Susan Higginbotham's Blog: History Refreshed by Susan HIgginbotham, page 18

Rick Santorum's Queenly Pick: Mary I

Susan’s Very Busy Day

As long-term readers of this blog know, each year I volunteer at the county’s annual library sale. There, I unpack books and arrange them on tables. Until this year, the perk was first pick from over 450,000 books, but the country library gods got rid of that privilege this year, so we have to shop on Thursday with the rest of the public. (Bah, humbug.)

But anyway, this morning all of us were put to work getting the children’s tables ready. This makes perfect sense, as teachers get to choose books for their classrooms on Wednesday and most of their haul comes from the juvenile section. Unfortunately, the juvenile and board board tables are the gulag of the library volunteer world. The books vary widely in size and are often oddly shaped, making them difficult to lay out on tables, and they’re slippery. (Furthermore, for reasons I would prefer not to explore, they have a tendency to stick together.) Besides that, there are oodles of them. Moreover, seeing book after book featuring cover illustrations of Disney princesses and titles like Ducky Goes Potty brings out the curmudgeon in me. And finally (yes, I swear, this is really “finally), there is almost no chance of finding a complete set of the Paston Letters inadverently stuck in with the juvenile books.

However, my time in Juvenile was not fruitless, because while I was setting out Dora the Explorer books, I found myself wondering, What if someone wrote children’s books about Henry VIII? Such as these:

Henry meets Anne Boleyn: Henry’s New Friend

Jane Boleyn accuses Anne and her brother George of incest: Jane Tells a Fib

Anne gets executed: Anne’s Really Bad Day

Jane Seymour marries Henry: Jane the New Girl

Henry’s leg really starts to bother him: Henry’s Boo-Boo

Henry dies: Big Changes for Edward

Incidentally, if you live in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, I did notice some good pickings: biographies of Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VI, and Henry VIII, among others; two copies of Julia Fox’s book on Jane Boleyn, and plenty of biographies of Elizabeth I–and most of the history wasn’t unpacked when I left today. I also moved Margaret George’s novel about Mary, Queen of Scots from the biography section to the fiction section, and I fully expect to have to move her Henry VIII novel as well, as one invariably crops up in the biography section.)

Susan's Very Busy Day

As long-term readers of this blog know, each year I volunteer at the county's annual library sale. There, I unpack books and arrange them on tables. Until this year, the perk was first pick from over 450,000 books, but the country library gods got rid of that privilege this year, so we have to shop on Thursday with the rest of the public. (Bah, humbug.)

But anyway, this morning all of us were put to work getting the children's tables ready. This makes perfect sense, as teachers get to choose books for their classrooms on Wednesday and most of their haul comes from the juvenile section. Unfortunately, the juvenile and board board tables are the gulag of the library volunteer world. The books vary widely in size and are often oddly shaped, making them difficult to lay out on tables, and they're slippery. (Furthermore, for reasons I would prefer not to explore, they have a tendency to stick together.) Besides that, there are oodles of them. Moreover, seeing book after book featuring cover illustrations of Disney princesses and titles like Ducky Goes Potty brings out the curmudgeon in me. And finally (yes, I swear, this is really "finally), there is almost no chance of finding a complete set of the Paston Letters inadverently stuck in with the juvenile books.

However, my time in Juvenile was not fruitless, because while I was setting out Dora the Explorer books, I found myself wondering, What if someone wrote children's books about Henry VIII? Such as these:

Henry meets Anne Boleyn: Henry's New Friend

Jane Boleyn accuses Anne and her brother George of incest: Jane Tells a Fib

Anne gets executed: Anne's Really Bad Day

Jane Seymour marries Henry: Jane the New Girl

Henry's leg really starts to bother him: Henry's Boo-Boo

Henry dies: Big Changes for Edward

Incidentally, if you live in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, I did notice some good pickings: biographies of Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VI, and Henry VIII, among others; two copies of Julia Fox's book on Jane Boleyn, and plenty of biographies of Elizabeth I–and most of the history wasn't unpacked when I left today. I also moved Margaret George's novel about Mary, Queen of Scots from the biography section to the fiction section, and I fully expect to have to move her Henry VIII novel as well, as one invariably crops up in the biography section.)

The Queen, the Princess, and the Impatient Countess

I'm coming up for air after a busy couple of weeks, and haven't had time to prepare much of substance for the blog, but I thought you might enjoy seeing these two letters written on June 3, 1544, one from the Lady Mary (i.e., the future Mary I), one from Katherine Parr. Both are directed to Anne Seymour, then Countess of Hertford.

At the time the letters were written, Anne's husband, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, was serving in Scotland. Hertford had been corresponding regularly with his wife and receiving news from his servants about her welfare as well as that of the rest of his family. On April 19, 1544, he wrote in a draft letter to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, "My most hearty thanks for your lordship's kindly message to my wife in my absence." In a postscript, he added, "My wife begins to bring my grounds and walks at Sheene to greater perfection than I left them in." (The earl then added crisply, "Your lordship might show me no little pleasure by ordering the speedy removal of the bricks, slate, &c. of the 'celles' which you bought there.")

Despite keeping herself busy in the garden, however, the countess was evidently impatient for her husband's return, as the letters from Mary and Katherine Parr show. Mary's letter reads:

Madame, after my mooste herty comendacons this shalbe to advtise you that I have receyved yor lres [letters] and I hertely thanke you for yor kynde remembaunce and the desire ye have of my healthe I have byn nothing well as yet thes holydayes wherfore I praye you holde me excused that I write not this to you wt my hand. I have delyved yor lres unto the Queues grace who accepted the same very well. And thus, good Madame I byd you mooste hertely well to fare. At Saynt James the iii daye of June.

Your assured frend to my power duryng my lyef

Marye

The queen's letter:

Madam, my lord youre husbandes comyng hyther is not altered, for he schall come home before the Kynges maiestye take hys journey over the sees, as it pleasyth hys maiestye to declare to me of late. You maybe ryght asseuryd I wold not have forgotten my promyse to you in a mater of lesse effect than thys, and so I pray you most hartely to thynke. And thus wt my very harty conïendations to you I ende, wyshiug you so well to fare as I wold myself.

Your asseuryd frend,

Kateryn the Quene, K.P.

As promised by the queen, the countess got her wish about her husband: Hertford returned from Scotland a few weeks later and remained in England until August, when he joined Henry VIII in Boulogne.

Sources:

Barrett L. Beer, 'Seymour, Edward, duke of Somerset (c.1500–1552)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article..., accessed 23 March 2012]

Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Honorable the Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., Preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, Part I (1883).

Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of the Most Honourable the Marquess of Bath Preserved at Longleat, Vol. IV (1968).

Janel Mueller, Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence.  University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Goodreads Giveaway, Pinterest, and the Woodvilles

I know I haven't replied to the recent comments on my blog, and I apologize! I read everyone's comments and appreciate them immensely, but I've been busy these past few weeks with deadlines of various sorts. I'll try to be better about replying.

I did want to mention that I've put copies of Her Highness, the Traitor up for a giveaway at Goodreads. Anyone from the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia is welcome to enter.  The giveaway ends on April 2. You will have to join the Goodreads site to enter, and the Goodreads staff chooses the winners.

In my spare moments, I have had some fun on Pinterest. You can see the board I created for people, places, and things in Her Highness, the Traitor here.

And finally, longtime readers of this blog will remember that I've done a number of posts about Elizabeth Woodville and her family. After years of bemoaning the fact that there's no published nonfiction book about the entire Woodville family, save for a hostile and poorly researched one written by a fervent admirer of Richard III, I finally decided to stop whining and write one myself! My proposal has been accepted, so look for more details in the coming months as the project develops. In the meantime, here's my Pinterest Woodville board.

 

The Will of Mary Grey

On April 20, 1578, Mary Grey, the youngest daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and Frances Brandon, died at her house in St Botolph's-without-Aldersgate in London. Unlike her older sisters, Jane and Katherine, Mary died a free woman.

