Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide

Professor Eric Ives writes the following about the authenticity of Jane’s speech from the scaffold.

‘Seven other pieces attributed to Jane are known only in printed copies. They come from her months of imprisonment in the Tower and cannot automatically be taken as genuine…The others are…reports of the speech she made from the scaffold.’ (p.17-18, Ives)

‘In a letter smuggled out to Bullinger and dated 15 March, a John Banks (part of the Grey circle) sent news of Jane’s death and Latin translations of the Feckenham dialogue and the letter to Harding and also the scaffold speech and the letter to Katherine Grey. Clearly he had publication in mind but Bullinger vetoed the idea for fear of exasperating Mary’s government still further. However, James Haddon, once a chaplain to Jane’s father, did assure Bullinger that although parts of Bank’s account were suspect because ‘he has gathered them from the common report and being himself too in some measure biased by his zeal’, when it came to ‘what regards the Lady Jane herself, and what is said in her name, (as for instance, her exhortations to a certain apostate, and her discourse with Feckenham), I believe and partly know, that it is true, and did really proceed from herself’. Thanks to Banks and this comment by Haddon, the authenticity of the Feckenham and Harding pieces and, by association, the Katherine Grey letter and the scaffold speech is beyond question.’ (p.21, Ives)

Ives describes how these letters appeared in print in England.

‘…In 1554 there appeared An Epistle of the Ladye Jane, a righte virtuous woman to a leaned man of late falne from the truth, conjecturally from the press of John Day…In the same year or the next came Here is this booke ye have a godly Epistle made by a faithful Christian.’ (p.21, Ives)…’Each pamphlet contains an English text of the Feckenham discussion, and the letter to the ‘apostate’ which Haddon had warranted, plus the letter to Katherine and the speech from the scaffold which Banks had translated for Bullinger.’ (p.21, Ives)

He also comments on the differences between accounts of Jane’s speech.

‘Everything suggests that she spoke extempore, so it is clearly important to identify a reliable account of what she said. Despite minor differences, Here in this Booke gives essentially the version published by Foxe in 1563, and both texts take the story beyond Jane’s speech and describe the actual execution. A version in an Epistle of the Ladye Jane ends more abruptly and clearly comes from a different source. Nevertheless the sentiments put in Jane’s mouth are the same, though in a different order. This suggests two observers coming away with independent but essentially congruent recollections.’ (p.23, Ives)

Two versions of Jane’s scaffold speech

‘Good people, I am come hether to die, and by a lawe I am condemned to the same. The facte, in dede, against the quenes highnesse was unlawfull, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire therof by me or on my halfe, I doo wash my hands thereof in innocencie, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day.

I pray you all, good Christian people, to beare me witnesses that I dye a true Christian women , and that I looke to be saved by none other meane, but only by the mercy of God in the merites of the blood of his only sonne Jesus Christ: and I confesse, when I dyd know the word of God I neglected the same, loved my selfe and the world, and therefore this plague or punishment is happily and wothely happened unto me for my sins; and yet I thank God of his goddnesse that he hath thus geven me a tyme and respet to repent. And now, good people, while I am alive, I pray you to assyst me with your prayers.’ (p.56-57, Nichols)

‘My lords, and you good christian people, which come to see me die, I am under a law, and by that law, as a never erring judge, I am condemned to die, not for any thing I have offended the Queen’s Majesty, for I will wash my hands guiltless thereof, and deliver to my God a soul as pure from such trespass, as innocence from injustice; but only for that I consented to the thing which I was enforced unto, constraint making the law believe I did that which I never understood. Notwithstanding, I have offended Almighty God in that I have followed over-much the lust of mine own flesh, and the pleasures of this wretched world, neither have I lived according to the knowledge that God hath given me, for which cause God hath appointed unto me this kind of death, and that most worthily, according to my deserts; how be it, I thank him heartily that he hath given me time to repent my sins here in this world, and to reconcile myself to my redeemer, whom my former vanities have in a great measure displeased. Wherefore, my lords, and all you good Christian people, I must earnestly desire you all to pray with and for me whilst I am yet alive, that God of his infinite goodness and mercy will forgive me my sins, how numberless and grievous soever against him: and I beseech you all to bear me witness that I here die a true christian woman, professing and avouching from my soul that I trust to be saved by the blood, passion, and merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour only, and by none other means; casting far behind me all the works and merits of mine own actions, as things so far short of the true duty I owe, that I quake to think how much they may stand up against me. And now, I pray you all pray for me, and with me.’ (p.52-53, Nicolas)

Sources

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

Nicolas, N.H Harding, The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: With a Memoir of Her Life, Triphook & Lepard.

Nichols, J.G (ed) (1850 reprint), 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 Publishers

Professor Eric Ives writes the following about the authenticity of Jane’s letters.

