The Nine-day Queen

The Nine-day Queen

She was the queen of England at fifteen.

BORN IN 1537, Lady Jane Grey was the niece of King Henry VIII. Her father was committed to the Reformation and made sure that Jane received the best Reformed education available. She learned Latin and Greek as a young child from the future bishop of London and even corresponded with Heinrich Bullinger, the Swiss reformer—in Latin. She enjoyed academic studies so much that at the age of thirteen she announced that “whatsoever I do else but learning is full of grief, trouble, fear, and wholly misliking unto me.”

Her father had hopes of her marrying her cousin, King Edward VI. Lady Jane and Edward were exactly the same age and the closest of friends. Both were zealous Christians, desiring to use their influence and positions for God’s glory. But Edward was terminally ill with tuberculosis, so her father had her marry Lord Guildford Dudley, the son of the most powerful man in the kingdom, John Dudley, duke of Northumberland.

Not long before King Edward died on July 6, 1553, at fifteen years of age, the duke of Northumberland, counselor to the king, convinced him to name his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey as his successor instead of the king’s own sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. Apart from the duke’s strong desire to see his son become king as the husband of Lady Jane, the stakes were great on another front. The Protestants feared that Mary would reinstate Catholicism.

On July 10 Lady Jane Grey was publicly proclaimed queen against her wishes, for becoming queen was one of those things “wholly misliking” to her. Jane felt that Mary was the rightful heir. In opposition to the duke of Northumberland’s scheme, the nobility and much of the populace supported Mary, not Jane. After being queen for only nine days, Jane was deposed, and Mary, the oldest daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed queen in her stead.

Less than two weeks after Mary was crowned queen, Parliament began with a Mass. Jane and her husband were arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Mary was ambitious and ruthless, determined to reestablish Catholicism as the state religion of England. She repealed many religious freedoms previously accorded by Henry VIII and Edward VI. “Bloody Mary” reigned for five years, during which time hundreds of Protestants were burned at the stake and many clergymen went into exile.

Lady Jane and her husband were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Two days before Lady Jane was to be beheaded, the queen sent the abbot of Westminster to persuade her to convert to Catholicism. But Jane was resolute. The abbot communicated how sorry he was for her, saying, “For I am sure that we two shall never meet.”

Lady Jane answered, “True it is that we shall never meet, except God turn your heart, for you are in an evil case. And I pray God to send you his Holy Spirit; for he hath given you his great gift of utterance, if it pleased him also to open the eyes of your heart.”

On February 12, 1554, Jane’s husband was beheaded first. As she looked out her prison window, she saw his body being carted away from the execution site and cried out, “Oh Guildford! Guildford . . . that is nothing compared to the feast you and I shall this day partake of in Paradise.”

When her turn came, she addressed the people surrounding the scaffold, “Good people, I pray you all to bear me witness that I die a true Christian woman, and that I look to be saved by no other mean[s] but the mercy of God in the blood of his only Son, Jesus Christ.”

She knelt down, said a psalm, and died at the age of sixteen.

Reflection

Lady Jane Grey was truly a remarkable teenager. In the space of one year she was married, became queen, was imprisoned, and died for her faith. May God give us all the spiritual maturity that she had in her teens.

Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught.

Colossians 2:7