Episode 2 England's Forgotten Queen: The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey


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The Tudors are historical superstars,

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our most famous Royal Dynasty.

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But there is one Tudor monarch who's been all but forgotten -

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Queen Jane.

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Lady Jane Grey was a teenager thrust onto the throne,

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only to lose her crown after just nine days.

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She was the first woman to be proclaimed Queen of England,

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but few would recognise the name Queen Jane.

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I'm Helen Castor, and over three episodes I'm going to take

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a forensic look at Jane's story.

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It is a Tudor thriller, an epic tale of family conflict...

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..ambition and betrayal.

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The death of a King covered up

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and a country torn between two faiths.

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Our protagonists include the manipulative Duke...

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..the wronged princess...

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..and the God-fearing 15-year-old

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who finds herself caught between them,

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and pays with her life.

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I'm going to track down original sources,

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written as the drama unfolds.

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This is the really exciting bit of the job.

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I'll talk to expert colleagues.

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I've been in this game for 40 years,

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and I have to tell you, there is no trickier Tudor subject

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than Jane Grey.

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And I'll visit the places where Jane once walked

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during the nine days that she reigned.

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In this episode I'll unpick the story of the next five days

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of Jane's reign, and the dramatic events that will decide

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the identity of England's Queen and its religion.

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It's 12th July, 1553.

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Jane Grey is Queen,

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but Mary Tudor intends to do everything in her power to seize the crown.

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Jane is in the Tower of London,

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Mary's at Kenninghall in Norfolk.

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Jane has the support of the Privy Council,

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the whole machinery of state,

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and has the Tower's weapons at her command.

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Mary has none of these things.

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No-one believes she's got a chance.

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She's a woman with a household in East Anglia

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that's full of local yokel Catholic gentry men,

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you know, nobody who's got any political experience.

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And, instead, Lady Jane Grey is

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in the Tower of London, of course, the great fortress of the city,

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the armoury, the munitions,

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you know, everything is under the control of Lady Jane Grey

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and the Duke of Northumberland.

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No-one rates Mary's chances whatsoever.

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Until just a few months ago,

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Mary, a devout Catholic, was heir to the throne, but her brother,

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Edward VI, who was determined that the country should remain Protestant

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had secretly changed the succession in favour of their cousin, Jane Grey.

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When Edward died, a powerful group of noblemen,

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led by the Duke of Northumberland,

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declared Jane Queen before Mary could protest.

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On 12th July, it seems as though

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Jane and her supporters have won.

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Jane is confidently signing letters, "Jane the Queen".

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But Mary, at her manor of Kenninghall, has also been sending out letters -

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hers signed, "Mary the Queen" -

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summon her loyal subjects to resist Jane

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and to rally in support of her own claim to the throne.

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And by 12th July,

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this call to arms, issued by a lone woman,

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is beginning to work.

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Mary's forces are able to gather together very quickly,

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one, because they're local,

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and, two, because they believe in her cause.

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And this is why she's gone to East Anglia in the first place,

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because she's also a major landowner there,

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so she's pulling all the threads of her...

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possible roots of allegiance together.

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Some of them would have been there because they had an obligation,

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being tenants of Mary, probably a lot of them are Catholics,

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but even if they aren't Catholics, they believe

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she is the rightful claimant to the throne.

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From farm workers to local landowners,

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men begin to arrive at Kenninghall to show their support.

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On the morning of the 12th Mary makes the bold decision

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to relocate her gathering forces, of around 600 at this point,

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South East to Framlingham Castle in Suffolk.

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Why would Mary take such a risk?

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And how does she manage the perilous journey with such limited resources?

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-Mark.

-Hello, Helen, nice to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you.

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Jane's in the Tower,

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Mary's in Norfolk with her cobbled-together forces,

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and she has to move from Kenninghall to Framlingham.

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How did armies move with all their gear?

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How exposed were they on the road?

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They'd certainly be visible.

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Moving around the countryside, would draw attention.

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And the problem is, she wants to move quite fast,

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so she's not got a huge baggage train with her,

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so men are living off the land,

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and because they don't have carts and things with them,

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they're most likely wearing everything that they're going to be needing.

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If we're looking at the sort of people who are coming out

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to support Mary, then we're looking at local militias,

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we're looking at people who are wearing maybe Grandad's old armour

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from Bosworth, or maybe not even as good as that.

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So, what was on their backs?

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Well, this is called a brigandine,

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it's like, almost like a modern army flak vest.

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Then of course we have the most important part of the body's armour - your head.

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So, this is an armet, it's a very complicated continental helmet.

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You can't afford one of those if you're a local yokel,

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so, I'm afraid, if you are someone of the lower orders

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you're going to be equipped with a simple skullcap, like this.

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-A tin can.

-Simply a tin can, a bit sturdy, not a thing of beauty.

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And, more importantly, doesn't really protect the face,

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or especially the throat.

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Medieval and Renaissance warfare is brutal,

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it's up close, it's very, very... It's a tough guy's world.

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Mary is leading her men over open country in active rebellion against Jane...

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..to a 12th-century fortress that formed part of her East Anglian estates.

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Why did Mary come here to Framlingham?

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Well, she was growing out of Kenninghall.

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I mean, Kenninghall was a manor house,

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but, you know, forces were now gathering in several thousand,

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and so, it wasn't really a place from which to

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mobilise a force or muster a force, and of course it wasn't a place

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where she could make a statement of her intent.

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Of course she'd by now proclaimed herself Queen,

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so she needed a fortress, she needed a base from which to rally forces,

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but also get ready to engage for battle.

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And it's well situated, looks over the East Suffolk countryside.

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It would be a place where she can keep an eye out for forces from London,

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she could rally her troops,

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and it was somewhere which could be defended.

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Mary's right to be on the lookout for troops from London

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as she makes her dash to Framlingham, because

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Northumberland is in the Tower readying an army to confront her.

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The 12th July is a critical point in Jane's nine-day reign,

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with events moving quickly on both sides.

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Local merchant Henry Machyn describes the ammunition and weapons

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he saw being brought into the Tower on the 12th.

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He recorded, "Three carts full of all manner of ordnance,

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"such as great guns and small bows,

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"bills, spears, Moorish pikes,

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"armour, arrows, gunpowder and stakes,

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"a great number of cannonballs."

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With so much sophisticated weaponry,

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Jane and Northumberland have no reason to be concerned,

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so they take their time responding to Mary's challenge.

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He would have thought, "Well, you know,

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"she's got lots of peasants on her side.

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"I have the guns,

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"I have the cavalry,

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"I have," you know, "the power that matters."

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Northumberland was the puppet master who'd placed Jane on the throne -

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the most powerful man in England,

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supremely confident in his abilities.

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He was clearly an exceptionally skilled politician.

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He must have had outstanding

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interpersonal skills, as we would say today.

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He was non-titled,

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he was not hereditary nobility.

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Through his own sheer ability,

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he had worked his way up and became Admiral of the Fleet.

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He had served in the military and put down rebellions in the north.

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He was clearly someone who had enormous ability as a bureaucrat,

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as a governor, as a military leader, as a politician.

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And I think we need to admire him to a certain extent for that.

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Northumberland has focused on securing the Tower and the machinery of state.

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It suggests that at this point he doesn't see Mary as a serious threat.