‘Authenticity is even more important when it comes to Jane’s letters. Some are unquestionably by her. There is an early letter thanking Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudeley, and three Latin letters forwarded by third parties to Henry Bullinger at Zurich. Then there is a letter to her father and a message to Sir John Brydges, the lieutenant of the Tower, in Jane’s own handwriting on the margins of the prayer book that she carried to her execution.’ (p1, Ives)

Ives suggests that ‘…it could be that in the final days the security around her tightened and she was denied paper to write on. Certainly her final message to her father had to be written in the prayer book she was to carry to the scaffold, and to get that to Suffolk clearly required the collaboration of Sir John Brydges, the lieutenant of Tower. Soldier and courtier though Brydges was, and ‘much addicted to the old religion’, in the months Jane had been his responsibility the sixty-one-year old had become fond of his remarkable prisoner. He agreed to show the duke her message, but asked if he could himself retain the book as a memento.’ (p.273, Ives).

Prayer book message to Sir John Brydges

‘Forasmuche as you haue desired so simple a woman to wrighte in so worthy a booke, gode mayster Lieufenante therefore I shalle as a frende desyre you, and as a christian require you, to call vpyon God, to encline youre harte to his laws, to quicken you in his waye, and not to take the worde of trewethe vtterlye oute of youre mouthe. Lyue styll to dye, that by deathe you may purchase eternall life; and remember howe the ende of Mathusael, whoe as we reade in the scriptures, was the longest liuer that was of a manne, died at the laste. For, as the Precher sayethe, there is a tyme to be borne, and a tyme to dye; and the daye of deathe is better than the daye of our birthe. Youres, as the Lorde knowethe, as a frende, Jane Duddeley’. (p.58-59 Nicolas)

F. 75v, 76, 76v, 77. From The British Library.

Sources

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

Nicolas, N.H Harding, The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: With a Memoir of Her Life, Triphook & Lepard.

British Library – Lady Jane Grey’s Prayerbook

Professor Eric Ives writes the following about the authenticity of Jane’s letters.

‘Authenticity is even more important when it comes to Jane’s letters. Some are unquestionably by her. There is an early letter thanking Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudeley, and three Latin letters forwarded by third parties to Henry Bullinger at Zurich. Then there is a letter to her father and a message to Sir John Brydges, the lieutenant of the Tower, in Jane’s own handwriting on the margins of the prayer book that she carried to her execution. (p1, Ives)

Ives suggests that ‘…it could be that in the final days the security around her tightened and she was denied paper to write on. Certainly her final message to her father had to be written in the prayer book she was to carry to the scaffold, and to get that to Suffolk clearly required the collaboration of Sir John Brydges, the lieutenant of the Tower.’ (p.273)

Ives describes the message ‘as positive and redolent of the faith they shared’ (p.273, Ives) and that it was probably written after the Duke of Suffolk arrived at the Tower under arrest on the 10th or 11th February 1554.

Prayer book message to Father

‘The Lorde comforte your grace, and that in his worde whearein all creatures onlye are to be comforted. And thoughe it hath pleased God to take awaye 2 of your children: yet thincke not, I most humblye beseech youre grace, that you haue loste them; but truste that we, by leafinge this mortall life, haue wunne an immortal life. And I, for my parte, as I haue honoured your grace in this life, wyll praye for you in another life. Youre gracys humble daughter, Jane Duddley.’ (p.57-58, Nicolas)

F.78, 78c, 79, 79v and 80. From The British Library.

Sources

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

Nicolas, N.H Harding, The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: With a Memoir of Her Life, Triphook & Lepard.

British Library – Lady Jane Grey’s Prayerbook

Professor Eric Ives writes the following about the authenticity of Jane’s letter to her sister Katherine.

‘Seven other pieces attributed to Jane are known only in printed copies. They come from her months of imprisonment in the Tower and cannot automatically be taken as genuine…The others are a personal letter to her sister Katherine…’ (p.17, Ives)

‘…Suspicion might also appear to rest …on the account of her debate with John Feckenham. The government was intent on restoring Catholicism and these items were highly subversive, so how could they have escaped Tower security? But they clearly did because both texts were circulating barely a month after her execution. In a letter smuggled out to Bullinger and dated 15 March, a John Banks (part of the Grey circle) sent news of Jane’s death and Latin translations of the Feckenham dialogue and the letter to Harding and also the scaffold speech and the letter to Katherine Grey. Clearly he had publication in mind but Bullinger vetoed the idea for fear of exasperating Mary’s government still further. However, James Haddon, once a chaplain to Jane’s father, did assure Bullinger that although parts of Bank’s account were suspect because ‘he has gathered them from common report and being himself too in some measure biased by his zeal; when it comes to ‘what regards the Lady Jane herself, and what is said in her name, (as for instance, her exhortations to a certain apostate, and her discourse with Feckenham), I believe and a partly know, that it is true, and did really proceed from herself.’ Thanks to Banks and this comment by Haddon, the authenticity of the Feckenham and Harding pieces, and by association the Katherine Grey letter and the scaffold speech is beyond question.’ (p.21, Ives)

Ives describes how the letter appeared in print in England.

