Loading summary
Transcript136 lines
- [00:00]
Host 1
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Host 2
A new.
- [00:06]
Host 3
Era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 gaming laptops, intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and GPU for maximum performance. This otherworldly power, paired with the game changing capabilities of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs with DLSS4 ensures ultra smooth, stunning gameplay. So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely, precisely as its developers intended. Discover Area 51@Alienware.com Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the Old Gays are pulling back the curtain with their new podcast Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. Hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve their lifetime of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. So check out Silver Linings with the Old gays on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:10]
Host 4
Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.
- [01:16]
Host 5
On the new podcast America's Crime Lab. Every case has a story to tell and the DNA holds the truth.
- [01:23]
Host 6
He never thought he was going to get caught and I just looked at my computer screen, I was just like, ah, gotcha.
- [01:29]
Host 2
This technology's already solving so many cases.
- [01:33]
Host 5
Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:40]
Host 7
The Girlfriends is back with a new season, and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law.
- [01:53]
Host 8
He goes, oh God.
- [01:54]
Host 7
Harnett Jailhouse Lawyer and became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her.
- [02:00]
Host 4
You're supposed to have your faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her.
- [02:03]
Host 8
I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out.
- [02:08]
Host 7
The Girlfriends Jailhouse Lawyer listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:19]
Host 1
Happy Saturday. The nine day reign of Lady Jane Grey ended on July 19, 1553, or 472 years ago. Today, on the day this episode is.
- [02:31]
Host 2
Coming out, our extremely frequently requested episode.
- [02:35]
Host 3
On Lady Jane Grey originally came out on March 6th of 2017.
- [02:40]
Host 2
Enjoy.
- [02:43]
Host 3
Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
- [02:54]
Host 1
Today's topic is a Very, very frequent listener request.
- [02:58]
Host 2
That's like an understatement. Yeah, you could say very about 12 to 14 more times and it would still be maybe underselling how much we get this request.
- [03:09]
Host 1
A lot. A lot. And this is Lady Jane Grey, also known as the Nine Day Queen. She came up very briefly in a past episode by Katie and Sarah in their episode Elizabeth the First, before she was Queen, basically, for an incredibly short time between Edward VI and Mary, the first Lady Jane was at least nominally the Queen of England and Ireland. But whether she had any right at all to that title is still the subject of dispute even today. I found scholars with polar opposite opinions on that. And really a lot of what goes into the story went on behind closed doors and off the record. So different accounts of it today present incredibly different interpretations of what happened.
- [03:57]
Host 2
What we do know is that Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, but her exact date of birth is unclear. Her birthday is traditionally noted as having taken place in October, the same month as King Edward vi. Her parents were Henry Grey and Lady Frances Brandon. And when Jane was born, Henry Gray was Marcus of Dorset and he would later become the Duke of Suffolk. And her parents were still pretty young when they had Jane. They had married at the ages of just 15 and 16, and they were only 20 and 21 when she was born.
- [04:28]
Host 1
Jane and her sisters were Henry VII's great granddaughters through their mother Francis, whose mother was Mary Tudor. Mary Tudor was Henry VIII's sister. So this made them Henry VIII's great nieces. Mary's husband had also been one of Henry VIII's close friends. So on Jane's mother's side, the family was very closely connected to the throne. And the only reason that Frances had not married someone higher up in the nobility was that her father had been married before. So she had a lot of older half siblings to marry off before they got to her. And just two different biographies that I consulted for this, both started with multiple pages of family trees outlining these relationships. So if it was a little confusing, welcome to the club.
- [05:18]
Host 2
It is a little confusing. Frances and her daughters were at various points very high up in the line of succession. Henry VIII famously had his series of ill feeded wives and offspring. And in 1536, two of those offspring, Mary and Elizabeth, were declared illegitimate with no claim to the throne because Henry had divorced Mary's mother and beheaded Elizabeth's.
