,
that his sudden change of front was purchased

66 "Jane tbe Quene."
by a promise from Mary that if he would only
make a public recantation of his errors and
return to the Roman Catholic religion, his life
should be spared. In fact, there seems no
other way of accounting for such an excep
tionally sudden change of front, and there can
be little doubt but that he even threw out hints
that he would be not unwilling, if not to
purchase his life, at any rate obtain a reprieve
by seeking reconciliation with the creed of his
youth. That he was willing to purchase life
on almost any terms we know by the contents
of the piteous appeal contained in a letter by
him to Arundel, imploring his old colleague to
save him from the block. It is not surprising
then that Mary's Catholic advisers should
have snapped at the opportunity of endeavour
ing to secure his conversion. The one
redeeming feature of Northumberland's
character and career had, in the eyes of many,
been his preference for the reformed religion.
To deliver England from the power of the
Pope, and the extortions of the Papal Curia

Execution of •IMortbumberlano. 67
had been the one available excuse for
promoting Lady Jane to the throne. If,
therefore, Northumberland were to publicly
abjure Protestantism it would, so the advisers
of Mary argued, put the finishing touch to the
triumph of Catholicism, achieved by her
accession to the throne.
Internal evidence of a stamp beyond suspicion
proves beyond all doubt that overtures were
made to Northumberland to recant, coupled
with promises of pardon if he would do so. He
did do so, but, as we have seen, to no purpose.
From what can be clearly gathered from the
methods employed to assist him to recant, a
pardon was promised him, provided he would
confess his errors on the scaffold, a confession
which was to be followed by the arrival of a
royal messenger bearing the Queen's pardon.
But the messenger, at all events, never appeared,
and Northumberland underwent his death-
stroke. If this was the true story, namely,
that the Duke was really deceived into perjuring
himself in his last moments to save his body at

68 " Jane tbe Quene."
the expense of his soul, it furnishes one more
dark stain on the character of Mary and her
ministers. But, black as such treachery was,
it was in full accord with the policy of the
Roman priesthood, which has never in the
whole course of its history hesitated at adopting
any unjustifiable means when the importance of
the end in view justified their adoption. The
very fact of Arundel being employed as an
intermediary by Northumberland renders the
case against Mary's advisers all the blacker,
for a few additional lies to such a man as he
had proved himself would be nothing. In
justice to Mary, it must be stated that she
personally was anxious not to mar the com
mencement of her reign with the shedding of
blood, and that she was strongly inclined, in
the first instance, of her own accord, to pardon
Northumberland — as she had already pardoned,
and was yet to pardon, the Duke of Suffolk,
Lords Grey of Wilton, Robert Dudley, War
wick, Ambrose Dudley, Huntingdon, Fitzwarren,
Ormond, Sir Henry Sidney, Sir James Crofts,

Execution of IMortbumberlanb. 69
and Sir Andrew Dudley — but was overruled
by Renard, the Ambassador of Charles V.,
who asserted that his master would never
consent to Northumberland's life being spared,
for so long as such a daring traitor was allowed
to live, she could never hope to wear her crown
in safety. Mary, therefore, gradually gave way
to the demands of Renard, and refrained from
granting the Duke his life. What, on the
whole, then is the most probable course, is that
Mary originally intended to honestly give the
Duke his life after he had recanted his errors,
but. was at the last moment cajoled into leaving
him to his fate by the counsel of the cruel and
crafty legate of the Emperor.
Before taking a final leave of Northumber
land, it is interesting to note to what extent
Lady Jane commiserated his fate, and what was
her private opinion of his character, which we
are enabled to from the following extract from
the " Chronicle of a Resident in the Tower of
London," viz. : —
" On Tuesday, the 29th of Auguste, I dyned at

70 "Jane tbe Quene."
Partrige's house with my Lady Jane, being
ther present, she sitting at the lorde's ende,
Partrige, his wife, Jacob my ladye's gentill
woman, and hir man. She commanding
Partrige and me to put on our cappes,
emongest our communycacion at the dyner,
this was to be noted : after she had once or
twice droncke to me and bad me hartellie
welcome, saithe she, ' The Quene's majesty
is a mercifull princes ; I beseche God she
may long contynue, and sende his bountefull
grace upon hir.'
" After that, we fell in discourse of mattiers of
religion ; and she axed what he was that
preched at Polles* on Sonday beefore, and so
it was told hir.
" ' I praie you,' quoth she, ' have they masse
in London ? '
" ' Yay, for suthe,' quoth I, ' in some
places.' " ' Yt may so be,' quoth she, ' Yt is not so
strange as the sodden convertyon of the late
* (Old) St. Paul's Cathedral.

Execution of imortbumberlanb. 71
Duke ; for who wolde have thought,' saide she,
' he would have so don ? '
" Yt was answerd her, ' Perchance he thereby
hoped to have had his pardon.'*
" ' Pardon ?' quoth she, ' wo worthe him ! he
hathe brought me and our stock in most
miserable callamyty and mysery by his exceed
ing ambicion. But for th' aunswering that he
hoped for his life by his tourning, though other
men be of that opinyon, I am utterly not ; for
what man is ther lyving, I pray you, although
he had been innocent, that wolde hope of life
in that case ; being in the felde against the
Quene in person as generall, and after his
taking so hated and so evell spoken of by the
Comons ? and at his coming into pryson so
wonderyed at as the like was never harde by
any man's tyme. Who was judge that he
should hope for pardon, whose life was odyous
to all men ? But what will ye more ? like as
his life was wickid and full of dissimulacion, so
* This illustration of the public opinion may be taken as a strong proof
in support of the theory that Northumberland's conversion was not
sincere.

72 "Jane tbe Quene."
was his ende therafter. I pray God, I, nor no
frende of mine, dye so. Shoulde I, who am
yonge and in my fewers,* forsake my faythe for
the love of lyfe ? Nay, God forbed ! moche
more he should not, whose fatall course,
althoughe he had lyved his just number of yeres,
could not have long contynued. But life was
swete, it appeered, so he might have lywed, you
will saye, he did not care howe. Indede the
reason is goode ; for he that would have lyved
in chaynes to have had his lyfe, by like would
leave no other meane attempted. But God be
mercifull to us, for he sayeth, ' Whoso denyeth
him before men, he will not knowe him in his
Father's kingdome.'
" With this and moche like talke the dinner
passyd away ; which ended, I thanked her
ladyship that she would witsafe accept me in
hir companye ; and she thanked me likewise,
and sayd I was wellcome. She thanked
Patrige also for bringing me to dyner.
' Madam,' saide he, ' wee were somewhat
* Either " few years," or standing for "flower of years."

Execution of IRortbumberlanb. 73
bolde, not knowing your ladyship dyned below
untyll we fonde your ladyship ther.' "*
* Miss Strickland, in her Memoir of Lady Jane (Tudor Princesses),
has stated that no such person as Partrige lived in the Tower, and thai
the person so named was Thomas Brydges, brother to the Lieutenant.
There is not, however, the faintest possible proof to warrant this
assertion. Moreover it is clear that Partrige and Thomas Brydges were
two distinct persons by perusing the subsequent pages of the Chronicle,
whence the above account is taken. As a matter of fact, Partrige, or
Partridge, occupied the important post of Gentleman Gaoler, and lodged
in a house adjoining thai of the Lieutenant. Miss Strickland's error
has been freely adopted by olher writers.

CHAPTER VI.
Captivity anb E>eatb.
i.
IT was a general hope amongst all political
parties that Mary would commence her
reign by worthily extending the prerogative of
mercy towards Lady Jane. The puppet of a
designing minister, the prey of a perfidious
council, the " ten days' Queen " had made no
enemies during her brief sovereignty, and had
won many friends. For the pretty little*
maiden, who had torn away from her beloved
literary pursuits to unwillingly occupy a throne,
and who had been taken almost by force into
the bosom of a family which she cordially
detested, there was felt nought but pity. That
Mary would pardon her was generally expected,
considering that both her father and mother
* Lady Jane was of short stature, and even wore specially prepared
soles to her shoes to elevate her in height. — (D'Israeli the Elder). Her
sister, Lady Mary, is described as a dwarf by her contemporaries.

Captivity anb Deatb. 75
had so far escaped scot-free, whilst her coun
sellors, Arundel and Pembroke, who had
connived at her treason, had actually been raised
into the royal favour. That she should, at the
same time, remain a prisoner, pro tern., was
only thought fit and proper, until all dis
turbance created by the late troubles had
satisfactorily subsided. She remained on,
therefore, as a prisoner in the Tower, where
she had so recently been the ruler, confined
in the apartments of Nathaniel Partridge.
From Lord Guildford she was separated, as he
was sent with other prisoners to the Beauchamp
Tower.* The first move of the Government in her
direction, was a formal demand to restore the
Crown jewels, which had been taken possession
of at the instance of her father-in-law. But on
the restoration of the regalia to the Treasurer,
Lord Winchester, it was found that many of
the items were missing, and although it was
well known that their loss was in no wise due
* Viiic Notes : " Inscriptions in the lieaucliamp Tower."

76 "Jane tbe Quene."
to Lady Jane, she was immediately, in order to
make good their value, deprived of all her
money and valuables, as was Lord Guildford
for the same reason.
Unfortunately for the hapless captive, there
was yet one man who had ranged himself
against her, and with all the cunning peculiar
to his astute intellect and lying tongue, was
striving his utmost to consign her to the block,
and that was Simon Renard, the Ambassador,
who had treated her with the utmost deference
and respect so long as she had held the reins
of power. Mary, however, was proof against
his entreaties, and refused to send her, as
he ruthlessly desired, to immediate execution,
before at any rate she had, at a decent interval,
been placed before her judges.
On the 13th of November, accordingly, both
she and her husband were tried for high treason
at the Guildhall ;* both pleaded guilty to the
* "The Lady Jane was in a blacke goune of cloth, tourned doune ;
the cappe lyned with fese velvett, and edged about with the same, in a
French hoode, all black, with a black lyllyment, a black velvet boke
hanging before hir, and another book in her hand open." — "Chronicle
of a Resident in the Tower."

