The Life And Testimony Of Lady Jane Grey

Gospel Magazine 1767:

Daughter of the Marquis of Dorset was by her mother nearly related to the Crown: and she being a religious young lady of very great accomplishments, Edward VI thought of securing the Reformation from impending destruction, therefore appointed her his successor by a Deed of Settlement drawn up by the Judges. She was Queen only nine days, and Princess Marry being proclaimed, Lady Jane was beheaded the 12^th of February, 1554. Aged 17 years. 

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The life of Lady Jane Gray, who was born at Broadgate, in Leicestershire. Her father was the Marquis of Dorset, and her mother the eldest daughter of the Duke of Suffolk. She was a very amiable and most accomplished Lady in mind and body. The young King Edward VI only thought of saving the reformation from impending destruction, and appointed her his successor, by a deed of settlement drawn up by the judges, and signed by his Majesty and the privy-counsellors. After the King’s death the Lady Jane was proclaimed: then Lady Jane being made the prisoner in the Tower, was arraigned and condemned for high-treason, and beheaded in the Tower on the 12^th of February, 1554, in the 17^th year of her age. 

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Lady Jane Gray was born at Broadgate, her father’s seat, in Leicestershire. She was nobly descended by both parents: her father was Henry Gray, Marquis of Dorset, who was descended in a direct line from Sir Thomas Gray, crated Marquis of Dorset by Edward IV, who married his mother. And her mother was the Lady Frances Brandon, eldest of the two surviving daughters of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by Mary, queen-dowager of France, youngest daughter of King Henry VII and sister of King Henry VIII. 

Her person was very agreeable, but the beauties of her mind were still more engaging. She early gave extraordinary proofs of the pregnancy of her genius; insomuch that upon a comparison with Edward VI who was about the same age, and though a kind of miracle, the superiority has been given to her in every respect. Female accomplishments were probably the first part of her education; and her genius appeared in the works of her needle, and then in the beautiful character which she wrote, commended by all who had seen it. She played admirably on various instruments of music, and accompanied them with a voice remarkably sweet. 

Her father, the Marquis of Dorset, and Duke of Suffolk, had himself a ticture of letters, and was a patron of learned men. He had two chaplains, Harding and Aylmer, both men of distinguished learning, whom he employed as tutors to his daughter; and under their instructions, especially that of Aylmer, she made a most extraordinary proficiency. She spoke and wrote her own language with peculiar accuracy; and it is said that she understood the French, Italian, and Latin tongues, and especially Greek, as well as her own. And it is also said that she was versed in Hebrew, Chaldee and Arabic: and all this while a mere child. She had also a sedateness of temper, a quickness of apprehension, and a solidity of judgment, that enabled her not only to become the mistress of languages, but of sciences; so that she thought, spoke, and reasoned upon subjects of the greatest importance, in a manner that surprised even those who from their own abilities were not much inclined to esteem what the rest of the world would have though very extraordinary. And she was in no respect elated with these extraordinary endowments, but remarkably mild, humble, and modest in her demeanor. 

Her parents, as appears from her own testimony, were both of them somewhat austere in their behavior to her; and as she was naturally very fond of literature, that fondness was much heightened, as well by the severity of her parents in the feminine part of her education, as by the gentleness with which her tutor Aylmer instructed her in learning of a higher kind. And when mortified and confounded by the unmerited chiding of her parents, she returned with double pleasure to the lessons of the latter, and sought in her favorite books, that delight which was denied her in all the other scenes of life, in which she mingled but little, and seldom with any satisfaction. 

Her alliance with the crown, as well as the great favor in which the Marquis of Dorset, her father, stood with Edward VI did, however, necessarily bring her sometimes to court; and she received particular marks of the young King’s attention, who was nearly of the same age with herself, and took great delight in her conversation; but nevertheless, she seems to have continued for the most part at her father’s seat at Broadgate.