- [05:43]
Host 1
Consequently, for about a year before Jane's birth, her mother Francis was basically next in line. Henry VIII at that point had no sons. His daughters had been declared illegitimate and he had no other surviving siblings. So his niece Francis, while not his child, was at least a lawfully begotten child and an actual relative.
- [06:04]
Host 2
When Edward was born on October 12, 1537, as his father's legitimate son, he became next in line to the throne, making Francis second, since Mary and Elizabeth were still viewed as ineligible to rule. However, in 1543, Parliament passed an act of Succession, which received royal assent to the following year, and this legislation made no mention of Francis or her family, but it restored Mary and Elizabeth back to the line of succession, regardless of their legitimacy, should their brother die without an heir.
- [06:40]
Host 1
This act of Succession also gave Henry the right to name a successor by testament or in his will, which he did. Henry VIII's will specified that if his children had no male heir, the next in line after Edward, Mary and Elizabeth would be Francis's children, since Francis was his legitimate niece. The fact that Francis herself was not named in the will as being in the line of succession apparently annoyed her very greatly. And this is one of the reasons why, in some versions of this story, she's the one described as being the mastermind, scheming behind the scenes to put her daughter on the throne.
- [07:17]
Host 2
So from the time she was born, Jane didn't have that many steps between herself and the throne. And apart from her place in the line of succession, her parents and many other people in her life hoped she would marry someone quite powerful, perhaps even then Prince Edward himself. So they groomed her to that purpose, paying special attention to her education.
- [07:38]
Host 1
She was quite bookish and very precocious, and she developed a widespread reputation as a scholar. She learned to speak and write both Latin and Greek, and she also spoke French, Hebrew and Italian. She was also deeply religious and specifically, deeply Protestant.
- [07:58]
Host 2
In 1547, her parents also placed Jane as a ward in a very prominent family, that of Lady Catherine Parr, last wife of Henry VIII and very recently his widow after she remarried. Thomas Seymour, Baron of Sudeley. Sending a child to live with a high placed family was a pretty typical practice among the nobility, although at age 10, Jane was a younger than usual.
- [08:21]
Host 1
For this, Lady Catherine was also Princess Elizabeth's guardian. So for a time, both Jane and Elizabeth were raised in the same household. Although they did get to know each other because of the difference in their ages, they weren't particularly close. And Elizabeth was also completely aware of the fact that Jane was a potential threat to her own place in the line of succession, since there were no questions of Jane's legitimacy or her parentage. To get in the way of her approval as a potential monarch.
- [08:54]
Host 2
For about a year, Jane had access to the same tutors and social interactions as Elizabeth did. And it may have been during this time that Jane's father and her guardian began planning for a potential marriage to Edward, who had become king after Henry VIII's death on January 28th of 1547.
- [09:13]
Host 1
But Jane's time in this household didn't last very long. Catherine Parr died due to complications from childbirth in 1548, and Jane stood in the role of her chief mourner during the funeral ceremonies. Afterward, Jane went home for a while, but after some back and forth between her father and Thomas Seymour, she returned with her. With Catherine's death, her royal wealth had reverted back to the crown. So Thomas basically wanted to keep Jane as a ward as a mark of his continued status. So it wasn't like he lost in one fell swoop all of his marks of social well off ness.
- [09:55]
Host 2
Finally, Jane's father agreed to send her back to Thomas Seymour. But that did not last long either. In 1549, Thomas Seymour was arrested and charged with treason in an alleged plot to kidnap the King and marry Elizabeth himself. He had also, at one point the year before, been found embracing her to much scandal. He was executed on March 20, and.
- [10:17]
Host 1
Jane once again went home in October of 1551. So a couple of years later, Jane's father became the Duke of Suffolk. And this gave Jane a lot more access to the highest echelons of the nobility without needing to be someone else's ward to get there. And from that point, she was often at court, still with a lot of the people around her, angling for her to marry the King eventually. At this point, they were both only 14 years old, and while it wasn't unheard of for people to get married that young, especially among the nobility and the monarchy, all the various approvals that would be required for a royal marriage to take place stood in the way, along with there being lots of other potential candidates for Edward's wife, all of whom would, in one way or another, suit some kind of political end. So, in addition to obstacles, there was competition.
