Lady Jane Grey was
born in October 1537. She was a great-granddaughter of Henry VII and a
cousin of Edward VI. Shortly before his death, Edward was persuaded
to name Jane his successor in preference to his half-sisters Mary and
Elizabeth. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who dominated the government,
arranged Jane's marriage to his son Lord Guilford Dudley and proclaimed her
accession in July 1553, but few supported this scheme. Without getting into
long details, this was done to stop an apparent succession of a Roman Catholic
Monarch to the throne, as the most apparent successor would have been Mary, who
was devoutly Catholic.
Apparently,
the marriage of the two teenagers was not one of love at first. As
circumstances always seen to throw a different light with time, the two seemed
very much in love toward the end.
Sadly, Lady Jane was
only queen of England for nine days in 1553--the shortest reign in
England's history, and Mary Tudor soon secured the throne as Mary I. Jane and
Guilford were charged with treason and beheaded February 12, 1554. Jane watched
her husband's death, then she bravely mounted the scaffold. Her last words were
"into your hands I commend my spirit." Widely praised for her beauty and
learning, Jane was not herself a conspirator but rather an innocent victim of a
political and religious plot.
Relation to the Dudleytown Curse NONE. Her family was in no way
related.
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