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Somebody said at the time about Northumberland,

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he despised the plans of a mere woman, meaning Mary,

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but he wasn't alone in that.

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They all underestimated her,

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and that was Northumberland's biggest mistake.

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-That he had Westminster blinkers on...

-Exactly.

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..that he thought if he controlled all the levers of power

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at the centre, everything else would just fall into place.

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Exactly. But she was already gathering forces

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but, to his mind, not very impressive forces.

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They were largely the common people, ordinary people.

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They weren't the great nobles.

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The great nobles, on the whole, all supported Jane.

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He wasn't expecting Mary to decide to raise a standard

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and go to battle - that was a huge and tremendous shock,

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not just to him, but to the whole Privy Council,

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they simply couldn't believe it and were absolutely horrified.

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And raising forces was a key question in all of this, wasn't it?

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Because the Crown didn't have a police force

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or a standing army at its disposal.

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Yes, I think that's one of the interesting things about

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the English monarchy, they didn't have armies of their own.

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Certainly you could pay for them,

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and Jane did offer double the normal rate

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to anyone who was prepared to fight for her against Mary.

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Despite offering high wages, Jane's camp struggles to attract an army,

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but people are joining Mary by choice.

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Why do they flock to her, even though she's the underdog?

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Why do so many ordinary people believe in her claim to the crown?

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To find answers, we need to go back to her childhood.

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What was Mary's life like in the years before

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-the succession crisis of 1553?

-Well, how long have you got?

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She had an epic life.

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I mean, Mary's life to be characterised by fortune and adversity.

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I mean, it swung from royal favour to profound neglect.

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She was born, of course,

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the first child of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII,

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and was described at the time as a token of hope.

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But then, of course, it all changed with Henry becoming infatuated with

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Anne Boleyn, and then the 20-year marriage between Mary's parents

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was, of course, as we all know, brought to an end

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with the break with Rome. And with the birth of Elizabeth,

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Mary basically went from being a princess to a royal bastard.

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She became the King's illegitimate daughter.

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She was stripped of her status, she became Lady Mary.

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Absolutely extreme turn of events.

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When Henry divorced Catherine and then executed Anne Boleyn,

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Mary and Elizabeth were both declared to be illegitimate

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and cut from the line of succession.

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But later, Henry made clear that

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if his only son, Edward, were to die childless,

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he still wanted his daughters to inherit the throne.

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During Henry's reign, by his will and by Act of Parliament in 1544,

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the succession is Edward, to be followed,

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in the event of Edward not having any heirs himself,

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first by Mary and then Elizabeth.

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So although both Mary and Elizabeth were actually regarded as

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illegitimate, they're back in the succession.

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And so it was quite easy for Mary to say

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"Look, I am the rightful heir under my father's will."

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That was approved not just once by Parliament,

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but in two Parliamentary Acts.

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And she was simply, you know, defending her right.

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But Edward, on his deathbed,

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removed his half sisters from the succession again,

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and undid what all of England considered the natural order.

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I mean, basically Edward thought that, just like Dad,

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he had the right to dictate his own succession settlement.

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He was absolutely determined that he was going to exclude

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his two half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, from the succession

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because he maintained that they were illegitimate,

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and, of course, they had been proclaimed as bastards

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by Parliament, by Edward's father.

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But as far as the public were concerned, Mary had the blood claim

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to the throne, no matter what Westminster said.

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And there was another reason just as powerful.

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And of course, religion came very much into it,

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because Edward had brought in a Protestant settlement

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with his advisers, and was himself a bigoted Protestant.

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And of course, Mary was a Catholic.

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Following on from his father's break with Rome,

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Edward had been intent on ridding the country of Catholicism.

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Church walls were whitewashed,

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statues and stained glass destroyed,

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and the Prayer Book was radically changed.

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I think it's difficult to overstate how dramatic this change would have been.

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Religion was so fundamental a part of people's lives.

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To make even the smallest change in that would really

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undermine people's sense not only of faith, but of normalcy,

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of the sense in which there was something that

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they could depend on and trust.

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If we take, for example,

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the removal of the sung Masses for the souls of the dead.

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If you've always been taught that in order for your loved one's soul

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to go to heaven you have to have this sung Mass,

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to suddenly have that taken away from you,

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well, not only do you worry about the soul of your family member,

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your loved one, but you start to wonder whether or not that was

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necessary in the first place, who gets to decide these things?

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Is there any sort of foundational basis that you can trust

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in order to base your belief?

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So, your sense of the world, this life and the next one,

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is being changed before your very eyes.

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I think it's important to keep in mind that it's not just changes in

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the practice of religion, but changes in people's very mind-sets.

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They are being told what to think and what to believe,

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and whenever you attempt to do that, you're going to create division,

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and that's exactly what we see happening.

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In July 1553, the choice the country faced was not just Jane or Mary,

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it was Protestant or Catholic.

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Mary had no intention of abandoning her devoutly held beliefs.

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She had carried on celebrating the Catholic Mass even while her brother

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was alive, and that had caused a deep rift between them.

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We know this because, unusually for a King, Edward tells us himself.

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He kept a diary. Not a record of his innermost thoughts,

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but a chronicle of the events of his own reign.

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Edward wrote his diary between 1547 and 1552.

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It's a remarkable document that gives us glimpses of Mary's past,

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and helps explain what sort of opponent she was.

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This is the really exciting bit of the job.

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I've read the text of Edward's diary before,

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but I've never seen the original manuscript until today.

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-Hello, Andrea.

-Hi, hi.

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Thank you so much for bringing this.

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-It looks like it's holding up well.

-Yes.

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Oh, so it's got some of his... These letters to start with.

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Some of his letters at the very beginning.

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This is a letter in Edward's hand.

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And this is the beginning of his diary.

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"18th August, 1550.

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"My Lord Warwick was made General Warden of the North,

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"and Mr Herbert..."

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"A shilling fell from ninepence to sixpence,

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"a groat from threepence to twopence..."

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"I wrote back a letter saying that I marvelled that he could refuse" to sign that Bill...

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It's an extraordinary thing to read the King's own record

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of his daily life, in his own handwriting.

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And to touch the paper that Edward touched is spine-tingling.

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The diary makes clear Mary's strength of character

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in resisting Edward's Protestant reforms.

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Mary becomes this figure of opposition.

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Edward, young brother, is going,

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"Right, we're going to really kick on with the Reformation."

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Mary is defiant in her Catholicism,

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and so brother and sister have these really full-on spats.

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"18th March, 1551.

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"The Lady Mary, my sister, came to me at Westminster."

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She came, but she came with a show of defiance.

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She rode through London with 130 attendants,

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each one holding a rosary as a sign of their outlawed Catholic faith.

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Edward challenged his sister directly...

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..and the two had terrible arguments.

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Mary's saying to Edward, you know, "You're my little brother.

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"I'm not listening to you, I'm not taking orders from you."

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And he's saying to Mary, his older sister, "But I'm the King.

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"You need to stop saying Mass," and Mary's like, "Absolutely not."

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And massive pressure's being put on her.

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Some of her household officers are imprisoned for refusing

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to stop saying the Mass, you know, in Mary's household,

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and it really does get pretty emotional.

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But of course, it has a much bigger, dangerous, you know, context,

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which is Catholic versus Protestant, what is the future going to be?

