from the throne: S. T. Bindoff, “A Kingdom at Stake 1553,” p. 645.
so obviously ill: According to one slightly later source, Northumberland consulted Edward’s doctors about his prognosis and was told he had a fatal consumption but should live to September (Estienne Perlin, Description des Royaulmes d’Angleterre et d’Escosse 1558, pp. iii, iv). He hoped he could have Parliament recalled then to rubber-stamp whatever decision the King and Council came to. He also hoped that the decision made in 1551, that the King no longer needed to have documents cosigned by the Council, had, in effect, recognized his majority at fourteen.
his own hand: On the dating of the will see Ives, “Tudor Dynastic Problems Revisited,” p. 14 n56.
on in this: Goodrich had joined the Council with Henry Grey in 1549.
dominated his thinking: The “Device” offers no explanation for Edward’s decision, but the letters patent drawn later in the summer and minutes drawn up for his will give us some insight into his thinking.
a Godly dynasty: According to the contemporary account of Robert Wingfield, Edward specifically drew attention to Anne Boleyn’s adultery and treason as a reason for excluding Elizabeth when he tried to get legal backing for his will (see “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 247). This is reflected in Edward’s praise of the Grey girls’ upbringing and background in the letters patent with its implied suggestion that they were somehow morally superior to both his sisters.
age of eighteen: The Empress Maud, mother of Henri II, was one such. John Cheke had always maintained that everything he taught Edward was supported by example.
the dying King: Nichols (ed.), Machyn, pp. 33, 34.
Lord Guildford Dudley: Read, Mr Secretary, pp. 94, 95.
approached Northumberland: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 169.
while very young: In Frances’s 1548 letter to Sudeley. Haynes (ed.), State Papers, Vol. VI, p. 79. Also see Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 245.
figure of Northumberland: The King—Northumberland and Suffolk’s grandson—would be a Dudley.
“to his house”: Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 245.
so only reluctantly: C. V. Malfatti, The Accession, Coronation and Marriage of Mary Tudor as Related in Four Manuscripts of the Escorial, p. 5. The phrase used by Commendone to describe Jane’s resistance to the marriage is identical to Giulio Raviglio Rosso’s: “… alla Primagenita del duca di Sofolch, nominata Gianna: la quale ancona che ricusasse molto questo matrimonio, nondimeno et sospinta dalla madre et battuta dal padre … [etc.]”: “… the first-born daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, Jane by name, who although strongly depreciating such marriage, was compelled to submit by the insistence of her mother and the threats of her father …” The later, embellished story that Jane had been beaten into submission is supposed to have come from a historical tract written by a man called Baoardo (see Strickland, Tudor Princesses, p. 136). “Baoardo” was a Venetian called Badoaro, or Badoer (the name is Anglicized in the Venetian calendar). He was not the author of the work which Strickland attributes to him, however; the volume which she cites is an anonymous, mutilated, and pirated edition of Raviglio Rosso’s Historia delle cose occorse nel regno d’Inghilterra, published in 1558. Rosso, in his preface of 1560, merely says that Badoaro had read his book and approved it. Eric Ives believes that Jane was reluctant to marry Guildford because she considered herself betrothed to Hertford, but this seems unlikely. If there had been any betrothal it would have emerged in August 1553, and if not then, later in 1561, ‘62, or ‘63, when it could have been used to invalidate Hertford’s marriage to Katherine Grey.
in this assessment: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 35.
spreading such stories: Strype, Memorials, Vol. II, Part II, p. 117.
be fighting ahead: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 35. Grey of Wilton was a kinsman of Suffolk; he was also the father-in-law of Henry Denny, whose sister was married to John Gates.
Sir Andrew Dudley: There is a fascinating article on the betrothal in C. C. Stopes, “Shakespeare’s Environment,” pp. 247–57.
X: A MARRIED WOMAN
25 May 1553: The date is almost always given as the 21st, but this is drawn from Commendone writing after the event. It was booked to take place on a Thursday (see Albert Feuillerat, Documents Relating to the Revels at Court, p. 306) and when I calculated the day from other known dates—e.g., Jane’s entry to the Tower—it confirmed my suspicion that it was the 25th.
in his defense: Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 245; Feuillerat, Revels at Court, p. 306; CSPS, Vol. XI, pp. 45, 46.
