Monday, 10 July 1553 - Jane is proclaimed Queen

“And she [Jane Grey] left Sion, a palace of the Duke on the river Thames, in front of which is a palace of the Duke of Suffolk, both 7 miles distant from London. With a great retinue of Noblemen she was brought to the Tower and was received at the door by the Duke who, kneeling, put the keys in her hands. And although the number of people assisting to the ceremony was very big, no cheering was heard.”

(Commendone, Successi d’ Inghilterra, 1554)

“Hungate, I am truly sorry that it was your lot to be so immature and thus rashly to throw yourself away in this embassy.”

(John Dudley’s words to Thomas Hungate, 10 July 1553)

Poor Thomas Hungate. Having confronted the Council in London with Mary’s letter demanding they recognise her as queen or face the consequences, he was duly arrested and sent to the Tower. His ‘immature’ actions, as the duke of Northumberland put it, cost him his liberty but only for a matter of days. Hungate backed the right cause though by the 10th there was no certainty Mary would become queen. Particularly as, whilst Hungate was being transported by water to the gloomy fortress, the King’s death was being announced in London and Jane declared queen.


Jane was taken from Syon to the Tower, a fortress held by her supporters. This was bad news for Mary. As the papal envoy Commendone later explained,

“Any one who has to succeed to the English Crown, before his coronation, must forcibly dwell there [the Tower] 10 days and the reason if it is, as they say, that owing to its outstanding importance, he will be proved with certainty to be the rightful successor to the Crown once master of the Tower; otherwise the Council would refuse to grant its consent.”



Jane, beautifully attired in a gown of green velvet embroidered with gold and with her train bore by her mother, arrived at the Tower by around three o’clock in the afternoon. Some two or three hours later, Edward VI’s death was officially announced in London. It was common knowledge already that he was dead; the official announcement came as no surprise. If Londoners had got used to the news of Edward’s death they had not come to terms with the idea of ‘Queen Jane’. Few showed joy. Twenty years earlier, Londoners were said to have kept their caps firmly on their heads and the tongues still in their mouths when Anne Boleyn had been presented to them as their queen in her coronation procession. Uncomfortably for the Council, the vast majority of whom had been present at the same procession, the crowds repeated the same antics. It was time for the propaganda. Do you not know that the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth are mere royal bastards and thus unfit to rule, they told the people? Do you all not know that the Lady Mary was born from a most offensive union to God – that her mother, Katherine of Aragon had first married Prince Arthur and then engaged in an incestuous union with his brother? (The Marquis of Winchester allegedly exclaimed, “Bastard, bastard, incestuous bastard Mary shall never reign over us!”) Do you not know that the Lady Mary was a follower of that religion which sought to suppress the English and take their rights – the religion which was governed by foreigners and not by the English sovereign, the natural ruler of these dominions? Their arguments were repeated continuously and with much zeal but proved ineffective. The Londoners remained silent.



Whilst Jane was dressed in the gowns and jewels that had one adorned Henry VIII’s ill-fated queens, Mary’s mother included, her men were rushing to various corners of the realm to proclaim her publicly. The council were issuing letters to local officers warning them to act against any disturbances they encountered and to ensure Jane’s accession was public knowledge. But Mary had still not been caught – for all his efforts, Robert Dudley had failed – and this was of deep concern to the duke and his allies. News reached London that Mary was calling for support and, worse still, receiving it in respectable numbers. Very shortly the duke would realise that if a job needs doing it is best done yourself, and thus joined the fight.