The Lady Jane was early instructed in the principles of the reformed religion, which she seriously and attentively studied, and for which she was very zealous; and this, together with her other excellent and amiable accomplishments, greatly endeared her to King Edward. She was once on a visit to Princess Mary, at New-hall, in Essex; and whilst she was there, she went to take a walk with the Lady Ann Wharton, and they happening to pass by the chapel, Lady Anne made a low curtesy to the host, at which Lady Jane testified some surprise, and asked whether the Princess Mary was there? Lady Anne answered, “No; but I made my curtsey to him that made us all.” “Why, replied Lady Jane, how can that which hath been made by the baker, be him that made us all?” This being carried to the ear of the Princess, it gave her a dislike to the Lady Jane, which she retained ever after.

In May, 1553, the Lady Jane was married to the Lord Guildford Dudley, fourth son to the Duke of Northumberland. Their nuptials were celebrated with great pomp; and this match was so much to the satisfaction of the King, that he contributed bountifully to the expense of it from the royal wardrobe. Lord Guildford Dudley appears to have been a deserving young nobleman, and is said among all the Duke of Northumberland’s sons to have been the least like his father. However, it was a very unhappy marriage to the Lady Jane; it was brought about by the Duke of Northumberland to promote his own ambitious designs; which did in the end prove fatal not only to him, but to this amiable Lady, as well as to her husband. 

The Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland, who were now, upon the fall of the Duke of Somerset the Protector, grown to be very great, upon the decline of the King’s health in 1553, began to think how to prevent the evil consequences, which, as things then stood, they foresaw would happen upon Edward’s death. To obtain this end, no other remedy was judged sufficient, but a change in the succession of the crown, and transferring it into their own families. Those most excellent and amiable qualities which had rendered Lady Jane dear to all who had the happiness to know her, joined to her near affinity to the King, subjected her to become the chief tool of an ambition so notoriously not her own. 

King Edward grew so weak in a few days after their nuptials, that Northumberland thought it high time to carry his project into execution. Accordingly in the beginning of June he broke the matter to the young King, and having first made all such colorable objections as the affair would admit against his Majesty’s two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, as well as Mary Queen of Scots: “He observed that the Lady Jane, who stood next upon the royal line, was a person of extraordinary qualities; that her zeal for the reformation was unquestioned; that nothing could be more acceptable to the nation that the prospect of such a Princess; that in this case he was bound to set aside all partialities of blood, and nearness of relation, which were inferior considerations, and ought to be overruled by the public good.” To corroborate this discourse, care was taken to place about the King those who should make it their business to touch frequently upon this subject, enlarge upon the accomplishments of Lady Jane, and describe her with all imaginable advantages: so that at last the King’s affections standing for this disposition of the crown, he yielded to overlook his sisters and to set aside his father’s will. Agreeably to which, a deed of settlement being drawn up in form of law, by the Judges, was signed by his Majesty and all the Lords of the council. 

This difficult affair being once accomplished, and the letters patent having passed the seals before the close of the month of June, the next step was to concert the properest method for carrying this settlement into execution, and till that was done to keep in as secret as possible. To this end Northumberland formed a project, which, if it had succeeded, would have made all things easy and secure. He directed letters to the Lady Mary, in her brother’s name, requiring her attendance at Greenwich, where the court then was; and she had got within half a day’s journey of that place when King Edward expired, July 6, 1553, but having timely notice of it, she thereby avoided the snare which had been so artfully laid for her. 

The two Dukes, Suffolk and Northumberland, found it necessary to conceal the King’s decease, that they might have time to gain the city of London, and to procure the consent of the Lady Jane, who was so far from having any hand in this business, that as yet she was unacquainted with the pains that had been taken to procure her the title of Queen. At this juncture Mary sent a letter to the privy-council, in which, though she did not take the title of Queen, yet she clearly asserted her right to the crown, took notice of their concealing her brother’s death, and of the practice into which they had since entered; intimating that there was still room for reconciliation. 

