The Trial of Lady Jane Grey – 13th November 1553

Lady Jane Grey

Posted at The Anne Boleyn Files:

"...Leanda de Lisle4 writes of how Michel Angelo Florio recorded that Jane remained cool and calm during the proceedings and it seems that she did not react at all to the sentence, perhaps her faith sustained her. Ives goes on to describe of how she used her months of imprisonment in the Tower studying the Bible and writing letters and prayers. ..."

On this day in history, 13th November 1553, Lady Jane Grey, her husband Guildford Dudley, his brothers Ambrose and Henry, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer were tried for treason at a public trial at London’s Guildhall. They were led from the Tower of London, through the streets on foot, in a procession led by a man carrying an axe turned away from the prisoners, to show that they had not yet been found guilty of a capital crime: treason.

The Chronicle of Queen Jane describes the procession, although some of the wording is missing:-

“Next followed the lorde Gilforde Dudley, between (blank)
Next followed the lady Jane, between (blank), and hir ij. gentyll-women following hir.
Next followed the lorde Ambrose Dudley and the lorde Harry
Dudley.
The lady Jane was in a blacke gowne of cloth, tourned downe ;
the cappe lyned with fese velvett, and edget about with the same, in
a French hoode, all black, with a black byllyment, a black velvet
boke hanging before hir, and another boke in hir hande open,
holding hir (the entry breaks off).”1

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