0:00:02 > 0:00:04The Tudors are historical superstars,
0:00:04 > 0:00:06our most famous royal dynasty,
0:00:06 > 0:00:10but there is one Tudor monarch who's been all but forgotten -
0:00:10 > 0:00:12Queen Jane.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Lady Jane Grey was a teenager,
0:00:14 > 0:00:20thrust onto the throne, only to lose her crown after just nine days.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23She was the first woman to be proclaimed Queen of England,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27but few would recognise the name Queen Jane.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30I'm Helen Castor, and over three episodes
0:00:30 > 0:00:34I'm going to take a forensic look at Jane's story.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40It is a Tudor thriller, an epic tale of family conflict...
0:00:42 > 0:00:44..ambition and betrayal...
0:00:46 > 0:00:47..the death of a king covered up...
0:00:48 > 0:00:51..and a country torn between two faiths.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Our protagonists include the manipulative duke...
0:00:58 > 0:01:00..the wronged princess...
0:01:02 > 0:01:04..and the God-fearing 15-year-old
0:01:04 > 0:01:07who finds herself caught between them,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09and pays with her life.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13I'm going to track down original sources,
0:01:13 > 0:01:15written as the drama unfolds.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18This is the really exciting bit of the job.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21I'll talk to expert colleagues.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24I've been in this game for 40 years, and I have to tell you,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27there is no trickier Tudor subject than Jane Grey.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32And I'll visit the places where Jane once walked during
0:01:32 > 0:01:34the nine days that she reigned.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37This time Jane's power base dissolves into deceit
0:01:37 > 0:01:40and treachery, but the question remains -
0:01:40 > 0:01:42will she escape with her life
0:01:42 > 0:01:46or will she pay the ultimate price for her part in the coup?
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Jane Grey wakes on the morning of 17th July 1553,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00eight days into her reign.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04She has taken personal charge of the keys to the Tower of London.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09She's locked her own supporters inside the Tower with her.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12Many believe that the end is approaching.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16We're entering the final chapter
0:02:16 > 0:02:19of a story that began several months earlier.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22The men who surrounded the dying son of Henry VIII
0:02:22 > 0:02:23have staged a coup.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26They've blocked Mary Tudor, Henry's eldest daughter,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30from the succession and put her cousin Jane onto the throne.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Lady Jane Grey was a teenager in the royal court.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37Now she's Queen Jane of England.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42But Mary has fought back, and she's proving popular.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Out in East Anglia, at her castle at Framlingham,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Mary has assembled an army of local landowners and tenant farmers.
0:02:52 > 0:02:58It becomes apparent that the common mood of the realm is pro-Maryan.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00Noblemen discovered that
0:03:00 > 0:03:02their tenants were refusing to fight for them.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04And just as a king needed his nobles
0:03:04 > 0:03:07to fight for him, nobles needed their tenants
0:03:07 > 0:03:09to fight for them, that's how it all works.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Even some of Jane's closest advisors,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16men from her Privy Council, have been talking of abandoning her.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22Jane learned of this and commanded that they be locked into the Tower
0:03:22 > 0:03:24and the keys turned over to her personally.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Very assertive move on her part.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32Two days ago Mary was the underdog, but now the tables have turned.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Jane's navy has mutinied,
0:03:35 > 0:03:39giving their precious gunpowder and artillery to Mary.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42This was a massive coup, because, you know,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45these are ships that have been sent on behalf of Lady Jane,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47essentially representing the Government
0:03:47 > 0:03:50at that point, and they've declared for the rank outsider,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52as it were - Mary.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Mary has the numbers and the artillery.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57For the first time Jane is under threat.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02And now it is not just her crown she could lose, it's her life.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08As members of the Council begin to desert her, Jane is taking
0:04:08 > 0:04:13extraordinary precautions in an extraordinary situation.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19I think once the Privy Council had begun to entertain the option
0:04:19 > 0:04:24of leaving the Tower and Jane had to actually physically lock them in,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27I think she was intelligent enough to know that she was in trouble,
0:04:27 > 0:04:29she was in serious trouble.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The same morning, as Jane wakes in the Tower,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42the Duke of Northumberland rises in Cambridge,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44where he's camped at the head of his army.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50The Duke of Northumberland was no ordinary military leader.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52He was a powerful politician.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55He'd been chief advisor to Edward VI
0:04:55 > 0:04:57and the dominant figure at the royal court.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02He was also a leader in the battle against Catholicism.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06It was quite dramatic, so they were tearing organs
0:05:06 > 0:05:10out of churches because they didn't believe in music in church,
0:05:10 > 0:05:12as well as destroying stained glass.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15I think something like 90% of religious art was destroyed.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19And while he'd become very powerful,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22he's also extremely unpopular.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Having succeeded in putting Jane onto the throne,
0:05:28 > 0:05:32Northumberland now has another job to do in East Anglia.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34The key element
0:05:34 > 0:05:36in a succession crisis like this
0:05:36 > 0:05:39is to get hold of the alternative monarch.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42Northumberland wants to capture Mary
0:05:42 > 0:05:45and prevent her from moving against Jane's regime.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50The plan is to engage with Mary's forces at her castle in Framlingham.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53But Northumberland's progress has been slow.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Northumberland had arrived in Cambridge on the 15th.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04Here, 50 miles from Framlingham, he hesitated.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Rather than move in for a quick battle,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10he chose to wait for reinforcements.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14After two days of waiting, there's good news.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17On the 17th he's still at Cambridge,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20he is waiting for his reinforcements to come in, and they ARE coming in.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Probably the artillery arrives on the 17th,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25which is the key weapon for him.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27He knows that Mary's at Framlingham,
0:06:27 > 0:06:31he's assuming she's going to be entrenched there to try and defend
0:06:31 > 0:06:33the position - that is exactly what she was intending to do -
0:06:33 > 0:06:37and therefore he is going to need artillery to reduce her position.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40So he gets this key force on the 17th,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43and therefore he's now ready to move.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46He's probably about 3,000 strong now,
0:06:46 > 0:06:492,000 cavalry, 1,000 infantry
0:06:49 > 0:06:54and then, of course, these 30 or so artillery pieces.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59What he doesn't know is that a major piece of his plan,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02the warships off the coast of Suffolk, have mutinied.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07Now, at Framlingham, Mary has the artillery she was lacking.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11He's outgunned, but he does not know it yet.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19News of the mutiny has reached the Privy Council in London...
0:07:20 > 0:07:23..and they haven't told Northumberland.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Some of them are questioning their loyalty to Jane.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35The imperial ambassadors reported that, "Many good men,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38"among whom there are members of the Council, are disgusted."
0:07:38 > 0:07:41They added, "There's trouble coming."
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Not knowing what's going on in London, Northumberland
0:07:52 > 0:07:56begins to position his men, ready for battle against Mary.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00He begins to move finally towards Framlingham,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03pretty much due east, on the morning of the 18th.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07The force breaks down probably two-to-one in terms of cavalry,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10but cavalry were the most dominant force on the battlefield
0:08:10 > 0:08:12at that time, anyway. So, that was a good thing.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16It's not a massive army, but these are pretty reliable soldiers,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21probably better trained in his mind than anything Mary will have
0:08:21 > 0:08:25to tackle him with, and therefore, it's enough for the job.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Inside the fortress of the Tower of London,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37the Privy Council is receiving a steady stream of worrying reports,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41including one message with chilling implications.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Sir Edmund Peckham, Treasurer of the Mint, is missing.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52No-one knows for sure where he is, but rumours are flying.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56Reports say that he's helped assemble forces from Oxfordshire,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Middlesex,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and they're not for Jane, but for Mary.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09If the rumours are true, Peckham has mustered 10,000 men,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and they're ready to march on London to depose Jane.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19She immediately begins writing to powerful landowners for help.
0:09:26 > 0:09:32This is a letter written on 18th July 1553,
0:09:32 > 0:09:37from the Tower, by Jane the Queen, as it says at the top.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42And it's a letter asking for help
0:09:42 > 0:09:47in subduing the violence and resistance that's taking place
0:09:47 > 0:09:50in her kingdom, and it asks the recipients to
0:09:50 > 0:09:54"Assemble, muster and levy all the power you can possibly make...
0:09:57 > 0:10:01"..to repair with all possible speed towards Buckinghamshire...
0:10:02 > 0:10:05"..for the repressing and subduing of certain tumults of rebellions
0:10:05 > 0:10:10"moved there against us and our crown by certain seditious men."
0:10:11 > 0:10:16This is a last-ditch attempt by Jane to rally support behind her.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22But these desperate letters come too late.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28In one report from the imperial ambassadors,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32they suggest that Mary appears to be stronger than the Duke.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35The balance, it seems, has tipped.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42Now the odds are that the Duke is facing defeat at Mary's hands,
0:10:42 > 0:10:46a message is hurriedly dispatched from the Tower.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49The Duke is poised for the last push to Framlingham
0:10:49 > 0:10:51when the letter arrives.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00He receives information that actually everything's changed
0:11:00 > 0:11:02and two bits of crucial information.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05The first bit is that Mary's forces are actually stronger
0:11:05 > 0:11:10than he might have anticipated, so he's outnumbered by three to one.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13But the really key bit of information he gets is that
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Mary now has artillery, and she's got artillery from
0:11:16 > 0:11:19the royal ships that have mutinied and joined her.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22And so, not only is he outnumbered, he's outgunned.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25And it's at this point that he makes what we can say in
0:11:25 > 0:11:30retrospect was the fatal decision to withdraw back to Cambridge.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36But Northumberland has one last hope.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40He's expecting the Privy Council to put down the rising
0:11:40 > 0:11:42in Mary's favour to the west of London.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47What he doesn't know is that things have been changing in the Tower.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52One by one, Jane's loyal circle have begun to abandon her.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55Her control over the Tower is slipping,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59and members of the Privy Council are disappearing by the hour.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02And one of those who quietly slips away
0:12:02 > 0:12:05is the man that Jane was depending on to lead the reinforcements
0:12:05 > 0:12:07against Mary's supporters.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Her own uncle, the Earl of Arundel.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18It all seems to me very poignant that Jane is left in the Tower
0:12:18 > 0:12:20with the other Privy Councillors around her,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23and one by one they started dropping like flies.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27Once the one drops, it's like one penny drops,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29the rest go, it's like dominoes,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32because they begin to see that the public mood is very much
0:12:32 > 0:12:35against Jane, it's very much in favour of Mary.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Finally abandoned by her uncle and the other members
0:12:40 > 0:12:45of the Privy Council, time has run out for Queen Jane.
0:12:46 > 0:12:5018th July would be the last day of Jane's nine-day reign.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01By the morning of 19th July,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05only those closest to Jane remain with her in the Tower of London...
0:13:07 > 0:13:10..including her husband, Guildford Dudley...
0:13:12 > 0:13:15..and her father, Henry Grey,
0:13:15 > 0:13:17who stays with his daughter to the end.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24The Privy Council are now free from the confines of the Tower.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28They've been quick to abandon Jane in her hour of need.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32These members of the Council were a mix.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35You have both Protestants and Catholics,
0:13:35 > 0:13:40you have the Earl of Arundel, who was a Catholic, and he had
0:13:40 > 0:13:46supported Jane, but we presume that was for monetary reasons.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49But then he fell back on his religious alliance
0:13:49 > 0:13:51and shifted to Mary.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Paulet, he was an older man who had been raised
0:13:54 > 0:13:57in the Catholic faith and converted to Protestantism,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00so he too began to shift back.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05And the Earl of Huntingdon did so as well.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09But if Huntingdon were to support Queen Mary,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13that could give him a leg up in his own home power base.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18They now risked being seen as traitors by both rival queens.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23A crisis meeting was called at Baynard's Castle on the banks of the Thames.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27The Council gathered and Arundel put together an argument
0:14:27 > 0:14:29that might just absolve them of blame.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Arundel makes the case for the innocence of the assembled men.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40And the man they make the scapegoat...
0:14:41 > 0:14:44..is the one man who isn't there.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50It was time to speak against the Duke of Northumberland.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54Arundel's words have been reported many times,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56and every report differs.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59But one version from a papal envoy
0:14:59 > 0:15:04has him describing the Duke as a man "unhampered by scruples".
0:15:06 > 0:15:09He addressed the Privy Council, saying,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11"My conscience was burdened with remorse,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14"considering how the rights of my Lady Mary,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17"true heir to this crown, were usurped,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20"and that we have been robbed of that liberty which
0:15:20 > 0:15:24"we have enjoyed so long under the rule of our legitimate kings.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27"I believe you know well enough the ways and means that
0:15:27 > 0:15:30"the Duke is using and that he is not moved
0:15:30 > 0:15:33"either by zeal of the public welfare nor of the religion,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36"but only by the ambition to rule."
0:15:38 > 0:15:41The Privy Council has a choice to make.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45They need to survive with their lives and fortunes intact.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49The Privy Council came to their conclusion -
0:15:49 > 0:15:51the true Queen was Mary.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56It's a decisive moment,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59decisive for the future of the Privy Council,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01decisive for the country,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03decisive for Jane.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06The Council had put Jane on the throne
0:16:06 > 0:16:10and now they abandon her and declare for Mary.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17For the Council, the most important thing is to get the news to Mary
0:16:17 > 0:16:20and secure their futures as best they can.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23As the Earl of Arundel set out on a fast horse through the streets
0:16:23 > 0:16:26of the capital, on the road to Mary at Framlingham,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29the rest of the Privy Council headed for Cheapside
0:16:29 > 0:16:31to tell the people their decision.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Big crowds had assembled,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36waiting to hear what the Councillors have to say.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41When they broke the news, the city erupted in celebrations.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44There were bonfires without number
0:16:44 > 0:16:47and people singing in the street for joy.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54The reaction when Mary's proclaimed Queen in Cheapside
0:16:54 > 0:16:57is one of complete elation.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Everyone is utterly overjoyed that she has at last
0:17:00 > 0:17:02come into her birthright.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05And there are all these wonderful accounts and reports
0:17:05 > 0:17:09of the celebrations that were staged and took place there.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12And a Tudor historian, John Stowe,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15records that there were all these bonfires,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19that people were leaping around in the streets and dancing,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21that Te Deum was sang,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24that there was wine flowing through the streets.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29From this moment on, each of those who later told their story
0:17:29 > 0:17:32cast Northumberland as the instigator of the coup.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35He was the man driven by ambition,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38the bully, the tyrant, the traitor.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41History is written by the winners,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44those who survive to tell the tale.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Throughout the 16th century, Privy Councillors had to confront
0:17:47 > 0:17:50crises over the succession to the throne.
0:17:50 > 0:17:57And those who survive are those who make the right call at the critical moment.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Messengers from the Privy Council in Baynard's Castle are sent to
0:18:04 > 0:18:09the Tower to pass on the news that the Council have switched sides,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and Jane can no longer hold on to power.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18How did Jane in the Tower find out that her reign was over?
0:18:18 > 0:18:20Well, the Privy Council sent a military force
0:18:20 > 0:18:24to tell her father that Jane was no longer Queen
0:18:24 > 0:18:27and that Mary had been proclaimed.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30They weren't sure how Henry Grey would react,
0:18:30 > 0:18:35but when this force arrived, he simply said, "I am just one man."
0:18:36 > 0:18:38There was nothing he could do to defend
0:18:38 > 0:18:42his daughter's rights as Queen any longer,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47and he went to tell her that she was no longer Queen.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50The Pope's envoy described the scene.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Henry Grey entered the room where his daughter was sitting in state
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and removed the cloth of state from over her head
0:18:57 > 0:19:00as clear demonstration of what had to follow.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04He delivered the news that it was all over.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07There was no anger, no tears.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10Jane hadn't chosen to take the crown.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14Now she said that she would give it up as gladly as she'd accepted it.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17And she said, "Can I go home now?"
0:19:17 > 0:19:19In a very innocent sort of way.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25It's almost as though she has had to put on this persona of a queen
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and play the role for several days,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30and it must have been enormously exhausting,
0:19:30 > 0:19:32all of the stress and worry
0:19:32 > 0:19:35and not knowing what's happening from one minute to the next.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38And then she's told, "OK, it's over," and it's like,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42"Phew! Can I go back to being me again and not Queen of England?"
0:19:42 > 0:19:48And a young woman who has found the strength to inhabit that role
0:19:48 > 0:19:53for nine days in a situation of such stress and crisis,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57then suddenly displaying the naivety to think that there was any chance
0:19:57 > 0:19:59that she might be allowed to go home.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03And that almost makes us wonder, you know,
0:20:03 > 0:20:07if she is so intelligent and she is so...so...
0:20:07 > 0:20:11..insightful of what's going on around her,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14it's almost as though she lost all of that for a moment.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Jane and her father no longer command the Tower.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21Instead they're arrested.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Her fortress now becomes her prison.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31What happened next, when Jane had changed from Queen to prisoner?
0:20:31 > 0:20:34She was stripped of her valuables,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36down to her small change.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40She was then escorted from the royal apartments
0:20:40 > 0:20:42to this small house on Tower Green,
0:20:42 > 0:20:47which belongs to the Gentleman Gaoler, Nathaniel Partridge.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50The house is still within the confines of the Tower,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52but very different accommodation.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55Yes, it's a world away in terms of status.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59In one she would sit on, essentially, what was a throne
0:20:59 > 0:21:01under a canopy of state
0:21:01 > 0:21:05in great rooms hung with tapestries, as a queen.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Now she was, appropriately, in this small house
0:21:09 > 0:21:14as simply Lady Jane Dudley,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16wife of a commoner.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21When the news reaches Northumberland in Cambridge,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23he knows he's facing a traitor's death.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Foxe's Book Of Martyrs, a Protestant history, describes a man in crisis.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35In desperation, he proclaims Mary Queen
0:21:35 > 0:21:39and "so laughed that the tears ran down his cheeks for grief".
0:21:42 > 0:21:45The Duke of Northumberland had not been born to high office.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49He'd fought his way to the top.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53He'd come so close to making Jane Queen
0:21:53 > 0:21:56and his own son, Guildford, King.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59And now...
0:21:59 > 0:22:01..it's all over.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17On 20th July, just ten days after Jane entered the Tower as Queen,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Jane's own uncle, the Earl of Arundel,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24leads a deputation from the Council to offer their allegiance to Mary.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29The Earl, once one of Northumberland's closest allies,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32denounces the Duke and delivers the news
0:22:32 > 0:22:35that the Privy Council have abandoned Jane's cause
0:22:35 > 0:22:39and have proclaimed Mary Queen on the streets of the capital.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42What happened when the Earl of Arundel and his colleagues
0:22:42 > 0:22:46arrived at Framlingham to tell Mary that they'd changed sides?