The Tower and City of London being secured, the council quitted Greenwich, and came to London, and on Monday, the 10^th of July, in the forenoon, the Duke of Northumberland repaired, together with the Duke of Suffolk, whom he had brought into his views, to Durham-house, where the Lady Jane resided with her husband, as part of Northumberland’s family. There the Duke of Suffolk, with much solemnity, explained to his daughter the disposition the late King had made of his crown by letters patent; the clear sense the privy-council had of her right; and the consent of the magistrates and citizens of London: and in conclusion himself and Northumberland fell on their knees, and paid their homage to her as Queen of England. The poor Lady, somewhat astonished at their behavior and discourse, but in no respect moved by their reasons, or in the least elevated by such unexpected honors, at first rejected the offer of the crown: She said, “That of right it belonged to the late King’s sisters, and so she could not with a good conscience assume it.” But it was told her, that both the judges and privy-councilors had declared, that it fell to her according to law. 

The Lady Jane was at length prevailed upon by the exhortations of her father, the intercession of her mother, the artful persuasions of Northumberland, and the earnest desires of her husband, to comply with what was proposed to her. And thus, with an heavy heart, she suffered herself to be converted by water to the Tower, where she entered with all the state of a Queen, attend by the principal nobility. It is very remarkable, that he train was supported by the duchess of Suffolk, her mother, in whom, if in any of this like, the right of succession remained; but the Duchess had agreed to give up all her pretensions in favor of her daughter. Twenty-one privy-councillors set their hands to a letter to princess Mary, letting he know that Queen Jane was now their Sovereign, and that the marriage between her father and mother was null, and so she could not succeed to the crown: and therefore they required her to lay down her pretensions, and to submit to the settlement now made: and if she gave a ready obedience to these commands, they promised her much favor. 

The day after, about six o’clock in the afternoon, they proclaimed Lady Jane. In the proclamation they set forth, “That the late King had by patent excluded his sisters; that both were illegitimated by sentences passed in the ecclesiastical courts, and confirmed in parliament, and at best they were only his sisters by the half-blood, and so not inheritable by the law of England. There was also cause to fear that they might marry strangers, and change the laws, and subject the nation to the tyranny of the see of Rome. Next to them the crown fell to the Duchess of Suffolk; and it was provided, that if she should have no sons when the King died, the crown should devolve on her daughter, who was born and married in the kingdom: upon which they asserted her right, and she promised to maintain the true religion and the laws of the land.” This was not received with the shouts ordinary on such occasions. The same day she assumed the regal title, and proceeded to exercise som acts of sovereignty. The royalty of this extraordinary Lady was, however, of short duration; for on the 19^th of the same month the princess Mary was proclaimed Queen in Cheapside; so that the reign of Lady Jane continued only about nine days. It has been said, that the short reign of Queen Jane gave birth to the common proverb of a nine days wonder. 

As soon as the Duke of Suffolk, who now resided with his daughter in the Tower, was informed that Queen Mary had been proclaimed in Cheapside, he went to his daughter’s apartment; and, in the softest manner he could, acquainted her that matters were so situated, that, laying aside the state and dignity of a Queen, she must again return to the condition of a private person. To which, with a composed and serene countenance, she returned the answer: “Sir, I better brook this message than my former advancement to royalty: out of obedience to you and my mother, I have grievously sinned, and offered violence to myself. Now I do willingly, and, as obeying the motions of the soul, relinquish the crown, and endeavor to salve those faults committed by others (if at least so great a fault can be salved) by a willing relinquishment and ingenuous acknowledgement of them.”

The Lady Jane was now confined as a prisoner to the Tower, and her afflictions were increased by seeing the father of her husband, with all his family, and many of the nobility and gentry, brought prisoners to the Tower for supporting her claim to the crown; and her grief must have received some increase from her father-in-law, Northumberland, being soon after brought to the block. Before the end of the month she had also the mortification of seeing her own father, the Duke of Suffolk, in the same circumstances with herself; but her moth, the Duchess, not only remained exempt from all punishment, but had such as interest with the Queen, as to procure the Duke his liberty on the last day of that month.

Lady Jane and her husband the Lord Guildford Dudley, were, however, still continued in confinement; and on the third of November they were carried from the Tower to Guild-hall, and with Archbishop Cranmer, and others, arraigned and convicted of high-treason before Judge Morgan, who pronounced on them sentence of death. However, the strictness of their confinement was mitigated in December, by a permission to take the air in the Queen’s garden, and other little indulgences; and it has been supposed that, if Wiat’s rebellion had not happened, the Queen would have saved their lives. It is at least evident, that this rebellion, in which the Lady Jane’s father had engaged, hastened their deaths. 

