Lady Jane Grey, watching her husband pass to execution, 12 February 1554
Illustration from Cassell's illustrated history of England published circa 1896. Info from wiki: The great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary Tudor, Jane was a first cousin once removed of Edward VI, King of England and Ireland from 1547. In May 1553, she was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. When the 15-year-old king lay dying in June 1553, he wrote his will, nominating Jane and her male heirs as successor to the Crown partly because his half-sister Mary was Roman Catholic while Jane was Protestant and would support the religion whose foundation Edward claimed to have laid. The will named his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate and removed them from succession. This step subverted their claims under the Third Succession Act. After Edward's death, Jane was proclaimed queen on 10 July 1553 and awaited coronation in the Tower of London. Support for Mary grew very quickly and most of Jane's supporters abandoned her. The Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaimed Mary as queen on 19 July 1553, deposing Lady Jane. Her primary supporter, the Duke of Northumberland, was accused of treason and executed less than a month later. Jane was held as a prisoner at the Tower and was convicted of high treason in November 1553, which carried a sentence of death, although her life was initially spared by Mary. After her father Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, became part of Wyatt's rebellion of January and February 1554 against Queen Mary's plans to marry Philip of Spain, Jane was viewed as a threat to the crown; both Jane and her husband were executed on 12 February 1554.
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Photo credit: © Historical Images Archive / Alamy / Afripics
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