0:22:46 > 0:22:51Well, one of the first things they did was to beg for her pardon.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55And the imperial ambassadors describe how they went
0:22:55 > 0:22:59on their knees and how they pointed a dagger at their own stomachs
0:22:59 > 0:23:04to demonstrate that they deserved death, but they were, nevertheless,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08asking her, out of her royal mercy, to grant them pardon.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10And did Mary forgive them?
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Mary did, Mary had wanted to forgive them from the beginning.
0:23:14 > 0:23:20She had been determined to reassure the elite that if they came to her,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24if they took her side, it would be a safe thing to do,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28that she would forgive them and it would all be put behind them.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Mary summoned Arundel.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35Whether it was reward for his present devotion to Mary
0:23:35 > 0:23:38or punishment for his past devotion to Northumberland,
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Mary gave him one task.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46The Duke of Northumberland is still in Cambridge
0:23:46 > 0:23:48when Mary's troops come for him.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55The man who arrests him, on the order of the new Queen,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59is his former ally and friend the Earl of Arundel.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06When Arundel brought Northumberland back to the Tower on 25th July,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09the streets were crammed with people.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14He was pelted with stones and rocks, and the crowds cried, "Traitor."
0:24:16 > 0:24:20The views of the people are key to this story.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26We could say Mary won because she had superior forces.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30But WHY did she have superior forces?
0:24:31 > 0:24:35Because the people didn't believe in Jane.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41Jane's story tells us a lot about what we take to be the rules of governments.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44We often assume it is a matter of technicalities,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46abiding by the letter of the law.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52But the competing claims of 1553 show that isn't necessarily so.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Jane was proclaimed Queen by the regime in power,
0:24:57 > 0:24:59according to the will of the dead king.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03But that idea didn't fly with the people.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06They knew that Mary was Henry VIII's daughter.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Even if the law said that she was illegitimate,
0:25:09 > 0:25:14they believed that she, not Jane, was the rightful Queen of England.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18And if you can't get your people to obey you,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21then what kind of a queen can you really claim to be?
0:25:23 > 0:25:28On 3rd August, two weeks after Jane's reign had ended,
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Mary Tudor entered London to take control of the Tower.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Crowds lined the streets.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38One Tudor chronicler who witnessed the events noted,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42"Her gown of purple velvet, with sleeves of the same,
0:25:42 > 0:25:46"her curtal, purple satin all thick set with goldsmith's work
0:25:46 > 0:25:48"and a great pearl.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50"Her palfrey..." - that's her horse - "..that she rode on,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54"richly trapped with gold embroidered to the horse's feet."
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Mary was a vision of royal splendour.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05She was every bit the Queen that people wanted to see.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13Mary quickly turned to the matter of Jane Grey and what to do with her.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17Against the advice of those around her, who cried for blood,
0:26:17 > 0:26:19Mary looked for a bloodless resolution.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25Mary knew it was politic at that beginning of her reign
0:26:25 > 0:26:27after regaining the throne to be merciful,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30other than of course to Northumberland and the people most
0:26:30 > 0:26:33involved in what she saw as this plot to div...
0:26:33 > 0:26:36..which it was, of course, a plot to divert the succession.
0:26:36 > 0:26:42So Jane is actually, really, I mean, for the best part of six months
0:26:42 > 0:26:46kept in confinement in the Tower.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Jane and her young husband, Guildford Dudley,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52were imprisoned in separate quarters.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55Guildford was a prisoner in the Beauchamp Tower,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59and Jane was held for some time in Nathaniel Partridge's house,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01on this side here.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06We know that Jane was kept at the house of a Tower officer,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09but the location of the prison for the Dudleys
0:27:09 > 0:27:11is written into the walls.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Often graffiti is the only way we know where
0:27:15 > 0:27:18specific prisoners were held.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21And in the Beauchamp Tower there's the most extraordinary graffiti
0:27:21 > 0:27:24relating to the Dudley family.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28It's an elaborate piece, left behind by Guildford's brother John,
0:27:28 > 0:27:32the Earl of Warwick, who was imprisoned with him in the Tower.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36You can tell it's him as Earl Warwick because it has
0:27:36 > 0:27:40a bear and a ragged staff, which is the image of Warwick.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44And then it's surrounded by flowers which represent his brothers.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47So there's a rose for Ambrose,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49gillyflowers for Guildford - it's all very cheesy -
0:27:49 > 0:27:51honeysuckle for Henry,
0:27:51 > 0:27:56and also there's a verse underneath which says, it basically says,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59"Those people who see this will understand why it's here
0:27:59 > 0:28:02"and will be able to seek out the four brothers represented."
0:28:04 > 0:28:08Jane and Guildford would be spared for now, at least,
0:28:08 > 0:28:09but what of Jane's father?
0:28:11 > 0:28:14Jane's mother, Frances Grey, had been close to Mary,
0:28:14 > 0:28:19and if anyone could save the life of Henry Grey, then it would be her.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Jane's mother predictably pleaded that the Grey family
0:28:22 > 0:28:24had been victims of Northumberland.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29She claimed to have evidence that her husband had fallen ill
0:28:29 > 0:28:32because he'd been poisoned by the evil Duke.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37Remarkably, Mary was persuaded.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41The blame, she felt, should be Northumberland's,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44he was the sole architect of the coup.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50The ultimate crime of treason was his and his alone.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Jane's father was pardoned and set free.
0:28:55 > 0:29:01But on 18th August, the Duke of Northumberland was put on trial in Westminster Hall.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Here he was confronted by many of his former colleagues
0:29:04 > 0:29:07from the Privy Council, who had switched sides to Mary.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11The outcome was never in doubt.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14He was sentenced to a public execution on Tower Hill.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18The day before his death, the Duke,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21the scourge of Catholics across the country,
0:29:21 > 0:29:25the man who had ferociously suppressed the old faith,
0:29:25 > 0:29:30fell back on the one course of action that might have saved his life.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36Northumberland, the great religious reformer,
0:29:36 > 0:29:38attended a Catholic Mass,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40and declared to all those present,
0:29:40 > 0:29:45"I do most faithfully believe this is the very right and true way,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49"out of which true religion you and I have been seduced
0:29:49 > 0:29:54"these 16 years past by the false and erroneous preaching of the new preachers."