In 1565, while at the court of Elizabeth I, Mary had married Thomas Keyes, the sergeant porter at court. Their timing was extraordinarily poor, as Mary's sister Katherine had already been confined for making a match without royal permission. Elizabeth was no happier over Mary's match with Keyes, and the newlyweds were duly imprisoned.  Keyes was freed but died in 1571, having never been allowed to live with Mary as his wife. Mary was released in 1572. After staying with her stepfather, Adrian Stokes, for a time, she set up her own house in London, where she died at around age thirty-three. Three days before her death, she drew the following will.

The will was transcribed by W. L. Rutton and appears in the October 20, 1894, issue of Notes and Queries. For readability, I have broken up the various provisions into separate paragraphs.

Most of the people named in the will had close connections to Mary's family. Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, had been married to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, after the death of his wife Mary Tudor and thus was Mary's step-grandmother. After Brandon's death, Katherine married Richard Bertie and had two children by him, Susan and Peregrine. Susan was the Countess of Kent named by Mary. Peregrine's wife, Mary, was Mary de Vere, daughter of John de Vere, sixteenth earl of Oxford.

The Countess of Lincoln was Elizabeth Fitzgerald, married to Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln.

Lady Arundel is identified by Leanda de Lisle in The Sisters Who Would Be Queen as Mary's cousin Margaret Willoughby, married to Sir Matthew Arundel. Lisle identifies Lady Stafford as Dorothy Stafford, a sister of the rebel Thomas Stafford and a long-standing attendant upon Elizabeth I.

Lady Throckmorton was the former Anne Carew. She was the second wife of Mary's stepfather, Adrian Stokes.

Jane Merrick was a daughter of Thomas Keyes and thus was Mary's stepdaughter. Mary Merrick, Mary's namesake and goddaughter, was Jane Merrick's daughter.

Mrs. Morrison, Mary's "gossip," was her godmother.

Blanche Parry, who had served Elizabeth since the future queen's infancy, was chief gentlewoman of the queen's privy chamber from 1565 on.

The Will of Mary Grey

In the name of god Amen the xvij daye of Aprill in the years of our lord god 1578 And in the XXth years of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Ladye Elizabethe by the grace of god of England Fraunce and Irelande Queene defender of the faithe I the Ladye Marye Greye of the p'ishe of St. Botolphe wthout Aldersgat in the Citie of London widowe of wholl minde and of good and perfect remembraunce laude and praise be unto Almightie god therfor doe ordaine and make this my last will and testamente in manner and forme followinge repealinge herbie and utterlie revolkinge all former willes and testamentes whatsoever hertofor by me made and ordained

And furste as toutchinge my soull I comitt ye same to ye mercie of god Almightye my Savior and redemer by whose deathe and passione onelie wthout any other waies or meanes I truste to be saved under whose true churche I proteste myself unto the wholl world to die an humble and true repentant personne for my sinnes committed

And as for my bodie I commit the same to be buried where the Quens ma'tie shall thinke most meete and convenient

Itm. I will that all such debtes and duties as of right and consciens I doe owe unto any personn or persons be well and trulie contented and paide by myne execntores herafter by me made and ordained

Itm. I geave & bequeathe unto my verie good ladie and graundmother the Dutchess of Suffolks grace one paere of hand Braclettes of gould wth a jacinte stonne in eatche Bracelette wh Bracelattes were my l. grace my late mothers or els my Juell of unycornes horne wchsoever likethe here grace best to take And wchsoever herr grace refusathe I geave and bequeathe the same to my verie good ladie ye lady Susanna Countesse of Kente

Itm. I geave to my verie good lady and cosenne the countesse of Lincolne one girdle of gouldsmithes worke set all wth pearle and buttons of gould

Itm. I geave to my verie good l. and sister my l. Marie Bartye and to Mr Peregrine Bartye her husband my best gilt cupe and my best saltceller of sylver and gilt

Itm. I geave to my verie good I. and cowsene my I. Stafford a tablet of gould wth an aggett in it

Itm. I geave to my verie good l. my l. Arrundell one tankarde of sylver and gilt

Itm. I geave to my l. Margaret Nevell a traine kirtle of yellowe vellet wth a foreple belonginge to it of the same

Itm. I geave unto her also my best gowne of blacke vellet and a kirtle of blacke vellet to the same gowne wch is cutte under wth murrey farlett