The day first appointed for the execution of Lady Jane, was Friday the ninth of February, 1554. This news she had long expected; and she had in some measure taken her leave of the world by writing the following letter to her afflicted father, who, she heard, was more disturbed with the thoughts of being the author of her death, than with the apprehensions of his own.

“Father,

“Although it hath pleased God to hasten my death by you, by whom my life should rather have been lengthened; yet can I so patiently take it, as I yield God more hearty thanks for shortening my woeful days, than if all the world had been given into my possession, with life lengthened at my own will; and albeit I am well assured of your impatient dolors, redoubled many ways, both in bewailing your own woe, and especially, as I hear, my unfortunate state; yet, my dear father, if I may without offense rejoice in my mishaps, methinks in this I may account myself blessed; that washing my hands with the innocency of my fact, my guiltless blood may cry before the Lord, Mercy to the innocent! And though I must needs acknowledge, that being constrained, and, as you well know, continually assayed, in taking the crown upon me, I seemed to consent, and therein grievously offended the Queen and her laws; yet do I assuredly trust, that this my offense towards God, is so much the less, in that being in so royal an estate as I was, mine enforced honor never mixed with my innocent heart. And thus, good father, I have opened my state to you, whose death at hand, although to you perhaps it may seem right woeful, to me there is nothing that can be more welcome, than from this vale of misery to aspire to that heavenly throne of all joy and pleasure with Christ our Savior. In whose stedfast faith (if it may be lawful for the daughter so to write to her father) the Lord, that hitherto hath strengthen you, so continue you, that at last we may meet in heaven, with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.”

The night before her execution, she likewise wrote the following letter on the blank leaves at the end of a Greek Testament, which she bequeathed as a legacy to her sister, the Lady Catharine Gray.

“I have here sent you, my dear sister Catharine, a book, which although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, yet inwardly it is more worth that all the precious mines which the vast world can boast of. It is the book, my only best and best-beloved 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 by the possession of our woeful father’s lands. For, as if God had prospered him, you should have inherited his honors and manors; so if you apply diligently this book, seeking to direct your life 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 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 eternal life. 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 again let me intreat 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 depart 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 left 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 on incorruption; for I am assured that I shall, for losing of a mortal life, win one that is immortal, joyful and everlasting; 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 you, that you never swerve, neither for hope of life, nor fear of death. For if you will deny his truth, to give length to a wary 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 Dudley.”

During this her imprisonment she made several divine and heavenly prayers, which she uttered with much affection, faith and fervency. 

The reader, after perusing these letters, and being informed that the Lady Jane was not more than seventeen years of age at the time of her death, will be induced to believe, that the liberal encomiums which have been bestowed upon her, were not without some foundation. The day finally appointed for execution, as well as that of her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, was the 12^th of February, 1554. It had been intended to execute them together, on the same scaffold, at Tower Hill; but the council, dreading the effects of the people’s compassion for their youth, beauty, innocence and noble birth, gave orders that she should he beheaded within the Tower, and that he only should be executed on Tower Hill. 

The Lord Guildford earnestly desired of the officers, that he might take his last farewell of her, which they readily consented to; but the Lady Jane declined the interview; alleging that the tenderness of their parting would overcome the fortitude of both, and would too much unbend their minds from that constancy which their approaching death required of them. She hoped, she said, that their separation would be only for a moment; and that they should soon meet each other again in a happier state, where their affections would be forever united, and where death, disappointment, and sorrow, could no longer have access to them, or disturb their felicity. 

