Home › G › Grey (LADY JANE the nine days' queen)

Grey (LADY JANE the nine days' queen)

LADY JANE, the "nine days' queen"; born in Bradgate, Leicestershire, GREY England, in October, 1537; was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk, and greatdaughter of Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk, and greatland. As a girl she made extraordinary land. As a girl she made extraordinary progress, especially in languages-Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Hebrew. In 1553 the Duke of Northumberland, foreseeing the speedy death of the boy-king, Edward VI., determined to change the succession and secure it to his own family. Lady Jane, not 16 years old, was therefore married, strongly against her wish, to Lord Guilford Dudley, North- umberland's fourth son, on May 21, 1553; and July 9, three days after Edward's death, the council informed her that his "plan" had named her as his successor.

On July 19, the brief usurpation over, she found herself a prisoner in the Tower; four months later, pleading guilty of high treason, she was sentenced to death, and was beheaded on Tower Hill, Feb. 12, 1554.