H)eatb anb Captivity. 77
indictment, were sentenced to death with the
usual horrible formula, and returned to the
Tower. It was not originally intended that
the death-sentence should be carried out on
Lady Jane, and perhaps not on her husband,
but for an event that cost them both their
heads she might have been released, once more
to seek fresh pleasures amongst the pleasant
shades of Bradgate.
This tragic event, which was to cause Mary
to retract her intentions of clemency towards
not only Lady Jane, but many others of those
engaged in the conspiracy of Northumberland,
was the rebellion headed by Sir Thomas Wyatt,
wherein the Duke of Suffolk was so foolish as
to participate. The reasons which, however,
led the Duke to engage in this insurrection
were very different to those actuating Wyatt,
who seems to have been influenced solely with
the idea of forcing Mary to renounce her
intended alliance with Philip of Spain, — for
with atrocious ingratitude to the Queen, who
had so generously forgiven him, and, with a

78 "Jane tbe Queue."
cruel disregard for the feelings and welfare of
his daughter, he again intended to place the
latter on the throne. But he was not destined
to play the same formidable part as Wyatt,
Brett, Knyvet, Cobham, of the insurgent leaders,
for he was speedily captured by Lord Hunting
don, whose soldiers discovered him hiding in
a large hollow tree on his estate of Astley,
in Leicestershire, whither he had fled with his
brothers, Lords Thomas and John Grey, after
having failed in an abortive attempt to raise
the Midlands.*
So thoroughly alarmed were Mary, Gardiner,
and the leaders of the Government by the
brilliant temporary success which had attended
Wyatt's efforts, that so soon as the insurrection
was crushed, little time was lost before the
fate of Lady Jane and her husband was deter
mined. Urged on by the renewed entreaties
of Renard, Mary at length consented to sign
* He was betrayed by one of his game-keepers, and had left his tree
when the soldiers came, being unable to remain longer in the trunk
owing to cold and want of food, and was found warming himself by a
cottage fire. Lord John Grey was found buried beneath some hay.

Captivity anb Deatb. 79
the death warrants for the unfortunate young
couple, imprisoned in the Tower. The day
fixed for the double execution was the 9th of
February. But before the arrival of the fatal day,
Mary, anxious for the safety of Lady Jane's
soul, determined to secure her conversion to
the Roman Church just as she had North
umberland. But in this case there is no
direct evidence to justify the story that life
was offered her in exchange for her creed.
Moreover, the most gentle and generous of
priests was selected to attempt her conversion,
Feckenham,* Abbot of Westminster, who
obtained the Queen's sanction to a reprieve
for Lady Jane until the 12th of February, in
order to allow him more time for the precious
work on hand. Once admitted into her prison-
chamber, Feckenham spared no pains by every
inducement conceivable in his power to convert
Lady Jane to the Church of Rome. But her
case was very different to that of her father-in-
* I'it/f Notes: "The lasl Abbol of West minster,"

8o "Jane tbe Quene."
law, for whereas Northumberland had been
born and bred a Catholic, and had forsaken
the tenets of that faith most probably for
reasons political, Lady Jane had been born and
educated a Protestant of Protestants, inheriting
a most profound detestation for the most
ancient and oppressive of the Christian creeds.
Yet Feckenham was confident of conquering
her scruples. To him, it seemed absurd that
a young lady who had received her religious
principles at the feet of a country parson should
be sufficiently proficient in the Scriptures,
and in theology to cppe with one of the most
learned of English priests, a member of the
then greatest literary* order of the Catholic
Church. But he quickly found out his error,
for although Lady Jane, wishing only to spend
her last hours in peace, refused at first to argue
with him, stung at last by his contemptuous
attacks, she consented to accept a challenge
offered her to enter into a theological con
troversy respecting the sacraments of her
* Benedictine,

Captivity anb Deatb. 8i
creed. The following is an account of this
amicable duel, in which Lady Jane, according
to her opponent's confession, conducted and
defended her case with such rare ability as
to excite his warmest admiration : —
Feckenham. " I am here come to you at
this present, sent from the Queen and her
Council, to instruct you in the true doctrine
of the right faith : although I have so great
confidence in you, that I shall have, I trust,
little need to travail with you much therein."
Lady Jane. " I heartily thank the Queen's
Highness, which is not unmindful of her humble
subject, and I hope, likewise, that you no
less will do your duty therein both truly
and faithfully, according to that you were sent
for." Feckenham. " What then is required of a
Christian man ?"
Lady Jane. " That he should believe in
God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
three persons and one God."
Feckenham. "What? Is there nothing

82 "Jane tbe Quene."
else to be required or looked for in a Christian,
but to believe in him ?"
Lady Jane. " Yes, we must love him with
all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our
mind, and our neighbour as ourself."
Feckenham. "Why? then faith justifieth
not, nor saveth not."
Lady Jane. "Yes, verily, faith, as Paul
saith, only justifieth."
Feckenham. " Why ? St. Paul saith, ' If I
have all faith without love, it is nothing.'"
Lady Jane. " True it is ; for how can I
love him who I trust not, or how can I trust
him whom I love not ? Faith and love go
both together, and yet love is comprehended
in faith."
Feckenham. " How should we love our
neighbour ? "
Lady Jane. "To love our neighbour is to
feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to
give drink to the thirsty, and to do to him as we
would to ourselves."
Feckenham. "Why? then it is necessary

Captivitg anb Deatb. 83
unto salvation, to do good works also, and it is
not sufficient only to believe."
Lady Jane. " I deny that, and I affirm that
faith only saveth : but it is meet for a Christian,
in token that he followeth his master Christ, to
do good works ; yet may we not say that they
profit to our salvation. For when we have
done all, yet we be unprofitable servants, and
faith only in Christ's blood saveth us."
Feckenham. " How many Sacraments are
there ? "
Lady Jane. " Two : the one the Sacrament
of baptism, and the other the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper."
Feckenham. " No, there are seven."
Lady Jane. " By what Scripture find you
that?" Feckenham. " Well, we will talk of that
hereafter. But what is signified by your two
Sacraments ? "
Lady Jane. " By the Sacrament of baptism,
I am washed with water and regenerated by the
spirit, and that washing is a token to me that I

84 " Jane tbe Quene."
am the child of God. The Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, offered unto me, is a sure seal
of testimony that I am by the blood of Christ,
which he shed for me on the Cross, made
partaker of his everlasting kingdom."
Feckenham. "Why? what do you receive
in that Sacrament. Do you not receive the
very body and blood of Christ ? "
Lady Jane. " No surely, I do not so believe.
I think that at the supper I neither receive flesh
nor blood, but bread and wine : which bread
when it is broken, and the wine when it is
drunken, put me in remembrance how that for
my sins the body of Christ was broken, and his
blood shed on the Cross ; and with that bread
and wine I receive the benefits that come by
the breaking of his body, and shedding of his
blood, for our sins on the Cross."
Feckenham. "Why, doth not Christ speak
these words, ' Take, eat, this is my body ?
Require you any plainer words ? Doth he not
say it is his body ? "
Lady Jane. " I grant, he saith so ; and so

Captivity anb Deatb. 85
he saith, ' I am the vine, I am the door,' but he
is never the more for that, the vine or the door.
Doth not Paul- say, ' He calleth things that are
not, as though they were ? ' God forbid that I
should say that I eat the very natural body and
blood of Christ : for then either I should pluck
away my redemption, or else there were two
bodies or two Christs. One body was tor
mented on the Cross, if they did eat another
body, then had he two bodies : or if his body
were eaten, then was it not broken upon the
Cross ; or if it were broken upon the Cross, it
was not eaten of his disciples."
Feckenham. " Why, is it not as possible
that Christ, by his power, could make his
body both to be eaten and broken, and to be
born of a Virgin, as to walk upon the sea,
having a body, and other such like miracles as
he wrought by his power only ? "
Lady Jane. "Yes, verily, if God would
have done at his supper any miracle, he might
have done so : but, I say, that then he minded
no work nor miracle, but only to break his

86 "Jane tbe Quene."
body, and his blood on the Cross for our sins.
But I pray you to answer me to this one
question : Where was Christ when he said,
' take, eat, this is my body ? ' Was he not at
the table when he said so? He was at that
time alive, and suffered not till the next day.
What took he but bread ? What brake he but
bread ? and what gave he but bread ? Look,
what he took, he brake ; and look, what he
brake, he gave : and look, what he gave they
did eat : and yet all this while he himself was
alive and at supper before his disciples, or else
they were deceived."
Feckenham. "You ground your faith upon
such authors as say and unsay both in a breath ;
and not upon the church, to whom ye ought to
give credit."
Lady Jane. " No, I ground my faith on
God's word, and not upon the church. For if
the church be a good church, the faith of the
church must be tried by God's word ; and not
God's word by the church, neither yet my faith.
Shall I believe the church because of antiquity,

Captivity anb Deatb. 87
or shall I give credit to the church that taketh
away from me the half part of the Lord's
Supper, and will not let any man receive it in
both kinds ? which things, if they deny to us,
then deny to us part of our salvation. And I
say that it is an evil church, and not the spouse
of Christ, but the spouse of the devil, that
altereth the Lord's Supper, and both taketh
from it, and addeth to it. To that church, say
I, God will add plagues ; and from that church
will he take their part out of the book of life.
Do they learn that of Paul, when he ministered
to the Corinthians in both kinds ? Shall I
believe this church ? God forbid ! "
Feckenham. "That was done for a good
intent of the church, to avoid a heresy that
sprang on it."
Lady Jane. "Why shall the church alter
God's will and, ordinance for good intent?
How did King Saul ? The Lord defend?"
Such is Foxe's account of the major portion
of the conversation between the eloquent monk
and Lady Jane, an account that must, in some

88 "Jane tbe Queue."
of its details, be swallowed with an extra large
pinch of salt. That Lady Jane, however, no
matter what were her actual words, defended
her case brilliantly there can be no doubt, for
Feckenham himself has testified* to her
wonderful knowledge of theology and the
scriptures. Feckenham throughout the whole
course of his relations with Lady Jane con
ducted himself with the utmost kindness and
generosity, and Foxe, ever ready without
scruple to vilify a Catholic priest, has, it seems,
"Wilfully suppressed the truth and distorted the
facts when he accuses him of having lost his
temper and insulted Lady Jane at the close of
their discussion. The good monk might
have been called the "prisoner's friend," for he
exerted all his influence to mitigate the punish
ment or obtain the release of many others of the
political prisoners confined for participation in
either Northumberland's or Wyat's schemes,

* " Found himself in all holy gifts so short of her excellence, that he
acknowledged himself fitter to be her disciple than "teacher." ("Life
of Lady Jane Grey," London, 1615).