Act of Succession: Perlin, Description, pp. iii, iv.
on the Thames: Thanks to Stephan Edwards for information on Jane’s wedding night at Sion.
of her tender age: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 47.
the King’s heir: The future Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Commendone was in England during the summer of 1553, sent by Cardinal Dandino. He later treated Cardinal Pole warily, maintaining contacts at court with the likes of the French spy Sir John Leigh, a member of Queen Mary’s household.
line of succession: E. Harris Harbison, Rival Ambassadors at the Court of Queen Mary, pp. 44, 45. For Michel Angelo Florio’s book Storia della vita e della morte di Jane Grey see www.riforma.net/libri/micheflorio/index.htm. For her relationship with her mother and father, see p. 19a.
the dominant partner: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 117.
“leaf for another”: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 53.
1544 was rescinded: Ives, “Dynastic Problems Revisited,” pp. 15–16.
to see Edward: CSPS XI, p. 55.
“of our health”: De Guaras, Accession, p. 89.
placed in them: www.tudorplace.com.ar/documents/EdwardWill.htm.
uphold its provisions: David Loades, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, p. 241.
over to the French: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 70.
and his allies: Nichols (ed.), Machyn, p. 34.
a mere woman: Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 262.
to Queen Jane: CSPS, Vol. XI, pp. 77, 106.
“ordered by the King”: Malfatti, Marriage of Mary Tudor, p. 46.
ambassador that Edward was dead: Harbison, Rival Ambassadors, p. 45.
to join them: Chapter 11 deals with the Commendone/Pollini versions of Jane’s letter to Mary, on which this is based. The letters are similar but not identical, and appear to be approximate translations of an original written in August 1553 and which Commendone may have seen. They tally closely to details of events in June and July. The Commendone letter refers accurately, for example, to the poisoning at Chelsea recorded at the time in Spanish diplomatic correspondence (CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 53). For timings see also CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 106.
Duchess of Northumberland: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 106.
of her lifetime: It says much about our expectations of the sexes that the gentle, kindly Edward has developed an undeserved reputation for coldness, as he was forced into a position where he had to sign the death warrants of his two closest male relatives, while Jane, who was notably acerbic, is remembered for a kitsch sweetness, of which there is no evidence in her life.
“and to his glory”: This is drawn from Giovanni Francesco Commendone but there is also mention of such an oath and Jane’s reluctance to accept the crown in an anonymous chronicle of the period. As Northumberland faces battle with Mary he reminds his fellow Councillors “of the sacred and holy oath of allegiance made freely by you to this virtuous lady the Queen’s Highness, who by your and our enticement is rather of force placed therein than by her own seeking and request” (John Gough Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane, pp. 6, 7. Also see CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 106). There is no reason to believe later French claims that Jane announced that she didn’t want the throne because Mary Tudor was the rightful queen. The French were at war with Mary Tudor’s cousin, the Emperor Charles V, and as we have already seen, were offering their friendship to the future Queen Jane. After her overthrow they remained sympathetic to her, and were keen, it appears, to bolster her reputation. Their spy Sir John
Leigh was the likely conduit to Commendone of Jane’s self-justifying letter to Mary, and two plots to overthrow Mary were hatched in France after her death with former allies of the Greys.
or marry foreigners: Six years earlier the proclamation that had announced Edward’s accession had declared that Edward came to the throne “fully invested and established in the crown Imperial.” No coronation was necessary to confirm this fact (Dale Hoak, “The Coronations of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, and the Transformation of the Tudor Monarchy,” p. 146). Jane was therefore fully Queen.
“open an audience”: Nichols, Grey Friars, p. 78.
XI: JANE THE QUEEN
burst into tears: CSPS, Vol. XI, pp. 82, 83.
had been overthrown: Richard Patrick Boyle Davey was born in Norfolk in 1848 and was educated in France and Italy (he quotes phrases from the fake Spinola letter in Italian to create a sense of authenticity). He worked in New York as a journalist in the 1870s and had a successful play, Inheritance, playing in New York in the early 1890s. His romantic historical novels were rather less successful despite his faux scholarly footnotes and claims to help from the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His biography of Jane Grey, however, with its imaginative mishmash of misused and invented sources, has had enormous influence on all subsequent biographies of Jane Grey—until this one—and on academic debate, especially concerning supposed lost portraits of Jane.
their attendants: Malfatti, Marriage of Mary Tudor, p. 8.