0:29:56 > 0:29:59But if he thought his plea might save his life, he was wrong.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07On 22nd August, thousands of people crowded onto Tower Hill
0:30:07 > 0:30:10for Northumberland's very public beheading.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17Was Northumberland really to blame for everything that happened?
0:30:17 > 0:30:19Was he alone responsible for the coup,
0:30:19 > 0:30:23or was he a convenient scapegoat for others who wanted to
0:30:23 > 0:30:27distance themselves from the events of July 1553?
0:30:27 > 0:30:29I think that's the big question, isn't it?
0:30:29 > 0:30:32That's what has been debated for almost 500 years.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Was he this sort of scheming Machiavellian
0:30:35 > 0:30:40who takes this poor, innocent young girl and places her on the throne?
0:30:40 > 0:30:44Or was he a genuinely sort of caring person who cared about his country,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47cared about his family, was educated and talented?
0:30:47 > 0:30:51You don't see Northumberland as the Machiavellian figure
0:30:51 > 0:30:55pulling the strings behind the dying Edward.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00You would see him as a player attempting to preserve
0:31:00 > 0:31:03his own position as the board is moving rapidly around him.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06People want to say he's a Rasputinesque
0:31:06 > 0:31:08or, as you say, Machiavellian-type figure.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11I don't buy into that at all. I just don't see it.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16It was entirely normal for people in this period to seek personal
0:31:16 > 0:31:20advantage, and that he did so, he was simply reflecting his own,
0:31:20 > 0:31:22the culture in which he lived.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25He was doing what everyone else around him did.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29We do know what Jane herself thought of Northumberland.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32On 29th August, Partridge threw a dinner party, and
0:31:32 > 0:31:36those present included the author of The Chronicle Of Queen Jane,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39the most reliable source, and Jane herself,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41and in the course of that dinner,
0:31:41 > 0:31:43well, they must have clearly been reflecting on,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46you know, the general situation and what had happened.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Jane suddenly denounces Northumberland and says he was
0:31:49 > 0:31:52the source of all her and her family's troubles,
0:31:52 > 0:31:56and the reason for this was Northumberland's exceeding ambition.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01Jane remained in the house of Nathaniel Partridge for several months.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06And during this time there was growing tension between Mary,
0:32:06 > 0:32:08who wanted to save Jane,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11and those around her who were calling for Jane's death.
0:32:13 > 0:32:14A trial was inevitable.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19On 13th November, Jane was led out of the Tower.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21It was the first time she'd left the fortress
0:32:21 > 0:32:25since she entered it as Queen in early July.
0:32:25 > 0:32:27Now she walked through the streets,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31a single mile to the Guildhall, where she faced a public trial.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Jane could have been tried in Westminster Hall,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39taken by water, privately on a barge,
0:32:39 > 0:32:44but instead, she was processed through the streets on foot.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49A treason trial at this period was not a trial in the way we understand it.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52It wasn't about discovering guilt or innocence,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55it was essentially a morality play,
0:32:55 > 0:33:00and this morality play was a demonstration of Jane's guilt.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04She was dressed very dramatically, entirely in black,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08and she had hanging from her belt a prayer book.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14She was setting herself up as an example of Protestant piety.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Jane was tried alongside her husband, Guildford.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22The trial opens with a Catholic liturgy,
0:33:22 > 0:33:27which Jane must have found extremely irritating and upsetting.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Nevertheless, she listens calmly
0:33:32 > 0:33:36to the accusations laid against her -
0:33:36 > 0:33:42treason, which include her signing her documents as "Jane the Queen".
0:33:43 > 0:33:47And she pleads guilty to treason,
0:33:47 > 0:33:52as does her husband, Guildford, who is on trial with her.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55At the end of the trial, entirely predictably,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59she is found guilty and condemned to death...
0:34:00 > 0:34:06..either by burning or by beheading at the Queen's pleasure.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Guildford is to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14But was Jane guilty?
0:34:14 > 0:34:19She was a teenage girl who'd played no part in planning to take the throne.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21Was Jane an innocent victim?
0:34:21 > 0:34:25Depends on how you define "innocent".
0:34:25 > 0:34:27In purely legal terms...
0:34:28 > 0:34:30..probably not,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34because she did actively participate in the events of her reign.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38She asserted herself and refused to make Guildford King,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43she willingly signed documents repeatedly, numerous documents,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47she took the action of locking her Privy Councillors into the Tower.
0:34:47 > 0:34:53All of those are very positive moves on her part to assert herself as monarch.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56So legally, no, she's not innocent.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01But in an extraordinary act of leniency,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04Mary suspended Jane's sentence.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08She continued to resist those around her who wanted Jane dead.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Mary is somebody who actually, particularly at this stage of her reign, is generous.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18She's merciful, she's also very pragmatic because she knows it'll
0:35:18 > 0:35:22actually be rather wise to build up as much support as possible
0:35:22 > 0:35:23by being lenient where she can.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26Mary needs to bring people together, not divide them,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30to consign the crisis to history as quickly as she can.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35It's well within Mary's character that, because Jane was family,
0:35:35 > 0:35:37you know, even despite all that had happened,
0:35:37 > 0:35:40she could have brought her into her court and rehabilitated her.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43She did rehabilitate various other young women.
0:35:44 > 0:35:45It's perfectly possible.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49But unlike the Duke of Northumberland,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53Jane was not prepared to change her faith at any price.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58She was the sort of person we might recognise today,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01she's a sort of a teenage religious ideologue,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05who's prepared to die for her religious cause.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10Jane had one way of reaching the outside world.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14As a child she had been schooled in writing letters,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17a skill that had traditionally been a male preserve.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Women are able to, because they're able to write,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27are able to express themselves on paper.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30These are privy and powerful communications.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34You know, letters here are a sort of a political tool.
0:36:36 > 0:36:42As Queen, Jane had signed letters prepared by professional scribes.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45Now she put her own skills to work,
0:36:45 > 0:36:50and gave full vent to her faith with no concern for the consequences.