Captivity anb Beatb. 89
and in many cases his intercession was entirely
successful. II.
Queen Mary, finding that all Feckenham's
arts and eloquence were lost upon Lady Jane,
hesitated no longer to take her life, and gave
orders accordingly that the execution was to
proceed on Monday, February 12th, that date
being the limit of the reprieve already granted.
Still tenacious, in her hopes that she might
yet be cajoled into accepting conversion to
Catholicism, Mary arranged, at the same
time, that divers priests were to worry Lady
Jane, without cessation, with their arguments
and casuistry until the last. Lord Guildford
was also to be similarly assailed, but he remained
firm as a rock against entreaties from the priests,
and utterly refused all advice and consolation
from them, in striking contrast to the wretched
weakness displayed by his father when placed
in the same terrible situation. 4
The Sunday intervening before her execution
and that of her husband, the last that Lady

9o "Jane tbe Quene."
Jane was to ever spend on earth, was passed by
her alternately in prayer and correspondence,
that is to say whenever she was freed from the
unwelcome presence and solicitations of the
priests. During the Sabbath evening, she was
occupied in writing the following beautiful
letter to her sister, Catherine, inscribed on a
few spare leaves of her Greek Testament, the
companion of so many weary hours, which she
bequeathed to its recipient as a legacy : —
" I have here sent you, my dear sister Catherine, a book,
which although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, or
the curious embroidery of the artfullest needles, yet inwardly
it is more worth than all the precious mines which the vast
world can boast of : it is the book, my only best, and best
loved sister, of the law of the Lord : it is the Testament,
and last will, which he bequeathed unto us wretches and
wretched sinners, which shall lead you to the path of eternal
joy : and if you with a good mind read it, and with an
earnest desire follow it, no doubt it shall bring you to an
immortal and everlasting life : it will teach you to live, and
learn you to die : it shall win you more, and endow you with
greater felicity, than you should have gained possession of
our woeful father's lands : for as if God had prospered him,
you should have inherited his honours and manors, so if
you apply diligently this book, seeking to direct your life

Captivity anb IDeatb. 9'
according to the rule of the same, you shall be an inheritor
of such riches, as neither the covetous shall withdraw from
you, neither the thief shall steal, neither yet the moths
corrupt : desire with David, my best sister, to understand
the law of the Lord your God, live still to die, that you by
death may purchase life eternal, and trust not that the
tenderness of your age shall lengthen your life : for unto
God, when he calleth, all hours, times, and seasons are
alike, and blessed are they whose lamps are furnished when
he cometh, for as soon will the Lord be glorified in the
young as in the old.
My good sister, once more again let me entreat thee to
learn to die; deny the world, defy the devil, and despise
the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord : be penitent
for your sins, and yet despair not ; be strong in faith, yet
presume not ; and desire with St. Paul to be dissolved and
to be with Christ, with whom, even in death, there is life.
Be like the good servant, and even at midnight be waking,
lest when death cometh and stealeth upon you, like a thief
in the night, you be with the servants of darkness found
sleeping ; and lest for lack of oil you be found like the five
foolish virgins, or like him that had not on the wedding
garment, and then you be cast into darkness, or banished
from the marriage : rejoice in Christ as I trust you do, and
seeing you have the name of a Christian, as near as you can
follow the steps and be a true imitator of your master,
Christ Jesus, and take up your cross, lay your sins on his
back, and always embrace him.
Now, as touching my death, rejoice as I do, my dearest
sister, that I shall be delivered of this corruption, and put

92 "Jane tbe Queue."
on incorruption : for I am assured that I shall, for losing of
a mortal life, win one that is immortal, joyful, and everlast
ing : the which I pray God grant you in his most blessed
hour, and send you his all-saving grace to live in his fear,
and to die in the true Christian faith : from which, in God's
name, I exhort that you never swerve, neither through hope
of life nor fear of death : for if you will deny his truth, to
give length to a weary and corrupt breath, God himself will
deny you, and by vengeance make short what you by your
soul's loss would prolong : but if you will cleave to him, he
will stretch forth your days to an uncircumscribed comfort,
and to his own glory : to the which glory, God bring me
now, and you hereafter, when it shall please him to call
you. Farewell, once again, my beloved sister, and put your
only trust in God, who only must help you. Amen.
Your loving sister,
Jane Duddeley."
To her father, she also wrote,* plainly
acknowledging that he was the cause of her
trouble, but not in the least blaming him for it,
but even thanking him for having expressed his
contrition — tardy though it was — at having so
* Lady Jane is stated lo have written lo her father, on Ihe same
evening or day she wrote to her sister, but this is most unlikely, for lime
would not have allowed it. No date is attached to the letter, which in
all probability she had composed — or at any rate the greater part of it 
several days previously, and hearing of Suffolk's arrival in the Tower on
the Saturday, had it sent lo him on Sunday.

Captivity anb 2>eatb. 93
deeply wronged her, and finally imploring him
never to forsake his religion. III.
The dawn of the fatal twelfth of February was
not long in following upon the conclusion of
Lady Jane's moribund epistolary efforts.
Thinking that it was but just the young couple
should snatch one last fleeting farewell before
parting for their respective scaffolds, the iron-
hearted Mary granted the husband's petition
that he might meet and embrace his wife. But
Lady Jane, calm and self-possessed in the hour of
peril, resolutely refused this favour of the Queen,
saying that " it would but disturb the holy
tranquility with which they had prepared them
selves for death." To Lord Guildford she sent
a message " that it was to be feared her
presence would rather weaken than strengthen
him ; that he ought to take courage from this
reason, and derive constancy from his heart ;
that if his soul were not firm and settled, she
could not settle it by her eyes, nor confirm it by
her words, and that he would do well to remit

94 "Jane tbe Quene."
this interview till they met in a better world,
where friendships were happy and unions
indissoluble, and their's, she hoped, would be
eternal." (Heylyn.) She never, in conse
quence of this heroic resolve, saw Lord Guildford
again alive.
It was decided by the authorities that the ill-
fated pair were to die on different scaffolds,
and before different audiences, the husband's
execution to be public, his wife's — if it could be
properly so called — private.
Lord Guildford's was to take place, first, on
Tower-Hill, Lady Jane's, subsequently, on
the green close to the white Tower.* The
sympathies of all except the most bigoted
Catholics were excited on behalf of Lord
Guildford and Lady Jane, the youth and good
lookst of the former winning for him almost as
* " A scaffolde made upon the grene over agynst the white tower, for
the saide Lady Jane to die apon." (" Chronicle of a Resident in Ihe
Tower ") This was the same site upon which the scaffolds were erected
for the executions of Queens Anne Uoleyn and Catherine Howard
t He was considered the best-looking, as he was the tallest of all
Northumberland's large family, and was his parents' special favourite,
' ' that comely, vertuous, and goodly gentleman the lorde gylford

Captivity anb JDeatb. 9S
much pity as her good looks, talents, youth,
innocence and sex for Lady Jane. For their
steadfast adherence to their religion they carried
with them to the block the warmest admiration
of the Protestants, who had been fearful lest
they should succumb to the artful offers held
out to them by the priests of purchasing their
lives at the cost of selling their faith.
Details of Lord Guildford's death are best
obtained by quoting our old friend, the anony
mous keeper of the diary or chronicle of two
years residence in the Tower under Queens
Jane and Mary. Describing the closing scene
of the handsome Dudley's life, he says : —
" The monday, being the twelth of Februarie,
about ten of the clocke, ther went out of the
Tower to the scaffolde on Tower hill, the lorde
Guilforde Dudley, sone to the late Duke of
Northumberland, husbande to the Lady Jane
Grey, daughter to the Duke of Suffolke, who at
his going out toke by the hande Sir Anthony
Duddeley most innocently was executed, whom God had endowed with
suche verlues, lhat even those that never before the tyme of his execution
saw him, did with lemenlable tears bewayle his death." (Grafton.)

96 "Jane tbe Quene."
Broune, maister John Throgmorton, and many
other gentyllmen, praying him to praie for him ;
and without the bullwarke offeley the sheryve
receywed him and brought him to the scaffolde,
where, after a small declaration, having no
ghostlye fatter with him " (he was refused the
attendance of a Protestant clergyman), "he
kneeled doune and said his praiers ; then
holding upp his eyes and handes to God many
tymes ; and at last, after he had desyred the
people to pray for him, he laide himselfe along,
and his hedd upon the block, which was at one
stroke of the axe taken from him.
" Note, the lorde marques* stode upon the
Devyl's Toure, and sawe the executyon."
For Lord Guildford's t untimely fate it is
impossible not to feel pity. Like his wife, he
was sacrificed to suit the devices of the lawless
Northumberland. Of his character little is
really, it seems, accurately known. It is,
* Northampton, his father's friend.
t Lord Guildford was christened after his mother's maiden name,
thus forming one of the first instances (in England) of a surname being
converted into a Christian name.