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Protestantism has marginalised and oppressed Mary,

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but her brother's death is her opportunity to claim the throne,

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and she's determined to grasp it.

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She had survived the break with Rome,

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she had survived her brother's Reformation, and I believe

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she was intent on surviving this latest crisis as well.

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She saw this as her, kind of, divine duty.

0:19:330:19:37

You know, God was preserving her through these years

0:19:370:19:40

in order to bring about the Catholic Restoration.

0:19:400:19:43

And in the attempt to achieve her goal,

0:19:430:19:46

Mary had two important advantages.

0:19:460:19:48

While some people had embraced the new Protestant faith,

0:19:500:19:53

large parts of the country were still attached to traditional forms

0:19:530:19:56

of worship, and in Mary they saw a champion of the old ways.

0:19:560:20:01

Not only that, but most people in England saw Mary as

0:20:010:20:05

the rightful heir, while Jane was barely known.

0:20:050:20:09

Not a Queen, but a usurper of the Tudor line.

0:20:090:20:12

And, as a result, increasing numbers of both Catholics and Protestants

0:20:130:20:17

were rallying to Mary's cause.

0:20:170:20:20

As Mary's support grows,

0:20:270:20:29

Jane's camp are still planning their countermove.

0:20:290:20:33

In the Tower, the Privy Council have chosen Jane's father, Henry Grey,

0:20:330:20:37

a Duke with no track record as a military leader,

0:20:370:20:40

to command the army against Mary.

0:20:400:20:42

Such a bad idea.

0:20:440:20:46

He'd no military training, no military experience.

0:20:460:20:49

No ability at anything very much.

0:20:490:20:51

No, I mean, Henry VIII had deliberately excluded Henry Grey

0:20:510:20:57

from the Garter for year after year after year after year.

0:20:570:21:02

Henry VIII was a good judge of character,

0:21:020:21:05

he knew what men had ability and what men did not.

0:21:050:21:08

Jane's father had ambition, but no discernible talent.

0:21:080:21:11

I think he had ambition...

0:21:110:21:14

..and no ability, and no desire to work toward that ambition.

0:21:150:21:20

He wanted it handed to him on a plate.

0:21:200:21:23

The Order of the Garter was a chivalric honour given by the King,

0:21:270:21:31

and Henry VIII hadn't thought Henry Grey much of a soldier.

0:21:310:21:34

Now, some time during the 12th, there was a change of plan.

0:21:350:21:39

Some accounts say that Jane refused to let her father leave London

0:21:410:21:45

because she was afraid it was too dangerous.

0:21:450:21:47

Some say that Henry Grey had begun to have fainting fits.

0:21:470:21:51

Perhaps he was ill, or perhaps the pressure was taking its toll.

0:21:510:21:54

Jane decides to keep her father back in safety.

0:21:570:22:00

Instead, she confirms that Northumberland will replace her father on the battlefield.

0:22:000:22:05

Of course, what Jane wanted was that her father,

0:22:070:22:10

who'd been originally given the job, shouldn't do it.

0:22:100:22:13

Jane did not want her father to risk his life and career by,

0:22:130:22:17

you know, riding out on a risky expedition.

0:22:170:22:20

And so they sent Northumberland instead.

0:22:200:22:23

Northumberland was quite reluctant to go, of course, because

0:22:230:22:25

he knew that if he left London things could, you know, collapse.

0:22:250:22:28

In that specific sense, then,

0:22:280:22:30

in deciding that Northumberland must lead the army instead of her father,

0:22:300:22:35

could we argue that Jane was the architect of her own fall?

0:22:350:22:39

Well, you could, but it wouldn't have been a conscious decision

0:22:390:22:42

because she wasn't thinking of it in that sort of way.

0:22:420:22:45

I mean, we still have to come back to the fact that Jane is really being used here by the men.

0:22:450:22:51

I mean, she is Queen, but only in a titular sense.

0:22:510:22:56

In sending Northumberland instead of her father,

0:23:020:23:05

you could argue that Jane's made a rational choice.

0:23:050:23:08

Northumberland's the most experienced soldier on the Council,

0:23:080:23:12

clearly the best man for the job,

0:23:120:23:14

and she doesn't want her father to stick his neck out

0:23:140:23:17

and be the person to arrest Mary.

0:23:170:23:19

But it turns out that Jane's decision to let Northumberland

0:23:200:23:24

leave London is a fatal error.

0:23:240:23:26

Northumberland can't be everywhere at once,

0:23:270:23:30

and he can't hold this coup together.

0:23:300:23:32

Had he had able lieutenants,

0:23:320:23:35

and clearly Henry Grey was not that able lieutenant,

0:23:350:23:39

things might have held together a little bit longer,

0:23:390:23:41

but there was just no-one there.

0:23:410:23:43

All of the - quote - "good" people he took with him going north,

0:23:430:23:47

and we were left with old...

0:23:470:23:50

essentially older men,

0:23:500:23:52

people of experience but people who were not themselves known

0:23:520:23:56

to be skilful politicians.

0:23:560:23:58

They were administrators but they were not politicians,

0:23:580:24:02

and what was needed was a good politician,

0:24:020:24:04

and that was Northumberland.

0:24:040:24:06

For good or ill, Jane has made up her mind.

0:24:060:24:10

Northumberland is to lead the attack on Mary.

0:24:100:24:13

He begins to position his pieces on the battlefield.

0:24:130:24:17

What was Northumberland's plan before he set out from London,

0:24:200:24:24

in terms of what forces he was going to get

0:24:240:24:27

and what he wanted to do with them?

0:24:270:24:30

Well, we place him here in London.

0:24:300:24:32

At this stage, Mary - he knows - is in Framlingham.

0:24:320:24:35

-Here in Suffolk.

-Exactly, there.

0:24:350:24:38

And he's not overly concerned with time at this stage.

0:24:380:24:41

Time, he thinks, is on his side,

0:24:410:24:43

because he and the Privy Council

0:24:430:24:45

hold all the cards.

0:24:450:24:47

They have control over the levers of power,

0:24:470:24:50

most of the military force, including the artillery

0:24:500:24:53

in the country, are in his hands,

0:24:530:24:55

and he cannot have believed that Mary can actually put

0:24:550:24:59

a very effective military force in the field.

0:24:590:25:02

Therefore, he needs to move slowly but surely

0:25:020:25:06

to the west of her position, and not come in from the south.

0:25:060:25:09

If he'd actually marched through Chelmsford towards her,

0:25:090:25:12

it would have given her the opportunity to leave

0:25:120:25:15

by the northern route, as it were.

0:25:150:25:17

So his plan is to move towards Cambridge,

0:25:170:25:19

where he's going to link up with his son,

0:25:190:25:22

and therefore they will effectively put themselves as a blocking force,

0:25:220:25:26

not allowing Mary to move in a westerly direction.

0:25:260:25:30

But she also can't move east either,

0:25:300:25:32

because the Privy Council has ordered the Royal Navy,

0:25:320:25:35

or at least six of the major warships of the Royal Navy,

0:25:350:25:38

to move up and block the coast,

0:25:380:25:41

preventing her from escaping,

0:25:410:25:43

but also any Imperial forces from aiding her.

0:25:430:25:45

He has pretty much got her, in his mind, or will soon have her,

0:25:450:25:49

in the two jaws of a vice.