- [11:11]
Host 2
However, wiping all of this off the slate is the fact that Edward's health started to fail, and so the idea of him marrying Jane completely fell apart. And we're going to talk about that after we first pause for a little sponsor break.
- [11:27]
Host 9
There's nothing like sinking into luxury. @washablesofas.com you'll find the Annabe sofa, which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom starting at only $699. The stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy to clean spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, loveseat or a luxuriously large sectional, Annabe has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Right now you can shop up to 60% off store wide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now@washablesofas.com Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
- [12:28]
Host 3
A new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 Gaming laptops intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and GPU for maximum performance. This otherworldly power, paired with the game changing capabilities of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs with DLSS4amplifies performance and image precision for ultra smooth, stunning gameplay. And with the new Cryo chamber design, airflow is focused exactly where it's needed most. Fused with with Alienware's enhanced thermal solutions, it creates a higher power output without raising noise levels, allowing you to play with confidence even during the most demanding marathon gaming sessions. So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power is here. All you have to do is take it. Discover Area 51 today@alienware.com.
- [13:29]
Host 6
A foot washed up, a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was.
- [13:34]
Host 1
Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable.
- [13:40]
Host 5
These are the coldest of cold cases. But everything is about to change.
- [13:45]
Host 4
Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.
- [13:51]
Host 5
A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA using new scientific tools. They're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it.
- [14:02]
Host 6
He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha.
- [14:08]
Host 5
On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors, and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at othram, the Houston lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [14:29]
Host 7
Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit.
- [14:35]
Host 8
I'm 100% innocent.
- [14:37]
Host 7
While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch.
- [14:41]
Host 8
He goes, oh, God. Harnett, jailhouse lawyer.
- [14:44]
Host 7
And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her.
- [14:50]
Host 4
You're supposed to have your faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her.
- [14:53]
Host 7
So many of these women had lived the same stories.
- [14:57]
Host 8
I said, were you a victim of domestic violence?
- [14:59]
Host 7
And she was like, yeah, but maybe Kelly could change the ending.
- [15:05]
Host 8
I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm going to be the first one to do that.
- [15:14]
Host 7
This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriend's too.
- [15:22]
Host 8
I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison.
- [15:28]
Host 7
The girlfriends, jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [15:42]
Host 1
Edward VI had only been nine years old when his father, Henry viii, died. And at first, Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, had been Edward's regent. However, if that last name, Seymour, sounded familiar, Edward Seymour's youngest brother was Thomas Seymour, the same one we talked about before the break, who was executed for treason after an alleged plot to kidnap the king. His his brother's regency did not last long after that. The Duke of Somerset's replacement as regent was John Dudley. John Dudley was the Duke of Northumberland, who had a lot of influence over the young king, understandably because he was still, at that point, a child. In some accounts, literally everything that happened with Jane after this point was a result of Northumberland's nefarious scheming and his undue influence over the king. But in other accounts, as Edward gained in some extent experience and some maturity, he was taking the initiative for at least some of it on his own.
- [16:44]
Host 2
In November of 1552, King Edward VI got sick. And by the following February, people were becoming seriously concerned about how long he was going to live. In the opinion of his doctors, he had tuberculosis, and although he did recover somewhat, it was clear that he was still very ill. As the king's health.
- [17:04]
Host 1
Declined, Northumberland started trying to figure out how to secure his own claim to power, since it was not likely he would have nearly such an advantageous place if Mary or Elizabeth became queen. And this was especially true since if the line of succession proceeded as planned. To marry, he would be basically out because he was a Protestant and she was Catholic.
- [17:28]
Host 2
At the same time, Jane, her parents and the many other interested parties around her abandoned the idea of her marrying this ailing king they're marrying in his. Dying soon after having not produced an heir with Jane wasn't a risk that any of them were willing to take.