At Kenninghall where Mary was still residing, a number of supporters arrived having received their summons. Amongst them was Sir Henry Bedingfield and his brothers. A man once recommended to the duke, Bedingfield was also a Catholic and connected to the Howard family, the head of which was currently imprisoned in the Tower. Bedingfield would prove to be a man Mary could depend upon; in 1554 she appointed him as Princess Elizabeth’s jailor. Frustratingly the first list of men who supported Mary was drawn up on the 14th making it hard to indicate who were first to reach Kenninghall. But Sir Henry undoubtedly was there in the early days and was remembered for this in an account of the whole affair written by Robert Wingfield in 1554. Kenninghall was now getting rather cramped. A larger, better fortified household was needed and one which was more magnificent – a suitable place for a queen to conduct her affairs from. Fortunately Mary possessed such an establishment; a place which had been awarded to her just that year. Ironically Mary would win the throne of England from a castle which her brother had given her. Edward must have been turning in his freshly made grave.



(Image - ‘Jane by the grace of God Quene’, The Proclamation of 10 July 1553.)

Sunday, 9 July 1553 – Jane Grey learns of her accession

“She [Mary] wrote to the members of the Council and to the Principals of the Realm expressing her astonishment at their not coming unto her to do homage as to their true and lawful Queen and successor to the Reign. In the meantime she started levying a few men, calling to her support many Nobles of that Kingdom, to protect her against the force of the Duke.”

(Giovanni Francesco Commendone, Successi d’ Inghilterra, 1554)

“Declaring to them my insufficiency, I greatly bewailed myself for the death of so noble a prince, and at the same time, turned myself to God, humbly praying and beseeching him, that if what was given to me was rightly and lawfully mine, his divine Majesty would grant me such grace and spirit that I might govern it to his glory and service and to the advantage of this realm.”

(Jane Grey’s account of learning the news of Edward VI’s death and her own accession)

Reports that the duke had dispatched an army headed by his son Robert to capture Mary and stop her supporters from getting to her, must now have been known to the lady in question. Thomas Hungate, her servant who had volunteered to deliver to the Council a letter declaring her accession and warning them against supporting Jane, understood the possibility of being captured en route. Fortunately he would succeed in his mission. But his joy would be tempered by his consequent imprisonment. In twenty-four hours time, Hungate would be arrested and taken to the Tower. Later the Council threatened to have various Catholic prisoners in the same facility, amongst them Stephen Gardiner and Edward Courtenay, earl of Devon, executed if Mary persisted in her defiance of Edward VI’s wishes. Mary ignored them.


Letters calling for support were dispatched to allies. The peers of the realm were also advised to cast aside Jane and join Mary, a decision which most did not immediately take. One man, Henry Ratcliffe, second earl of Sussex, was uncertain of what course of action to follow. A conservative in religion, he felt sympathy for Mary’s position. But it was one thing to pity the princess and quite another to support her and oppose the Council who controlled the treasury, the royal fleets, numerous strongholds and of course the capital itself. He later claimed that Robert Dudley, the same man searching out Norfolk for Mary, told him the king was still alive and that Mary was a traitoress attempting to usurp her brother’s throne and deceiving others into aiding her. Understanding Sussex’s reluctance, Mary would soon force his hand by taking as hostage an individual whose welfare Sussex was utterly concerned for.



For some men, Mary’s letters requesting support were unnecessary. They rushed to Kenninghall and offered their assistance unreservedly. They brought arms and had called upon the support of neighbours. Such was the case with Sir Edward Hastings who was described by opponents as a ‘hardened and detestable papist’. Having received his summons from Mary on this date, he proceeded to raise troops in the Thames Valley. Soon he, Lord Windsor and Sir Edmund Peckham would be proclaiming Mary queen in Buckinghamshire, securing the county for her. Generally, Norfolk proved to be Mary’s county. Indeed it seems the whole of East Anglia was sympathetic towards the princess’s cause. This may seem odd at first given that Protestantism had entrenched itself in these parts. Most of the Protestant martyrs of Mary’s reign derived from the east of the kingdom and the rebels of Kett’s uprising of 1549 had made it clear their point of discontent was with Edwardian economic policies, not religious. Yet these same individuals had not forgotten the way they had been dealt with by the government during the events of 1549. The rebels had been utterly suppressed and this persecution, committed only four years previously, was still fresh in the minds of all. Additionally and perhaps most importantly, the man who had been instrumental in destroying the rebellion – the man whose army had defeated the rebels at the battle of Dussindale and caused around 2000 casualties – was none other than John Dudley, duke of Northumberland.


