GREY, Lady JANE (c.1537-54). The great granddaughter of Henry VII., and second cousin of Edward VI., daughter of Henry Grey and Lady Frances Brandon. Her teacher, Aylmer, afterwards Bishop of London, taught her Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, in addition to some thing of the arts and sciences. At the age of nine she entered the household of Queen Catharine Parr, with whom she remained till the death of that lady two years later, when she appeared as the chief mourner. After Catharine's death she became the ward of Thomas Seyrniair, whom the Queen had married on the death of Henry VIII. Seymour planned to marry her to Edward VI.; but in this he was thwarted by his brother, the Duke of Somerset, who wished Edward as the husband of his own daughter. This rivalry led to the death of her guardian. Her father, now Duke of Suffolk, after the fall of Somerset in 1549, allied himself with John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, perhaps the ablest man—cer tainly one of the most ambitious men—of his time. Northumberland was now Lord Protector to Ed ward VI., and resolved to win the crown for his own family. To this end he arranged a marriage of Lady Jane with his fourth son, Guildford Dud ley, and persuaded Edward to change the order of succession as established by Henry VIII., pass ing his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, thus leaving the crown to his cousin, Lady Jane. Lady Jane
seems to have been kept in ignorance of the intent of her father and father-in-law until the death of Edward (July 6, 1553). Two days later the public announcement was made, and on the 9th she was taken before the Council for acknowl- edgment. At this meeting she is said to have swooned, and only after the most earnest persua sion was she prevailed upon to issue the procla mation of her accession to the throne. In ten days the intrigue was ended; Mary was the acknowl edged Queen of England. Mary recognized Lady Jane's innocence, and for some months resisted the demands of the Spanish Minister and the radicals of Mary's party that she should be tried and beheaded. Her father weakly joined the Wyatt rebellion, thus losing his own life and bringing death upon his daughter, who with her husband was beheaded February 12, 1554. For her life, consult: Agnes Strickland, Queens of England, ii. (London, 1875-80) ; Froude, History of England, 1.. ii. (New York, 1871) ; Lingard, History of England, ii. (Boston, 1853-56) ; Green, History of the English People, ii., 145 f. (New York and London, 1899). Original material may be found in Letters and Papers of Henry edited by Brewer and Gairdner, for the "Rolls Series"; Ellis, Original Letters, First Series (London, 1824).