Captivity anb Deatb. 97
indeed, by no means to his credit that during
the reign of Lady Jane, he constantly demanded
the privilege of sharing her throne, but still
against this it must be remembered he was but
a mere boy, the spoilt child of his mother, and
his head was evidently turned by such a sudden
accession to power. It at any rate speaks well
in his favour that he behaved with the most
manly fortitude and courage when led out to
die. Having waved a mournful farewell to her
husband, whom she saw from her prison
window passing to his execution, Lady Jane
was left with but a few more fleeting minutes
to prepare for following him. Her serene
courage and urbanity in this awful hour won
the hearts of the hardest of the officials of the
Tower. Even the stalwart Sir John Brydges,
the Lieutenant, was touched at her situation,
and unbent so far as to beseech her to grant
him a souvenir to keep in memory of her,
whereupon she told his brother Thomas to give
him a little manuscript manual of prayers, and

98 "Jane tbe Quene."
notwithstanding the short space of time per
mitting for the composition of an original
theme, wrote in it : —
" Foreasmuch as you have desired so simple a woman to
write in so worthy a book, good master Lieutenant, therefore
I shall as a friend desire you, and as a Christian require
you, to call upon God to incline your heart to his laws, to
quicken you in his ways, and not to take the word of truth
utterly out of your mouth. Live still to die, that by death
you may purchase eternal life ; and remember how
the end of Methusael, who we read in Scripture was the
longest liver that was of a man, died at the last : for, as
the preacher says, that there is a time to be born and a time
to die ; and the day of death is better than the day of our
birth. Your's as the Lord knoweth as a friend,
Jane Duddeley."
In this same precious gift she had pre
viously put a written prayer for her father, as
follows : —
"The Lord comfort Your Grace, and that in His Word,
wherein all creatures only are to be comforted. And
though it hath pleased God to take away two of your
children, yet think not, I most humbly beseech Your Grace,
that you have lost them, but tried, that we, by losing this

Captivity anb Deatb. 99
mortal life, have won an immortal life. And I, for my part,
as I have honoured Your Grace in this life, will pray for you
in another. Your Grace's humble daughter,
Jane Duddeley."
Lord Guildford Dudley had also an inscrip
tion in the book, to his father-in-law, but
written under happier circumstances in happier
times. Lady Jane is also understood to have
penned three sentences* in Greek, Latin, and
English, and given them likewise to Sir John
Brydges, the purport of which was that, although
terrestial justice had slain her husband's body,
God's mercy would pardon his soul ; whilst as
regards herself, " If my fault deserved punish
ment, my youth, at least, and my imprudence,
were worthy of excuse. God and posterity will
show me favour."
As soon as Lord Guildford's decapitation was
completed, it was arranged that the mournful
* Sir N. H. Nicolas, in his excellent volume on Lady Jane's " Literary
Remains and Life," warmly disputes the genuineness of these sentences,
which he contends that Lady Jane could never have written. But
the evidence in favour of her authorship seems, notwithstanding his
criticisms, quite satisfactory and conclusive.

ioo "Jane tbe Quene."
procession which was to accompany his widow
to the scaffold should set out. It would have
been better for Lady Jane had it started ere it
did, for by the delay she was made the unwilling
witness of an appalling sight, sufficiently
harrowing and gruesome to have broken the
spirits and the courage of the stoutest of men,
much less those of a lonely girl. This was
no less than the bleeding, quivering corpse
of her husband, freshly come from the scaffold,
thrown on to a small car or trolley, his head
wrapped in a cloth. Well, indeed, might the
Tower chronicler declare this to have been
"A sight to her no less than death."*
By what incomparable folly, or by what
slovenly arrangement was it made possible for
the poor hapless Jane to have seen this fearful
thing it is difficult to comprehend. Perhaps it
may have been intentional. If so, our history
fails to record an act more shocking in brutality.
Precise details are, however, wanting, and we
* Miss Strickland, in her ' ' Memoir of Lady Jane," has made use of this
sentence, without any mark or acknowledgment to point the source
whence she derived it.

Captivity anb Deatb. 101
do not know for certain how or exactly where
she saw the body, some authorities stating she
perceived it from her window, others that she
actually encountered it on her way to the
scaffold. Crushed by this heart-rending scene, Lady
Jane, striving her utmost to regain her
composure,* at length set forth on the short
journey that was to take her from this world
into the next. Accompanied, despite her pro
tests, by the ubiquitous Feckenham, still
worrying her with his solicitations, and followed
by two of her attendants, Elizabeth Tylney
and Eleyn, both weeping bitterly, with a prayer-
book in her hand, Lady Jane, arrayed in black
as befitted the sombre occasion, reached the
footsteps of the fatal stairway to the platform of
death. Ascending its steps, without betraying
any sign of discomfiture, she thus addressed the
audience surrounding her : —
" Good people, I am come hither to die, and
* Contemporary writers state that, to add to the pathos of her
position, she was alher execution several months gone in pregnancy.

102 "Jane tbe Quene."
by a law am condemned to the same. The
fact, indeed, against the Queen's Highness was
unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me ;
but touching the procurement and the desire
thereof by me or on my behalf. I do wash my
hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the
face of you good Christain people, this day "
(here she wrung her hands), " and, I pray you
all, to bear me witness that I die a true Christian
woman, and that I look to be saved by no
other means, but only by the mercy of God in
the merits of the blood of his only son Jesus
Christ : and I confess, when I did know the
word of God I neglected the same, loved my
self and the world, and therefore this plague or
punishment is happily and worthily happened
unto me for my sins ; and I thank God of his
goodness that he hath thus given me a time and
respite to repent. And now people, while I am
alive, I pray you to assist me with your
prayers."*
* I have here followed exclusively the rendering of her speech
conveyed in the "Chronicle of a Resident in the Tower." Several
other more elaborate and lengtliy details are recorded by other authorities,

Captivity anb Deatb. 103
Kneeling down, she asked Feckenham's
leave to repeat a psalm, and he assenting,
she devoutedly repeated the fifty-first, in
English. When she had ended, she rose and
courteously thanked the monk for his kindness,
gave her gloves and handkerchief to Elizabeth
Tylney, her book to Thomas Brydges, and
permitted her women to arrange her dress and
pin a white scarf over her eyes.
The headsman, a hideous figure swathed in
black, prayed her pardon on his knees, and she
kindly answered him, beseeching him, at the
same time, to kill her quickly. Only at this
moment did she show any agitation, when with
her eyes bound, she failed to grope her way to
the block, until one of those near her guided
her, and until which she in the agony of the
moment piteously exclaimed, "Where is it?
Where is it ? Oh, what shall I do?"
but their authenticity is more than doubtful. In many accounts, by far
too commonly quoted, Lady Jane is made to talk like an orator address
ing a political meeting, or a preacher in the pulpit. Surely the above
plain, simple account of one of her hearers is more likely to be correcl
than the interpellated records of writers who were not present, or even
alive at that dale.

io4 "Jane tbe Quene."
Her head once recumbent, the executioner
made no long delay. The axe swung, her
slender neck with one stroke was cut clean
through, and Lady Jane, the tool of a politician's
base ambition, the too faithful child of a worth
less parent, the victim of the malign cruelty of a
remorseless Queen, had passed away from her
sorrows, and her stainless soul had sped to its
eternal rest.
Her remains, with those, of her slaughtered
husband, were interred* in the historic chapel
of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower, of which
ancient building it has been recorded t : — "In
truth there is no sadder spot on earth
than that little cemetery. Death is there
associated, not as in Westminster Abbey and
St. Paul's, with genius and virtue, with public
veneration and imperishable renown ; not as in
our humblest churches and churchyards with
everything that is most endearing in social and
* The locality of Lady Jane's tomb has remained a mystery to all of
her biographers. There exists a remote tradition that her corpse was
afterwards removed to Bradgate and buried in the chapel.
t Macaulay's " History of England."

Captivity anb JDeatb. 105
domestic charities ; but whatever is darkest in
human nature and human destiny, with the
savage triumph of implacable enemies, with the
inconstancy, the ingratitude, the cowardice of
friends, with all the miseries of fallen greatness
and blighted fame. Thither have been carried,
through successive ages, by the rude hand of
gaolers, without one mourner following, the
bleeding relics of men who had been the
captains of armies, the leaders of parties, the
oracles of senates, and the ornaments of courts.
Thither was borne, before the window where
Lady Jane was praying, the mangled corpse of
Guildford Dudley. Edward Seymour, Duke of
Somerset, and Protector of the Realm, reposes
there by the brother whom he murdered.
There has mouldered away the headless trunk
of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and
Cardinal of St. Vitalis, a man worthy to have
lived in a better age, and to have died in a
better cause. There are laid John Dudley,
Duke of Northumberland, Lord High Admiral,
and Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, Lord

106 "Jane tbe Quene."
High Treasurer. There, too, is another
Essex, on whom nature and fortune had
lavished all their bounties in vain, and whom
valour, grace, genius, royal favour, popular
applause, conducted to an early and ignom
inious doom. Not far off sleep two chiefs
of the great house of Howard, Thomas,
fourth Duke of Norfolk, and Philip, eleventh
Earl of Arundel. Here and there, among the
thick graves of unquiet and aspiring statesmen,
lie more delicate sufferers ; Margaret of Salis
bury, the last of the proud name of Plantagenet,
and those two fair Queens who perished by the
jealous rage of Henry."

CHAPTER VII.
Character anb literary IRemaino.
WHEN Lady Jane wrote in the little
book which she carried to the scaffold
a hope to the effect that her posterity would do
her justice, she was expressing a desire that has
amply been fulfilled. Her memory has indeed
received an honourable place in history, whilst
the sum total of her virtues and accomplish
ments has, if anything, received a too exalted
measure of praise. In endeavouring to analyse
the true character of Lady Jane, it must be
borne in mind that it is dangerous to rely too
much on the evidence of her contemporaries,
who were apt to permit their judgments to be
warped by religious circumstances and con
siderations. Thus, the Catholic writers have
hinted that Lady Jane's literary efforts were by
no means unaided compositions on her part,*
* Vide Lingard ; " History of England."

io8 "Jane tbe Queue."
and that her religious opinions were the result
of the teachings of the tutors of her youth.
Thus, Protestant* writers have, on the other
hand, allowed their anti- Roman tendencies to
overrun the impartiality necessary to historical
narrative, and have heaped upon Lady Jane
the most flattering encomiums, just as Ascham
and others were wont to address her in their
epistles in terms so ridiculously eulogistic as to
be little less than fulsome in the extreme.
Between these two dangerous limits, therefore,
the truth must lie.
The "real" Lady Jane is neither the Lady
Jane of the Catholic writers, nor the Lady Jane
of the Protestant, neither the Lady Jane of
Lingard, nor the Lady Jane of Foxe. She was,
so far as impartial evidence can direct us, of a
high-spirited, firm, determined nature, quite
equal to holding her own in any company and
under the most trying situations. Her religion
was purely that of her own heart and choice.
The excellence of her education and the depth
* Foxe, for example.