So far in this account of Mary’s course to the throne, one individual important to the events has not been mentioned. The lady in question was just as affected by Edward’s ‘Devise’ as Mary but her name is often overlooked in accounts of this episode. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was once again declared unfit to rule owing to her illegitimacy. Elizabeth had never known a time in her life when she was considered the King’s lawful issue, having been only two when her mother was executed and her father declared her to be his second bastard daughter – the product of another union that was allegedly offensive to God. But like her sister, she was observant and protective of her rights awarded to her in the 1544 Act of Succession and her father’s will. By July 1553 she, along with Mary, was the richest woman in the realm and owned a mass of properties. Like Mary she had been present at one of her own manors when Edward died and like her sister she headed a household devoted to her. But aside from voicing indignation about her brother’s plans, Elizabeth could do very little. She stayed in her household at Hatfield and waited – waited for her sister to succeed; waited for her to fail. As queen, Elizabeth would display unbelievable courage and temerity which matched that exuded by her brilliant parents. But she was indecisive and often reluctant to take a firm stance on certain issues out of fear of the consequences. Only a year later she would take a similar position whilst the rebels of Wyatt’s revolt acted against Mary. Elizabeth was not made of the stuff of martyrs and had her own survival in mind. Her concern was hardly unreasonable or cowardly. Mary too had known times when she would balk in the face of adversity and she would conform, even if it defied her principals, so she could persevere. When Jane’s cause had finally been crushed and the sisters met outside the gates of London, Mary would show no anger or hurt over her sister’s decision to remain quiet in the early days of this troublesome time. But maybe a tiny thread of doubt crept into her mind; a thread which would be spun into something more substantial with every real or supposed act of discontent Elizabeth would later make.



Meanwhile nearer to London, the hapless Jane Grey was finally informed that she was now queen. She had been residing at Chelsea Manor when, on this date, her sister in-law, Mary Sidney (the wife of one of the men present at Edward’s deathbed), told her the news of the King’s death and that she must now go with her to the former abbey at Syon where she would be attended by the duke and other peers. Yet when she got there the men were not present, fuelling Jane’s confusion. Before long, the duke of Northumberland, the marquis of Northampton, the earl of Arundel, the earl of Huntingdon and the earl of Pembroke walked in and informed her of the king’s demise and her own accession. “Which things, as soon as I had heard, with infinite grief of mind, how I was beside myself stupified and troubled”, she later told Mary. After displaying concern about Edward’s changes to the succession and her own ability to govern, she accepted the Crown. If God had called her for this task who was she to question His plans? It was nearly time for her to be taken to London and displayed in public as the queen. She would go from Syon to the Tower, a route also taken by Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Katherine Howard, some eleven years before her. Unfortunately the similarities between the pair do not end there.



(Image - Engraving entitled, "Lady Jane Grey Declining The Crown" by Robert Smirke, 1860).

Saturday, 8 July 1553 – Mary declares herself as queen

“With her usual wisdom the lady now perfectly judged the peril of her situation, but nothing daunted by her limited resources, she placed her hopes in God alone, committing, as they say, the whole ship of her safety, bows, stems, sails and all, to the winds of fortune, and firstly decided to claim the kingdom of her father and her ancestors, which was owed to her as much by hereditary right as by her father’s will.”

(Wingfield, The Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae, 1554)

The most prominent men of Mary Tudor’s household were called for a meeting at Kenninghall. Their mistress had finally reached her Norfolk household and was quick to assemble her advisors. Earlier that day her physician Thomas Hughes, a man described as ‘worthy of belief’, had arrived at Kenninghall to conform the news of her brother’s death. Mary had previously been told this information by her goldsmith whilst at Euston Hall but she remained sceptical. Now she was sure and determined to declare her accession. Like the goldsmith, Hughes would not be forgotten for his loyal service. By October of the same year he would be appointed as one of the queen’s physicians.