“of the common people”: Wriothesley and Hamilton, Chronicle, Vol. I, p. 87.
“of famous memory”: Ellis, Letters Illustrative, Vol. II, pp. 184, 185.
as “His Majesty”: Nicholas Harris, The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey, p. lxv.
Marquess of Winchester: BL Harley 611, f. 1A.
see the jewels: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 83.
and Jane’s rule: Thomas Fuller later commented that Mary I and Elizabeth “owed their crowns to [Winchester’s] counsel: his policy being the principal defeater of Duke Dudley’s design to disinherit them.”
“not a King”: Malfatti, Marriage of Mary Tudor, p. 48.
“Duke of Clarence.”: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 113. It is worth noting that this report came immediately after Jane’s fall, and may have been an early attempt at buck-passing. Suffolk had spent time with Arundel and Pembroke to get their stories straight on this, if they needed to.
on the throne: Ibid., p. 85.
“at one another”: Ibid., p. 86.
“mainland, and Ireland”: Henry Dudley was also the son of Suffolk’s aunt Cecily, daughter of Thomas, 1st Marquess of Dorset.
they had heard: Harbison, Rival Ambassadors, p. 45.
the new regime: Nichols, Grey Friars, pp. 119, 120.
Londoners looked on: Nichols (ed.), Machyn, p. 34.
“own loving father”: Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 262.
lead her army: Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane, p. 5.
all he could: Ibid., pp. 5, 6.
“hands clean thereof?”: Ibid., pp. 6, 7.
“God speed us”: Ibid., p. 8.
“and pretty invention”: Alan Bryson, “The speciall men in every shere,” p. 280.
“position assigned him”: Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 265.
“strangers and papists”: Harris, Literary Remains, p. lvi.
“as they deserve”: Ibid., pp. lvii, lviii.
evangelical revolution: Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 265.
in her place: Anne Carew was an old family friend. Her father, Sir Nicholas Carew, had been an ally to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, to whom he was related, and, as a widow, she would later marry Frances’s widower, Adrian Stokes.
proclaiming Mary Queen: There is a view current that Sir Nicholas wished to proclaim Mary himself. This is based on his nephew’s later claim that Sir Nicholas had always opposed Jane’s accession. This seems to me highly unlikely. During Elizabeth’s reign, Sir Nicholas’s support for Jane was an embarrassment and so the nephew had good cause to cover it up. It is worth recalling that his poetic biography of his uncle’s life is called The Legend of Nicholas Throckmorton.
Councillor Lord Rich: Lord Rich was made infamous by John Foxe for turning the rack on Anne Askew with his own hands, and more recently in Robert Bolt’s play, and Fred Zinnemann’s 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, as the ambitious young man who betrayed Thomas More and sold his soul “for Wales.”
it alongside him: Loades, Northumberland, p. 265.
through the guard: Tytler, Edward VI and Mary, Vol. II, p. 207. Giulio Raviglio Rosso, Historia delle cose, pp. 15, 16.
“valour and endurance”: Malfatti, Marriage of Mary Tudor, p. 19.
Duchess of Northumberland: J. G. Nichols (ed.), Narratives of the Days of the Reformation, pp. 151, 152, 153, 226. Perlin, Description, pp. vi, vii. CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 113. CSPD, Vol. I, p. 344.
“doubted not thereof”: N. A. Sil, Tudor Placemen and Statesmen, p. 86.
hopes for her: Julius Ternetianius to Ab Ulmis in Robinson, Original Letters, Vol. I, p. 367.
XII: A PRISONER IN THE TOWER
“during their reign”: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 113.
Jane’s brief reign: Nichols (ed.), Machyn, pp. 37, 38. Wriothesley and Hamilton, Chronicle, Vol. I, pp. 90, 91. Wingfield, “Vita Mariae Reginae,” p. 168. CSPS, Vol. XI, pp. 419, 420.
as Jane’s protector: Nichols (ed.), Machyn, p. 37.
“scandal and danger”: Harbison, Rival Ambassadors, p. 67.
a large tip: Bateson, Records, p. 71.
embroidered with gold: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 151.
lined by anxiety: De Guaras, Accession, p. 138n.