Cbaracteu anb Xiterary "Remains. 109
of her erudition had exposed to her the shallow
ness of Romish dogmas. Although accustomed
in childhood to be snubbed and otherwise
checked by her parents, the very severity of her
training only tended to increase her independ
ence as she grew older. She was never the
poor, weak, forlorn maiden — a lamb amongst
wolves — that certain authors would have us
believe. She had a will of her own, opinions
of her own, and, what is more, a temper of her
own, to fall back upon in the hour of need.
The child who scornfully told Mary's attendant
that the Host was only baker's bread was no
timid little girl, inclined to hide her light under
a bushel. She was in truth, ab initio, old
beyond her years.
In person she was small, of beautiful, regular,
and pleasant features, and possessed of a most
neat and exceedingly well-formed figure. Her
capacious forehead and intelligent eyes gave
true indication to tbe intellect contained by that
shapely head. With a better title, and under
better auspices, she would have made an

110 "Jane tbe Quene."
excellent Queen : less cruel, and more capable
as she was than her cousin Mary, more
straightforward, honest, and less double-dealing
than her cousin Elizabeth.
Severely pious and religious though she was,
she by no means disliked the good things of
this wicked world. She possessed the vanity
of her sex, coupled with even more perhaps
than her sex's usual love of finery and jewels.
An agreeable and entertaining companion, her
somewhat Puritan ideas did not prevent her
reaping to the full the enjoyment of good
company, or the proper pleasures of the table.
Trained to shine in smart society at quite a
tender age, she cut a grand figure at society
functions and amongst persons of rank as
exalted as her own.
Inheriting the blood of the Tudors, she
inherited the imperiousness of the Tudor
temper. The young lady who refused to reside
at the house of her husband's parents* who
* So bitter was her dislike of the Duke and Duchess of Northumber
land, that she even accused them of having poisoned, or tried to poison
her.

Character anb Xiterary IRemalns. m
refused to grant Lord Guildford the crown
matrimonial, who rebuffed and rebuked Feck
enham, who went unfaltering to the scaffold
after first undergoing the most conceivably
terrible of ordeals* was as much a Tudor as the
fierce and haughty Mary, or the autocratic
Elizabeth. In one important respect, Lady Jane's
reputation has most certainly benefited at the
hands of her posterity, namely, with regard to
her position in the world of letters. Her
reputation as an author and a scholar has, in
truth, been cheaply earned. Tradition has her
name down in history as a marvel of learning
and erudition, as a profound theologian, and
specially as a linguist of the first rank.
Amongst the many clever women of her age,
and of all the clever women who lived in
England during the epoch of the Tudors, she
has been placed the highest. As a matter of
fact, her period produced many ladies of rank
who were her superiors in general knowledge,
* The sight of Lord Guildford's corpse.

H2 "Jane tbe Quene."
and in both ancient and modern languages in
particular. Queen Elizabeth was undoubtedly
the better versed in the classics, and more pro
ficient in modern languages, whilst beside so
learned a lady as her relative Mary, the poetical
Countess of Pembroke — the famous sister of
Sir Philip Sidney — she would have appeared
ignorant, in comparison. A board-school
maiden of ten years of age — of our day — could
have put her to shame. The ridiculous
rhapsodies of Ascham, Ullmer, and Bullinger
are mainly responsible for the absurdity of the
fables relating to her attainments. She has
even been very frequently described by modern
writers — who evidently have believed all the
legends they have read of her genius — that she
could speak fluently French, Latin, German,
Spanish, and Italian, and had Hebrew, Arabic,
and Greek at her fingers' ends before she had
reached the age of sixteen ! Young ladies of that
age in days when the means of learning were rare
and difficult, were not the prodigies that such
silly statements as these would have us believe.

Character anb Xiterary "IRemalns. 113
The genuine literary remains of Lady Jane
that have come down to us are by no means
extensive, but are, nevertheless, extremely
interesting, and it is easy to trace in the tone of
all her writings the strong, sturdy, conscientious,
independent spirit which stamped the character
of the author. The list of her works generally
considered to have been beyond doubt by her
pen may be comprised as follows : —
1. Letters written in Greek and Latin to
Ascham, Ullmer, and Bullinger.
2. Letter to a " friend newly fallen from the
faith." 3. Account of her conference with Father
Feckenham. 4. Prayer written during her captivity.
5. Letter to her father, written in captivity.
6. Letter to Lady Katharine Grey, written
in captivity.
7. Inscriptions in her Manual of Prayers.*
8. Proclamations during her reign.
Of these eight separate collections, her letters
* Vide Notes : " Lady Jane's Prayer-book."

H4 "Jane tbe Quene."
to Ullmer, Ascham, and Bullinger have been
•mentioned above, and are of insufficient general
interest to demand repetition here, although we
may remark, en passant, that it is certainly
ridiculous to believe these letters were the
original composition of a child of thirteen or
fourteen, and the kindly corrective hand of
Aylmer may be rightly discerned to have
guided the pen of his dear pupil in these several
juvenile compositions.
Of numbers 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the above, we
have also already treated.
But it is the second item in the list that
deserves the more complete consideration. As
to who was the actual friend " newly fallen
from the faith," we are really ignorant, and it is
quite clear that it was not the Reverend Dr.
Harding, once the Duke of Suffolk's Chaplain,
to whom the letter is usually considered to
have been inscribed, since he did not become
a Catholic until after the writer's death. The
letter was not, moreover, written, as has been
declared, during her imprisonment in the Tower,

Character anb Xiterary IRemains. us
because it was signed with her maiden name.
Exception is also taken to this letter that it
could not have been Lady Jane's own composi
tion by reason of the nature of some expressions
used therein, which are hardly what one expects
to read in a theme of pious advice to a friend
by a gentle and moral young lady. But there
is not the least reason to doubt the authenticity
of the epistle, and the nature of these sentences
to which objection has been framed does not
tend to minimise the probability that Lady Jane
wrote them, or that we ought to think any the
worse of her because of them. The critics, in
this case, have utterly failed to make sufficient
allowance for the difference between the
language of her time and ours. In Lady Jane's
time, expressions and illustrations of speech
were in common use which could not now be
used in polite society. But in the use of such
expressions there was nothing vulgar or
improper. People merely were wont then to
express themselves more 'bluntly and with less
restraint than we do, and they were probably

n6 "Jane tbe Quene."
none the worse for so doing. To object to, or
erase these much abused sentences, is as silly
as to applaud the publication of the Bowdlerized
Shakespeare. The letter in question is, in truth, a very fine
composition, betraying like the rest of Lady
Jane's works, the masculine spirit of the author,
every line breathing the powerful, natural,
unrestrained Protestant spirit peculiar to her.*
To endeavour, as have many authorities, to
paint Lady Jane as a meek, unassuming, timid,
helpless maiden is, as we have seen, to run
directly counter to all historical evidence and
truth demonstrating the contrary. Lady Jane
was possessed of the same firm, dauntless,
dominant, manly, and imperious will as her
cousin Elizabeth. If we are to reject this long
letter to her apostate friend as being a forgery,
simply because of the forcible language it
* The following are some specimens of tlie terms of expression used
by Lady Jane, to which exception has thus been taken by carping
critics : — " deformed imp of the devil ;" "stinking and filthy kennel of
Satan;" " unshamefast paramour of Antichrist;" "the whore of
Babylon;" "sink of sin;" "white-livered milksop;" and "bloody
hands of cruel tyrants."

Character anb literary "Remains. 117
contains, hardly a line contained in any other of
her remains would be safe.
Of her dialogue with Feckenham, Lady Jane
has left her own account, which differs some
what slightly but not materially from that
transcribed from it by Foxe.
The prayer written and composed during her
captivity, shortly before her execution, is as
follows : —
" O Lord, thou God and Father of my life,
hear me, poor and desolate woman, which
flyeth unto thee only, in all troubles and
miseries ! Thou, O Lord, art the only defender
and deliverer of those that put their trust in
thee ; and, therefore, I being defiled with sin,
encumbered with affliction, unquieted with
troubles, wrapped in cares, overwhelmed with
miseries, vexed with temptations, and grievously
tormented with the long imprisonment of this
vile mass of clay, my sinful body do come unto
thee, O merciful Saviour, craving thy mercy
and help, without the which so 'little hope of
deliverance is left, that I may utterly despair of

n8 "Jane tbe Quene."
my liberty. Albeit, it is expedient, that seeing
our life standeth upon trying, we should be
visited some time or other with some adversity,
whereby we might both be tried whether we be
of thy flock or no, and also know thee and our
selves the better ; yet thou that saidst thou
wouldst not suffer us to be tempted above our
power, be merciful unto me, now a miserable
wretch, I beseech thee ; which, with Solomon,
do cry unto thee, humbly desiring thee, that I
may be neither too much puffed up with pros
perity, neither too much depressed with adversity;
lest I being too full, should deny thee, my God ;
or being too low brought, should despair and
blaspheme thee, my Lord and Saviour.
"O Merciful God, consider my misery, best
known unto thee ; and be thou unto me a
strong tower of defence, I humbly require thee.
Suffer me not to be tempted above my power,
but either be thou a deliverer unto me out of
this great misery, or else give me grace patiently
to bear thy heavy hand and sharp correction.
It was thy right hand that delivered the people