Itm. I geave unto her more one petticotte of crimson satten garded about wth a blacke gard of vellet and a gould lace ymbrothered uppon the same

Itm. I geave to my verie good l. my l. Throckmortonne a boulle of silver and gilt wth a cover

Itm. I geave to my verie frend Mrs Blaunche a Parre a little gilt bowlle wth a cover to it

Itm. I geave to my verie good cosen Mrs Hall the elder one neaste of plaine small silver bowlles

Itm. I geave to my verie good cowsenn Mrs Duport the elder one standinge eup of silver and gilt wth a cover

Itm. I geave to my gossoppe Mrs Morrisonne a cowple of small silver bowles pinked

Itm. I geave more to my cowsenn Mrs Hall a gowne of blacke vellet set about wth buttons and a blacke vellet kirtle layed about wth a purple and blacke silke billmmer lace

Itm. I geave to my daughter Janne Merrick one good fethered bedde and a boulstere to the same and the three peres of hangings wch I have of myne owns and a cowple of covered stoolles

Itm. I will that the leasse of my howse wherin I now dwell be sould and the money comminge therof after the rent is paid I that is due to the landlord alreadie I geave the residue to Marrie Merrick my goddaughter to be kepte in the hand of my cowsen Edmond Haull to the use and behoof of the child untill suche tyme as shee either be married or accomplishe the tearme of xxj years

Itm. I geave to Marrie Fulleshurst xls And unto her sister Margaret Fulshurst vjl xiiis iiijd wch I will to be delivered to my cosenn Mr Toms. Duport to keepe and occupie for the wenches behalf untill suche tyme as thei either be married or accomplishe the tearme of xxj years

Itm. I geave to Rachell Broune iiijl to be likewise kepte in the handes of my cosen Edmond Hall to the use and commoditie of the wenche untill thee come either to be married or els to the tearme of xxj yeares as aforesaid

Itm. I giue to Anne Gouldwell my servant half a dozen of silver spones and twoe trenchers plattes of silver

Itm. I giue to Katherin Duport my servant one trencher platte of silver gilt about the eddge

Itm. I giue to Robt. Savell my servant my blacke coatche geldinge with my coatche and furniture belonging

Itm. I geave to Henrie Gouldwell my servant my baie coatche gelding

Itm. I giue unto William Parfoot [qy.; Parpoint erased] iiijl to binde him prentice to some good occupacon suche as my executores shall thinke meet and convenient

Itm. the residue of all my goodes and catteles boths moveable and immoveable leasses houshould stuffs jeuelles platte money dettes and all other my goodes by whatsoever name or names thei beare or ought to be called wch either I be myself or by myne owne handes have not geaven or befor in this my last will and testament not bequeathed or assigned I will that of the same be made the most that can be And my debtes being paide my funerall charges & expenses performed And theiss my legacies contaigned in this my p'sent testament fufiiled I will that the same be equallie devided amongst my forsaied servants

And the rest not named by the hands of my trustie and welbeloved cowsens Mr. Edmoud Hall and Mr. Thomas Duport esquires whome I constitude ordaine and make my executores of this my p'nt last will and testament hoping thei will finishe and accomplishe the same according to the effectes and my true meaninge herine as my assured hope and speciall trust is therin.

In witnesse wherof that this is my verie true last will and testament I have hereunto subscribed my name and set to my seall the day and yeare furst above written.

 

A Devoted Duchess: Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset

Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, was one of the more prickly personalities of the Tudor period, but among her attractive qualities was her devotion to her husband, which he repaid in full.  One of the most difficult periods in the couple's lives was in 1549, when Somerset, who as uncle to King Edward VI had the virtual rule of England as his nephew's Protector, fell dramatically from power.

Following the unrest of the summer of 1549, relations between Somerset and his fellow councilors had hopelessly deteriorated, and on October 6, Somerset hauled the young king from his comfortable chambers at Hampton Court and rode hard for Windsor Castle, which was unprepared to receive him.  (It seems likely that the king, who apparently caught cold on the journey, resented being seized in this manner.) Previously that day, the Protector had sent his unpopular wife away: "About five in the afternoon he sent his wife off to her house, and she went out weeping, very badly handled in words by the courtiers and peasants, who put all this trouble down to her."

