Original Documents relating to the Lady Jane Grey's succession to the Crown on the demise of Edward VI.

However familiar to the English reader the history of this pious and accomplished young lady may be, we shall observe, in introducing the following papers, that Charles Brandon, Knight of the Garter, Master of the Horse to King Henry VIII. was by him, anno 1513, created Viscount Lisle and Duke of Suffolk; his third wife was Mary, youngest daughter of Henry VII. sister of Henry VIII. and widow of Lewis XII. King of France.

Frances, the elder daughter of the issue of this marriage, was married to Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Suffolk. Joan or Jane, his elder daughter (a direct descendant of Henry VII. as is seen by the above lineal deduction) was espoused to Guildford Dudley, fourth son of John Duke of Northumberland, who by these means aimed at intimately connecting his family with the regal power, and thus obtaining a good chance of its being finally vested in his own descendants.

After the execution of the Lord Protector Seymour Duke of Somerset, the King's maternal uncle, to whose office in the state Northumberland succeeded, the latter persuaded Edward VI. to transfer the Crown to his daughterin-law Jane Dudley, excluding the King's sisters Mary and Elizabeth from the throne. Indeed, he made some unsuccessful attempts to form a matrimonial alliance for the latter with a foreign prince, and the title of both princesses was now set aside on the plea of bastardy, founded on the successive divorces of their mothers Katharine of Arragon and Anna Boleyn, and the danger the Reformed Religion

would incur, should Mary (a rigid Papist) or Elizabeth, succeeding to the crown, marry a foreign prince" of the Romish faith, and thus bring the imperial realm of England into the tyranny and servitude of the Bishop of Rome." These contrivances cost in the end Northumberland's own life, and the lives of the innocent Jane, her husband, and her father. The unambitious amiable character of the Lady Jane, inclined her to repudiate rather than to seek worldly honours and elevation. Her good sense suggested to her how slender the legal foundation was of her right to the English throne, the descent of which could not justly be modified by the testamentary decree of any of its occupants pro tempore.* "I know," said she, addressing her fathers by blood and by alliance, "that the laws of this kingdom and natural right, stand for the Lady Mary and Elizabeth, as successors to the crown, in preference to myself. I would beware of burthening my weak conscience with a yoke which belongs to them. I am not so little read in the snares of fortune to suffer myself to be taken by them, she elevates only in order to ruin. If she crown me to-day, she will crush me to-morrow." The persuasions of the Dukes, and of her husband, whom she dearly loved, overcame, however, her better judgment, and she accepted the crown. Her nine days' semblance of a reign,†

* A little before the King's death, the Judges were sent for by the King at the suggestion of Northumberland, to draw an assignment of the Crown to the Lady Jane Grey. They all demurred at the proposition as illegal, and were only brought to compliance by the miserable expedient of a pardon under the Great Seal Hales, although of the Protestant party, at the risk of his property and life, nobly refused his subscription to the last.

She was proclaimed by the Lords of the Council on the 10th of July 1553; who reversed the decree and performed the same official act for Mary, on the 19th of the same month.

and the rigour of the bloody penalty she paid for its enjoyment, need not be dilated on here, further than to note some interesting particulars, characteristic of her Christian fortitude and faith when the catastrophe brought on by the political intrigues of which she was the victim approached its consummation. This was hastened by the insurrection of Wyatt, in which her father the Duke of Suffolk participated. On Monday, the 12th of February, 1554, her husband Lord Guildford Dudley was brought out through the Tower Gate to Tower Hill, and delivered to Thomas Offley, Sheriff of London, for execution, which being performed, his body was re-conveyed into the Tower in a cart, the dissevered head placed beside it, enveloped in a napkin. His remains were taken out in the sight of the Lady Jane his wife, to be deposited in the Tower Chapel. Her religious confidence enabled her to endure with the firmest selfpossession this ghastly and revolting spectacle, as she was led forth to the scaffold prepared for her own death. With a singularly mild and patient demeanour, she thus addressed the spectators. "Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. My offence against the Queen's highness was only in consenting to the device of others, now in me deemed treason; but that device was never of my seeking, but by counsel of those who appeared to have better understanding of such things than I, who knew little of the law in general, much less of that relating to the Titles of the Crown. As. to the procurement or desire of such dignity by me, I wash my hands in innocency thereof before God and the face of all you good Christian people this day." Here she emphatically wrung her hands, in which she held a book of prayer. "Now, I pray you! good Christian people, to bear witness that I die in the true Christian faith, looking to be saved by no other means, than the mercy of God in the

blood of his only son Christ Jesus. I confess that, knowing the word of God I have neglected the same, I have loved myself and the world, and therefore this plague and punishment has justly happened to me for my sins. Yet blessed be God, of his goodness he hath allowed me a respite and an interval for repentance. And now, good people, while I am alive, assist me in this trial with your prayers." She then knelt down, repeated in English the pathetic 67th Psalm, of which the following portion was so applicable to her situation of trial, and expressive of her confidence in her Redeemer. "Be merciful unto me, O God! be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee, and under the shadow of thy wings shall be my refuge until this tyranny be overpast."

With the greatest calmness, fortitude, and attention to female propriety, she went through the remaining scene of this tragedy, giving her maid Ellen her handkerchief and gloves, her prayer book to the Lieutenant of the Tower. Declining the assistance of the executioner, she made her gentlewomen remove her gown and head-dress, laid her head meekly on the block, and died with the exclamation, "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"

(45.)

Letters under the signet and sign manual of Jane the Queen, addressed to the Marquis of Northampton, Lieutenant of Surrey, the Deputies of the Lieutenancy, &c. She having succeeded to rightful possession of the kingdom by the will (i. e. the testamentary direction) of the late King, her dear cousin and progenitor, makes her entry this day into the Tower as rightful Queen of the Realm. The possession of the Tower

by a claimant of the Crown, it has been observed,* implied that of the Empire. Our ancient Kings always occupied that fortress, previously to their coronation.

JANE THE QUENE.

Right trustie and right welbeloved, we grete you well, advertising the same, that where' (whereas) yt hath pleased almighty God to call to his mercie out of this lief our derest cousen the King, your late sovereigne lorde, by reason wherof and suche ordenñces as the said late King did establishe in his lief tyme for the securitie and welthe of this Realme, we are entrerid into our rightfull possession of this kingdome, as by the last (will) of o' said derest cousen our late pgenitor, and other severall instruments to that effect, signed w'th his owne hande and sealed w'th the grete seale of this realme in his own presence. Wherunto the nobles of this realme for the most pte, and all our counsaill and Judges, wth the Mayo' and Aldermen of our Cytie of london, and dyvers other grave psonages of this o' realme of England, have also subscribed there names as by the same will and instrument it maye more evidently and plainly apere. We therfore doo yo' to understand, that by th’ordenñce and sufferunce of the hevenly Lord, and by assent and consent of o' said nobles and councellors, and others before specifyed, we doo this daye make our enterye into our Towre of London as rightfull Quene of this realme, and have accord

* Page 17.