- [17:45]
Host 1
It's not entirely clear who first proposed the idea that Jane should marry Lord Guilford Dudley. He was the fourth and only unmarried son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. It may have been Northumberland's scheme to connect the family to somebody who was in the line of succession, albeit not at the top of the list. But there's a whole other school of thought on this, that it was really William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, who initially hatched this plan. William Parr had wealth and property that were at stake, which he would lose if Mary followed Edward on the throne. So according to this theory, Northampton thought that if Jane Gray married Northumberland's son, Northumberland would be more likely to back her own claim to the throne, and that would help Northampton protect his own.
- [18:36]
Host 2
Financial interests, regardless of whose idea it was. The betrothal of Jane and Guilford was announced on April 28, 1553. On May 25, at the age of 15, Jane Grey married Lord Guildford Dudley in a triple wedding that made multiple connections among the Dudleys and other families. Guilford Dudley's sister Catherine married Henry Hastings, who was an heir to an earl, and Jane's sister, also named Catherine, married the heir to another earl. Although the King himself was too ill to attend these proceedings, the triple wedding was hugely attended by the English nobility.
- [19:14]
Host 1
Meanwhile, as his father had done before him, Edward VI was writing a will to specify who should follow him on the throne. And there's a lot of speculation into how much input he had into this will. As we said before, it's often retold that this was almost entirely Northumberland's influence. But Edward was also raised as a Protestant, and he knew that if his half sister Mary followed him on the throne, she would roll back what he saw as the progress of Protestantism in England and would oversee the return of Catholicism. So while it's incredibly likely that Northumberland had at least some influence over the young monarch, who was both ill and, as we've noted, not particularly old, at this point, he almost certainly had a real interest in the outcome.
- [20:05]
Host 2
On June 12, Edward met with lawyers and judges and instructed them to take legal steps to make Jane his heir. Skipping over his half sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, he struck through a previous provision in which Frances, Jane's mother, would rule as governor in the absence of male heirs. A patent outlining this new line of succession was signed on June 21, making it official, at least on paper, that if Edward didn't survive, Jane would be queen.
- [20:34]
Host 1
As we mentioned at the top of the show, different accounts take completely different tax on whether he had any right to do this. Some of them cite the precedent of Henry VIII's own will, which did specify who should follow him on the throne. But that act of Succession that had come out in 1543 and 1544 clearly specified that Mary followed Edward in the line of succession. There was also a 1547 Treasons act that specified that changing the line of succession as it was outlined in the previous act of Succession, was high treason. So even at the time, and the opinions of some of the judges who were involved in this, the only way that Edward would have the actual authority to name Jane as his successor would be for Parliament to repeal the act of Succession. He was king, but that did not mean that he was above the law. Edward did, in fact, issue writs to summon Parliament in September of that year, most likely to do that very thing, get rid of the act of Succession, so he would have the legal leeway to name Jane his heir.
- [21:42]
Host 2
However, in spite of doctors and healers being called in to try to keep him alive until the Parliament convened, or perhaps because of it, given how many medical treatments of the day were actually quite harmful, Edward died on July 6th of 1553. And in spite of the questionable legality of it all, Jane was named Queen on July 7. The mayor of London, the city magistrates and the guard all swore oaths of allegiance to her.
- [22:12]
Host 1
Edward's half sister Mary, however, did not. Even though attempts were made to keep Edward's death a secret until Jane's succession was secure, those attempts were not very successful, and Mary heard about it. Elizabeth presumably did as well, but she stayed out of this whole thing. Mary mustered a force to march to London to try to assert her own claim to the throne, and on July 8, she proclaimed herself Queen from her estates in East Anglia. She wrote to the council to instruct them to do the same, and her letter to them arrived two days later.
- [22:46]
Host 2
Jane learned that she was Queen at Northumberland's estate outside London on the 9th. Her husband was there, along with her parents and some of the Royal Council. Reportedly, her response was that she accepted the crown. Quote, if what has been given to me is lawfully mine, in some accounts, she then fainted and in others she just fell to the ground and wept.