0:36:50 > 0:36:55She hears that Mary has re-legalised the Catholic Mass.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59So the Mass, the Catholic Mass can be said again in England.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Jane violently disapproves of the Catholic Mass,
0:37:03 > 0:37:06she describes it as a sort of form of Satanic cannibalism.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10And she wants people to make a stand against it.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14So she writes an open letter to a former tutor of hers
0:37:14 > 0:37:16who's converted to Catholicism,
0:37:16 > 0:37:21and says to people they should rise, rise again in Christ's war.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25At the very moment when Jane needs to be appealing to Mary,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28as her life hangs in the balance,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31the writing of this letter is remarkable.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34It's a very forceful letter, full of extremely strong language,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38even name-calling, telling this person that
0:37:38 > 0:37:42he's going to become the spawn of Satan if he doesn't recant
0:37:42 > 0:37:45and come back to Protestantism etc.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47Violating all sorts of social norms.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52I mean, she's speaking to... This is a young girl speaking to a man,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55this is a young person speaking to an older person,
0:37:55 > 0:37:58this is a student speaking to her former teacher.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02And in each of those roles she's reversed it
0:38:02 > 0:38:06and become the authority, the teacher, the parent, the guide.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09I mean, she may not literally have meant, "Go out and put on
0:38:09 > 0:38:12"your suit of armour and chop off Mary Tudor's head," but...
0:38:13 > 0:38:16..not that far from it, really.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20The extraordinary thing is that Mary overlooks this letter.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22Even now, she won't sign Jane's death warrant.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27But Jane is left languishing in the Tower of London,
0:38:27 > 0:38:28isolated from the world.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32The process of wiping away the pictures and records
0:38:32 > 0:38:34of Jane the Queen begins.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38And after all this time looking for traces of Jane,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40I still don't know what she looks like.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45We live in an era today of visual media.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48You know, visual images are around us everywhere,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51and we want to see what these people look like.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55And unfortunately we don't have a reliable, authentic,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58documentable portrait of Jane Grey.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01Jane almost seems to be a ghost slipping through our fingers.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04What are the options for the possible images
0:39:04 > 0:39:08that we might look at to try to see Jane's face?
0:39:08 > 0:39:11There is really only one at the moment that gives us
0:39:11 > 0:39:13reasonably reliable indication of her appearance,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16and that's a portrait at Syon House.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20If there were ever more paintings of Jane,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24then it's possible they were destroyed as she awaited execution,
0:39:24 > 0:39:26condemned as a traitor.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28Traitors, people who have had their heads chopped off,
0:39:28 > 0:39:30pictures of them don't survive, because, you know,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33if you've got a traitor in the family you don't want to boast about it.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35You don't want to say Great-Aunt Maude when it was a traitor,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38at least not when you're living during the Tudor era.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41The Syon picture, long said to be Jane Grey,
0:39:41 > 0:39:47was analysed in 2013 by experts able to date the wood it was painted on.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51It was painted 50 years after she died,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54but we do know that it was commissioned
0:39:54 > 0:39:57by someone who had actually known Jane.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07So here it is.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09This is as good as it gets.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28Now Jane was out of sight, she was out of mind.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31The new Queen Mary was focused on her own future.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38She had announced her intention to marry Philip of Spain,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40who was Catholic and a foreigner...
0:40:41 > 0:40:45..and on both counts caused her people unease.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50For the four months that Jane had been imprisoned,
0:40:50 > 0:40:55Mary had also been working to undo her brother's Protestant reforms.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00Proclamations were amended and laws reversed.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05The Mass and the old prayer book were reintroduced,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08and Catholicism, with all of its ritual, returned.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Jane glimpsed the world through narrow windows
0:41:14 > 0:41:18and conversations with the few who still came to visit,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20including her father, Henry Grey.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28But while she was in prison, another plot was being hatched.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33In January 1554, Thomas Wyatt, a Protestant gentleman,
0:41:33 > 0:41:37raised 4,000 men to march on London to remove Mary from the throne.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40We don't know if Jane knew about it,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43but she was implicated all the same.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Alongside Wyatt, one of the rebel leaders was a man
0:41:46 > 0:41:50who had worked for so long to advance the Protestant cause -
0:41:50 > 0:41:51her own father.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56Jane would have heard that the rising collapsed in violence
0:41:56 > 0:42:00and chaos and was routed by the forces of the Crown.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05She would have heard that the leaders were captured and tried.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09And she would have had no doubt of the consequences for those involved.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16Hundreds of men were sentenced to die.
0:42:16 > 0:42:17Many would be hanged,
0:42:17 > 0:42:21and the worst offenders were to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26It would be a violent and terrible blood-letting
0:42:26 > 0:42:29as a statement of the authority of the Crown.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33And there could be no pardon for Jane's father this time.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38Mary had forgiven him once, she couldn't forgive him again.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41He would be executed.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48When Jane refused to let her father lead the army to confront Mary
0:42:48 > 0:42:51in Framlingham, she probably saved his life.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56And had her father lived a quiet life at court under the new regime,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59there's a chance Jane could've been saved...
0:43:00 > 0:43:03..but now, her father's actions were what seals Jane's fate.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07While she was alive, she became a symbol,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10a rallying point for rebel Protestants.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Mary couldn't let her live.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17Mary signed the death warrant for Northumberland's son, Guildford,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19and for Jane too.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22The executions would take place in five days' time.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29And for Jane's father, perhaps the greatest punishment of all -
0:43:29 > 0:43:33he would live long enough to know his daughter had been beheaded.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Jane would die on the same day as her husband,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41Guildford before Jane.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49The vast majority of executions associated with the Tower of London
0:43:49 > 0:43:54happened outside the castle on Tower Hill, in public,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56for justice to be seen to be done,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and, of course, that's what happens to Guildford Dudley,
0:43:59 > 0:44:04but for Jane herself, she's one of a very privileged group of people
0:44:04 > 0:44:10who are actually executed more privately within the castle itself.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15Between 1483 and 1941 there are 22 executions
0:44:15 > 0:44:19that happen within the confines of the Tower.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24And Jane is one of five women who were executed within the castle,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26and one of three queens,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30the other two being Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35There is an account of Jane's private execution,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39which is the most reliable description of this infamous event.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43It's in The Chronicle Of Queen Jane,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46written by someone who was present inside the Tower.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52Jane, we're told, was "nothing at all abashed,
0:44:52 > 0:44:54"neither with fear of her own death,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57"neither with the sight of the dead carcass of her husband.