Church, Westminster: HMC Salisbury, Vol. I, p. 131.
“they thought best”: David Loades, Mary Tudor, A Life, p. 196. Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane, p. 24.
for attempted murder: Also Northumberland’s brother Sir Andrew Dudley and Sir John’s brother Henry Gates.
“of my conscience”: Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane, p. 17.
“kiss her feet”: Barrett L. Beer, Northumberland, The Political Career of John Dudley, p. 160.
in June in Jane’s favor: This was suggested in the Jane letter, Malfatti, Marriage of Mary Tudor, p. 48.
to the scaffold: Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane, pp. 20, 21.
“now no man”: Beer, Northumberland, p. 160. At no point did Northumberland claim that the will was all Edward’s idea, although it was surely in his interest to do so.
forced the rest: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 109.
“but the truth”: De Guaras, Accession, p. 107.
“all my heart”: Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane, pp. 23, 24.
run its course: CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 168.
to be reunited: Ibid., pp. 168, 169.
and former friends: Sir Miles was also a friend of Edward Underhill, the father of baby Guildford. After Sir Miles’s death his goods and chattels had been granted to Henry Gates. It has also been suggested that Partridge was Nathaniel Partridge, the Queen’s goldsmith, but I can’t see why this would be (Richard Davey’s The Nine Days Queen, p. 291).
in modern spelling: Mistress “Ellyn” or “Allan” may have been a Fitzalan cousin (the family name of Jane’s uncle the Earl of Arundel). Elizabeth Tilney was certainly a cousin, related through Frances Brandon. The oft-repeated descriptions of Jacob as a tiring woman and Ellyn as a nurse are inventions of Richard Davey. He claims Burke’s Tudor Portraits as a source for the former (I found no mention of it in that work), and for the other a seventeenth-century nun named Philippa de Clifford, who seems not to have existed. More likely he was inspired by the character of the nurse in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and a nurse mentioned in the eighteenth-century collection of fictional letters Lady Jane Grey: A Historical Tale. Many popular Victorian works of fiction also saw Jane accompanied to the Tower by nurses and tiring women. They include The Tablette Book of Lady Mary Keyes, by Flora Wylde, which itself is sometimes
mistaken for nonfiction, and which Davey recommends for its insights; and The Tower of London: A Historical Romance, by William Harrison Ainsworth.
to be Queen: In the letter Jane informed Mary that she had accepted the crown with many tears, having been assured by the Council that it was rightfully hers, and that thereafter she had been abused by Northumberland and his family, who had pressured her to make Guildford King and tried to poison her, as they had her father. It appears the contents of Jane’s letter were soon being broadcast to Catholic diplomats who were not of the Spanish camp. They included the papal envoy Giovanni Commendone, who met Mary that month, and Venetian diplomats. The letter, recorded by Commendone and Giulio Raviglio Rosso, matches in its details events described contemporaneously, such as the food poisoning at Chelsea. A close version of the Commendone letter, published in the 1590s by Girolamo Pollini, dated the letter to August. The dating is also suggested, however, by Jane’s mention of Gates having been the first to suggest to Edward that she be named his heir. (My thanks to Eric Ives for providing me with a translation of the Pollini letter.) Pollini’s history was dedicated to Cardinal William Allen, who had many contacts in England, and was a close friend of Nicholas Sander, who had in turn been a client of Commendone. Eric Ives will be publishing a critique on the importance of the Pollini letter in 2009. But it is worth remembering that it was written forty years later. Commendone, on the other hand, was at court where his contacts included the French spy Sir John Leigh. The French may have hoped to keep Jane alive since Queen Mary was irredeemably pro-Spanish.
of Bishop Gardiner: Jane may have known him: he was the patron of the Leicestershire vicarage of Buckminster.
“his Father’s kingdom”: Nichols, Chronicle of Queen Jane, pp. 25, 26.
event the repeal: They also included Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and a kinsman of her mother’s, Sir Peter Carew. CSPS, Vol. XI, p. 332.
married Frances: Ibid., pp. 334, 359.
son of Charles V: This had the ring of truth to the Spanish, who had heard that Suffolk’s brother Lord Thomas Grey hated Courtney, the English candidate for Mary’s hand.
The Sisters Who Would Be Queen Page 37