17/18 December 1553


Jane is given permission to walk in the Queen’s garden at the Tower


‘The fortress would become in rapid succession her palace, her prison, her scaffold – and her tomb.’ (p.299, Jones)



On the 17th of December 1553, the Privy Council granted Lady Jane Dudley permission to walk in the Queen’s garden at the Tower of London.

Eric Ives writes that ‘not until 17/18 December was she given ‘the liberty of the Tower’ so that she could walk in the queen’s garden.’ (p.214, Ives)

Leanda de Lisle describes how, ‘It was bliss for Jane to walk in the crisp winter air after months spent in her dark rooms in the Tower. From 18th December she had the freedom to walk in the Queen’s garden.’ ( p. 138, de Lisle)


See Location



From the Acts of the Privy Council:

At Westminster, the xvij of December, 1553

‘A letter to the Lieutenant of the Towre, willing hym at convenient tymes by his discreation to suffer the late Duke of Northumbreland’s children to have the libertie of walke within the gardeyn of the Tower, and also to minister the like favour to the Ladye Jane and Doctour Cranmer, upon suggestion that diverse of them be and have byn evill at ease in their bodyes for want of ayre.’ (p. 379, Acts of the Privy Council)


The author of ‘The Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, and Especially of the Rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat’ wrote:

‘The xviijth day, the lady Jane had the libertie of the Tower, so she might walk in the queens garden and on the hille; and the lorde Robert and lorde Gilford the liberty of the leds in the Bell Tower…’ (p.3, Gough)



Location

The Tower of London is in central London on the north bank of the Thames.


From The Anne Boleyn Files

From The Anne Boleyn Files


h marks the Queen’s Gallery and Garden.



Sources

Dasent, J.R (ed) (1892) Acts of the Privy Council of England volume 4 – 1552-1554, pp. 379. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=1179&sp=3&pg=379 Date accessed: 17 December 2013

De Lisle, L. (2010) The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey, HarperPress.

Ives, E. (2009) Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery, Wiley-Blackwell.

Jones, N. (2011) Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London, Windmill Books

Nichols, J. G (ed) (1850) The Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary and Especially of the Rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Written by a Resident in the Tower of London, Llanerch Publisher

The Anne Boleyn Files

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