by John Welford

Created on: May 19, 2008   Last Updated: April 21, 2009

The short life of Lady Jane Grey is an object lesson in doing your best to avoid being born into the wrong family at the wrong time. Her fate as the "nine days' Queen" has entered English history as one of the more tragic and shameful episodes in the long, bloodstained story of man's inhumanity to man; although in this case women had nearly as much to do with it as men.

Jane's misfortune was to be the great-niece of Henry VIII, her mother being Henry's niece Mary, and thus a cousin (once removed) of Edward VI and his sisters Mary and Elizabeth.

She was born in October 1537, the eldest of three daughters of Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset, and Frances Brandon, whose own mother was the younger sister of Henry VIII. Jane was born at Bradgate, near Leicester, the family estate extending into Charnwood Forest, a strangely wild area that can be visited and wandered over today.

As a child, Jane was clearly gifted, and at the age of nine she was sent to live with the widowed Queen Katherine Parr, the surviving wife of Henry VIII. She therefore came under the strong influence of Katherine's Protestantism and, as fourth in line to the throne under Henry's will, very much to the notice of Katherine's husband, Thomas Seymour, who was also a maternal uncle of the young King Edward VI. Seymour's elder brother was the Duke of Somerset, the King's Lord Protector, and it was Seymour's intense jealousy of his brother and his own driving ambition that led to all the trouble for Jane.

Seymour came to an agreement for Dorset, Jane's father, namely that she would be brought up by Seymour in exchange for a marriage settlement for her that would be "much to her father's comfort". Exactly what this meant was not made explicit, but the general understanding seems to have been that Jane was destined to be the Queen of Edward VI.

Jane was clearly happy to be under the care of Katherine Parr, but when the latter died in childbirth in September 1548, Jane's status was once more at issue. She had not been particularly happy at home and was quite content to stay where she was, but Dorset had other ideas. His concern was less for Jane's personal welfare than for his own ambition, and he became impatient for the implied promise of betrothal to the King to be kept, despite the fact that Jane was only ten years old.

He therefore recalled her to Bradgate, with the thought in mind that, failing a royal match, one with the son of Protector Somerset might be a suitable substitute. Seymour chased after her

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