It was in this state of mind that the duchess wrote this letter on October 8, 1549, to William, Lord Paget, one of the duke's most trusted advisers.

Good Master Comptroller,  I have receaved commendacons from yow by my brother, for which I geve yow thankes from a sorrowfull hart as ever woman had. Ah, good lorde, what a miserable vnnaturall tyme is this? What hath my lorde done to any of these noble men? or others? that they shulde thus rage and seke thextremitie to him and his that never had thought in the like towardes any of them. Ha, Master Comptroller, I have ever loved and trusted youe, for that I have seine in yow a perfyte honest frende to my lord who hath always made the same accompt and assuredly bare yow his good will and frendship as yow your selfe hath best tryall. God hath geven yow a great wisdome and a frendly nature. A, good Master Comptroller, for Christes bloodes sake spare not for payne study and wryting as I here yow do, the lyvinge God will prosper yow and yours the better. I knowe yow maye do muche good in these matters beinge a wiseman. Howe can God be content with this disorder to daungier the king and all the realme in sekinge extremities. God must nedes of his rightuousnes sore plage those that seketh these matters. Oh, that I could bere this as I ought to do with patience and quietnes, but it passeth all fraile fleshe to do. For knowynge so well my lordes innocency in all these maters taht they charge him with all, they be so vntrewe and most vnfriendly credyt taht surely it hath bene some wicked persone or persones taht furst sought this great vprore. I saye againe yf I could bere the tyme, I know well and assure my selfe taht God will kepe and defende him from all his enemies, as he hath alwais done hitherto. Good Master Comptroller, comefort my lorde as I trust yow do, both with counsaile and otherwise, for I muche feare he is sore greved at the hart, furst for the kinge and the realme, and as greatly to se these lordes frendeshippes so sclender to him as it doth appear and specially of some, albeit he hath pleasured them all. Alas, that ever any Christian realme shulde be so sclaundered. Thus to ende with all I crie to yow eftesones shewe youe, shewe your selfe like a wurthie counsailour and a servaunt to God and the kinge taht these tumultes might cease.

Anne Somerset

The tumults did soon cease, but not in the way the duchess would have preferred. By October 11, she was at her brother's house in Bedington, where Somerset had sent Richard Whalley, a relation of the duchess and one of his supporters, to "re-comfort her." Somerset, increasingly isolated, surrendered that same day. On October 14, he was imprisoned in the Tower. His wife then devoted herself to trying to win his release.  Van der Delft, the imperial ambassador, reported on December 19, 1549, that she was "always in [the] house" of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick (who would later emerge as the most powerful of Edward VI's councilors), and that she had won him over to her husband's side. A few days later, on Christmas Day, the duchess was allowed to visit her husband in the Tower "to his no little coumfort."

After her Tower visit, the duchess continued her efforts on behalf of her husband. Van der Delft reported on January 18, 1550, that "Warwick, who has succeeded in gaining full control of affairs, is openly favourable to the Protector, and their wives exchange banquets and festivities daily." (Jane Dudley, the Countess of Warwick, and Anne Seymour had known each other for some years: they were among the select group of courtiers who had attended Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine Parr.) On February 6, 1550, Somerset was released from the Tower, where after a stop at the sheriff's of London, "the duke toke his barge and passed to Savoye wheare my lady  hys wyff lyeth and hath kept hur chambor of a long tyme."

Following the Protector's release, the Earl of Warwick attempted a reconciliation with Somerset, which the men sealed by arranging the marriage of Warwick's eldest son to Somerset's daughter Anne. Van der Delft, however, wrote that it was said that "the two mothers have made the match." Whatever the truth of this, the wedding between their children was probably the high point of the relations between the two men. By 1551, Somerset was plotting against Warwick, and by October 1551, he was again a prisoner in the Tower. This time, the Duchess of Somerset would not be able to work on her husband's behalf, for she too was a prisoner. Only in August 1553, when the triumphant Mary I rode into London, would the duchess, widowed when her husband was executed on January 22, 1552, be set free.