Character anb Xlterary "IRemalns. 119
of Israel out of the hands of Pharaoh, which for
the space of 400 years did oppress and keep
them in bondage ; let it, therefore, seem good
likewise to thy fatherly goodness, to deliver me,
sorrowful wretch, for whom thy son Christ shed
his precious blood on the cross, out of this miser
able captivity and bondage, wherein I am now.
" How long will thou be absent ? For
ever ? O Lord ! hast thou forgotten to be
gracious, and hast thou shut up thy loving
kindness in displeasure ? Wilt thou be no
more entreated ? Is thy mercy clean gone for
ever, and thy promise come utterly to an end
for evermore ? Why dost thou make so long
tarrying ? shall I despair of thy mercy ? Oh
God ! far be that from me ; I am thy workman
ship created in Christ Jesus ; give me grace,
therefore, to tarry thy leisure, and to patiently
bear thy works, assuredly knowing that as thou
canst, so thou wilt deliver me, when it shall
please thee, neither doubting nor mistrusting
thy goodness towards me ; • for thou knowest
better what is good for me than I do ; therefore

120 "Jane tbe Quene."
do with me in all things what thou wilt, and
plague me what way thou wilt. Only, in the
meantime, arm me, I beseech thee, with thy
armour, that I may stand fast, my loins being
girded about with verity, having on the breast
plate of righteousness, and shod with the shoes
prepared by the gospel of peace ; above all
things, taking to me the shield of faith, where
with I may be able to quench the fiery darts of
the wicked ; and taking the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of thy spirit which is thy most
holy word ; praying always, with all manner of
prayer and supplication that I may refer myself
wholly to thy will, abiding thy pleasure, and
comforting myself in those troubles that it shall
please thee to send me ; seeing such troubles
be profitable for me, and seeing I am assuredly
persuaded that it cannot be but well all thou
doest. " Hear me, O merciful father, for his sake
whom thou didst offer to be a sacrifice for my
sins ; to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost,
be all honour and glory. Amen ! "

"Rough Genealogical Uable showing laby Jane's right of succession to the
throne, at beatb of JEbwarb tbe Sijtb.
Henry VII. = Elizabeth of York

Henry VIII. Margaret (1489-1541) Louis XII. = Mary (1496-1533)
Catherine of Arragon = = Anne Boleyn = James IV. of Scotland = Duke of Suffolk
I I ' I I
Mary Elizabeth James V. Frances = Henry Grey
(1516-1558) = Mary of Guise (i517-i563)

Mary, Queen of Scots I < j
(1542-87) Lady Jane Grey Lady Lady Mary
(J 537-i 554) Katharine Grey
= Lord Guildford Grey
Dudley =Earl of
Hertford

IRough Genealogical Sketch of tbe ©ubleys mentioneb in this /Ihemoir.
Edmond Dudley = Elizabeth Grey
executed 1509. (heiress of the house of L'Isle).

John Dudley, Sir Andrew Dudley Jerome Dudley Elizabeth
Duke of Northumberland, = Lord Stourton
executed 1553 = Jane, daughter of Sir E. Guildford

Henry, Thomas, John, Ambrose, Robert, Guildford, Henry,
killed in d. in infancy Earl of Earl of Earl of = Lady Jane Grey, killed in
battle, 1544 Warwick, Warwick, k.g., Leicester, executed 1554 battle,
d- 1554 iSS0-^00 K-G-> i532"88 1557

Charles, Mary, Margaret, Temperance, Catharine,
d. in infancy = Sir Henry d. in infancy d. in infancy = Earl of
Sidney, k.g. Huntingdon

DBisbop H^Imer.
JOHN Aylmer, or Alemer, was born in the
year 1521, his parents being descended
of a family long resident in Norfolk. By the
generosity of Lady Jane's father he was sent
to Queen's College, Cambridge, for his educa
tion, where he graduated. On leaving the
University, his patron installed him as private
chaplain to the household at Bradgate, and
placed the Ladies Jane and Katharine Grey
under his especial care for the purpose of
receiving their education from him. Of the
great success that attended his efforts with
Lady Jane we have already seen, and it was
entirely owing to his help that she was enabled
to compose those wonderful letters to the
scholars, Bullinger and Ullmer, that were to
render her so famous.
On the accession of Queen Mary, Aylmer's
sturdy Protestantism got him into trouble with

124 "Jane tbe Quene."
the authorities, and he was obliged to take
refuge from his persecutors by flying to the
Continent,* where he resided during his exile,
principally at Zurich and Strasbourg, and
assisted Foxe in compiling his Martyrology.
In 1558 he returned home, was made arch
deacon of Lincoln, and was chosen as one of
the select band of Protestant divines appointed
to dispute with an equal number of Catholic
priests in the Conference held at Westminster,
where one of his principal opponents proved to
be Feckenham, who had been connected with
his old pupil, Lady Jane, but under less happy
circumstances. In the spring of the year 1566
Aylmer was consecrated Bishop of London.
Aylmer's episcopal career was, however, not
destined to be very smooth or happy, and he
speedily became unpopular with the multitude.
Like so many of his cloth, on receiving substan
tial promotion, he was no longer content to
* Fuller relates that the ship in which he embarked was searched at
his departure, whereupon he hid himself in a large wine cask, with a
secret parlilion, in which he sat whilst his pursuers drank out of another
portion of il.

Bishop aylmer. 125
adhere to the more humble Evangelicism of
his early days, and strained his authority to the
utmost to oppress the Puritans, whom he
persecuted with the greatest bitterness, and
whose celebrated leader, Cartwright, he put in
prison. This uncompromising attitude towards
what may be aptly termed the Low-church party,
earned him an unflattering notice in the satires
of " Martin Marprelate." So unpopular at last
did he become that even Elizabeth, who seems
to have secretly approved of his rigid discipline,
consented to the general wish that he should be
removed to another see, but he died (June 3rd,
1594) before this arrangement could be carried
out, and was buried in Old St. Paul's.
It is strange that a man who was so warmly
praised by Lady Jane for his mildness of temper
and kind behaviour should in the prime of life
have blossomed into a tyrant. As a bishop, his
mode of government strongly resembled that of
Laud, who followed closely in his footsteps in
many respects, for he behaved with equal
severity to the Puritans whom he so cordially

126 "Jane tbe Quene."
detested. In his own home, Aylmer, who
married a Suffolk lady, Judith Bures, by whom
he had ten children, lived a life of much
splendour, entertaining his friends with profuse
hospitality, and employing a large retinue of
servants. But just as he went to an extreme
in opposing Puritan doctrines, so he went also
to a similar extreme in opposing Puritan habits,
and he gave rise to much scandal by his manner
of passing the Sabbath, when he was wont to
indulge himself in a game at bowls.
As a scholar, Aylmer stood amongst the
learned of his day, being equally well versed in
Hebrew as he was in Latin and Greek. As a
writer, his most famous work was his calm and
erudite reply to John Knox's " Monstrous
Regiment of Women," entitled "an Harborowe
for faithfull and trewe subjects against the late
bloune Blaste, concerning the Government of
Women," which was published in 1559, at
Strasbourg.

1benn> an& Cbarlee Branfcon.
THESE two brothers, the last Dukes of
Suffolk of their line, were the sons of
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by his last
wife, Catharine Willoughby. Henry, the elder,
was born in September, 1535, and Charles
some eighteen months later.
On the death of Duke Charles, Henry suc
ceeded to the family honours in 1545. In
1550, both he and his brother proceeded to
St. John's College, Cambridge, where they
were still studying, when the town was, during
the summer of the following year, attacked by
a terrible outbreak of the " sweating sickness."
Forced, therefore, to quit the university in
order to escape the ravages of the disease, the
brothers removed to Buckden, in the county of
Huntingdon ; but even there they were not
safe, both falling ill on the evening of the
fifteenth of July, and dying the next day

128 "Jane tbe Quene."
(within a few hours from the advent of the
first symptoms). Charles died but a few
minutes after his elder brother, thus living
long enough to possess a title that he was
never destined to enjoy.
That such a painfully sad and sudden fatality
as this tragic ending to the dukedom of Suffolk
— so far as the house of Brandon was concerned
— history fails to record. The circumstances
of this extraordinary case are, moreover,
rendered all the more regrettable by the fact
that both brothers seem to have been gifted
with rare talents and accomplishments, and had
undoubtedly received — under the care of the
celebrated Sir Thomas Wilson — an excellent
education.

3Lab\> Jane's Sisters.
THE Duke and Duchess of Suffolk had, in
all, five children, four girls and a boy,
but the latter and one of the girls died in
infancy, thus leaving Lady Jane, who was the
third born, the eldest of the surviving trio.
Of these, Lady Katharine Grey came next
in age, and was born towards the end of the
year 1538, the exact date being unknown, and
was educated by John Aylmer at Bradgate.
On Whit-Sunday, May 21st, 1553, she was
married to the Lord Herbert, eldest son* of
the time-serving Earl of Pembroke, but this
crafty nobleman seized the opportunity of
divorcing her on the accession of Queen Mary,
whose " maid of honour " she, however, became,
notwithstanding the fate of her sister, Lady
Jane. After Mary's death, Elizabeth retained
* He succeeded his father as Earl of Pembroke, and married as his
third wife, Mary, sister to Sir Philip Sidney. 9

130 "Jane tbe Quene."
her at Court until her secret marriage in 1560
with an old admirer, Edward Seymour, Earl of
Hertford. For several months her marriage
remained a profound secret, until at last she was
unable to conceal the fact that she was likelv to
soon become a mother, when in the agony of
her distress she communicated the whole story
to the Earl of Leicester, who informed Eliza
beth, by whom she was sent immediately to the
Tower, where she was joined, as a fellow-
prisoner, by her husband. Fearful that she
would bear a son — who would then become,
according to the will of Henry VIII., heir
presumptive to the Crown — the Queen's anger
against the hapless Countess was eventually
rendered furious in the extreme by the realization
of her fears, September 24th, 1561.
On the convalescence of the captive Countess,
a commission was appointed to examine into all
the circumstances attending the marriage, and
the identity of the priest who had performed it
remaining undiscovered, the commissioners,
directed by Cecil, declared that no legal

