On 6 July 1553, King Edward VI died. Dudley's plan to make Jane queen was starting to take place. Edward's death was kept secret for a few days until Jane could be proclaimed queen.
Jane was told by her parents and John Dudley that she was queen. She became sick with fright and fainted. She did not want to take the crown.
"The crown is not my right. It pleaseth me not. The Lady Mary is the rightful heir," Jane said. Her parents swore at her and John Dudley told her that she "doth wrong to herself and her house". Under pressure, Jane finally relented. Lady Jane said she never forgave herself for doing this.
Meanwhile, news was spreading the Jane had been proclaimed the new queen. Although the people liked Jane, they loved Mary and Elizabeth more. They also did not like John Dudley. In East Anglia, Mary was gaining support and planning to march into London. Dudley tried to enforce a counter-attack but to no avail. On 19 July Mary became queen. Jane was queen for nine days.
Jane returned all the crown jewels and clothes. She was then brought into the Tower of London. There, she was kept in a cell for the next few months. However, she was allowed to walk in the garden. She wrote many letters and read many books while at the Tower of London. She wrote a letter to Queen Mary saying that she never wanted the crown.
Queen Mary believed Jane and refused to execute her cousin. Many people pressured Mary, but she was stubborn. She still ordered that a trial be held for traditional purposes. Jane was found guilty but the Queen pardoned her.
However, the next year, 1554, a group of rebels under Thomas Wyatt, including Jane's father Henry Grey, led a rebellion against Queen Mary because she was planning to marry prince Phillip II of Spain. It was quickly put down. Although Jane had nothing to do with it and Mary did not want to kill her cousin, her advisors told her that Phillip would only come if Jane was killed. So, with a heavy heart (sadly), Queen Mary signed the death warrant. Jane was going to be beheaded.
When Jane was told that her head was going to be cut off, she was very scared. Nonetheless, she was happy that her "sad and woeful days" of life were finally coming to an end.
Meanwhile, Mary still did not want to kill her cousin. So, she sent a Catholic priest Dr. Feckenham to try to convert Jane to Catholicism. That way, Jane would not be a threat. Jane was a firm Protestant, and refused to become a Catholic. Jane's execution was postponed from 9 February to 12 February, to try and make her a Catholic. The night before the execution, Jane wrote many letters to her family and prepared her neck for the block. The next morning, her hair was tied back, and she watched Guildford go very unwillingly to the block. Then it was her turn.
On 12 February 1554, at the Tower of London, Jane was sent to the scaffold. She calmly climbed the scaffold and said a speech. She said the Psalm 51, a prayer for divine mercy, in "the most devout manner". She then knelt by the block and tied a piece of cloth around her eyes.
When the executioner told her to put her head on the block, she reached out but could not find the block since she was very scared. She cried for help until someone grabbed her hands and helped her find the block. Jane then put her neck above the block and slowly lowered it onto the block, pressed her neck against the wood and fit her chin in the hold. Then she brought her arms around her. Before she was executed, she cried out "Lord, into thy hands, I commend my spirit!"
Some say her last words were the name of her much loved husband, Lord Guildford.
The crowd watched as the executioner raised the axe high in the air. Jane was shivering badly but her neck stayed perfectly still. Then, the executioner quickly swung the axe down perfectly at the middle of Jane's neck, which was severed in a single stroke. Jane's severed head fell to the straw in front of the block while huge amounts of blood splattered across the scaffold. The executioner then grabbed Jane's head by her red hair and lifted it up to show the crowd. He shouted "So perish all the Queen's enemies! Behold the head of a traitor!"
But some sources suggest the fact that it took three shots to remove Lady Jane's head.
After the crowd left, the blood was removed, and Jane's body was brought to the church St. Peter ad Vincula. Since the church had just become Catholic and Jane was a Protestant, they had to get permission from Queen Mary to bury her. It was four hours until her maids were allowed to prepare her body for burial. Jane's body was buried between former Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. It is unknown what happened to her severed head.
Tower of London
The Tower of London is an ancient Norman stone fortress in London, England. It stands on the bank of the River Thames, in the oldest part of the city.
It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The fortress was built by William the Conqueror, King William I, starting in 1078. The moat was built by Richard I, using water diverted from the River Thames.
The Tower had many uses. Its main function was to protect Norman rule in the years after the conquest. It was a prison, and a place of execution. Today, the Crown Jewels are kept there. This is the collection of jewels owned by the British state, and sometimes worn by the monarch. There is also a museum of armour.
Only the most important people were executed (by axe) inside the Tower of London. Among the most famous were:
<br>
The Tower of London has a collection of ravens, large black birds of the Crow family. They are taken care of by the staff who work there. The ravens' wing feathers are kept short so they cannot fly away. This is because a legend (story) says that if the ravens leave the Tower, the Tower and the Kingdom will fall.
The closest Underground station to the Tower of London is Tower Hill.
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and queen consort from 1533 until 1536. She was the mother of Elizabeth I of England. Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had." It was because of Anne Boleyn that Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon, and became independent from the Roman Catholic Church. After she was falsely accused of adultery, incest and high treason, she was executed.
There were many different opinions of Anne Boleyn's beauty. The Venetian diarist Marino Sanuto described Anne as "not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised ... eyes, which are black and beautiful". Simon Grynée wrote to Martin Bucer in September 1531 that Anne was "young, good-looking, of a rather dark complexion". Lancelot de Carles called her "beautiful" with a good figure. A Venetian in Paris in 1528 also said that she was beautiful. The most well-known description of Anne was written by the Catholic Nicholas Sanders in 1586. He wrote it several years after Anne died. Even though this is the most famous, it is also probably the least correct description. "Anne Boleyn," he said, "was rather tall ... with black hair, and an oval face of a sallow complexion, as if troubled with jaundice. She had a projecting tooth under the upper lip, and on her right hand six fingers (which historians now say is not true). There was a large wen under her chin, and therefore to hide its ugliness she wore a high dress covering her throat ... She was handsome to look at, with a pretty mouth." Sanders said that it was because of Anne that Henry went away from the Catholic Church. Sanders' words about Anne made what Eric Ives called the "monster legend" of Anne Boleyn. Anne was also a good dancer. William Forrest, who wrote a modern poem about Catherine of Aragon, praised Anne's dancing. He said she had "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here", he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go."