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Portrait of Lady Jane Grey

Monarchs · Tudor

Lady Jane Grey

1536/37–1554

House of Tudor — the nine days' queen

In office: 10–19 July 1553

A learned, devoutly Protestant teenager, great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, she was married to the Duke of Northumberland's son and named heir by the dying Edward VI. Proclaimed queen on 10 July 1553, she was deposed nine days later when the country rallied to Mary Tudor. Spared at first, she was executed on Tower Green in February 1554 after her father joined Wyatt's rebellion.

How to spot them

  • ▸The shortest reign in English history: nine days in July 1553
  • ▸Clue words: 'Guildford Dudley', 'Northumberland', 'Tower Green', 'Delaroche'
  • ▸Never crowned, and omitted from many regnal lists
  • ▸Claim through Henry VII's younger daughter Mary and the Duke of Suffolk
  • ▸A scholar who impressed Roger Ascham by reading Plato for pleasure

In the reign

Proclaimed queen in London on 10 July 1553; she is said to have wept and protested that the crown was not hers (1553)

Her nine days are the shortest reign in English history.

A marriage in May 1553 to a son of the Duke of Northumberland, arranged weeks before the king's death (1553)

Lord Guildford Dudley; she refused to let him be crowned king.

Descent from Henry VII through his younger daughter and the Duke of Suffolk — the claim that put her on the throne (1553)

Her grandmother was Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's sister; Edward VI's Devise passed over his own half-sisters.

Deposed on 19 July 1553 when the council changed sides and proclaimed a rival at Baynard's Castle (1553)

Her father-in-law was executed the following month; she was held in the Tower.

Beheaded on Tower Green on 12 February 1554, aged about sixteen, after her father joined a Kentish rebellion (1554)

Wyatt's rebellion made a living Protestant claimant too dangerous to leave alive.

A blindfolded girl in white groping for the block, in a dramatic canvas of 1833 in the National Gallery (1833)

Paul Delaroche's painting, historically inaccurate in almost every detail and enormously popular.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Born at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire in 1536 or 1537, the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset and later Duke of Suffolk, and Frances Brandon.
  • •Her grandmother Mary Tudor was Henry VIII's younger sister and briefly queen of France.
  • •She spent part of her childhood in the household of Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour.
  • •Roger Ascham recorded finding her reading Plato's Phaedo in Greek while the rest of the household hunted.
  • •She was proclaimed queen on 10 July 1553 and deposed on 19 July; she was never crowned.
  • •She and Guildford Dudley were condemned for treason in November 1553 but initially reprieved.
  • •Wyatt's rebellion of January 1554, in which her father took part, sealed her fate; Guildford was beheaded on Tower Hill the same morning.
  • •She is one of only a handful of people executed within the Tower on Tower Green, and is buried in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.
  • •Whether she should be counted a monarch at all is disputed; official regnal lists usually omit her.

Drill it — 6 cards

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Sources