‘In 1554 there appeared An Epistle of the Ladye Jane, a righte virtuous woman to a learned man of late fallen from the truth, conjecturally from the press of John Day…In the same year or the next came ,‘Here in this booke ye have a godly Epistle made by a faithful Christian.’ Each pamphlet contains an English text of the Feckenham discussion and the letter to the ‘apostate’ which Haddon had warranted, plus the letter to Katherine and the speech from the scaffold which Banks had translated for Bullinger.’ (p.21, Ives)

‘The hint that more than one English text of Jane’s letters was extant is confirmed by her letter to her sister. The text in Here in this Booke, An Epistle and Acts and Monuments each have varying titles and varying endings. However, an Epistle and Monuments do agree that the letter was written at the end of Jane’s Greek Testament and this suggests a possible route by which authentic texts could have evaded government surveillance. (p.23, Ives) It was also ‘possibly the only way Jane could hope to send her sister a keepsake…’(p.273, Ives)

Ives writes that ‘It was, nevertheless, during her months in the Tower that Jane revealed more about herself than ever before…What she wrote in the Tower she wrote from passion and conviction, bringing us closer to the real girl than anything bar her speech from the scaffold.’ (p.253, Ives) In the case of the letter to Katherine, ‘we must recognise that Jane was addressing herself. The comforts and securities she was urging on Katherine were the comforts and certainties which she had to hold on through the ensuing hours.’ (p.271-272, Ives)

An Exhortation written by Lady Jane Dudley, the night before her execution, in the end of the New Testament, in Greek, which she sent to her sister, the Lady Katherine Grey

‘I have sent you, my dear sister Katherine, a book, which although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, or the curious embroidery of the artfulest needles, yet inwardly it is more worth than all the precious mines which the vast world can boast of: it is the book, my only best, and best loved sister, of the law of the Lord: it is the Testament and last will, which he bequeathed unto us wretches and wretched sinners, which shall lead you to the path of eternal joy: and if you with a good mind to read it, and with an earnest desire follow it, no doubt it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting life: it will teach you to live, and learn you to die: it shall win you more, and endow you with greater felicity, than you should have gained possession of our woeful father’s lands: for as if God had prospered him, you should have inherited his honours and manors, so if you apply diligently this book, seeking to direct your life according to the rule of the same, you shall be an inheritor of such riches, as neither the covetous shall withdraw from you, neither the thief shall steal, neither yet the moths corrupt: desire with David, my best sister, to understand the law of the Lord your God, live still to die, that you by death may purchase eternal life, and trust not that the tenderness of your age shall lengthen your life: for unto God, when he calleth, all hours, times and seasons are alike, and blessed are they whose lamps are furnished when he cometh, for as soon will the Lord be glorified in the young as in the old.

My good sister, once more again let me entreat thee to learn to die; deny the world, defy the devil, and despise the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord: be penitent for your sins, and yet despair not; and desire with St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ, with whom, even in death there is life.

Be like the good servant, and even at midnight be waking, lest when death cometh and stealeth upon you, like a thief in the night, you be with the servants of darkness found sleeping; and lest for lack of oil you be found like the five foolish virgins, or like him that he had not on the wedding garment, and then you be cast into darkness, or banished from the marriage: rejoice in Christ, as I trust you do, and seeing you have the name of a Christian, as near as you can follow the steps, and be a true imitator of your master Christ Jesus, and take up your cross, lay your sins on his back, and always embrace him.

Now as touching my death, rejoice as I do, my dearest sister, that I shall be delivered of this corruption, and put on incorruption: for I am assured that I shall, for losing of a mortal life, win one that is immortal, joyful, and everlasting: the which I pray God grant you in his most blessed hour, and send you his all-saving grace to love in his fear, and to die in the true Christian faith: from which in God’s name I exhort you that you never swerve, neither through hope of life, not fear of death: for if you will deny his truth, to give length to a weary and corrupt breath, God himself will deny you, and by vengeance make short what you by your soul’s loss would prolong: but if you will cleave to him, he will stretch forth your days to an uncircumscribed comfort, and to his own glory: to the which glory, God bring me now, and you hereafter, when is shall please him to call you. Farewell once again, my beloved sister, and put your only trust in God, who only must help you. Amen.

Your loving Sister.

Jane Dudley

(p.41-43, Nicolas)

Sources

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

Nicolas, N.H Harding, The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey: With a Memoir of Her Life, Triphook & Lepard.