0:44:57 > 0:45:03"She came forth, the lieutenant leading her, in the same gown wherein she was arraigned.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06"Neither her eyes anything moisted with tears,
0:45:06 > 0:45:08"although her two gentlewomen,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11"Mistress Elizabeth Tilney and Mistress Ellen, wonderfully wept.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14"Jane carried a book in her hand,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18"whereon she prayed all the way till she came to the said scaffold."
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Another source says that, "She conducted herself at her execution
0:45:23 > 0:45:26"with the greatest fortitude and godliness."
0:45:34 > 0:45:37It's a terrifying thought.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40Jane had to walk out here,
0:45:40 > 0:45:42lay her head on the block
0:45:42 > 0:45:43and wait for the blade.
0:45:46 > 0:45:47When we talk about Tudor history,
0:45:47 > 0:45:51we use words like "beheading" without thinking too much about them,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54but Jane's death was a moment of horror.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07She was executed on 12th February 1554,
0:46:07 > 0:46:09dressed head to foot in black,
0:46:09 > 0:46:12carrying a prayer book in her hand,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15supported by two devoted gentlewomen.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25It may be the end of Jane's life, but this is where
0:46:25 > 0:46:29the enduring fascination with the Nine Days Queen begins.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32The story of how this young woman met her death
0:46:32 > 0:46:35has been repeated throughout history,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39and in the process, her execution has become shrouded in myth.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45There's another famous description of her execution.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49It's an account published in the weeks after Jane's death
0:46:49 > 0:46:52by an underground Protestant press,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56in other words, by someone who had an interest in making Jane
0:46:56 > 0:46:59a perfect Protestant martyr.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05It describes her last moments in heart-rending detail.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10" 'Shall I say this psalm?'
0:47:10 > 0:47:12"And he said, 'Yes.'
0:47:12 > 0:47:15"Then she said the Psalm of Miserere mei, Deus, in English,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17"in most devout manner to the end.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21"Then she stood up and gave her maid, Mistress Tilney,
0:47:21 > 0:47:22"her gloves and handkerchief,
0:47:22 > 0:47:26"and her book to Master Thomas Bridges, the lieutenant's brother.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30"Then the hangman kneeled down and asked her forgiveness,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32"whom she forgave most willingly.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35"Then he willed her to stand upon the straw,
0:47:35 > 0:47:37"which doing, she saw the block.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41"Then she said, 'I pray thee, dispatch me quickly.'
0:47:41 > 0:47:43"Then she kneeled down, saying,
0:47:43 > 0:47:46" 'Will you take it off before I lay me down?
0:47:46 > 0:47:49"And the hangman answered her, 'No, madam.'
0:47:50 > 0:47:53"She tied the handkerchief about her eyes,
0:47:53 > 0:47:57"then, feeling for the block, said, 'What shall I do? Where is it?'
0:47:58 > 0:48:01"One of the standers-by guiding her thereunto,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04"she laid her head down upon the block and stretched forth her body
0:48:04 > 0:48:08"and said, 'Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.'
0:48:10 > 0:48:11"And so she ended."
0:48:11 > 0:48:13It's full of pathos,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17but it's an example of how Jane's story has been embellished,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20because it was added in to the eyewitness chronicle of Queen Jane
0:48:20 > 0:48:23when it was published in the 19th century.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27Now, when this was edited, in 1850, by John Gough Nichols,
0:48:27 > 0:48:30who was a very distinguished historian, he altered the text.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32This is very, very hard to believe,
0:48:32 > 0:48:37but he added new text that he believed to have been written
0:48:37 > 0:48:40by the original chronicler that he had found elsewhere.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43They were texts that were circulating quite widely,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45even in the 16th century,
0:48:45 > 0:48:48but he added them for the extraordinary reason -
0:48:48 > 0:48:52and this is the thing about Jane Grey that you couldn't possibly have made up -
0:48:52 > 0:48:58he added it because he'd recently seen Paul Delaroche's painting.
0:49:04 > 0:49:05All the pathos,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09all the drama of the version of the story that has Jane Grey,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13you know, coming up to the scaffold and then sort of basically
0:49:13 > 0:49:16fumbling with the blindfold and then groping for the block,
0:49:16 > 0:49:18and asking the executioner, you know,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21"Are you going to do it before I've actually knelt down at the block?"
0:49:21 > 0:49:24And he says, "No," and then saying the Psalm, you know,
0:49:24 > 0:49:26basically, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord,"
0:49:26 > 0:49:30and the wonderful, theatrical, dramatised creation
0:49:30 > 0:49:33of Jane as this innocent victim and Protestant martyr.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37That is not in The Chronicle Of Jane Grey.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43The 19th-century editor was inspired to this description
0:49:43 > 0:49:47of Jane's execution in the otherwise eyewitness chronicle
0:49:47 > 0:49:50by one of the most popular portraits in the National Gallery.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55The Execution Of Lady Jane Grey was painted by the French artist
0:49:55 > 0:50:01Paul Delaroche over 250 years after Jane died.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09What it is not is
0:50:09 > 0:50:13a historical reconstruction of the actual circumstances,
0:50:13 > 0:50:17insofar as we can know them, of Jane Grey's execution.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21The painting was first shown in 1834,
0:50:21 > 0:50:2530 years after the end of the French Revolution.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28If you put somebody with an axe,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30and you have a young woman in the foreground
0:50:30 > 0:50:32who is about to be beheaded,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36inevitably this brings up the issues of French history,
0:50:36 > 0:50:41which were perhaps too raw to be depicted at that particular time
0:50:41 > 0:50:43in their own right.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47The image of an archetypal innocent facing the block
0:50:47 > 0:50:51was a particularly resonant one in post-Revolutionary France.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55What Delaroche was not striving for
0:50:55 > 0:50:58was historical accuracy about 16th-century England.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03That is such a rubbish image.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05The only thing accurate in that image, really,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07is the straw on the floor.
0:51:07 > 0:51:13And beyond that it is an entirely almost histrionic, dramatic
0:51:13 > 0:51:16evocation of an idea,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19rather than a depiction of an individual.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23Do you think the difficulty of seeing Jane's face
0:51:23 > 0:51:25is one of the things that's left space for
0:51:25 > 0:51:27the crowding in of myth about her?