Xaby Jane's Sisters. 131
marriage had taken place, and that the child
was illegitimate. The Earl and his Countess
(who had yet without doubt been legally
married),* remained on as prisoners in the
Tower, under strict orders that they were not
to visit one another. But the kindness of the
officers in charge, softened by the mutual
affection of the young couple, led them to
disregard the royal mandate, with the result
that a second son was born in February, 1 562.
The Countess was then removed to the custody
of her uncle, Lord John Grey, but she and her
husband were again committed to the Tower
on a rumour reaching Elizabeth that a scheme
was in operation to carry her off to Spain,
where King Philip intended placing her under
his protection and proclaiming her the de jure
Queen of England.
For the rest of her life, therefore, this poor
lady, through no fault whatsoever of her own,
but merely because she had honourably married
* The legitimacy of the marriage was proved beyond all doubt after
the death of Queen Elizabeth had removed the obstacles in Ihe way of
publicly announcing the fad,

132 "Jane the Quene."
the man of her heart, remained a prisoner,
dying of a decline at Cockfield Hall, Suffolk,
January 27th, 1568. Her husband survived
her until 162 1, and lived to marry two more
wives. Sad indeed as was the history of Lady Jane
Grey, it cannot compare in point of pathos with
that of the persecuted Lady Katharine, who
had never committed any political offence, and
was nevertheless literally hounded to death,
simply because she was her mother's daughter,
and for no other reason.
Lady Mary, the youngest of the sisters Grey,
was born probably in 1542, some authorities
placing her birth as early as 1 540, in which
year it most certainly could not have taken
place, and others as late as 1545. Although
not fated to undergo such a terribly sorrowful
and persecuted career as her sisters, Lady
Mary's history is hardly less romantic, and it
may be questioned whether any little family has
ever existed furnishing more extraordinary
reading to students of history than the story

Xaby Jane's Sisters. 133
of these luckless heiresses of the Tudor
blood. Small as was Lady Jane in stature, Lady
Mary was even smaller. In fact, she was
quite a dwarf, and Elizabeth had no fear that
she would emulate the fortune of Lady
Katharine by making a brilliant marriage, or,
perhaps, any marriage at all. Married, however,
she was, and that, mirabile dictu, to a husband
her antithesis in every respect, for he was of
ordinary birth, of no education, of twice her
age, and, curiously enough, in height, the
tallest man at Court, having on that account
been selected to fill the office of serjeant-
porter* to the Queen. The name of this giant,
who was a widower with several children, was
Thomas Keyes. Elizabeth, on hearing of the.
match, sent Keyes to the Fleet prison, and his
bride to a mansion in Buckinghamshire, whence
she was afterwards removed from house to
house, until her husband's death in 1 57 1 , when
* "Who was a judge at Court," says Fuller (" but only of doubtful
casts at dice, being Serjeant- Porter").

134 " Jane tbe Quene."
she was liberated, but died herself without issue
in London, seven years later.* An attempt to
prove her marriage invalid had been effected,
but the Bishop of London pronounced the
nuptials to have been valid.
* April 20th, 1578.

Gbe Xast abbot of Westminster.
|PHIS learned Benedictine was the last
A Abbot of that Order established at
Westminster, where the "black monks" ad
ministered the services at the Abbey as their
monastic church, prior to the final fall of Roman
Catholicism in England with the joint deaths
of Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole. His name
has been variously spelt as Fecknam, Fecken
ham, and de Feckenham, although his proper
surname was really that of Howman. He was,
however, called after the locality of his birth
place, Feckenham Forest, Worcestershire,
where his parents, who were of the yeoman
class, resided.
Born in 1 516, he was, at the instance of his
confessor, sent when still a mere boy to study
in a Benedictine house at Evesham, whence he
proceeded, at the age of nineteen, to Oxford,
where he was entered on the books of Gloucester

136 "Jane tbe Quene."
Hall, now known as Worcester College. Taking
his degree as a bachelor of divinity in the
summer term of 1539, he returned to Evesham,
but was forced to leave with his brethren on
the subsequent dissolution of the monastery.
From this period till 1549, when he was sent
to the Tower for having disobeyed Archbishop
Cranmer — with whose religious principles he
could naturally not agree— he filled various
minor ecclesiastical posts in his native
county. On the accession of Mary, he received prefer
ment from his old friend Bonner, and quickly
set the zeal to his reputation as one of the
brilliant preachers and controversialists of his
day. It was owing to the strength of his
controversial powers that he was selected by
Mary's advisers to argue with the leading
Protestants who were imprisoned for their
participation in the conspiracies of North
umberland and Wyat. It is quite clear,
notwithstanding the ex parte statements of
Foxe, that he behaved with the greatest kind-

ZTbe Xast Hbbot of Westminster. 137
ness to all the prisoners whom he was directed
to visit, and if he was often unsuccessful in his
efforts to effect their conversion, he was still
sufficiently charitable to do all he could, either
to render their durance vile less irksome, or
even to endeavour to obtain their complete
liberation. During the course of these minis
trations in the Tower, he made the acquaintance,
and at the same obtained the friendship of the
Princess Elizabeth.
With his attendance on Lady Jane we have
already dealt, but as some consolation for not
effecting her conversion, he was successful in
afterwards obtaining Sir John Cheke to re
nounce Protestantism and conform to Catho
licism. Given his degree as Doctor of Divinity
at Oxford in 1556, he was in the autumn of
that year created by Pole, Abbot of West
minster, in which office he was installed with
all the magnificence of ceremonial adopted at
the consecration of the mitred abbots of the old
foundation. No sooner had he entered on this
important office, than he determined to restore

138 "Jane tbe Queue."
the ancient glories of both the abbey-church and
the community which served it. The abbey-
church he found in a deplorably neglected con
dition. Tombs had been mutilated, statues and
monuments destroyed, and the shrine of the
Confessor despoiled of its precious stones and
relics. But he quickly set things to rights,
restored the Confessor's shrine, repaired the
mutilated monuments, and attracted all London
to witness the splendid services. An enthus
iastic antiquarian and ardent student of eccles
iastical history, he took a pride in reviving all
the former customs and profuse hospitality of
the monastery, and after a sharp struggle with
the law officers of the Crown, succeeded in
restoring the privileges of sanctuary, so that,
until the death of Mary, criminals of all kinds
were enabled to find within its precincts under
his jurisdiction a safe refuge from pursuit of the
police. On the accession of Elizabeth he was offered
a bishopric if he would but renounce his
allegiance to the Pope, but he not only

ttbe Xast Hbbot of Westminster. 139
declined but inveighed in Parliament, where
as a mitred Abbot he sat with the Bishops,
against the triumph of the Reformers. In
1559 he and his monks were expelled from
Westminster, but he was allowed a pension.
Previous to his retirement, he had taken the
leading part among the divines of his faith in
their celebrated public conference with certain
of the Protestant clergy held at Westminster
(i559). Tenacious in his resolve to protest against
the "new doctrines," he was, in 1560, sent to
the Tower, where he remained three years,
when he was surrendered into the friendly
custody of Dr. Home, Bishop of Winchester.
But Home finding it impossible to effect a
change in his anti-Protestant principles, he was
sent back to the Tower in 1564, whence, after
further imprisonment, he was removed to the
Marshalsea prison. In 1574 he was released
on bail, and went to reside in Holborn, but was
again moved, two or three years later, to the
palace of the Bishop of Ely, whence he was

i4° "Jane tbe Quene."
finally sent to Wisbeach Castle, where he died
in 1584.*
The character and disposition of the last
Abbot of Westminster seems to have been
excellent in many respects, and it is evident
that he was very far from being the coarse and
cruel man described in Foxe's Martyrology.
He was ever extemely charitable, never failing
to strain his resources to the utmost for the
benefit of the poor ; his manners were jovial
and agreeable ; and his love of hospitality was
of that grand and generous nature that seems
to have become extinct in England with the
downfall of the monasteries. A restless con
troversialist, he never ceased till the time of his
death in arguing with Protestant divines on
points of doctrine and clerical discipline, and
although from the year 1559 till 1584 he was
a close prisoner, he cannot be said, considering
the bold manner in which he opposed the
Anglican establishment, to have been harshly
treated by Elizabeth,, when we compare his
* He was buried at Wisbeach, October 16th, 1584.

Gbe Xast abbot of Westminster. 141
treatment at her hands with that of many of
his colleagues inferior to him in genius and
ability,* and, therefore, far less dangerous to
the safety of the new-born Church.
* Hy far the most complete, as it is the most correct as well as
interesting, biography of Feckenham, is that published in Father E. L.
Taunton's "English lilack Monks of St. liencdict," in which book the
whole story of his life is told in chapter ix. of the first volume. This
account corrects the numerous incorrest data, and other erroneous
details, supplied by previous biographers.

3nscriptions in tbe Beancbamp Gower.
AMONGST the most interesting reminis
cences of celebrated prisoners confined
in the chief apartment of the Beauchamp
Tower, in the form of quaint inscriptions
carved on the wall, occurs that of
" IANE . IANE."
By several writers — apparently quite ignorant
of the fact that Lady Jane was never incarcer
ated in this ward — this inscription is said to
have been cut by Lady Jane herself. It is
most probable, however, as has been pointed
out by more than one antiquary, that the words
were cut by Lord Guildford Dudley, when
confined in the Tower, or cut, at any rate, at
his request.
The walls of this same room are covered
with several other extremely interesting in
scriptions, such as a bear and lion, with a
ragguled staff (the Dudley badge), surrounded

Jnscriptions in the Beauchamp ftower. 143
by a border of roses and acorns, and, under
neath the figures of the animals, the words,
"IOHN DVDLI,"
and beneath this, again, the words,
" Yow that these beasts do wel beholde & se,
May deme with ease wherefore here made they be
With borders eke wherein
A brother's names who list to serche the ground."
As it is invariably asserted that these in
scriptions in the Beauchamp Tower were cut
by the prisoners themselves, I cannot help re
marking, en passant, that I cannot see that this
should have always been the case. For example,
if the Duke of Northumberland's son, John,
Earl of Warwick, carved the above inscription,
then he must have been a most skilled work
man, for the carving is a perfect work of art.
With regard to other of these inscriptions, in
this and other parts of the Tower, this remark
may also be aptly applied. Were, therefore,
all these aristocratic captives naturally gifted
with all the cunning of his art latent in the
hand of a professional carver? It is absurd to
suppose such to have been the case.