The men who sat around the table and formed Mary’s first council were fervent in their loyalty to their new queen. Unsurprisingly given that this was Mary’s household most of these individuals were ardent Catholics. The comptroller of her household, Robert Rochester, had a brother, John, who had been one of the Carthusian monks martyred during Henry VIII’s reign. Edward Waldegrave, a gentleman of the household, was the son-in-law of Sir Edward Neville, who had been executed in 1538 for allegedly conspiring against Henry VIII along with the Pole family. He was also the nephew of Robert Rochester and thus another relation of John Rochester, the Catholic martyr. Like his uncle he would spend sometime in the Tower of London. In 1561 Waldegrave was accused of harbouring priests and having the Catholic mass administered in his household; he died imprisoned in the Tower the same year. Steward George Bacon had been the brother-in-law of Thomas Abell, Katherine of Aragon’s chaplain who had been hanged, drawn and quartered in 1540 for refusing to recognise the Royal Supremacy. Henry Jerningham’s parents had both served Katherine of Aragon; his mother, Lady Kingston had also served Mary. The Tyrrell brothers, Edmund, Richard and George, were ardent Catholics and utterly committed to Mary’s cause. When Mary died in 1558, George would uproot his family and move to the Spanish Netherlands in order to avoid living in Elizabeth’s Protestant England.


The exact details of the meeting were not recorded though they can be revealed by Mary’s subsequent actions. Clearly there was absolute agreement on the issue of Mary’s right to hold the throne. It was also decided that Mary needed to assert her claim as soon as possible by informing her household of the king’s death and her accession and by sending proclamations of her accession, including one to the Council (that was to be sent the following day). The Council were to be offered a chance to desist in their support for Jane. Any man who chose not to listen would be a traitor. Despite such strong words it must have been obvious to Mary and her advisers that the government would not be scared so easily. The man who would have to deliver the proclamation to the Council would be risking much by handing over such a powerful message. Despite the precarious nature of this task one servant, Thomas Hungate, offered his services immediately. Hungate, we are told, was an elderly man, ‘yet second to none in his obedience and diligence’. The duke might later rebuke Hungate for being ‘so immature and thus rash’ in carrying out this mission but Mary was highly grateful for his willingness. Like the goldsmith, the physician and the men who attended her first meeting providing advice, Hungate would be rewarded.


Having consulted with her advisors, it was time for the rest of the household to learn of her accession. It was a moment many had been waiting for. She summoned everyone ‘and told them all of the death of her brother Edward VI; the right to the Crown England and therefore descended to her by divine and by human law and after her brother’s death, through God’s high providence, and she was most anxious to inaugurate her reign with the aid of her most faithful servants, as partners in her fortunes’. Then all in her household, from Beatrice ap Rice, her laundress who had served her since she was a baby to her young loyal lady-in-waiting Jane Dormer, proclaimed Mary queen and rejoiced greatly.

Whilst Kenninghall celebrated and devised plans, the Imperial envoys in London were reporting that three or four warships were seen sailing towards the mouth of the Thames. In the same city, the king’s death was being widely circulated despite the lack of an official announcement. It was not just the ordinary people who were being informed that the king was still alive. On the 8th local magistrates were sent letters from the council detailing the king’s wishes regarding the succession and demanding they publicise such information. But the letters were worded in such a manner as to give the impression that Edward was still living. The duke and his allies were still finalising the plans for Jane’s accession; the time was not right for Edward’s death to be made known. They would have around forty-eight hours to set the ground work before informing the young lady in question of her own accession – a piece of news that would, Jane later told Mary, cause her to be ‘beside myself stupefied and troubled’.



(Image - a map indicating the properties granted to Mary in 1547. The location of Kenninghall is provided. The map is from David Loades, Mary Tudor: A Life, p. xi.)