0:51:27 > 0:51:31That it's harder to have a sense of her as a real person?
0:51:31 > 0:51:34It makes it very difficult to render her concrete.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38So there is kind of a mystery and a vagueness about it
0:51:38 > 0:51:40that leaves room for infill.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47At times, those gaps in the record have left room for complete invention.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52One of the best examples appears in The Nine Days Queen,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56written by Richard Davey and published in 1909.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01This is the book, and his source is a letter
0:52:01 > 0:52:04from a Genoese merchant called Baptist Spinola.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08The letter says, "This Jane is very short and thin
0:52:08 > 0:52:10"but prettily shaped and graceful.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13"She has small features and a well-made nose,
0:52:13 > 0:52:15"the mouth flexible and the lips red.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18"Her headdress was a white coif with many jewels.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22"The new queen was mounted on very high chopines..."
0:52:22 > 0:52:25That's a kind of platform shoe. "..to make her look much taller,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29"which were concealed by her robes as she is very small and short."
0:52:30 > 0:52:33But here are the pitfalls of history.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35This, after her execution,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39the most often repeated detail in the story of Jane Grey
0:52:39 > 0:52:42turns out to be a historical fraud,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46and that rich merchant Baptist Spinola probably never existed.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50It fulfils people's expectations,
0:52:50 > 0:52:51they want a pretty girl
0:52:51 > 0:52:54who looks vulnerable and fragile,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56surrounded by sort of big adults.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59You know, there she is in her stack shoes,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02and she's smiling just as she enters the Tower.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07From the moment she died,
0:53:07 > 0:53:11people have mythologised and misrepresented Lady Jane Grey.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17But there is one object that allows us to hear
0:53:17 > 0:53:20Jane's own voice from beyond the grave.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27Her prayer book.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32So this is the book she actually carried onto the scaffold
0:53:32 > 0:53:37and handed over just before the blindfolding and the kneeling?
0:53:37 > 0:53:39It is, yes. Yes.
0:53:39 > 0:53:40It's quite incredible, isn't it?
0:53:40 > 0:53:43What makes it even more special,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46one of the great treasures of the British Library,
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Jane wrote some messages in it.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52One is a heartfelt message to her father.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57She writes, "The Lord comfort your grace,
0:53:57 > 0:53:59"and that, in the world we're in,
0:53:59 > 0:54:03"all creatures can only be comforted."
0:54:04 > 0:54:08"And though it hath pleased God to take away two of your children,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12"yet think not that you have lost them, but trust that we,
0:54:12 > 0:54:16"by leaving this mortal life, have won an immortal life."
0:54:16 > 0:54:18And then she signs it,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21"Your grace's humble daughter, Jane Dudley."
0:54:21 > 0:54:23She's no longer Jane the Queen.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27In another message,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30she writes to the Catholic gentleman who had been in charge of the Tower
0:54:30 > 0:54:32during her time in prison.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38"I shall, as a friend, desire you, and as a Christian require you,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42"call upon God to incline your heart to his laws
0:54:42 > 0:54:46"and to not take the word of truth utterly out of your mouth,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49"but live to die. Live still to die."
0:54:49 > 0:54:52So she's saying, don't be misguided by false teachings,
0:54:52 > 0:54:56and of course by that she means Roman Catholicism.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Once we strip away the layers of myths and exaggeration,
0:55:00 > 0:55:06the Jane we find is devout, unflinching, composed to the end.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11But the one thing she could never be is the one thing that
0:55:11 > 0:55:15might have made a difference to her chances of keeping the throne.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Her cousin Edward's plan for the succession makes it clear
0:55:19 > 0:55:22that he thought a man should wear the crown.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27One word gets repeated over and over again.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30Male, male, male, male.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32Heirs male.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36To hold power meant to be male.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41Women were considered to be creatures of emotion rather than of reason.
0:55:41 > 0:55:45Edward's plan had been to keep women off the throne for good.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48No-one has yet looked at it as a gender issue...
0:55:49 > 0:55:53..as opposed to a pure political power and religious issue.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57But as it turned out, Jane's nine-day reign
0:55:57 > 0:56:01was part of a critical moment in English history.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06She was overthrown by her female rival, Mary,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09who would rule England for five years.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14When Mary died, Elizabeth followed her onto the English throne.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17Another woman, another queen.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21Like Jane, she was a religious reformer.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24Unlike Jane, she ruled for 45 years.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29And Elizabeth learned a lot from Jane's brief reign.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34It's very important in the impact it has on Elizabeth.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36Why is she the Virgin Queen?
0:56:36 > 0:56:37Well...
0:56:37 > 0:56:41..she saw what happened to Jane when Jane married Guildford Dudley
0:56:41 > 0:56:44and how that helped undermine her position.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48She's seen how little she can trust the nobility,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51the Protestant nobility who were supposed to be her chief backers.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54Elizabeth has seen how they can't be trusted
0:56:54 > 0:56:58but how the ordinary people might help to save her.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02So Jane's nine days do leave a legacy.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05But was she Lady Jane Grey or Queen Jane?
0:57:05 > 0:57:11Would you count Jane as a Queen of England?
0:57:11 > 0:57:13Or was this a failed coup
0:57:13 > 0:57:18that we shouldn't include in the line of English monarchs?
0:57:18 > 0:57:21She reigned for nine days, she was a Queen of England.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25A contested queen, but a queen nonetheless.
0:57:25 > 0:57:311553 was an extraordinary moment in English history.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36For the first time ever, all possible heirs to the crown were female.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41The men who surrounded the throne imagined that the only way
0:57:41 > 0:57:44a mere woman could rule was as their puppet.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46That's why they chose Jane Grey.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49But in her nine days as Queen,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51Jane began to show them they were wrong.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56It was a lesson hammered home by her cousin and rival, Mary.
0:57:57 > 0:58:02And the example of these two women in the summer of 1553
0:58:02 > 0:58:06demonstrated that a queen could rule without a man to control her,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09if she had the support of England's people.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12We call her Lady Jane Grey,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16not Queen Jane, because we know how her story ended.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20But in reliving the drama of her nine-day reign,
0:58:20 > 0:58:25we're reminded just how close she came to ruling England...
0:58:25 > 0:58:28..and how different things could have been.