0:25:490:25:52

Strategically, Northumberland has the upper hand,

0:25:530:25:56

and there's no doubt his forces are armed in a way Mary's men can only dream of.

0:25:560:26:01

What kind of weapons were their soldiers going to be able to wield?

0:26:020:26:07

Jane's very lucky. She has all the arms and armour in the Tower of London.

0:26:070:26:11

There's a huge national depository of pikes

0:26:110:26:14

and bills and swords and bows and arrows.

0:26:140:26:17

There might be a million arrows stored in there.

0:26:170:26:20

But this is going to be a battle at close quarters,

0:26:200:26:22

so we are looking at the swords.

0:26:220:26:24

It's a cut and thrust sword,

0:26:240:26:26

but this is really designed for going straight in.

0:26:260:26:28

See here, this is the tin can opener of the 15th and 16th century.

0:26:290:26:34

This is the poleaxe.

0:26:340:26:37

This is going to go through armour, this is going to cut flesh,

0:26:370:26:41

that's going to stab through any gaps.

0:26:410:26:43

But again, it's a complicated weapon and it's an expensive weapon,

0:26:430:26:46

and it shows that you're somebody of a decent rank.

0:26:460:26:49

You are a man at arms, you've probably got a decent bit of armour.

0:26:490:26:52

Some of Jane's more ordinary troops, you are looking at things like this.

0:26:520:26:58

A glaive with a nasty fluke on it, so you can really push that home,

0:26:590:27:03

and there's a secondary cutting edge there.

0:27:030:27:05

We are getting into a very, very brutal,

0:27:050:27:08

very, very nasty style of fighting.

0:27:080:27:10

You can see that in the remains of soldiers who've been excavated

0:27:100:27:13

from battlefields across the medieval world.

0:27:130:27:16

So, should we imagine either Jane or Mary having any firepower at their disposal?

0:27:160:27:23

Well, Jane's got the Tower of London arsenal.

0:27:230:27:25

We know there are muskets, arquebuses,

0:27:250:27:27

and we know there's gunpowder and shot.

0:27:270:27:29

Mary would have been reliant on anything that's local.

0:27:290:27:32

They're few and far between, to be quite honest,

0:27:320:27:35

compared with what Jane can bring to bear.

0:27:350:27:37

But, of course, they still need training,

0:27:370:27:39

they still need people who know, understand.

0:27:390:27:42

They still need people who understand how to not only use

0:27:420:27:44

but make gunpowder as well. It's a rare substance in England.

0:27:440:27:47

Basically, if you have more gunpowder and more cannons

0:27:470:27:49

than anybody else, then technically you've won.

0:27:490:27:52

You can bring more stuff to bear.

0:27:520:27:54

Finally, at about eight in the evening on 12th July,

0:27:550:27:58

Mary arrives at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk

0:27:580:28:02

and is greeted by an overwhelming display of support.

0:28:020:28:05

We know from accounts that when she arrives at Framlingham

0:28:050:28:08

the commons and gentry, you know,

0:28:080:28:10

several hundred thousands are gathered in the Deer Park,

0:28:100:28:13

which must be a kind of heartening experience,

0:28:130:28:16

to come here and see the local people here ready to greet her,

0:28:160:28:19

ready to defend her.

0:28:190:28:21

This was going to be the base, if you like,

0:28:210:28:23

from which she was going to engage the enemy,

0:28:230:28:25

so this was going to be really important for the next few days.

0:28:250:28:28

So, to come here to a fortress, a stronghold,

0:28:280:28:31

with an army camped outside and to feel that she was embedded

0:28:310:28:34

within the support of the local community.

0:28:340:28:37

Really important. I think she could probably, for the first time,

0:28:370:28:40

maybe take a small sigh of relief,

0:28:400:28:41

and then obviously galvanise herself, get ready to galvanise

0:28:410:28:44

the army, ready for what would seem to have been the impending battle.

0:28:440:28:48

It's remarkable that, in a matter of days,

0:28:510:28:53

Mary has been able to rally such substantial forces.

0:28:530:28:57

No-one expected Mary to be so organised.

0:28:580:29:01

Mary had never shown this sort of capacity

0:29:010:29:04

for organising, essentially,

0:29:040:29:05

not only really anything of great substance,

0:29:050:29:08

but also military force in that amount of time.

0:29:080:29:11

Mary ended the 12th in a far stronger position than she had begun it.

0:29:120:29:17

The next 24 hours would prove critical.

0:29:170:29:20

On the morning of the 13th,

0:29:320:29:34

there a frenzy of activity at Durham House on the banks of the Thames.

0:29:340:29:38

Northumberland's army are about to ride out to Framlingham,

0:29:380:29:42

and they are a formidable sight.

0:29:420:29:44

He's got very good reason to be confident.

0:29:450:29:47

The military force that she has available to her, in his mind,

0:29:470:29:51

is probably armed peasants.

0:29:510:29:53

They will not be that effectively armed.

0:29:530:29:56

He, on the other hand, has a much more experienced and well-armed force.

0:29:560:30:00

Probably the total size of the force that he puts together

0:30:000:30:03

is about 3,000 strong. And while that doesn't sound that many,

0:30:030:30:06

2,000 of those soldiers are cavalry -

0:30:060:30:10

men at arms who are heavily armoured.

0:30:100:30:13

In battle they would have, you know, looked almost like a tank.

0:30:130:30:17

These are men clad from head to foot in armour,

0:30:170:30:20

armed with lances and swords and maces, and they could do

0:30:200:30:24

an awful lot of damage against poorly-armed peasants.

0:30:240:30:29

That's the sort of battle he's expecting, but just in case,

0:30:290:30:32

he's also going to take along a very powerful artillery force

0:30:320:30:35

of at least 30 pieces of cannon, and he must believe at this point,

0:30:350:30:40

or at least he DOES believe at this point,

0:30:400:30:42

that Mary is going to have no cannon to oppose him with.

0:30:420:30:45

And so all the cards at this early stage seem to be in his favour.

0:30:450:30:49

As Northumberland prepared to leave,

0:30:490:30:52

he took one last opportunity to address the Council.

0:30:520:30:55

He spoke on behalf of, "The whole army that now goes forth

0:30:550:30:59

"for the establishing of the Queen's Highness."

0:30:590:31:02

He reminded them of the "Sacred, holy oath of allegiance

0:31:020:31:05

"made freely by you to this virtuous lady."

0:31:050:31:08

"Jane," he said, "was only there by your and our enticement."

0:31:080:31:13

And he warned them that "If you mean deceit, God will revenge the same."

0:31:130:31:18

Northumberland's speech,

0:31:210:31:23

reported by someone who was in the Tower of London when he made it,

0:31:230:31:27

betrays the fracture lines in Jane's Council.

0:31:270:31:30

This is an impassioned reminder that they signed their names

0:31:310:31:35

to the device that put her on the throne, and they must stand by it.

0:31:350:31:40

As Northumberland leads his army through the streets of London,

0:31:430:31:46

the crowds gather to see him pass...

0:31:460:31:49

..but the cheering he expects doesn't come.

0:31:510:31:54

And outside the capital,

0:31:570:31:59

Northumberland can expect an even more hostile reception.

0:31:590:32:03

Northumberland, remember, is very unpopular in the country.