- [23:08]
Host 1
This fainting and or crying came to be used as evidence that Jane was very young, wholly innocent, completely overwhel by circumstance, and was basically a totally help helpless pawn of her parents and Northumberland. But modern scholars have taken a different interpretation, that it was a very visible and intentional demonstration of her claim that she had not been seeking this throne herself that had been bestowed upon her unsought. She didn't really have the means to like have a press conference to issue that statement. So instead she fell to the ground and cried. So it'd be obvious to everyone from.
- [23:46]
Host 2
Northumberland's estate, Jane went to the White Tower of London to formally take possession of it as monarch. Almost immediately though, things started to fall apart as Mary made her own move for the throne. And possibly because Northumberland was hugely out of favor with the general public, Mary was finding huge support. The size of her force grew quickly, including through five royal ships that mutinied with their men, forcing their officers to go over to Mary's side.
- [24:15]
Host 1
Northumberland started to rally a force to head Mary off on her way to London. And Jane's father was initially supposed to lead it, but he was becoming increasingly ill, so Northumberland took charge of it himself. But he was so out of favor and this whole plot was becoming so increasingly a point of contention that his men continually deserted him. And the idea that he would steadfastly support Jane if she was married to his son did not wind up holding up. By July 18, he only had three men left and one of them was Jane's ailing father. He abandoned his efforts to protect Jane's claim to the throne on 19 July, at which point she was removed. He formally proclaimed Mary Queen on the 20th.
- [25:02]
Host 2
Jane stayed in the Tower of London, though now instead of being the monarch, she was a prisoner. And we're going to talk about the aftermath and how Jane came to become a cultural figure after we first take a little break. For a sponsor break.
- [25:21]
Host 9
Let'S be real. Life happens, kids spill, pets shed and accidents are inevitable. Find a sofa that can keep up@washablesofas.com Starting at just $699, our sofas are fully machine washed, washable inside and out, so you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry free living. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics, they're kid proof, pet friendly and built for everyday life. Plus changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want. Neat flexibility. Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space. Whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment. Plus, they're earth friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers. It's time to upgrade to a stress free mess proof sofa. Visit washablesofas.com today and save that's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
- [26:20]
Host 3
A new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 Gaming laptops intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and GPU for maximum performance. This otherworldly power, paired with the gaming game changing capabilities of Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs with DLSS4amplifies performance and image precision for ultra smooth, stunning gameplay. And with the new cryo chamber design, airflow is focused exactly where it's needed most. Fused with Alienware's enhanced thermal solutions, it creates a higher power output without raising noise levels, allowing you to play with confidence even during the most demanding marathon gaming sessions. So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as its developers intended. A new era of power is here. All you have to do is take it. Discover Area 51 today@alienware.com.
- [27:21]
Host 6
A foot washed up, a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was.
- [27:27]
Host 1
Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable.
- [27:32]
Host 5
These are the coldest of cold cases. But everything is about to change.
- [27:37]
Host 4
Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.
- [27:44]
Host 5
A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA using new scientific tools. They're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it.
- [27:54]
Host 6
He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at the my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha.
- [28:00]
Host 5
On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors, and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at othram, the Houston lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [28:22]
Host 7
Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit.
- [28:27]
Host 8
I'm 100% innocent.
- [28:30]
Host 7
While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch.
- [28:33]
Host 8
He goes, oh God. Harnett jailhouse lawyer and as she fought.
- [28:37]
Host 7
For herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her.
- [28:42]
Host 4
You're supposed to have your faith in God. But I had nothing but faith in her.
- [28:46]
Host 7
So many of these women had lived the same stories.
- [28:49]
Host 8
I said, were you a victim of domestic violence?
- [28:52]
Host 7
And she was like, yeah, but maybe Kelly could change the ending.
- [28:58]
Host 8
I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm gonna be the first one to do that.
- [29:07]
Host 7
This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriend's, too.
- [29:15]
Host 8
I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison.
