On this day in 1554, Lady Jane Grey was executed. Known as the Nine Days’ Queen, she was executed on the 12th of February 1554 at the tender age of seventeen.
Why Was Lady Jane Grey Executed?
Jane’s downfall was the result of political ambition and religious turmoil. Following the death of Edward VI in July 1553, his Protestant advisors sought to prevent the Catholic Mary Tudor from taking the throne. Edward’s Devise for the Succession named Jane, his Protestant cousin, as his heir, bypassing both Mary and Elizabeth.
On 10th July 1553, Jane was proclaimed queen. However, her reign lasted only nine days before Mary, backed by overwhelming public support, deposed her. Jane and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were imprisoned in the Tower of London. While Mary initially spared Jane’s life, a rebellion in early 1554, led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, sealed her fate. Though Jane had no part in the uprising, her existence as a Protestant figurehead was deemed too dangerous. On the 12th of February 1554, she was executed.
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey
Unlike Guildford Dudley, who was executed publicly on Tower Hill, Jane’s execution took place privately within the Tower grounds. She faced her fate with remarkable composure.
Her final speech was dignified:
“Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same; the fact indeed against the Queen’s Highness was unlawful and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency before the face of God and the face of you good Christian people this day.
I pray you all good Christian people to bear me witness that I die a true Christian woman and that I do look to be saved by no other mean, but only by the mercy of God, in the merits of the blood of his only son Jesus Christ. I confess when I did know the word of God I neglected the same and loved myself and the world, and therefore this plague or punishment is happily and worthily [deservedly] happened unto me for my sins. I thank God of his goodness that he has given me a time and respite to repent.
Now good people, I pray you to assist me with your prayers. Now good people, while I am alive, I pray you to assist me with your prayers.
Following her speech, Jane recited Miserere mei, Deus (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English. When instructed to move onto the straw and prepare herself, she asked the executioner, “I pray you, despatch me quickly.”
As she knelt before the block, she hesitated, asking, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?” The executioner assured her that he would not. Jane then blindfolded herself and reached for the block, but in her distress, she struggled to find it. “What shall I do? Where is it?” she asked in panic. A bystander stepped forward to guide her hands, and once she was in position, she spoke her final words:
“Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
With one clean stroke of the axe, England’s Nine Days’ Queen was dead.
A Tragic Legacy
Lady Jane Grey’s life and execution remain one of the most poignant tragedies of Tudor history. A highly educated young woman, she was used as a political pawn in the power struggles following Edward VI’s death. Her brief reign and untimely execution have immortalised her as a symbol of innocence and injustice, a girl who was forced onto the throne and paid the ultimate price for the ambitions of others.