0:32:050:32:08

Why? Cos he's the guy who put down the popular revolts of 1549

0:32:080:32:12

using German and Genoese mercenaries.

0:32:120:32:15

Four years earlier, Northumberland had been dispatched to East Anglia,

0:32:210:32:25

the very same place he's heading now,

0:32:250:32:28

to put down a rebellion of local people with his well-armed troops.

0:32:280:32:32

Yes, it all kicked off in East Anglia,

0:32:340:32:37

and this was described as Kett's Rebellion, led by Robert Kett.

0:32:370:32:42

What motivates someone to go out and protest, just like today,

0:32:420:32:45

is a variety of factors, but here in particular,

0:32:450:32:47

it was socioeconomic factors, it was people were really cross about

0:32:470:32:52

large landowners enclosing land, and people just had had enough.

0:32:520:32:56

People felt like they weren't being listened to,

0:32:560:32:58

they went being respected, all of that.

0:32:580:33:00

And so when a rebellion kicks off, it is always dangerous.

0:33:000:33:04

Northumberland's response was vicious.

0:33:050:33:08

Ringleaders were rounded up and brutally executed.

0:33:090:33:13

When he reaches Framlingham,

0:33:150:33:17

he'll be facing people who remember the rebellion...

0:33:170:33:20

..people who have reason to hate him,

0:33:210:33:23

who've joined Mary because they have a score to settle.

0:33:230:33:26

Mary has now been at Framlingham for 24 hours,

0:33:290:33:33

and gradually events are beginning to swing in her favour.

0:33:330:33:36

She looks out into the deer park, and she sees local gentry,

0:33:370:33:42

commons gathering, and of course those people will become her army.

0:33:420:33:46

For her, she believes that those will be the people

0:33:460:33:48

who will secure the throne for her.

0:33:480:33:50

You know, and these are unprecedented times.

0:33:500:33:52

I mean, here we have a woman fighting for the throne,

0:33:520:33:56

and the gathered forces are looking at her as their military commander,

0:33:560:34:01

as a woman. So, completely unprecedented times,

0:34:010:34:05

and they're happy to potentially lay down their life

0:34:050:34:07

in defence of her claim to the throne.

0:34:070:34:09

So, you know, the stakes could not have been higher.

0:34:090:34:12

Momentum is moving to Mary all the time,

0:34:140:34:17

happening so rapidly over days, sometimes even hours,

0:34:170:34:21

so decisions are having to be made on a split second.

0:34:210:34:24

You know, you could almost count from morning to afternoon

0:34:240:34:27

the vast increase in the number of people that are moving north

0:34:270:34:30

to surround Mary, to protect her, to support her, and to promote her.

0:34:300:34:34

Grassroots support for Mary begins to have a surprising effect

0:34:360:34:39

on the higher ranks of society -

0:34:390:34:42

people who have, until now, been loyal to Jane.

0:34:420:34:45

The gentry are beginning to move to her.

0:34:450:34:48

We have a lot of people with knighthoods, you know,

0:34:480:34:51

the sort of Sirs of the realm.

0:34:510:34:53

And there's one event in Ipswich, 20 miles from Framlingham,

0:34:540:34:58

which appears to confirm the tide is decisively turning against Jane.

0:34:580:35:02

It involves a local dignitary,

0:35:020:35:04

one who's well-respected in East Anglia, Sir Thomas Cornwallis.

0:35:040:35:09

Sir Thomas Cornwallis is the Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk.

0:35:120:35:16

He's backing Jane, the Queen chosen by the Privy Council.

0:35:160:35:19

Cornwallis gives Jane a strategically powerful ally

0:35:190:35:23

and significant military resources.

0:35:230:35:25

More significant still because he's based in Mary's heartland.

0:35:250:35:29

When one of Mary's men arrived at the market place in Ipswich

0:35:310:35:36

and proclaims Mary the Queen of England,

0:35:360:35:38

Cornwallis immediately protests.

0:35:380:35:40

One eyewitness says that popular support for Mary was so great

0:35:430:35:47

that Cornwallis stood in grave peril of his life for supporting Jane.

0:35:470:35:51

Cornwallis realises that he's dangerously underestimated

0:35:550:35:59

the popularity of Mary among the ordinary people.

0:35:590:36:02

He comes here to Framlingham, where he gets an audience with Mary.

0:36:040:36:08

He kneels before her and begs her forgiveness.

0:36:080:36:11

This is a big deal,

0:36:110:36:13

and this is what we see gradually over the days of July,

0:36:130:36:17

that, in a way, the impossible gradually becomes possible.

0:36:170:36:21

People, significant figures in East Anglia, you know,

0:36:210:36:24

the local lieutenants who would never, you would imagine,

0:36:240:36:28

have declared for Mary, actually initially declare for Lady Jane

0:36:280:36:32

and then change their allegiance.

0:36:320:36:34

The defection of Cornwallis isn't an isolated incident.

0:36:360:36:40

Across the country, noblemen are finding themselves unexpectedly under pressure.

0:36:400:36:45

It becomes apparent that the common mood of the realm is pro-Mary.

0:36:470:36:53

Noblemen discovered that their tenants were refusing to fight

0:36:530:36:57

for them, and just as a King needed his nobles to fight for him,

0:36:570:37:00

nobles needed their tenants to fight for them.

0:37:000:37:02

That's how it all works, you know, everyone worked for everyone else.

0:37:020:37:06

And, again, if you're a noblemen and your tenants aren't going to support

0:37:060:37:09

you, your affinity aren't going to support you, you're nothing.

0:37:090:37:12

You're nobody, you're just a bloke.

0:37:120:37:14

The Earl of Oxford finds himself facing exactly this dilemma.

0:37:170:37:21

When he's summoned to support Jane, dozens of his own men confront him.

0:37:220:37:27

They say that if he doesn't defect to Mary, they'll go without him.

0:37:270:37:32

And he has to give in.

0:37:330:37:35

Oxford and his men join Mary's forces.

0:37:350:37:38

We're seeing something extraordinary.

0:37:400:37:43

How the feeling that Jane is the wrong woman on the throne

0:37:430:37:46

has started with the people, but it's so powerful that it begins

0:37:460:37:50

to force the political elite into action.

0:37:500:37:52

And that's what's so precarious in this July crisis,

0:37:540:37:57

that some of these key figures in East Anglia, who initially

0:37:570:38:01

declare for Lady Jane, then suddenly swing and support Mary.

0:38:010:38:05

And it's by turning their loyalty from one side to the other

0:38:050:38:09

that they basically bring an army of hundreds and potentially

0:38:090:38:12

several thousand people in defence of Mary,

0:38:120:38:15

as opposed to Lady Jane, which makes all the difference.

0:38:150:38:18

Mary, the old King's daughter, is a powerful figurehead

0:38:180:38:21

for whom people are prepared to lay down their lives.

0:38:210:38:25

Jane is the exact opposite.

0:38:250:38:27

So young and almost completely unknown,

0:38:270:38:30

at this critical point hidden away in the Tower,

0:38:300:38:33

she's a distant figure to the people whose Queen she claims to be.

0:38:330:38:37

As a privileged young girl, Jane's life had been sheltered.

0:38:440:38:48

She saw little of the world outside her home in the Royal Court.

0:38:480:38:52

And, more significantly in this moment of crisis,

0:38:520:38:55

the world had rarely seen her.

0:38:550:38:57

This is the geography of Jane's world.

0:38:580:39:00

There are five key places -

0:39:000:39:03

Syon House,

0:39:030:39:05

Chelsea,

0:39:050:39:07

Durham House,

0:39:070:39:08

The Tower of London,

0:39:080:39:10

and Greenwich Palace.

0:39:100:39:12

They cluster along the river, and for very good reason.

0:39:130:39:17

Everyone depended on the river for travel.

0:39:170:39:20

For Jane, it was the thread that connected the places in her life.

0:39:200:39:24

The streets of London were narrow, cramped and dangerous.

0:39:340:39:38

Hello, Mark. Lovely to see you.

0:39:380:39:42

Like the rest of the Court,

0:39:430:39:45

Jane relied on the relative safety and comfort of travelling by river.

0:39:450:39:49

Try and get in time, number two.

0:39:550:39:58

Is this the closest I'm ever going to get to

0:40:050:40:07

-being on a 16th century barge?

-It really is, yes.

0:40:070:40:11

Other than the fact that this wasn't actually built in the 16th century,

0:40:110:40:14

it's only 25 years old, this is, in effect, a 16th century barge.

0:40:140:40:18

Mark Edwards made the present Queen's barge,

0:40:200:40:22

and this Tudor replica was built using traditional techniques.

0:40:220:40:26

It's the same design, built in the same way.

0:40:280:40:31

It really is, yes.

0:40:310:40:32

Should I be imagining Jane Grey sitting under a canopy like this?

0:40:400:40:43

This is a fairly ornamental,

0:40:430:40:45

but very practical, canopy for sun and light rain.

0:40:450:40:50

They did have a much more homely set-up where they had great hoops...

0:40:500:40:54

..pulled across, and they'd literally bring out a tapestry

0:40:560:40:59

or something like a carpet, and bring that right the way across,

0:40:590:41:02

so we'd actually be in the dark here, much more isolated.

0:41:020:41:06

Unlike Mary, Jane's life up to this point had not been a public one.

0:41:100:41:16

Her time had been spent in study and prayer...

0:41:170:41:20

..and as a result, she had become a role model

0:41:210:41:24

for other Protestant noblewomen.

0:41:240:41:26

She's educated to be an example to others.

0:41:280:41:31

When she's only sort of 14, she's getting letters from adult women

0:41:310:41:36

saying that they admire her for her learning and holiness.

0:41:360:41:39

So she already realises that she's up there on a pedestal.

0:41:390:41:43

Jane's power base is starting to look dangerously narrow,

0:41:450:41:49

pitted against Mary's popularity with the people.

0:41:490:41:52

And without Northumberland to hold the Privy Council together,

0:41:540:41:58

cracks are beginning to show.

0:41:580:42:00

When Northumberland left the Council, he'd created a vacuum,

0:42:020:42:06

so that there began to be a struggle between those who still supported

0:42:060:42:11

Northumberland, and those who were wavering on the fence

0:42:110:42:15

and reacted quite negatively to Jane's assertion

0:42:150:42:18

that she would not make Guildford King.

0:42:180:42:20

Jane knows that if the Privy Council begin to waver in their support for her,

0:42:200:42:25

it will be a catastrophe that will leave her vulnerable and exposed.

0:42:250:42:30

But for now, alone in the Tower,

0:42:300:42:33

there are only limited ways in which she can play the part of Queen.

0:42:330:42:37

She calls for a list to be drawn up of royal jewels and other valuables,

0:42:380:42:42

which, as monarch, are now her property.

0:42:420:42:45

An inventory was made for Jane on 14th July,

0:42:450:42:49

the fifth day of the reign.

0:42:490:42:51

What was it listing?

0:42:510:42:53

It was listing almost 600 items of jewellery that were

0:42:530:42:59

part of the Royal Wardrobe of Westminster.

0:42:590:43:02

So, the Royal Wardrobe was something that supplied everything

0:43:020:43:05

a monarch could need. It wasn't just clothing and jewellery,

0:43:050:43:08

it was everything from, sort of, spices to gunpowder,

0:43:080:43:11

anything that the King or Queen might need.

0:43:110:43:14

But this is particularly jewellery that you would wear.

0:43:140:43:17

Not the Crown Jewels, but things like

0:43:170:43:19

the decoration that would go around a woman's headdress, jewelled.

0:43:190:43:23

Things like the gold and silver tips that would go on the laces

0:43:230:43:27

that would tie, you know, your sleeves to your bodice.

0:43:270:43:31

And also, sort of, brooches, crosses.

0:43:310:43:34

Why do you think Jane was asking for this list to be made?

0:43:340:43:38

I would love to know.

0:43:380:43:40

I wonder whether she was potentially looking for the types of things

0:43:400:43:45

she should wear now that were appropriate for her new royal standing.

0:43:450:43:49

Of course, power dressing is incredibly important to the Tudors.

0:43:490:43:54

And whatever her own feelings might have been about plainer dressing,

0:43:540:43:58

it was still very important,

0:43:580:43:59

this conspicuous consumption for the Royal family,

0:43:590:44:03

and particularly for the monarch, for the sovereign,

0:44:030:44:05

to be seen as this glittering person that really was the top of society.

0:44:050:44:11

And we can see that from the first Protestant coronation,

0:44:110:44:14

the coronation of Edward VI her cousin, that he isn't downplayed.

0:44:140:44:19

He's wearing things just as luscious and sumptuous as all the previous coronations.

0:44:190:44:23

For Jane, the symbols of power, like power itself,

0:44:230:44:27

would never really be hers.

0:44:270:44:30

She would not reign long enough for a coronation to take place.

0:44:300:44:33

On 15th July, Northumberland's forces are heading for Cambridge,

0:44:410:44:45

where he plans to pause and wait for his artillery train and infantry to catch up.

0:44:450:44:50

And we think he reaches Cambridge probably by the evening of the 15th,

0:44:520:44:55

so he is in position up in Cambridge,

0:44:550:44:59

and you can see quite clearly, I hope, now, Helen,

0:44:590:45:02

that his position there is a strategic position.

0:45:020:45:05

It's going to take him longer to get to Framlingham,

0:45:050:45:08

but actually it makes a certain amount of logical military sense.

0:45:080:45:11

Because then she's in a stranglehold,

0:45:110:45:13

his land forces are on one side of her,

0:45:130:45:16

the ships he sent are at sea on the other side of her -

0:45:160:45:19

there's really nowhere for her to go.

0:45:190:45:21

Exactly. What can go wrong?

0:45:210:45:23

Northumberland has Mary surrounded, and although she has a growing army,

0:45:260:45:31

she can't match his firepower.

0:45:310:45:34

But it's here that Northumberland has a massive stroke of bad luck.

0:45:340:45:38

Well, it is a sequence of very unfortunate events, actually,

0:45:390:45:42

and the first of them, and we often forget the importance of weather,

0:45:420:45:46

but the first of them is climatic,

0:45:460:45:49

in the sense that there was a heavy

0:45:490:45:52

north-easterly wind driving the Royal ships

0:45:520:45:56

that were actually supposed to be stationed offshore,

0:45:560:45:59

not actually that close to the coast, a couple of leagues offshore,

0:45:590:46:02

which is going to allow them to remain in a blocking position,

0:46:020:46:05

but the bad weather forces them to take refuge in the Orwell Estuary.

0:46:050:46:10

As chance would have it, one of Mary's household, Henry Jerningham,

0:46:100:46:14

is in a local tavern and falls to talking about the naval forces off the coast.

0:46:140:46:20

Some time during the evening, he learns that ships laden

0:46:220:46:25

with soldiers and weaponry are anchored nearby at Orwell Haven.

0:46:250:46:29

The crews are owed money.

0:46:290:46:32

Jerningham spots an opportunity.

0:46:320:46:34

Riding to the harbour, Jerningham finds the ships

0:46:360:46:39

and succeeds in persuading the unhappy captain and crew

0:46:390:46:42

to change sides in favour of Mary.

0:46:420:46:45

Now, this was a massive coup, because, you know,

0:46:460:46:48

these are ships that have been sent on behalf of Lady Jane,

0:46:480:46:52

essentially representing the Government at that point.

0:46:520:46:55

Now, in part, they were protesting because of pay and conditions, as often is the case,

0:46:550:46:59

but they were also declaring in support of the Mary.

0:46:590:47:02

And that mutiny brings her more men, it brings her control of the coast,

0:47:020:47:07

and it brings her guns.

0:47:070:47:09

Yes, I mean, all of this is important, because her army is

0:47:090:47:12

growing, and, of course, you know, she needs more munitions.

0:47:120:47:16

Mary has no cannon at Framlingham.

0:47:160:47:18

All of a sudden, five of the six ships are now going to help Mary

0:47:180:47:23

by unloading their cannon and moving them, dragging them,

0:47:230:47:27

quite a serious logistical feat, towards Framlingham Castle, where,

0:47:270:47:31

when they are in position there, they will actually outgun the number

0:47:310:47:35

of cannon that Northumberland is bringing with him from London.

0:47:350:47:38

And, not only do you get the cannon and their ammunition,

0:47:380:47:41

but you also get trained gunners,

0:47:410:47:43

and the Royal Navy at this time is undergoing something of

0:47:430:47:46

a revolution, but it is one of the finest in the world,

0:47:460:47:49

and those guns are going to prove very effective in a fight.

0:47:490:47:53

The mutiny is one of the key moments that shows that, suddenly,

0:47:540:47:59

Mary is not only gaining support rapidly,

0:47:590:48:02

but actually becoming more than simply a contender and is actually

0:48:020:48:06

seriously now challenging the claim of Lady Jane, and in a decisive way.

0:48:060:48:10

Up until this point, Mary's had support but no artillery.

0:48:110:48:16

Now she has both.

0:48:160:48:17

Jane's hold on the throne is looking increasingly vulnerable.

0:48:190:48:22

On 16th July, the devastating news of the mutiny sends shock waves

0:48:340:48:39

through the Privy Council. They begin to ask if

0:48:390:48:42

it's God's punishment for denying Mary her blood right.

0:48:420:48:46

And the sheer numbers of ordinary people turning to Mary

0:48:470:48:51

is unnerving even the most ardent supporters of Jane.

0:48:510:48:54

Then more alarming news reaches the Tower -

0:48:550:48:58

local leaders in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire have declared for Mary

0:48:580:49:02

and raised a militia against Jane.

0:49:020:49:04

Without Northumberland,

0:49:040:49:06

there's no-one Jane can trust to take control of the situation.

0:49:060:49:10

Well, there's still an opportunity for the Royal forces to put them down

0:49:100:49:14

if the various Justices of the Peace had acted in accordance

0:49:140:49:18

with the instructions being sent out from London to make sure

0:49:180:49:21

that if there's any rising of pro-Mary forces in the country,

0:49:210:49:25

they are dealt with. And some of them were,

0:49:250:49:27

some of them were ignoring, and some of them were supporting Mary,

0:49:270:49:30

but I think the overall lesson to learn from this is that

0:49:300:49:33

Northumberland and the members of the Privy Council

0:49:330:49:36

underestimated the level of latent support,

0:49:360:49:40

which later became overt support, for Mary in the country as a whole.

0:49:400:49:43

Jane's house of cards is beginning to collapse.

0:49:430:49:47

Mary's no longer trapped in East Anglia,

0:49:470:49:50

and her support is spreading through the Thames Valley as far as London.

0:49:500:49:53

London was under threat.

0:49:540:49:56

The old city had to look to its defences.

0:49:560:49:59

Orders were given to lock up the Tower

0:49:590:50:01

and post guards on the city gates.

0:50:010:50:03

London, a fortified city, was making ready for attack.

0:50:030:50:07

To see how London became a Tudor fortress,

0:50:110:50:14

I've come to see the first-ever printed map of the city,

0:50:140:50:18

dating from 1572.

0:50:180:50:19

Wow, this is some volume.

0:50:230:50:25

You get an immediate sense of how the Tower here, on the east side,

0:50:250:50:30

role as the defence of the city against shipping

0:50:300:50:33

-coming in from the east.

-Absolutely, there it is,

0:50:330:50:36

the southeast extent of the city rather well fortified.

0:50:360:50:39

And also quite threatening and foreboding. You have here a cell,

0:50:390:50:44

a caged cell on the water line,

0:50:440:50:45

where people could be subjected to the tides,

0:50:450:50:48

and some spiked heads on sticks.

0:50:480:50:50

Oh, my goodness, you need good eyes to see those!

0:50:500:50:53

But, yes, so this is a real statement of Royal power.

0:50:530:50:56

Absolutely, a statement of Royal power,

0:50:560:50:58

and foreboding for anybody entering the city.

0:50:580:51:00

In terms of the city itself...

0:51:000:51:02

..you can really get a sense of...

0:51:030:51:06

..how defensible it might be.

0:51:070:51:10

Absolutely, and what's fascinating about that is how that was obviously

0:51:100:51:13

a concern of the early map-makers,

0:51:130:51:16

and the royal family and the leaders.

0:51:160:51:19

If you put the Tower together with this city wall that goes

0:51:190:51:23

right round the city, and gates at various points that could be shut...

0:51:230:51:27

Absolutely, and indeed a moat.

0:51:270:51:29

And the fact that there's only one bridge, of course means the river

0:51:290:51:32

-is also a natural defence.

-Only one bridge with gates on the bridge

0:51:320:51:35

-and a wooden section that could be burned.

-Thought of everything!

-Yep.

0:51:350:51:38

Five days ago, the city and its Tower had been Jane's power base,

0:51:380:51:42

but now the tables have turned, and she's preparing it against attack.

0:51:420:51:47

The powerful nobles surrounding Jane are beginning to fear that

0:51:470:51:50

they have backed the wrong Queen, and they're well aware what

0:51:500:51:54

their fate might be if that proves to be the case.

0:51:540:51:57

What would a convicted traitor have to look forward to,

0:51:570:52:01

if that's the right word?

0:52:010:52:02

That would depend very much on your social status.

0:52:020:52:05

If you were a peer of the realm or a female equivalent,

0:52:050:52:07

you would be executed by beheading,

0:52:070:52:09

which is a fairly quick, fairly clean death.

0:52:090:52:12

If you are a commoner, you could be subjected to

0:52:120:52:15

hanging, drawing and quartering, which is absolutely horrendous.

