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In the violent and dramatic history of the English monarchy, the story of Lady Jane Grey stands out as one of the most tragic. She was a teenage Queen of England who ruled for only nine days before she was deposed and ultimately executed. But there is a lot more to Lady Jane’s story than the fact that she had the briefest reign in English history.
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In the violent and dramatic history of the English monarchy, the story of Lady Jane Grey stands out as one of the most tragic
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A teenage queen who ruled for just over a week before being deposed and executed, Jane's was the shortest reign in English history
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But there's a lot more to her story. So, today we're going to take a look at Lady Jane Grey, the teenager who ruled England for nine days
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Okay, sit back and allow us to regale you with the story of a royal young woman who got royally screwed
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Edward VI was the son of King Henry VIII, the storied larger-than-life ruler who was famous for executing several of his wives
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Too many, if we're being honest. Henry was also famous for ruling exactly as he pleased
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And although he had hemmed and hawed over his children's succession rights, by 1543
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things were more or less settled. Edward, Henry's third legitimate child and only surviving son
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would succeed his father. Should Edward fail to produce any heirs, the throne would then pass to
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Edward's older sister, Mary, and finally to Henry VIII's second child, Elizabeth. However, at the
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end of Henry's reign in 1547, his will imposed a critical new condition. Should Elizabeth pass
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without an heir, the crown would go to the children of Henry's younger sister, Edward's aunt
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Mary Tudor, Queen of France. Edward VI was only nine years old when he succeeded his father as
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King of England, and some worried Teddy Roosevelt was too young to be president at 42. Once Edward
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was in power, he established a new line of succession, or more accurately, the people
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around him established a new line of succession. As was the case with all young kings, Edward relied
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on a regency council to do the business of ruling for him. By 1553, Edward's kingdom was effectively
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run by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Dudley and the rest of Edward's advisors were concerned
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about what would happen to the English Reformation if his Catholic older sister Mary inherited the
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throne. So it was decided that Edward would pass the throne directly to his Aunt Mary Tudor's
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descendants, thereby passing over his sister, who was also named Mary Tudor. Did they not have more
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names to choose from, royal family trees get confusing. But here's a tidbit
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Edward's sister Mary is better known throughout history as Bloody Mary. Spoiler, I guess
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One of those descendants was Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Mary Tudor and a confirmed Protestant
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And when Edward named his cousin Jane as his heir, he didn just skip Bloody Mary He skipped his sister Elizabeth as well because both of Edward older sisters were legally supposed to succeed before Jane That decision made a lot of people fairly unhappy
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except for John Dudley, who, according to records of the period, was totally stoked
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That's because Dudley, presumably looking for a way for his family to cling to power
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pressured Jane into marrying his son, Guilford, in May 1553. With the new line of succession
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his daughter-in-law stood to become queen. But all of Dudley's scheming would blow up in his face almost immediately, like Wile E. Coyote
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Lady Jane Grey was considered a bright, engaging young woman with a sparkling intellect
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Most women of the 16th century didn't exactly get much in the way of schooling. But because Jane's parents didn't have any sons, their daughter received nothing short of a princely education
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By all accounts, Jane was an eager, enthusiastic student with a love of learning
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She spoke eight languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French, and we presume English
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Unlike many in the Tudor world, Lady Jane Grey probably had very little interest in becoming queen
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The possibility was so distant, she basically stood an equal chance of becoming an astronaut
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And ruling simply wasn't her ambition. Considering how it all turned out, it's not hard to guess why
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But when King Edward VI passed away on July 6, 1553, the newly established line of succession
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dictated that the crown be offered to Lady Jane. That offer might as well have come from an underlit Marlon Brando
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because it literally could not be refused. Saying Jane was reluctant to accept would be a massive understatement
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She reportedly fell to the ground and cried, citing her insufficiency for her new role
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Jane apparently suspected the offer wasn't entirely legal as well. For when she did finally accept, she did so with a codicil
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if what has been given to me is lawfully mine. As you recall, Lady Jane had been pressured into marrying Guilford Dudley, who was a teenager as
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well, just two months before becoming queen. But regardless of how she may have felt about her new
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husband, she believed that he had no right to the throne. So when he asked to be named king
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she refused, offering to make him a duke instead. This was seen as a pretty big insult. Try getting
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dinner reservations as a duke. I hope you enjoy sitting by the bathroom. Guilford's noble family
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including his palace-scheming father, John Dudley, threw a fit. They retaliated by threatening
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that Guilford would withhold his conjugal duties, thereby robbing Jane of an heir
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Guilford also took to strutting around the palace like he was king, complete with state dinners
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in attempts to strong his way into councils Because whether duke or King above all else Guilford was a massive tool
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Jane became queen by the order of her cousin, King Edward VI
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Much like his dad, Henry VIII, Edward switched up the line of succession in his will
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and determined that the descendants of his Aunt Mary Tudor, Queen of France, would succeed him
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But the throne Jane sat upon in July 1553 was hotly contested
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And her critics had a very valid point when they claimed that it was not rightfully hers
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For starters, by inheritance rights, the crown should have passed to Margaret Tudor's descendants
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Margaret Tudor was born in 1489, seven years before Mary Tudor, Queen of France
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Succession typically was based on gender and birth order, giving Margaret's descendants a stronger claim for the throne than Mary's
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Among Margaret's descendants were illustrious royals and nobles who would make their mark on history
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like Queen Mary of Scotland, the Countess of Lennox, and her son, Lord Darnley. But Henry VIII's will
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skipped Margaret's family entirely. Their status as Scottish royalty was used as a pretense to
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block Mary Tudor's line from succeeding the English throne. In reality, Henry was just trying
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to keep the throne out of Catholic hands. So even though his Scottish kin had a better claim to the
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throne than Jane Grey, Edward bucked tradition by carrying out his father's wishes and skipping
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this branch of his family tree. Lady Jane's in-laws were another problem. The Dudley family
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was horrendously disliked, so many were suspicious of the new queen the Dudleys had propped up
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and Edward VI's older sister, Bloody Mary, refused to abandon her right to the throne
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no matter what her younger brother and his counselors may have said. After all
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she did not win that nickname at a church raffle. The English were more sympathetic to Mary's claims
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than Jane's, and so she had popular support. By July 19, 1553, Jane was out and Bloody Mary was in
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Though Jane Grey might have made a good queen, the English court never really gave her a chance
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She got the boot after just nine days. She wasn't even queen long enough to receive a proper coronation
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at Westminster Abbey. It's like getting fired at your job interview. Beginning on July 19, 1553, Jane was imprisoned
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in the Tower of London. Her imprisonment lasted longer than her time on the throne
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Not that it would last all that long, either. Initially, the new Queen Mary believed that she might be able to spare Jane's life
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It was clear to Mary that Jane was not a scheming usurper. Plus, they were related
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Executing your cousin makes Christmas kind of awkward. Despite Mary hope to spare Jane life everything changed when Sir Thomas Wyatt led a rebellion to protest Queen Mary decision to marry a Spanish prince And while Jane never endorsed the rebellion her father the Duke of Suffolk
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did. He even joined the rebellion, and his action was a slap in the face to Queen Mary
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Thanks for the help, Dad. Way to read the room. Sadly, the turn of events wasn't really a surprise
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to anyone. Like many high-born children in Tudor England, Jane had an uneven relationship with her
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parents. Her father, for example, basically sold her care to someone else when she was a child
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Thomas Seymour paid £2,000 to become her guardian in the hopes that he could broker a marriage
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between Edward and Jane. Moreover, her parents never bothered to contact their imprisoned daughter
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after she was deposed. We get it, it's disappointing when your teen gets arrested
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but these were extenuating circumstances. It's hard to say which was the final nail in Jane's
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coffin. But her staunch opposition to Catholicism certainly didn't help the fact that her father
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just joined a rebellion against the crown. Jane Grey was born in an England divided over the
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question of religion. England had recently become a Protestant kingdom under King Henry VIII
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severing the country's ties with Catholicism led by the Pope in Rome. Consequently
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Jane was raised to be a zealous Protestant. In fact, the primary reason Edward named Jane as his
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heir was to safeguard England against the Catholicism of his sister Bloody Mary and his
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Aunt Margaret Tudor's descendants. When Bloody Mary ousted Jane, she had intended to spare Jane's
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life. Only, Jane couldn't stay silent and continued speaking out against Mary's Catholicism
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Mary hoped Jane would change her mind, and she even delayed her cousin's execution in the hopes
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it would give her time to convert. But Jane refused and became a Protestant martyr, even
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clutching a prayer book on the scaffold at her execution. Jane remained at the Tower of London for months
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while the new queen decided what to do with her. In February 1554, Mary finally decided
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that execution was the only answer for her cousin. Her Majesty's massive toolbox, Guilford Dudley
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was executed the same day as his wife, February 12, 1554. And Jane actually witnessed his beheading
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from the window of her cell at the Tower of London. He finally received the royal treatment he'd been demanding
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A few hours later, it was Jane's turn. Accounts indicate that she met her execution with dignity and resolve
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Blindfolded, she momentarily panicked when she struggled to find the block on which to
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rest her head, and the executioner had to guide her to it. Her final words were said to have been, Lord, into thy hands I command my spirit
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Not bad, considering she never wanted to rule in the first place. Like Dante and Clerks, she wasn't even supposed to be here today