Grey, Lady Jane (1537–1554)
Grey, Lady Jane (1537–1554)
Teenaged usurper of the English throne. Name variations: Lady Jane Dudley. Born Oct 1537 at Bradgate, Leicestershire, England; executed Feb 12, 1554, in Tower of London; eldest surviving dau. of Henry Grey (d. 1554), marquis of Dorset (later duke of Suffolk), and Frances Brandon (1517–1559, granddau. of King Henry VII); sister of Lady Catherine Grey (c. 1540–1568) and Mary Grey (1545–1578); m. Lord Guildford Dudley, May 21, 1553; no children.
Reigned for 9 days before being executed in the Tower of London; lived out brief life as a pawn of her ambitious parents and their political connections at court; entered the service of Queen Catherine Parr (1546); coerced into marrying Lord Dudley by his father, the duke of Northumberland (1553); with the death of the king, proclaimed queen by Northumberland without her knowledge; convicted of high treason against Queen Mary I and executed (1554).
See also Alison Plowden, Lady Jane Grey and the House of Suffolk (Watts, 1986); Hester Chapman, Lady Jane Grey: The Nine Days Queen (Little, Brown, 1962); Mary Luke, The Nine Days Queen (William Morrow, 1986); David Mathew, Lady Jane Grey: The Setting of the Reign (Eyre Methuen, 1972); films Lady Jane Grey, starring Nova Pilbeam (1936) and Lady Jane, starring Helena Bonham Carter (1985); and Women in World History.