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rule England until he reached the age of 18. John Dudley and Frances Brandon arranged a plan to marry Jane to Dudley's youngest son, Guilford. This was just the beginning of the plan, however. As Edward's health continued to rapidly deteriorate Dudley began to put the bug in his ear about the future of England and its religion. According to the Third Act of Succession Edward's sister Mary would be the next ruler, however with her deep Catholic beliefs all the work done in Edward's reign to secure a Protestant country would have been all for naught. Jane, however, was of royal blood and devoutly Protestant.

Jane met her marriage to Guilford with great disdain. She was beaten severely until she finally agreed to the match. Jane and Guilford were married at the Dudley home, alongside Jane's youngest sister Katherine to Lord Herbert. The plan to put Jane on the throne had begun.

Edward didn't want a Catholic to rule England any more than John Dudley did, even if it was his own half-sister Mary. If Henry VIII taught his son anything it was that the king decided what was best for the land, even if that means changing the lines of succesion. So Edward devised the Device for the Succession, in which he proclaimed Mary and Elizabeth both illegitimate and left England to the Greys. Because Frances was beyond the age for childbirth it was decided that the first in line for the throne should be her daughter Jane, her devoutly Protestant daughter married to the son of the Lord Protector!

Meanwhile, Jane had detested living with Guilford and the Dudley family so much, even moreso than her own home, that she went back to live with her parents before she had even been married six weeks. Guilford's mother protested to this arrangement and ordered Jane to come back to the Dudley house and lie in wait for Edward's impending death. Jane returned but became ill shortly thereafter and the Dudleys decided to send her to Katherine Parr's old home where she had spent the only truly happy days of her life.

On July 9, 1552 Guilford's sister, Mary Sidney, came to see Jane and accompany her to Syon House in Chelsea. Upon her arrival at Syon house she was greeted by her parents, in-laws and a host of other nobles, and to her great surprise they all bowed before her. John Dudley announced the passing of Edward VI and told Jane that Edward had made the decision to leave England in good Protestant hands, and in doing such had illegitimized his sisters in favor of crowning Jane queen.

Needless

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