- [29:20]
Host 7
The Girlfriends Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [29:36]
Host 1
Mary, the first, who would go on to be known as Bloody Mary, formally entered London on August 3, 1553. And as the Protestants in this story had feared, she did return Catholicism to the monarchy and to the country, really. She would later refer to 1553 as her miracle year.
- [29:55]
Host 2
Trials for the accused, who were charged with treason for their role in trying to make Jane Queen, started on August 18th. By that point, the Duke of Northumberland and many of his sons and supporters had been imprisoned in the tower since July 25. All of the accused were convicted in Northumberland, and two of his men were sentenced to death.
- [30:16]
Host 7
Death.
- [30:16]
Host 2
Those executions were carried out on August 22nd.
- [30:20]
Host 1
Mary, however, didn't really want Jane to be executed, even though they were on totally opposite sides in terms of religion and in terms of who should be on the throne. And in some accounts, Jane had actually been rude to Mary over her Catholic faith. Mary mostly saw Jane as a pawn and not really that much of a threat. So Jane eventually was allowed some freedom in the Tower, including being allowed to walk in the Queen's gardens starting the December after she was imprisoned.
- [30:49]
Host 2
However, that changed the following February. In 1554, Jane's father joined what came to be known as Thomas Wyatt's rebellion against Mary. And even though they had nothing to do with this rebellion, the fact that it happened and involved Jane's father meant that Jane and her husband were no longer viewed as harmless innocents. They were Both beheaded on February 12th of 1554. She was just 16 at the time. Jane's father was beheaded for his role on February 23.
- [31:20]
Host 1
There are a lot of people who get beheaded in this story.
- [31:23]
Host 2
That's why the whole Bloody Mary thing happened.
- [31:26]
Host 4
Yep.
- [31:27]
Host 1
The beheadings continue long after this story is over. Because of the role of religion in this whole saga and Jane's own steadfast devotion, she wound up being regarded as a Protestant martyr. While she was imprisoned in the Tower. She wrote letters to her family in her New Testament and in her prayer book. She wrote to her sister in one of these books, quote, I have here sent you, good sister Catherine, a book which, although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, yet inwardly it is more worth than precious stones. It is the book, dear sister, of the law of the Lord. It is his testament and last will which he bequeathed unto us wretches, which shall lead you to the path of eternal joy. And if you with a good mind read it, and with an earnest mind, do purpose to follow it, it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting life. It shall teach you to live and learn you to die. Before her death, she sent this new Testament to her sister.
- [32:25]
Host 2
And while awaiting her execution, Jane claimed that she had simply accepted the throne that was offered to her. She had not sought it herself, which she did, to try to decouple this concept of treasonous from Protestant. Protestant propaganda after her death reiterated the idea that she was wholly innocent and a religious martyr. Once Elizabeth I, a Protestant, became Queen, the idea that Jane herself was treacherous mostly faded.
- [32:54]
Host 1
Lady Jane Grey became a highly, highly romanticized figure after her death. Overall, we don't have a lot of her letters or her personal papers, and it's unclear whether any of the paintings and engravings that were made of her during her lifetime or shortly after it are really of her. A lot of them are just labeled Jane, with no other identifying information. So we know it's a Jane who lived around that time, but not whether it was this Jane. Apparently, there was a painting that was very clearly labeled that it was Jane the Queen, but that painting has been lost. The only eyewitness account of her appearance in writing that contains any detail at all was probably a forgery made for an early 20th century biography. So for a lot of people, their mental image of Lady Jane, Jane's. So for a lot of people, their mental image of Lady Jane Grey comes from Paul Delaroche's portrait, the Execution of Lady Jane Grey, which dates back to 1833, so centuries after all of this happened. So it was really easy, given all of this lack of concrete information, for her to become kind of a blank slate for the heroine in tragic stories and poems.