Friday, 7 July 1553 – Mary learns of Edward’s death

“...she was told of the king’s death by her goldsmith, a citizen of London, newly returned from the City, but the cautious princess would not put complete confidence in the messenger and would not let the news be spread abroad. On this account she stayed there no longer, but hurried on to her house at Kenninghall....”

(Wingfield, The Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae, 1554)

As mentioned in the last post, there is some ambiguity concerning Mary’s exact route around the 6th but we know that by the 7th she was at Euston Hall near Thetford (near the Suffolk/Norfolk border) with Lady Burgh as her host. For it was there, sometime in the evening, that goldsmith Robert Reyns reached the residence and told Mary of her brother’s death and her own accession. Mary was at first cautious and would only accept the truth the following day when another individual repeated the same news. Her stay at Euston Hall was cut short; either the same evening or in the early hours of the next day, she would arrive at her Norfolk manor, Kenninghall. Once in her own household, surrounded by her loyal servants, she could publicly proclaim her accession and despatch letters to that effect. As Eric Ives recently argued, ‘Mary’s victory was won at the writing desks of Kenninghall’ (Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery, p. 228).


How organised was Mary during this time? There is also some uncertainty regarding this. Clearly she knew something of what was to come and this is credited in contemporary reports. In 1554 Giovanni Francesco Commendone recorded in Successi d’ Inghilterra that Mary and her household had ‘been secretly informed by some Members of the Council itself of the machinations of the Duke, of the progress of the illness of the King and finally of his death’. This is odd given the lack of outright support for Mary from members of the Council in the beginning. Furthermore she was not told of Edward’s death by individuals that high up in office. A much later report by William Camden states that before Edward’s death, Mary was pressurised into renouncing her title for money and lands. Recently, Jeri McIntosh argued that in late March/early April 1553, when Edward had then decided to remove Mary from the succession, the government informed Mary of the plans and granted her Framlingham and Hertford Castle in compensation. This Mary agreed to only to later renounce her position on the matter whilst still holding the properties, including Framlingham which she used as her base. If this version of events is correct, Mary had successfully deceived the Privy Council. She had placated them by residing so close to London till the 4th making it seem that she was waiting obediently near them. But she chose well when she selected Hunsdon as her residence. Close to London but also outside giving her a head start when she moved into Cambridgeshire. She had successfully eluded the government and had managed, by this date, to reach her own household and pick up support along the way.



In London the duke had, in the words of Charles V’s diplomats, ‘seized the treasury and money-reserves of the kingdom, has appointed his own men to the command of fortresses, has raised a force of artillery, fitted out warships for service, and has men ready to go on board as soon as he shall issue the order’. But he still did not have Mary. So that morning he dispatched his son, Robert, with an army of 300 retainers to capture her. Handsome, ambitious and with military experience, Robert Dudley is known to many today as the famous favourite of Elizabeth I. But in the days of July 1553 he was committed to ousting his future lover and her sister from the line of succession. His father, the duke, is often supposed to have been a cold man who advanced his family without a thought of their welfare. Yet his letters to his children reveal that by the standards of the age and his class, he was an indulgent and loving father. The duke did not so much as demand respect from his family as was the natural recipient of such loyalty and affections. His sons were aware that Jane’s cause was the Dudley cause and were just as determined as their father to see Mary’s destruction. But Robert was in for an unpleasant shock. Hurrying to Hunsdon he discovered that she had ‘suddenly departed with her train and family towards the sea cost of Norfolk’. Now he would not only try to find her but he would also guard the roads, make it incredibly difficult for her supporters trying to reach her. The method of patrolling of the roads was not one practised by Robert alone though. It was a tactic that Mary’s supporters would quickly rely upon and proved to be rather beneficial to their cause.



(Image - Portrait of Robert Dudley, First Earl of Leicester, attributed to Steven Van der Meulen, c.1564. Waddesdon Manor)