144 "Jane tbe Quene."
My opinion of the matter is that it was
considered, by unwritten tradition, an honour
for a prisoner of rank both to be imprisoned in
the Tower, and to record his name in his cell,
just as it is considered the proper thing for a
pupil at some of our most famous public-schools
to carve his name upon a desk or wall. What
is more likely, therefore, than that a prisoner
should have called into requisition the services
of some workman or other employed in the
Tower, to carefully cut an inscription to his
order for a permanent memorial of his imprison
ment ?
The following lines were said to have been
scratched by Lady Jane on the walls of her
apartment in the Tower with a pin, but no trace
of them remains : —
" Non aliena putes homini quae obtingere possunt,
Sors hodierna mihi, eras erat ilia tibi,"

and

" Deo juvante, nil nocet livor malus ;
Et non juvante, nil juvat labor gravis.
Post tenebras, spero lucem."

Xaoi? 3ane's pra^booft.
'jPHIS book is still in existence, being
-*¦ preserved in the Harleian collection, at
the British Museum. It is a volume of about
four inches in length, and about two in thick
ness, and is said to have originally belonged to
the Protector Somerset. It was, in all pro
bability, given to Lady Jane by her husband.
It contains the following prayers, all in
manuscript : —
" For patience in tribulation as Christ was
patient ; " " Conserninge the love of my neigh
bour ; " " For forgiveness of sins ; " " For our
Enemyse ; " " For pacyens in tribulation ; "
"For true wisdom;" "Confession of Sins;"
" To our Lorde Jeshu Christ ; " " Praier of
Quene Ester for help agaynst her enymyes ; "
" Praer of Sara, the daughter of Raguell ; "
" Praier of Judith for the Victorie of Olyfernes ; "
" Praier of Jesus the sonne of Sirake ; " " Praier

10

146 "Jane tbe Quene."
of the three children ; " " Praier of Manasseth,
King of Juda ; " " For grace ; " " For assistance
against infirmities ; " " To the Blessed Trenyte; "
" To God for delyuerance from enemyes ; "
" Against the temptations of the flesshe, the
worlde, and the deuylle ; " " Peticyon against all
the evylles of paynes ; " " Deuote praier to
Criste ; " " Peticyon to our Lorde ; " " Ejacula
tions from the Psalms ;" " Songe of Austeyn and
Ambrose ; " " Saynt Jerom's deuocion oute of
Dauyd's Saulter ; " " To the Father ; " " To the
Holy Ghoste ; " " To the Trenyte ; " " To Jesu
Christe;" " Lord's Prayer;" " Prayer in trobil;"
" For the lyghtenyng of the Holye Ghoste ; "
" Prayer in aduersitte ; " " For strength of
mynde ; " " Praier of the faythful person."

3Lao£ 3ane's Captivity
WHEN confined as a prisoner in the
Tower of London, Lady Jane was
lodged in the house of Nathaniel Partridge.
The vast majority of writers, however, on this
subject have, mirabile dictu, stated that she
inhabited the house of Sir John Brydges,
the Lieutenant of the Tower, and that there
was, at that period, no official in the Tower
of the name of Partridge. Both these state
ments are utterly untrue. Partridge, as a
matter of fact, occupied the important post
of Gentleman Gaoler, and lived next door to
Sir John Brydges. He died in February,
1587, and was buried in the Chapel of St.
Peter ad Vincula.
During her imprisonment, the Privy Council
allowed ninety-three shillings a week in defray
ment of the cost of Lady Jane's maintenance,
and twenty shillings for each of her servants.

148 "Jane tbe Quene."
From the " Acts of the Privy Council " of
December 17th, 1553, we find the following
note with reference to the liberty to be ac
corded to the prisoners engaged in the late
political conspiracy, viz. : —
"Lettre to the Lieut, of the Toure, willing hym at
convenient tymes by his discreatioo to suffer the late
Duke of Northumbrelande's children to have the libertie
of walke within the gardeyn of the Toure, and also to
minister the like favour to the Ladye Jane and Doctour
Cranmer, uppon suggestion that diverse of them be and
have byn evill at ease in their bodies for want of ayre."
Lady Jane and Lord Guildford Dudley were
probably buried on the north side of the
chancel of St. Peter ad Vincula.

pensbnrst.
IT will be but proper to furnish some account
of this famous ancient manor-house, con
sidering that it has been more than once referred
to in the above. Penshurst was at the accession
of Queen Mary the property of Sir Henry
Sidney, the husband of Lady Mary, daughter
of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.
Lady Mary Sidney, it will be remembered, was
chosen by her father to convey to Lady Jane
the news of King Edward's death. It was at
Penshurst that Northumberland's eldest son,
Lord Warwick, died, in the month of October,
1554, shortly after his release from the Tower
of London.
The Crown-manor of Penshurst, in Kent,
was granted to Sir William Sidney, Knight-
Banneret, in reward for his distinguished naval
and military services. Sir William was already
a landowner in the immediate neighbourhood,

iso "Jane tbe Queue."
so that his new possessions proved familiar
ground to him.
The manor of Penshurst, with its magnificent
old house, takes its name from the Norman
family of Penchester, its first landlords after the
Conquest, and the tomb of the most renowned
scion of that family — Sir Stephen de Penchester
— is still one of the striking monuments to be
seen in the ancient church. After the decease
of the last of the Penchesters, the estate passed
through the hands of various proprietors, the
most important of whom were Sir John de
Poulteney (who obtained permission to fortify
his house), the Duke of Buckingham, and Sir
Ralph Fane, on whose attainder it was presented
to Sir William Sidney. In possession of the
male line of Sir William's descendants Penshurst
Place remained until the year 1743, when on
the death of Jocelyne, Earl of Leicester, it
passed to his niece, Mrs. Perry, whose daughter
and heiress Elizabeth, married Sir John Shelley,
whose son and heir, after unsuccessfully laying
claim — on the strength of his maternal descent

JOHN DUDLEY, DUKE OK NOUTMUM I'.KKI.AN 1).
(fnont mt F.ngraviiitr of If officii?* Portrait, nt Pmshitrst.)

penshurst. is1
from the Dudleys and Sidneys — to the Barony
of Lisle, was created by his father-in-law, King
William IV., a Peer, under the compound title
of Lord De L'Isle and Dudley.
Of all the "stately homes of England" none
is more time-honoured, more classical, or more
richly endowed with rare historical associations
than the " great Kentish shrine " of Penshurst,
the birth-place of Sir Philip and Algernon
Sidney, the home of " Sacharissa." The archi
tecture of the place, as may be imagined from
the age of a building in whose grand old feudal
hall (the finest extant in Great Britain) the
Black Prince and the Fair Maid of Kent are
said to have kept Christmas, belongs to various
periods, the oldest portions of which date from
the time of the third Edward. The greatest
contributor, however, to its present shape was
Sir Henry Sidney, who received Queen Eliza
beth and Leicester within its hospitable walls.
But the first of the Sidneys to make full use of
Penshurst as his family-seat was Robert, Earl
of Leicester, who entertained — so Ben Jonson

iS2 "Jane the Quene."
tells us — James I. and his Queen on a surprise
visit. From the very short tenure of its
possession held by Sir William Sidney, owing
to his death within a few months of obtaining
the property, and from the fact that Sir Henry
Sidney was obliged to use Ludlow Castle as
his official residence (when not employed in
Ireland), it is quite clear that Penshurst was not
very much frequented by the Sidneys until the
reign of James I., Robert Sidney, on the death
of Sir Philip, having lived chiefly at Flushing
before the accession of that monarch. The
pretty legends, therefore, so widely printed in
histories and romances relating to Penshurst of
the many happy days spent there throughout
their lives by Sir 'Philip and his talented sister,
Lady Pembroke, are unfortunately untrue.
Penshurst Place is a large house, few homes
in our country occupy more ground. It stands
in its own beautiful — but now much diminished
— park adjoining the village, and close to the
church, in the Sidney Chapel of which are
buried Sir William, Sir Henry, and Algernon

penshurst. 153
Sidney, with many other illustrious representa
tives of the race. The crowning glory of
Penshurst is its baronial hall, which exists in
a wonderfully fine state of preservation. It is
a perfect specimen — an immense specimen —
of an English gentleman's dining-hall at the
epoch of the later Plantagenets. Its minstrels'
gallery, central hearth, and chimney, old fire-
dogs, oaken table-boards, and unbroken dais,
all remain almost unimpaired by the ravages
of Father Time.
Above the hall, run in one long suite the
state apartments, including the ball-room,
picture gallery, china-closet, tapestry-room, and
Queen Elizabeth's drawing-room (furnished
with the same chairs and tables as were used by
the Queen when staying at Penshurst). With
the exception of the picture gallery, these have
been restored with the very happiest result and
in the very happiest taste, and than which no
set of rooms in England contains treasures
more interesting or precious. Inter alia, we
here see on the pannelled walls choice specimens

1 54 "Jane tbe Quene."
from the brush of Van Dyck, Lely, Titian,
N. Poussin, Zucchero, Gainsborough, and Hol
bein. Here are portraits of Sir Philip,
Sacharissa, Lady Pembroke, and the stalwart
Algernon. Here are unique cabinets, richly
carved, of inestimable value, presented by
James I. to his faithful Robert Sidney. Here
hang the first glass-cut chandeliers used in
England, and here are shown, in a sweet little
closet, examples of priceless antique china.
But the most fascinating of all the relics is
perhaps the glass case containing locks of hair
of the most famous of the Sidneys, from Sir
Philip downwards.

CORRIGENDA.

In Chapter I., for "Sudely" read "Sudeley."
In Note on " Bishop Aylmer," the more correct title of John Knox's
work should he "The First Blast of the Trumpet against the
Monstrous Regiment of Women.''

SksS-^©

This book is a preservation photocopy.
It was produced on Hammermill Laser Print natural white,
a 60 if book weight acid-free archival paper
which meets the requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper)
Preservation photocopying and binding
by
Acme Bookbinding
Charlestown, Massachusetts
m
1995

YALE

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 03235 9755

YALE

-"»