Her Execution
Lady Jane and her husband were shortly after committed prisoners to the Tower where her father and mother were also confined. It is said by historians that Mary had determined at one time on pardoning the young and innocent pair who had through the influence of others usurped her crown. An assertion attested by the release of Suffolk shortly after her accession. However, as if this wretched man were determined to be the murderer of his daughter, he almost immediately on his liberation joined Wyat's insurrection for which he was condemned to the block, involving his unfortunate daughter, together with her husband in the same fate.
But it was not in the power of misfortune to destroy the composure of spirit which the Lady Jane had received from her Faith in God, nor could any fault of her father alienate her affections from him or make her for one moment forget the love to which he had forfeited almost every title. The beautiful letter which she wrote to her father from the Tower when she heard that remorse had at length seized upon him and that he had become unhappy at the thought of his being the author of her death, more than with any apprehension of his own, indicates at once her devotion to her family and her resignation to Yahweh’s divine will.
“Father, although it hath pleased God to hasten my death by you, by whom my life should rather have been lengthened, yet I can so patiently take it that I yield God more hearty thanks for shortening my woful days, than if all the world had been given into my possession with life lengthened at my own will. And albeit, I am very well assured of your impatient dolours, redoubled many ways both in bewailing your own woe and especially as I am informed my woful estate, yet my dear father, if I may without offence rejoice in my own mishaps, herein I may account myself blessed, that washing my hands with the innocence of my fact, my guiltless blood may cry before the Lord Mercy to the innocent.”
“And yet, though I must need acknowledge that being constrained, and as you know well enough continually assayed, yet in taking upon me I seemed to consent and therein greviously offended the queen and her laws, yet do I assuredly trust, that this my offence towards God is so much the less in that being in so royal estate as I was, my enforced honour never mingled with mine innocent heart. And thus good father, I have opened unto you the state wherein I presently stand, my death at hand, although to you perhaps it may seem woful, yet to me there is that can be more welcome than from this vale misery, to aspire to that heavenly throne of all and pleasure with Christ my Saviour in steadfast faith, if it may be lawful for the so to write to the father, the Lord that hath strengthened you so continue to keep you, that at the last we may meet in heaven with Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I am Your obedient daughter till death. JANE DUDLEY” (The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: with a Memoir of Her Life, by N. H Nicolas, 1825, pg. 47 - 48)
Friday, 12th of February was fixed for the day of their execution. On the fatal morning, her husband Lord Guilford earnestly desired that he might take his last farewell of her, but she advised the contrary. Assuring him that such a meeting would rather add to his afflictions and weaken, rather than strengthen him for the hour of trial. She encouraged him to take strength from his own reason and derive constancy from his own heart, that if his soul were not firm and settled she could not settle it with her eyes, nor confirm it by her words. Instead, he should remit this desired meeting to another world where their friendship was happy and unions in-dissolvable and theirs eternal if they carried nothing with them which might hinder them from rejoicing.
All she could do was give him a farewell out of the window as he passed towards the place of his execution on Tower Hill where he suffered with much fortitude. His dead body being laid in a car and his head wrapped up in a linen cloth, which were carried to the chapel within the Tower passing under the window of the Lady Jane. She beheld this spectacle of her own accord and immediately after wrote the three following sentences in her table book, thus exhibiting in her whole conduct a degree of heroism and resignation which is perfectly astonishing in one so young. The first was in Greek of which the sense was:
“If his slain body shall give testimony against me before men, his most blessed soul shall render an eternal proof of my innocence in the presence of God”
The second was in Latin:
“The justice of men took away his body, but the divine mercy has preserved his soul.”
The third was in English:
“If my fault deserved punishment, my youth at least and my imprudence were worthy of excuse. God's posterity will show me favour”
In the place of her confinement the following lines, originally written in Latin were found scratched with a pin:
“Stand not secure who stand in mortal state. What's mine today shall next day be thy fate. If heaven protect, hell's malice cannot wound. By heaven deserted, peace can never be found. The shadows part, I hope for light”
About an hour after the death of her husband, she was led out to the scaffold which was prepared for her on the green over against the White Tower. It is said that the council had resolved to have her beheaded on the same scaffold with her husband, but considering how much they were both pitied and the Lady Jane beloved, it was determined in order to prevent commotions, that the execution should be performed within the Tower. She was taken to and attended on the scaffold by Feckenham, the Catholic abbot of Westminster who had endeavoured since her condemnation to make a convert of her, but without success.
She was observed not to give heed to his discourses, keeping her eyes constantly fixed on the prayer book which she held in her hand. After a short time, she saluted those who were present with a countenance perfectly composed, then taking leave of the priest, she said:
“God will abundantly requite you good Sir, for your humanity to me through your discourses give me more uneasiness than all the terrors of my approaching death”
She next addressed herself to the spectators in a plain short speech in which she acknowledged the justice of her sentence, saying that her offence was not laying her hand upon the crown, but not having rejected it with sufficient firmness:
“My lords, and you good Christian people which come to see me die. I am under a law and by that law as a never erring judge, I am condemned to die, not for anything I have offended the Queen's Majesty, for I will wash my hands guiltless thereof, and deliver to my God a soul as pure from such trespass, as innocence from injustice; but only for that I consented to the thing which I was enforced unto, constraint making the law believe I did that which I never understood. Notwithstanding, I have offended Almighty God in that I have followed over much the lust of mine own flesh, and the pleasures of this wretched world, neither have I lived according to the knowledge that God hath given me, for which cause God hath appointed unto me this kind of death, and that most worthily, according to my deserts; how be it I thank him heartily that he hath given me time to repent my sins here in this world, and to reconcile myself to my redeemer, whom my former vanities have in a great measure displeased.”
“Wherefore my lords and all you good Christian people, I must earnestly desire you all to pray with and for me whilst I am yet alive, that God of his infinite goodness and mercy will forgive me my sins, how numberless and grievous soever against him, and I beseech you all to bear me witness that I here die a true Christian woman professing and avouching from my soul that I trust to be saved by the blood passion and merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour only, and by none other means, casting far behind me all the works and merits of mine own actions as things so far short of the true duty I owe, that I quake to think how much they may stand up against me. And now I pray you all, pray for me and with me” (The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: with a Memoir of Her Life, by N. H Nicolas, 1825, pg. 52 - 53)
Accordingly, she willingly received death as the only satisfaction she could now make to the injured state and though her infringement of the laws had been constrained, she could show by her voluntary submission to their sentence that she was desirous to atone for that disobedience into which too much devotion to her family had misled her.
Then kneeling down, she said the Miserere in English after which she stood up and gave her women her gloves and her handkerchief, and the lieutenant of the Tower her prayer book who had begged some memorial. When she untied her gown, the executioner offered to assist her, but she gently asked him to desist and turning to her women, they undressed and gave her a handkerchief to bind round her eyes. The executioner kneeling and asking her pardon to which she answered “Most willingly”. Desiring her to stand upon the straw which brought her near the block, she said “I pray despatch me quickly”, adding after “Will you take it off before I lay me down?” He replied, “No madam”
After this, the handkerchief being bound close over her eyes, she began to feel for the block to which she was guided by one of the spectators. When she felt it, she stretched herself forward and said:
“Lord into thy hands, I commend my spirit” and immediately at one stroke her head was severed from her body.
But it was not in the power of misfortune to destroy the composure of spirit which the Lady Jane had received from her Faith in God, nor could any fault of her father alienate her affections from him or make her for one moment forget the love to which he had forfeited almost every title. The beautiful letter which she wrote to her father from the Tower when she heard that remorse had at length seized upon him and that he had become unhappy at the thought of his being the author of her death, more than with any apprehension of his own, indicates at once her devotion to her family and her resignation to Yahweh’s divine will.
“Father, although it hath pleased God to hasten my death by you, by whom my life should rather have been lengthened, yet I can so patiently take it that I yield God more hearty thanks for shortening my woful days, than if all the world had been given into my possession with life lengthened at my own will. And albeit, I am very well assured of your impatient dolours, redoubled many ways both in bewailing your own woe and especially as I am informed my woful estate, yet my dear father, if I may without offence rejoice in my own mishaps, herein I may account myself blessed, that washing my hands with the innocence of my fact, my guiltless blood may cry before the Lord Mercy to the innocent.”
“And yet, though I must need acknowledge that being constrained, and as you know well enough continually assayed, yet in taking upon me I seemed to consent and therein greviously offended the queen and her laws, yet do I assuredly trust, that this my offence towards God is so much the less in that being in so royal estate as I was, my enforced honour never mingled with mine innocent heart. And thus good father, I have opened unto you the state wherein I presently stand, my death at hand, although to you perhaps it may seem woful, yet to me there is that can be more welcome than from this vale misery, to aspire to that heavenly throne of all and pleasure with Christ my Saviour in steadfast faith, if it may be lawful for the so to write to the father, the Lord that hath strengthened you so continue to keep you, that at the last we may meet in heaven with Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I am Your obedient daughter till death. JANE DUDLEY” (The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: with a Memoir of Her Life, by N. H Nicolas, 1825, pg. 47 - 48)
Friday, 12th of February was fixed for the day of their execution. On the fatal morning, her husband Lord Guilford earnestly desired that he might take his last farewell of her, but she advised the contrary. Assuring him that such a meeting would rather add to his afflictions and weaken, rather than strengthen him for the hour of trial. She encouraged him to take strength from his own reason and derive constancy from his own heart, that if his soul were not firm and settled she could not settle it with her eyes, nor confirm it by her words. Instead, he should remit this desired meeting to another world where their friendship was happy and unions in-dissolvable and theirs eternal if they carried nothing with them which might hinder them from rejoicing.
All she could do was give him a farewell out of the window as he passed towards the place of his execution on Tower Hill where he suffered with much fortitude. His dead body being laid in a car and his head wrapped up in a linen cloth, which were carried to the chapel within the Tower passing under the window of the Lady Jane. She beheld this spectacle of her own accord and immediately after wrote the three following sentences in her table book, thus exhibiting in her whole conduct a degree of heroism and resignation which is perfectly astonishing in one so young. The first was in Greek of which the sense was:
“If his slain body shall give testimony against me before men, his most blessed soul shall render an eternal proof of my innocence in the presence of God”
The second was in Latin:
“The justice of men took away his body, but the divine mercy has preserved his soul.”
The third was in English:
“If my fault deserved punishment, my youth at least and my imprudence were worthy of excuse. God's posterity will show me favour”
In the place of her confinement the following lines, originally written in Latin were found scratched with a pin:
“Stand not secure who stand in mortal state. What's mine today shall next day be thy fate. If heaven protect, hell's malice cannot wound. By heaven deserted, peace can never be found. The shadows part, I hope for light”
About an hour after the death of her husband, she was led out to the scaffold which was prepared for her on the green over against the White Tower. It is said that the council had resolved to have her beheaded on the same scaffold with her husband, but considering how much they were both pitied and the Lady Jane beloved, it was determined in order to prevent commotions, that the execution should be performed within the Tower. She was taken to and attended on the scaffold by Feckenham, the Catholic abbot of Westminster who had endeavoured since her condemnation to make a convert of her, but without success.
She was observed not to give heed to his discourses, keeping her eyes constantly fixed on the prayer book which she held in her hand. After a short time, she saluted those who were present with a countenance perfectly composed, then taking leave of the priest, she said:
“God will abundantly requite you good Sir, for your humanity to me through your discourses give me more uneasiness than all the terrors of my approaching death”
She next addressed herself to the spectators in a plain short speech in which she acknowledged the justice of her sentence, saying that her offence was not laying her hand upon the crown, but not having rejected it with sufficient firmness:
“My lords, and you good Christian people which come to see me die. I am under a law and by that law as a never erring judge, I am condemned to die, not for anything I have offended the Queen's Majesty, for I will wash my hands guiltless thereof, and deliver to my God a soul as pure from such trespass, as innocence from injustice; but only for that I consented to the thing which I was enforced unto, constraint making the law believe I did that which I never understood. Notwithstanding, I have offended Almighty God in that I have followed over much the lust of mine own flesh, and the pleasures of this wretched world, neither have I lived according to the knowledge that God hath given me, for which cause God hath appointed unto me this kind of death, and that most worthily, according to my deserts; how be it I thank him heartily that he hath given me time to repent my sins here in this world, and to reconcile myself to my redeemer, whom my former vanities have in a great measure displeased.”
“Wherefore my lords and all you good Christian people, I must earnestly desire you all to pray with and for me whilst I am yet alive, that God of his infinite goodness and mercy will forgive me my sins, how numberless and grievous soever against him, and I beseech you all to bear me witness that I here die a true Christian woman professing and avouching from my soul that I trust to be saved by the blood passion and merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour only, and by none other means, casting far behind me all the works and merits of mine own actions as things so far short of the true duty I owe, that I quake to think how much they may stand up against me. And now I pray you all, pray for me and with me” (The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: with a Memoir of Her Life, by N. H Nicolas, 1825, pg. 52 - 53)
Accordingly, she willingly received death as the only satisfaction she could now make to the injured state and though her infringement of the laws had been constrained, she could show by her voluntary submission to their sentence that she was desirous to atone for that disobedience into which too much devotion to her family had misled her.
Then kneeling down, she said the Miserere in English after which she stood up and gave her women her gloves and her handkerchief, and the lieutenant of the Tower her prayer book who had begged some memorial. When she untied her gown, the executioner offered to assist her, but she gently asked him to desist and turning to her women, they undressed and gave her a handkerchief to bind round her eyes. The executioner kneeling and asking her pardon to which she answered “Most willingly”. Desiring her to stand upon the straw which brought her near the block, she said “I pray despatch me quickly”, adding after “Will you take it off before I lay me down?” He replied, “No madam”
After this, the handkerchief being bound close over her eyes, she began to feel for the block to which she was guided by one of the spectators. When she felt it, she stretched herself forward and said:
“Lord into thy hands, I commend my spirit” and immediately at one stroke her head was severed from her body.