'May I Go Home?': Lady Jane Grey's First Moments as a Tower of London Prisoner

Date: 11 October 2024

Author: Dr Nicola Tallis

On the afternoon of 19 July 1553, the scene in London’s Cheapside was one of jubilant celebration. The bells of the city’s churches rang, and people were ‘leaping and dancing as though beside themselves’. Bonnets were thrown into the air, bonfires were lit, and ‘shouts rose higher than the stars’. The reason for the crowd’s joy was simple: the reign of the nine-day-queen, Lady Jane Grey, had come to an end, and in her place, Henry VIII’s eldest daughter succeeded as Mary I.

Here, Lady Jane Grey’s biographer, Dr Nicola Tallis, unpicks the moment that the young Queen learned of her deposition. Suddenly, Jane was forced to accept her new status as a Tower of London prisoner.

Whilst Londoners celebrated the accession of their new Queen Mary with alacrity, just a mile away at the Tower of London the atmosphere was wholly different. Within the royal apartments, the former Queen Jane had watched as her father, the Duke of Suffolk, tore down the canopy of state. The Duke informed her that ‘you must put off your royal robes and be content with a private life’. With barely a moment to take in her dramatic change in circumstance, Jane answered calmly and with dignity: ‘I much more willingly put them off than I put them on.’

Jane had more pressing matters on her mind than queenship; she desperately wished to be free from the Tower’s walls. ‘May I go home?’, she asked her father. Unable to provide her with the answer she craved, he simply turned and walked away.

Lady Jane Grey by Unknown artistoil on oak panel, circa 1590-160033 3/4 in. x 23 3/4 in. (856 mm x 603 mm)Purchased with help from the proceeds of the 150th anniversary gala, 2006Primary CollectionNPG 6804 — *Image: Lady Jane Grey, c.1590-1600. © National Portrait Gallery, London*

A short while later, Jane’s parents hurried out of the Tower, the Duke stopping only to entreat the Lord Treasurer to ‘obtain the Queen’s pardon to save him and his family’. His daughter Jane remained inside, abandoned by her family and those that had, just hours earlier, bent their knee to her.

Whatever her inner turmoil, Jane showed no sign of panic or alarm at her parents’ departure. Perhaps she hoped that she might soon be able to join them. But for now, whilst those around them were able to flee the scene in a bid to distance themselves from the disaster that had unfolded, there was no question of either Jane or her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley doing so.

Jane’s captivity became more apparent still when guards began to appear in the Royal Apartments, taking up posts by the doors to ensure that Jane did not attempt to take flight. Soon the Lord Warden, Sir Thomas Cheyne arrived to greet her. Cheyne was an ardent supporter of Queen Mary, who had disapproved of the plan to make Jane queen. He would now assume the post of her jailer until he received further instructions.

The change in Jane’s status had suddenly become startlingly clear: in the blink of an eye, the Tower – formerly her palace – had become her prison.

A medieval castle building with four turrets, lit up in the evening — *Image: The White Tower, in the grounds of the Tower of London. © Historic Royal Palaces*

As the summer afternoon began to drift into evening, Jane was ordered to vacate the royal apartments. Her queenly predecessors Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard had spent their final days in these lavishly decorated rooms before meeting their ends at the executioners' hands on Tower Green, but for Jane no such order had yet been given. She was nevertheless no longer considered worthy to occupy the apartments, and was now to be separated from her husband.

Guildford was taken to the 13th-century Beauchamp Tower, where the personal carvings of former prisoners were etched into the walls; some would later say that he added a memorial of his own. Jane was to be lodged nearby, in the house of the Gentleman Gaoler Nathaniel Partridge, on Tower Green. She could do nothing but await news of her fate.

Word of Jane’s imprisonment did not take long to spread. ‘The other Queen has renounced all her honours, and has been shut up in the Tower with her husband’, the Imperial ambassadors informed their master, the Emperor Charles V. Jane’s mother-in-law also remained in the Tower, but ‘all the rest are outside’. Everyone now knew that the fallen Queen was a prisoner in the capital’s fortress, but none yet had confirmation as to what might become of her, and whispers abounded.

For Jane, who was left to reflect on her new position, this painful uncertainty must have been terrifying.

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Carving featuring a bear and a lion and a border of flowers: oak leaves and acorns, roses, honeysuckle and Gilly Flower

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Carving of the Dudley family coat of arms

A carving of the Dudley family coat of arms, in the Beauchamp Tower where Guildford Dudley was kept prisoner.

Image: © Historic Royal Palaces

A mere 13 days had passed between the start of Jane’s reign and her deposition – a transition that had taken place with alarming speed. Upon her arrival at the Tower on 10 July she had been greeted with great pomp and fanfare. She had been waited on in the royal apartments and accorded all the ceremony owed to the Queen of England, with the fawning courtiers to match. She had even tried on the crown – the ultimate symbol of monarchy.

But she had been stripped of that now: the fickle courtiers had fled, and the crown had been set aside for Mary. Jane had only the company of Master Partridge and three of her ladies – mistresses Ellen, Tilney and Jacob – to while away the long and tortuous hours. Perhaps the books in whose pages she had always taken such pleasure offered some distraction, and she was greatly comforted by prayer.

'Jane' inscription carved into a wall — *Image: 'Jane' inscription carved into the walls of the upper chamber of the Beauchamp Tower. © Historic Royal Palaces*

An open prayer book belonging to Lady Jane Grey, with her own handwriting at the bottom of the pages. — *Image: Prayer book of Lady Jane Grey. Courtesy British Library, Harley 2342*

Thoughts of what her future might hold must have been forefront in Jane’s mind. Mary was her second cousin and had always shown her kindness, but that was before Jane had – albeit unwillingly – attempted to take her place. Perhaps word had reached Jane, though, that Mary had shown mercy to those who had formerly supported Jane’s claim, and this may have given her hope. Ensconced inside the Tower’s walls as she was, Jane could only pray that Mary’s clemency would extend to her too.

As the year 1553 had begun, just seven short months previously, nobody could have envisaged the tumultuous events which saw the death of the young King, Edward VI, Jane’s rise and deposition, her ultimate imprisonment, and Mary’s triumph. Though Jane had always been raised with an acute awareness of her royal blood, it had never been an inheritance she had ever sought to pursue – yet it was one that could ultimately lead to her ruin.

Almost 500 years later we know how Jane’s story ended but, in the summer of 1553, she had no idea what fate had in store. Her once seemingly bright future now lay shattered, and it remained to be seen whether she would escape from the Tower with her life.

Dr Nicola Tallis
Tudor historian and author of Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey