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been rightfully Queen according to Henry's will. Lord Dudley realized that the point of having a puppet Queen would only be to be able to reign himself, and if she wasn't going to let him that he had risked treason for power he would never get. This was the quick beginning of an even quicker end for Jane and her family, and nine days after taking London in an eerie coronation procession that no one that even participated in seemed to actually believe in, she eventually had supporters at all.

MAKINGS OF A PROTESTANT MARTYR

No one knew Jane or her family very well, but Princess Mary inspired the people's awe, as she had been royal Lady Mary for thirty-five years and was well loved. So it was extremely difficult to pay or coerce anyone to betray her. Lord Dudley's hired troops, who were escorting Mary to what was probably intended to be death, turned on their employers in support of the Princess.

Thus there was little hope for Jane and her contingent. One by one, once Mary assumed power, they went to death as traitors, and it was probably reasonable that they should given those in power. Mary allegedly had hoped to keep Jane alive, because everyone knew that she was probably an innocent pawn of conspiring men, but Mary's already fragile reign was being threatened by insurgents in Jane's name. Her beloved intended, Prince Phillip of Spain, said he wouldn't come to England under precarious circumstances (while Jane remained alive to threaten their throne).

Thus Jane, who entered had just entered the Tower for her coronation, was imprisoned there and awaited the inevitable. One of the saddest moments was when her father, sensing his daughter's dwindling support, came into her chamber at the tower and tore her canopy all to pieces, saying that she should never had had such vain pretenses to become Queen beyond her lowly station. She being still the very mature 17-year-old told her father "I like this advice very much more than when you forced me to take the crown in the first place."

But also being the young and frightened girl, she then asked to go home. But as it became clearer that wouldn't happen, she gradually resigned to and accepted her fate. One by one she watched horrified as those who had plotted to crown her renounced their Protestant faith on the scaffold to avoid being burnt as heretics. At one point she may have been able to save her life if she had declared the error in her religious convictions. The poor girl even had to watch her 'husband's' headless corpse come back from the tower green past her room.

But the brave and dignified Jane was one of the only ones in her faction to not cravenly cower to Mary I. She convinced Mary's archbishop Gardiner of her soundness of mind and unalterable convictions in their famous recorded attempt at Mary's conversion, and ultimately in those last few days won a broken-hearted English people's love and respect. She was said to have died pale, but with dignity, reaching blindfolded and confused for the block uttering "what should I do?" but having the presence of mind to ask that the people pray for her ONLY while she was LIVING," and thus reinforcing her distinct identity as not of the old religion.

She spoke her last words in prayer to the faith she most unshakenly believed and even in her youth showed steady wisdom and devotion all the way to her premature end. England's Nine Days' Queen Jane Grey was a testament to the terror and waste of life these desperate bloody years in England saw, converting all of us that have heard and told her story in the ensuing centuries to become lifelong and devoted fans of English history.

Learn more about this author, Carol H. Morgan.
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