She expressed great tenderness when she say her husband led out to execution; but she soon recovered herself, and bade him farewell out of a window. He ended his life with prayers, in a very penitent manner, and Lady Jane saw his headless body carried back in a cart. About an hour after the death of her husband, she was led out by the lieutenant to a scaffold that was erected upon the great over-against the White Tower. She was attended to and upon the scaffold by Dr. Feckenham, who was appointed by Queen Mary to this office, he being an opposer of the Reformation, but a man of great learning and of a good behavior. Lady Jane was observed not to give much attention to his discourses, keeping her eyes steadfastly fixed on a book of prayers which she had in her hand. After some short recollection she saluted those who were present with a serene countenance, and then took leave of Dr. Feckenham, saying, “God will abundantly requite you, good Sir, for your humanity to me, though your discourses give me more uneasiness than all the terrors of my approaching death.” She then addressed herself in a short speech to the spectators, in which she said, “That her offense was not the having laid her hand upon the crown, but the not rejecting it with sufficient constancy; that she had not erred through ambition, but from her reverence to those whom she had been taught to respect and obey.” She declared, “That she died a true Christ, and that she looked to be saved by no other means, but only the mercy of God in the blood of his only Son Jesus Christ. She said, That she had loved herself and the world too much, on which account that punishment had justly come to her from God: but she blessed him that he had made it a means to lead her to repentance.” Then, having desired the people’s prayers, she kneeled down, and repeated the fifty-first Psalm, in a very devout manner; after which she stood up, and gave her gloves and her handkerchief to her two women; they undressed her, and gave her a handkerchief to bind about her eyes. The executioner kneeling desired her pardon; to which she answered, most willingly. He desiring her to stand upon the stray, which brought her near the block, she said, I pray dispatch me quickly. The handkerchief being then bound close over her eyes, she began to feel for the block, to which she was guided by one of the spectators. When she felt it, she stretched herself forward, and said, Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit! And immediately, at one stroke, the executioner severed her head from her body. 

The death of this amiable and accomplished Lady was as much lamented as her life had been admired; for she fell an innocent victim to the ambition of others. She was illustrious for her birth, but still more illustrious for her piety, her virtue, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind; which rendered her the ornament of her age, of her sex, and of her country. “Her death, as Dr. Barnet tells us, affected “Judge Morgan, who had pronounced sentence, so much, that he ran mad, and thought she still followed him. The Queen herself was troubled at it; for it was rather reason of state than private refinement, that set her on to it. Lady Jane’s father was soon tried by his peers, condemned and executed the twenty-first of the same month. He was the less pitied, because by his means his daughter had suffered.” Wiat for his rebellion was brought to his trial, who begged his life in a most abject manner, but he was condemned and executed, and so were fifty-eight more; six hundred of the rabble were appointed to come with ropes about their necks, and beg the Queen’s pardon, which was granted them. 

The consideration of the amiable character and extraordinary endowments of the Lady Jane Gray, induces us, before we conclude, to add a word of two to the Ladies our readers.

At a time of life when the generality of modern ladies have learned nothing but a few trifling superficial accomplishments, with the art of dress, this excellent lady had acquired such a variety of the most valuable knowledge, as qualified her for the conversation, and entitled her to the esteem of the wisest and most learned men of the age. We no not read that Lady Jane went to play-houses, or practical gaming; for the stage is judged by a great author to be the great corrupter of our metropolis. As long as the minds of ladies are so much set upon the polluting play-houses, there is little hopes of religion flourishing among them. The time it wastes, which ought to be employed upon more important concerns, both temporal and spiritual, and the bad turn it gives the mind by fixing the thoughts upon carnal things, are evils of a dreadful consequence, and tend to extinguish all sense of religion. 

May the Holy Spirit convince them of their fallen state, of their sin and misery, and enlighten them in the knowledge of Christ, and renew their natures, and enable them to receive Christ, and his surety-righteousness, as he is revealed in the gospel!

We would not willingly offend our countrywomen: we wish to promote their honor and happiness; but there is no real happiness without religion, which is the greatest beauty and ornament of a human character. We wish the ladies may have grace to incline them to be as much employed in reading the English New Testament as Lady Jane was in reading the Greek one. Their reading novels or plays will not give them any comfort on a death-bed, but if they be awakened and afraid lest they be found Christless and graceless they will be in great danger of sinking under the terrors of death. May they be inclined earnestly to pray and to seek for redemption and salvation through the mercy of God by Jesus Christ, and live in a holy and exemplary manner in this world, and be by grace fitted for heavenly glory and blessedness through Jesus Christ! Amen.