0:52:150:52:18

This involves being hanged symbolically,

0:52:180:52:22

so you're cut down while you're still alive,

0:52:220:52:24

you're then disembowelled, you're castrated,

0:52:240:52:27

your entrails and your private parts are burned in a brazier, in a fire,

0:52:270:52:32

on the actual scaffold.

0:52:320:52:34

And you're then beheaded and quartered -

0:52:340:52:37

your body is cut into four quarters,

0:52:370:52:38

which are exhibited on top of castle gates, etc.

0:52:380:52:41

There's a variety of things that can happen to you, none of them very pleasant.

0:52:410:52:45

Jane, too, knows from personal experience how quickly

0:52:450:52:49

fortunes can change, with deadly consequences.

0:52:490:52:52

At the age of ten or 11,

0:52:520:52:54

she was sent from her home at Bradgate in Leicestershire

0:52:540:52:57

to a household in London.

0:52:570:52:59

Jane was to be the ward of Thomas Seymour and his new wife,

0:52:590:53:02

Catherine Parr, the widowed Queen of Henry VIII.

0:53:020:53:05

It was a politically advantageous arrangement for the Grey family.

0:53:050:53:09

Jane had been with the Seymours for a year when Catherine Parr

0:53:110:53:14

gave birth, and six days later, died.

0:53:140:53:17

Jane returned home, but stayed in close contact with her guardian.

0:53:180:53:22

This is the letter Jane wrote to Thomas Seymour

0:53:240:53:27

in the autumn of 1548.

0:53:270:53:29

"These, my letters, shall be to testify unto you that,

0:53:290:53:32

"like as you have become towards me a loving and kind father,

0:53:320:53:37

"so I shall be always most ready to obey your godly monitions

0:53:370:53:43

"and good instructions."

0:53:430:53:45

Jane was about 11 when she wrote this letter.

0:53:460:53:49

She's writing to someone who's become a father figure to her.

0:53:490:53:53

But Seymour was a man of vast ambition,

0:53:540:53:57

and a few months later his pursuit of power led to his downfall.

0:53:570:54:00

He was even accused of trying to kidnap the King

0:54:020:54:04

here at Hampton Court Palace.

0:54:040:54:07

It was reported that he was caught trying to break into

0:54:080:54:11

the Royal apartments when the King's dog started to bark

0:54:110:54:14

and, in a panic, Thomas killed it.

0:54:140:54:16

He was arrested and sent to the Tower.

0:54:160:54:19

The man who had been Jane's guardian was now sentenced to death as a traitor.

0:54:200:54:26

The brutal reality of politics at the highest level

0:54:280:54:31

was a lesson Jane had learn very young.

0:54:310:54:34

But even though she knows the risks, there is no going back for Jane.

0:54:370:54:42

She has worn the crown, she has taken a stand,

0:54:420:54:45

now she must see it through.

0:54:450:54:47

Her last hope lies in keeping the loyalty of the Privy Council.

0:54:470:54:52

But without Northumberland's reassuring presence,

0:54:520:54:55

they begin to falter.

0:54:550:54:57

In the corridors and the quiet places of the Tower,

0:54:570:55:00

the men of the Privy Council were unnerved.

0:55:000:55:02

Sir Edmund Peckham, one of the Royal treasurers,

0:55:020:55:05

had already gone missing.

0:55:050:55:07

Jane responds by ordering a strong guard

0:55:070:55:09

to be mounted around the Tower walls.

0:55:090:55:12

If Jane couldn't count on the loyalty of her Council,

0:55:120:55:15

she'd imprison them with her in her fortress.

0:55:150:55:18

Jane commanded that they be locked into the Tower

0:55:180:55:21

and the keys turned over to her personally.

0:55:210:55:23

So, you get this incredibly poignant sense that the Tower

0:55:230:55:27

is shifting around Jane, shifting from palace to prison.

0:55:270:55:31

She did become a prisoner without knowing it,

0:55:310:55:34

because these members of the Council that were beginning to revolt,

0:55:340:55:37

if you will, or shift direction, had moved out of the Tower,

0:55:370:55:41

so she didn't have any direct knowledge of what they were up to.

0:55:410:55:44

Jane continues to assert her power,

0:55:450:55:47

sending out letters to key officials to demand their support.

0:55:470:55:52

That, and her decision to hold the keys to the Tower herself,

0:55:520:55:56

might look like an assertion of power

0:55:560:55:59

but, in fact, it's a response to an increasingly precarious position.

0:55:590:56:03

Outside the Tower's walls, there's a growing sense

0:56:040:56:07

that she's standing in the way of the rightful successor, Mary.

0:56:070:56:12

I mean, there's really a sense that more and more people now

0:56:120:56:15

are supporting Mary and, of course, when you see that there's

0:56:150:56:18

this real contender, then suddenly it convinces other people

0:56:180:56:21

to actually throw in their lot with her because, ultimately,

0:56:210:56:24

no-one wants to be on the wrong, on the losing side, as it were.

0:56:240:56:28

So, it's not until Mary begins to actually look like she's got

0:56:280:56:30

a chance that people begin to really throw their lot in with her,

0:56:300:56:34

and that becomes absolutely crucial.

0:56:340:56:36

At this stage, Northumberland's army are still in Cambridge.

0:56:370:56:40

He's joined by his sons and more troops,

0:56:400:56:43

but he doesn't yet know that his mission is in grave danger.

0:56:430:56:47

So, he's now outnumbered, probably by as many as three-to-one,

0:56:480:56:51

but that itself may not have been enough to deter him from continuing on.

0:56:510:56:55

But Mary now has artillery,

0:56:550:56:57

and it's probable that the force of artillery at Framlingham even

0:56:570:57:02

outmatches his own, and so not only is he outnumbered, he's outgunned.

0:57:020:57:06

Over the course of five days, Jane's fortunes have changed dramatically.

0:57:080:57:13

On the 12th, she had the machinery of the Tudor state behind her.

0:57:130:57:18

By the 16th, her palace is becoming a prison,

0:57:180:57:22

and Northumberland, her protector, is far from London.

0:57:220:57:25

Meanwhile, Mary now has a powerful army.

0:57:260:57:30

She has the support of the people,

0:57:300:57:32

and the political elite are beginning to join her.

0:57:320:57:34

Everything now depends on Jane's ability to hold her camp together...

0:57:360:57:41

..but with their allegiances shifting by the day,

0:57:420:57:45

she's starting to look dangerously isolated.

0:57:450:57:47

And if she loses this battle for the crown,

0:57:470:57:51

she'll pay with her life.

0:57:510:57:53

Next time...

0:57:550:57:57

Jane's support is crumbling...

0:57:570:57:59

It's like one penny drops, the rest go, it's like dominoes.

0:57:590:58:03

..a Queen becomes a prisoner,

0:58:030:58:05

and in the end she's sentenced to death.

0:58:050:58:08

Jane had to walk out here,

0:58:080:58:10

lay her head on the block

0:58:100:58:13

and wait for the blade.

0:58:130:58:14

But in her last moments, Jane leaves some private messages for posterity.

0:58:160:58:20

So this is the book she actually carried onto the scaffold

0:58:220:58:25

and handed over just before the blindfolding and the kneeling.

0:58:250:58:29

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