- [34:10]
Host 2
This was especially true around 1714 and 1715, around the time of the first Jacobite uprising, which, to recap, was a challenge by the House of Stuart against the reigning House of Hanover. Because Jane's story was all about the line of succession and religious divisions between Protestants and Catholics, it mirrored the political situation at the time, and it became incredibly popular. Edward Young's poem the Force of Religion or Vanquished Love was first published in 1714. Three editions of that poem came out in under two years. The tragedy of Lady Jane Grey was first staged in 1715 by playwright Nicholas Rowe, which was his last play and the most successful play of the season.
- [34:52]
Host 1
As we said at the top of the show, there's a lot of detail we just don't have about Lady Jane Grey. And a lot of people imagine her and have depicted her as this sort of completely lacking agency to teenage waif who was pushed from place to place by parents and guardians and Northumberland and everyone else. But given her intelligence and her education and the fact that she had been immersed in a very cutthroat nobility since her birth, it's unlikely that she was the totally unresisting pawn that she's often depicted as. A lot of more contemporary scholars have have compared her behavior to other people who were within the nobility and the monarchy and the ways that they displayed their own sort of cunning efforts to define themselves and are like, yeah, she. Yeah, she. There were a lot of things she didn't have control over, but, you know, her continual assertion of her religious faith and the fact that she deliberately did things to try to distance her religion from treason against the monarchy, like, these were all proactive steps she took for herself that were quite smart to try to keep the Protestant faith from being tarnished by her role in all of this.
- [36:19]
Host 2
Yeah, that whole cutthroat angle of the monarchy and the royal whole morass is why I think I always have a disconnect where I kind of don't get it, because I feel like. And granted, I'm looking at this from a very modern perspective, but I feel like if I were involved in all of that, I'd be like, that's cool.
- [36:40]
Host 1
I don't need to rain.
- [36:42]
Host 2
I'm just gonna go over here and have, like, maybe a little shop and be alive. That sounds fine.
- [36:48]
Host 1
Yeah.
- [36:48]
Host 2
But I guess if you are raised to believe that it is your birthright and that that's the most important thing on earth, you would be more invested in it. Unless, like, a hippie like me, that's like, that's cool. Let's just leave this alone.
- [37:01]
Host 1
Don't need to have any. Yeah, like, that's. It kind of gets on. A couple things get on my nerves. One is that a lot of the very basic summaries of this whole thing leave out that she was actually a relative. They make it sound almost like she was a hapless teenager plucked out of nowhere and stuck into the line of succession, which that is not really the case. And the other is how many just seem to portray her as a blank slate of parental ambition. Yeah, who had no say in it, when really we know that she was quite intelligent and that she corresponded with scholars in Britain and on the continent. Like she had a lot more going on than just a political pawn for other people to stick somewhere foreign. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, if you heard an email address or a Facebook URL or something similar over the course of the show, that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is history podcastheartradio.com you can find us all over social media mistinhistory and you can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [38:48]
Host 4
Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.
- [38:54]
Host 5
On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab. Every case has a story to tell and the DNA holds the truth.
- [39:01]
Host 6
He never thought he was going to get caught and I just looked at my computer screen, I was just like, ah, gotcha.
- [39:07]
Host 2
This technology's already solving so many cases.
- [39:11]
Host 5
Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [39:18]
Host 7
The Girlfriends is back with a new season and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law.
- [39:31]
Host 8
He goes, oh God.
- [39:32]
Host 7
Harnett Jailhouse Lawyer and became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her.
- [39:38]
Host 4
You're supposed to have your faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her.
- [39:41]
Host 8
I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison.
- [39:46]
Host 7
The Girlfriends Jailhouse Lawyer listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [39:55]
Host 1
Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's Sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of of women in sports. Thank you for supporting iHeart women's sports and our founding sponsors, E L F Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History.
- [40:29]
Host 9
Hotline, a different type of podcast.
- [40:32]
Host 1
You, the listener, ask the questions.
- [40:35]
Host 2
Did George Washington really cut down a cherry tree? Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair?
- [40:39]
Host 1
And I find the answers.
- [40:41]
Host 9
I'm so glad you asked me this question.
- [40:43]
Host 2
This is such a ridiculous story.
- [40:45]
Host 1
You can listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.