'Why do you do that?' Jane asked.
'I bow to Him that made us all,' the lady said.
'How can He that made us all be there, when the baker made Him?' Jane cried. Mary was shocked when she heard this. Yet she still tried to be friendly to Jane. She sent her a gown and some jewels. Jane would not wear them, as they were too rich. She now liked to wear sober black and white clothing, like a good Protestant girl.
By 1553, young King Edward VI was dying. Somerset was dead, and a mighty duke called John Dudley was ruling England in Edward's name. Dudley was making hasty plans to stop Mary from ever coming to the throne. He and Edward VI agreed that the claims of Mary Tudor and her sister Elizabeth should be passed over, and that the crown was to be left to Edward's cousin, Lady Jane Grey.
There were good reasons for this. Dudley wanted to remain in power. He could only do that if England had a monarch who would bow to his rule. Jane was the only member of the royal family who was likely to do that. But Jane proved not to be the meek little thing that Dudley thought her to be. She was a feisty, stubborn teenager, clever and candid, and not afraid to stand up to him.
Dudley had already got Jane's parents to agree to a marriage between Jane and his son, Lord Guildford Dudley. Guildford was tall, fair and good-looking, but he was spoilt and surly. Jane did not want to marry at all. She wanted to be left alone with her books. She hated the Dudleys, and told her parents she would not have Guildford, but after being beaten by her mother, she had no choice but to agree. The marriage went ahead, but it was not a happy one. Jane refused to sleep with her husband. Nor would she name him king when the time came.
After Edward VI died in July 1553, Jane was brought to Syon House near London and there forced to agree to become Queen of England. When she saw all the court waiting for her, she began to shake with fright. Dudley led her to the throne and told her, to her horror, that Edward VI had named her his heir. As every person in the room knelt before her, Jane fainted. No one went to help her.
When she came to, she knew she must make a stand. She got up and said, 'The crown is not my right. It pleases me not. Mary is the rightful heir.' It did no good. Dudley, her parents and her husband Guildford forced her to do their will, and in the end, she had to give way. But she was not at peace with herself. She wrote later, 'It did not become me to accept.'
Soon afterwards, Jane was taken to the Tower of London to await her crowning. But her reign was to prove the shortest in English history. The people supported Mary, the rightful Queen. No one wanted Jane. As Mary was proclaimed queen, to the people's joy, Dudley was taken to the Tower. He was soon to die as a traitor.
Jane was at supper that day. She was aware of how quiet it was. Then her father ran in and tore down the royal arms above her chair.
'You are no longer queen,' he told her. She was not sorry to hear it.
'May I go home?' she asked. Her father did not answer, but fled from the Tower, leaving her to her fate. Soon, the guards came for her.
She was moved from the palace to the house of one of the jailers. They let her have books, and she lived in some comfort. She ate her meals with the jailer and his family. It was not a bad life, and she did not complain.
Jane had not wanted the throne, but in taking it she had been guilty of treason. Mary was right to fear that she would remain a focus for Protestant plots. So she kept her in the Tower, well looked after, but still a prisoner. She did not wish her harm, and meant to set her free one day, as soon as Mary herself had a son to be king after her.
Despite the Queen's wish to show mercy, Jane and Guildford were put on trial and sentenced to death. It was just for show, they were told. Mary would spare them the axe. 'It is believed Jane will not die,' wrote a courtier.
But Mary had restored the Catholic faith in England. She would burn those who did not accept it. She was planning to marry Philip of Spain, and the people did not want a foreign prince to rule over them. Early in 1554, Sir Thomas Wyatt led a major revolt against the marriage. Mary came close to losing her crown, but she made a brave stand, and the revolt was put down. It had been a near thing, and the council was in a panic.
Jane's father had been one of the rebel leaders, and had made it clear that he wanted his daughter Jane back on the throne. That was high treason. Jane knew nothing about it, nor had she had anything to do with the revolt. But that made no difference to those who thought she was a danger to Queen Mary.
Mary's lords now insisted that she put to death all who were a focus for any further revolt. It was made clear to her that Philip of Spain would not marry her unless Jane was 'removed'. Mary was in a corner. She had no choice in the matter, and a date was set for Jane's sentence to be carried out. On being told she was to die, Jane said, 'I am ready and glad to end my woeful days.'
But Mary was deeply troubled about sending her young cousin to her death. She sent a priest to convert Jane to the Catholic faith. Jane was told that if she agreed, she might live. But she would not deny her Protestant God. 'It is not my desire to prolong my days,' she told the priest. He was moved by her faith, and asked if he could be with her at the end.
On 12 February 1554, Jane was ready to die. 'My soul will find mercy with God,' she wrote. Early in the day, ladies came to make sure she was not with child. If she had been, she would have been spared the axe, but she was not.
She put on a black dress and stood at the window. She had not agreed to see her husband Guildford to say farewell, but she had said she would watch him go to his death. She saw him weep as he walked under guard to Tower Hill. Not long afterwards, she saw a cart come back. It carried his bloody head and body, wrapped in white cloths. She cried out, 'Oh! How bitter is death!'
Now she saw the headsman on his return to the Tower. It was time.
On the arm of her jailer, Jane walked to the scaffold. She was calm and brave. Her former nurse, Mrs Ellen, and her ladies came after, in floods of tears, and then the priest, keeping his promise. Jane climbed the steps and spoke to the crowd.
'Good people, I am come to die, by law,' she began. She said she had been guilty in taking the throne, but guiltless in never having wanted it. 'I die a true Christian woman,' she ended.
She asked the priest to join her in prayers, but he was too choked to reply. She kissed him goodbye as they held hands. The headsman tried to help her untie her gown, but she would not let him, and did it herself. He knelt, asking her to forgive him for what he must do, which she said she did.
It was now that she saw the block. He told her to stand in front of it.
'I pray you do it quickly,' she begged, and fell to her knees. 'Will you take it off before I lay me down?' She meant her head.
'No, Madam,' he said.
Jane bound her eyes and felt for the block. It was not there.
'What shall I do?' she cried in mounting panic. 'Where is it?'
No one moved as she groped in the air. Then someone came and guided her hands. She laid her head down.
'Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!' she cried. The axe came down. One witness wrote that he had never seen so much blood.
The headsman lifted the head.
'Behold the head of a traitor!' he called out.
Jane's remains, half naked, were left on the scaffold for some hours. Then she was buried in the chapel of St Peter, near her husband Guildford. Her father was beheaded not long afterwards, on Tower Hill. Her mother married again almost at once, and lived to see Elizabeth I come to the throne after Queen Mary died, in 1558.
Chapter Seven
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1601) - 'Strike Home!'
Robert Devereux was the son of the Earl of Essex. His mother Lettice was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, and had been called 'one of the best-looking ladies of the court'. For some months, Lettice had been having an affair