Sources:

Barrett L. Beer, 'Seymour, Edward, duke of Somerset (c.1500–1552)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article..., accessed 19 Feb 2012]

Barrett L. Beer and Sybil M. Jack, eds., "The Letters of William, Lord Paget of Beaudesert, 1547-63." Camden Miscellany XXV, Camden Fourth Series, Volume 13, 1974.

Susan Brigden, ed., "The Letters of Richard Scudamore to Sir Philip Hoby, September 1549-March 1555." Camden Miscellany XXX, Camden Fourth Series, Volume 39, 1990.

Alan Bryson, "'The Speciall Men in Every Shere': The Edwardian Regime, 1547-1553." Ph.D. dissertation, University of St. Andrews, March 2001.

Alan Bryson, 'Whalley, Richard (1498/9–1583)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article..., accessed19 Feb 2012]

Calendar of State Papers, Spain

Patrick Fraser Tytler, ed., England Under the Reigns of Edward VI and Mary. Volume 1. London: Richard Bentley, 1839.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Guildford to Jane

 

Happy Valentine's Day from Guildford to Jane

 

Myths About Lady Jane Grey’s and Guildford Dudley’s Executions

On February 12, 1554, Lady Jane Grey was executed on Tower Green, shortly after her husband, Guildford Dudley, was executed on Tower Hill. The tragic deaths of the young people have spawned countless books and paintings, several films–and a number of myths. Here are some of them:

1. Philip of Spain, Queen Mary’s fiancé, insisted upon Lady Jane’s execution before he would marry the queen.

Philip’s supposed insistence upon Jane’s death before he would wed Mary has often been used in novels and in the film Lady Jane to depict Mary as a pathetic, aging hag so desperate for love that she would sacrifice a young girl’s life to keep from losing a prospective husband. Mary’s council did indeed urge the queen to execute Jane, and Simon Renard, the imperial ambassador, was clearly pleased at her decision to do so. But there is no evidence that Philip or his father, the Emperor Charles, demanded Jane’s death as a precondition to marriage or indeed that they even had a chance to do so, given the short period of time between the collapse of Wyatt’s rebellion (the uprising which sparked the decision to execute Jane and Guildford, who had been sentenced to death the previous year) on February 7 and the executions on February 12. Indeed, the decision to execute the couple appears to have been taken before the rebellion had even ended: Renard, writing to the emperor on Thursday, February 8, to report the collapse of the rebellion, believed that Jane and Guildford’s executions had been ordered for the previous Tuesday—February 6—but did not know whether they had been carried out. Renard’s letter to Charles on February 13 mentions Jane’s and Guildford’s deaths the day before almost offhandedly: “Since then it has been discovered that 400 or 500 gentlemen and others had a share in the plot, so the prisons will not suffice to hold them all. Yesterday Courtenay, chief of the conspiracy according to Wyatt, was committed to the Tower, and the Lady Elizabeth set out to come hither. She is expected to-morrow with an escort of 700 or 800 horse, and it is believed that she will soon be sent to the Tower, where Jane of Suffolk was yesterday executed, whilst her husband, Guildford, suffered in public. To-day 30 soldiers, men of some standing, were executed as an example to the people.”

Mary may or may not have been reluctant to execute Jane and Guildford, but she was certainly capable of resisting imperial pressure, as her refusal to execute her sister Elizabeth despite Renard’s urgings shows.

2.  Queen Mary offered to spare Jane’s life if she would convert to Catholicism.

Mary did send a priest, John Feckenham, to persuade Jane to accept the Catholic faith before she died, and gave her a three-day reprieve from execution while he attempted to convert her. Mary’s interest, however, was in saving Jane’s soul, not her life. As Giovanni Commendone, a papal official who was on hand for the events of 1553, related, “Once sentence was passed, it was sent to her a theologian of high repute who should try to persuade her and free her from that superstition in which she had grown up, so that when dying her body, the soul would not be lost.” One can speculate as to what might have happened had Feckenham succeeded in winning Jane’s conversion, of course, but little indicates that Mary, who had executed the Duke of Northumberland the previous August despite his own dramatic conversion to Catholicism, was offering any spiritual plea-bargains. (Incidentally, Jane did allow Feckenham to accompany her to the scaffold, where she took leave of him affectionately and told him “that during those few days she was more bored by him than frightened by the shadow of death.”)

