Jane was brought to the royal quarters of the Tower of London with great pomp as she reluctantly accepted the crown. However, Mary refused to recognize the change in the succession made by Edward and the Privy Council, and she gathered forces in opposition to Jane. Within nine days, support for Jane collapsed, and Mary was proclaimed Queen; Jane and her husband left the royal apartments and became prisoners in the Tower.

When Jane Grey was told on July 9, 1553, that King Edward had died and she was to succeed him as Queen of England, she collapsed in weeping and tears. Though she had royal connections and heritage, sixteen-year-old Jane had not anticipated becoming queen.

A Seriousness and Delight for Learning

A precocious girl, Jane had been given a Renaissance education. She was fluent in French, Italian, Latin and Greek and could also read Hebrew. When she was ten she was sent to live in the household of Thomas Seymour, who had married Henry VIII’s widow, Catherine Parr. Catherine had a strong biblical faith, and Jane’s study and understanding of the Scriptures deepened while she was in Catherine’s house.

In 1550, when Jane was fourteen, Roger Ascham, the classical scholar and tutor to the future Elizabeth I, had stopped for a visit at the Greys’ home. He found everyone had gone hunting except Jane, who was reading Plato’s Phaedo in her room. When he asked why she wasn’t out enjoying herself with the others, Jane replied that they didn’t know what true pleasure was. When Ascham wondered how Jane found such pleasure in her studies, and she replied that the cruelty and harshness of her parents and the gentleness of her schoolmaster had encouraged her love of learning. Reading and her studies were a refuge from troubles at home. Jane’s seriousness and delight in learning so impressed Ascham, that he put Jane in contact with the German Reformer Martin Bucer, then teaching in Cambridge, and later with the Swiss Reformer Heinrich Bullinger. Jane corresponded with them in elegant Latin about theological issues, always thanking them for helping her in her spiritual walk.

The Nine Day Queen

When the young King Edward (he was the same age as Jane) became ill and was near death, Edward and the Privy Council revised the royal succession. Edward had promoted the Reformation in the Church of England, and he did not want his half-sister Mary, who was a strong Catholic, to take the throne and reverse the Reformation policies.  Though Henry VIII’s will had included Mary and Elizabeth in the succession, both were still legally illegitimate, and Edward excluded them from what he called his “devise for the succession,” making Jane next in line for the throne (Jane’s royal connection came through her grandmother Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s favorite sister). John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and head of Edward’s Privy Council in his last years, sought to secure his own family’s power by having Jane marry his son Guildford. Jane did not favor marrying Guildford, but her parents forced her into the marriage, which took place May 23, 1553. Less than seven weeks later, Edward was dead, and Jane was declared Queen.

Jane was brought to the royal quarters of the Tower of London with great pomp as she reluctantly accepted the crown. However, Mary refused to recognize the change in the succession made by Edward and the Privy Council, and she gathered forces in opposition to Jane. Within nine days, support for Jane collapsed, and Mary was proclaimed Queen; Jane and her husband left the royal apartments and became prisoners in the Tower.

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