3. Jane refused to write to her mother before her death.

Jane wrote messages to her father and to her sister Katherine before her death, but no message to Frances survives, prompting many to cite this omission on Jane’s part as proof of Frances’s shortcomings as a mother. In fact, Michelangelo Florio, who had served as Jane’s tutor in Italian, stated in Historia de la vita e de la morte … Signora Giovanna Graia that Jane wrote to Frances before her death. It  may simply be that the letter to Frances was lost or destroyed, particularly if it was purely of a personal, and not religious, nature.

On a related note, Jane is said to have written two messages to her father, one of which appears in her prayer book, the other of which is a letter which begins “Father, although it hath pleased God to hasten my death by you, by whom my life should rather have been lengthened . . . “ The prayer book, of course, survives in the British Library, but as Eric Ives in his book on Lady Jane Grey has noted, the original of the letter does not. It first appeared in the 1570 edition of John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. As Ives points out, the style of the two writings differs considerably: Jane addresses her father, the Duke of Suffolk, in the unquestionably authentic prayer book as “Your grace,” whereas the letter begins abruptly, “Father.” Ives also notes that the letter refers to the duke’s imprisonment (he was brought to the Tower on February 10) and questions why Jane would need to write to her father twice within a short period of time. Thus, there is good reason to doubt the authenticity of the letter.

4. Guildford Dudley wept copiously on his way to the scaffold and at his execution.

Guildford Dudley has been portrayed in both nonfiction and in most historical novels as sniveling his way to the scaffold, his undignified  behavior being contrasted to that of his calm, self-possessed wife. In fact, the one contemporary account of his death indicates that while walking to the scaffold without a priest but surrounded by well-wishers, he conducted himself with quiet dignity. On the scaffold, he simply made a short, unrecorded speech and prayed a great deal, without losing control of his emotions.

The monday, being the xijth of Februarie, about ten of the clocke, ther went out of the Tower to the scaffolde on Tower hill, the lorde Guilforde Dudley, sone to the late duke of Northumberland, husbande to the lady Jane Grey, daughter to the duke of Suffolke, who at his going out tooke by the hande sir Anthony Browne, maister John Throgmorton, and many other gentyllmen, praying them to praie for him; and without the bullwarke Offeley the sheryve receyved him and brought him to the scaffolde, where, after a small declaration, having no gostlye father with him, he kneeled downe and said his praiers; then holding upp his eyes and handes to God many tymes; and at last, after he had desyred the people to pray for him, he laide himselfe along, and his hedd upon the block, which was at one stroke of the axe taken from him.

5. Jane’s faithful old servant, Nurse Ellen, attended her at her death.

Jane was indeed accompanied to the scaffold by two gentlewomen, identified by the Tower chronicler as Mistress Elizabeth Tylney and “Mistress Eleyn,” but the notion that Mistress Ellen was her childhood nurse is a modern invention. Exactly who Mistress Ellen was, unfortunately, is unknown: Leanda de Lisle suggests that “Ellen” might be a variant of “Allan” and that Mistress Eleyn might have been part of the Fitzalan family.

6. Jane was pregnant when she died.

Thomas Chaloner, writing after Mary I’s death, wrote in an elegy (as translated by Dr. J. Stephan Edwards) that Mary “was not stirred by [Jane’s] youth nor fortitude, nor by nearness of blood, nor (so holy) by pregnancy.” As Edwards notes, there is no other evidence that Jane was pregnant at the time of her death; indeed, since she had not been with Guildford since July 1553, her pregnancy would have been far advanced in February 1554 and is highly unlikely to have escaped notice. (On a related note, the episode in the film Lady Jane where Guildford and Jane enjoy a night of love-making the evening before their deaths is entirely fictitious; indeed, Jane is on record as having declined to have a farewell visit with Guildford on the ground that it would only distress them both.) Something about young women and the Tower seems to have stirred otherwise sensible men to flights of fancy: Renard, reporting on February 17 that Mary’s sister Elizabeth was on her way to the Tower, insisted that the future Virgin Queen was known to be pregnant.