The Executions of Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley - 12 February 1554
- thedudleywomen
- 21 hours ago
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In the morning of 12 February 1554, Jane Grey, then known as 'Jane Dudley', was spending her last hours within the Tower of London, where she had been held prisoner the previous seven months. Just before 10 o'clock, fellow prisoner and her husband of less than a year, Guildford Dudley, was led from the Tower to nearby Tower Hill, where he was beheaded. A short time later, Jane herself was taken to a scaffold that had been erected on Tower Green, where he was also beheaded. In just over an hour, the English queen Mary I had removed a viable threat to her reign, and two teenagers had lost their lives to the executioner's axe. Jane and Guildford had been imprisoned in the Tower of London since July 1553; they had initially arrived to the Tower in triumph on 10 July, with the former being proclaimed as 'Jane the Quene' by the Privy Council, in an attempted coup, orchestrated by Guildford's father, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. However, on the Privy Council's abandonment of Jane's claim nine days later, in favour of the 'rightful' monarch, Mary I, the young couple were separately taken into custody. Guildford was taken to the Beauchamp Tower, where he was later joined by his four brothers, with Jane held in more comfortable surroundings, in the lodgings of Gentleman Goaler Nathaniel Partridge, on Tower Green (Ives, 2011; Paul, 2022).
On 13 November 1553, Jane and Guildford's public trial was held at the City of London's Guildhall, where they were accused of high treason. "Jane Dudley, wife of the same Guildford Dudley" was accused of attempting to 'deprive' and 'destroy' Mary by her actions, and that by entering and taking possession of the Tower of London, she "falsely and treacherously...forcibly held it". Guildford was accused of supporting and enabling his wife's actions, by "falsely and treacherously helping, aiding, abetting and assisting the said Jane, against his due diligence, and against the peace of the Queen, her crown and dignity" (Tallis, 2016, p.225). Both Jane and Guildford acknowledged their guilt, although pleaded for a pardon, with Jane arguing that she was the victim of 'manipulation' from older men. These requests were disregarded, with both found guilty of high treason, and subsequently sentenced to death; they were then returned to the Tower to await their fate (de Lisle, 2008; Tallis, 2016; Paul, 2022).
[See THE DUDLEY WOMEN Post: The Trial at the Guildhall - 13 November 1553]
After their conviction, the young couple remained imprisoned in the Tower, although their execution warrants remained unsigned. Many believed that Jane and Guildford, along with his brothers, needed to be publicly humiliated and disciplined for their betrayal against Mary, and that their ongoing imprisonment would enable the queen to continue to assert her authority, as well as neutralise the threat of Jane's claim to the throne. Despite their conviction, Mary appeared to be in agreement that the couple were victims of Northumberland's schemes, and for a time believed the Duke's death was punishment enough. However, it was the actions of Jane's father Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, which sealed the young couple's fate. Suffolk was implicated and later arrested on 10 February 1554, due to his predominant role in 'Wyatt's Rebellion': an attempted uprising in protest against Mary's planned marriage to the Catholic Philip II of Spain. Whilst Jane had not been mentioned in the rebels's plans (it was their intent to replace the queen with her half-sister Elizabeth), this failed rebellion made Mary recognise that as long as her young kinswoman lived, she would be a threat to her reign, and to her life (Weir, 1996; Tallis, 2016).
With a likely heavy heart and ongoing reservations, but encouraged by her Privy Council and Imperial Ambassadors, Mary reluctantly signed the young couple's execution warrants on Ash Wednesday, 07 February, with the couple's executions set for two days later, on 09 February. Jane was informed of her pending death that evening, to which she reportedly responded "I am ready and glad to end my woeful days" (Weir, 1996; de Lisle, 2008).
When convicted of treason three months earlier, Guildford had been sentenced to a traditional traitor's death: that his body would be dragged from the Tower through the streets of London, to the gallows at Tyburn, where it would be subject to hanging, drawing, quartering and beheading, with body parts subsequently scattered at various locations across the city, at the queen's pleasure. Jane's punishment had differed: the court ordered that she would be taken to Tower Hill, where she would be beheaded or burned at the stake, her fate decided by the queen. Despite signing the warrants, Mary showed some compassion towards the young couple: Guildford's sentence was commuted to beheading, to take place on Tower Hill, whilst it was decided that Jane's execution would take place within the more-private confines of the Tower (de Lisle, 2008; Tallis, 2016; Paul, 2022).
On the morning of 08 February, Jane was visited by Mary's personal chaplain, Dr John Feckenham. The 'extremely persuasive' fomer Bendictine monk, himself a former prisoner of the Tower, had been sent by the queen with a specific task: to save Jane's soul from damnation after death. Mary was acutely aware that Jane's execution must proceed, but in keeping with Catholic teachings, believed that unless Jane (and Guildford) abandoned their Reformist beliefs, and adopted the traditional Catholic one, their souls would be saved. Jane politely listened to Feckenham's arguments, but remained resolved in her own beliefs. Feckenham was not dissuaded, however, and after leaving the Tower, requested to the queen that Jane's execution be delayed, as he believed that he would be success in converting her to the Catholic faith before her death. The couple's execution date was therefore postponed for a further three days, to 12 February. Feckenham returned to the Tower, informing Jane of this news; however, she remained firm in her beliefs, and successfully debating and counter-arguing Feckenham's own propositions (de Lisle, 2008; Tallis, 2016).
On 11 February, the day before the planned execution, Jane wrote a message to the Duke of Suffolk in her prayer book, in which she signed 'Jane Dudley', as she was unable to see her father, who was being kept in his own cell within the Tower. This book was somehow passed to Guildford, who wrote his own message to his father-in-law. Jane also wrote a message to her younger sister, thirteen-year-old Katherine Grey, in her copy of the Greek New Testament, in which she advises her more-frivolous sister to stay resolved in her own Reformist beliefs and 'prepare for martyrdom'. On this day, Guildford also reportedly requested a final meeting with his wife; however, on learning that he was in a state of despair, Jane declined to see him, instead sending him a message of comfort that they were to soon "behold each other in a better place". She therefore continued to spend the day in prayer and reflection, making the final preparations for her death (Weir, 1996; de Lisle, 2008; Tallis, 2016).
Just before 10 o'clock in the morning of Monday 12 February 1554, Guildford was the first of the condemned couple to be lead to their deaths. He was accompanied by Tower guards, and the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir John Brydges, from the Beauchamp Tower, leaving his brothers for the final time, and through the Tower gates, where he was handed into the custody of Thomas Offley, Sheriff of the City of London. At the outer gate, Guildford found himself in the company of familiar faces - Sir Anthony Browne and John Throckmorton - whom he shook hands with and asked for their prayers. It was then that Guildford walked the short distance up to Tower Hill: a large area of open land, that stood to the north-west, overlooking the tower. A permanent scaffold had been erected on the site in 1464, and was subsequently the chosen place of execution for many of the Tower's condemned prisoners, including Guildford's father John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland in August 1553, and his paternal grandfather Edmund Dudley in August 1510 (Ives, 2009; Tallis, 2016; Map of Early Modern London, 2025).
Guildford's request for a Protestant priest had been refused, and so the young man stood alone on the scaffold, with only the executioner for company (Weir, 1996). Whilst reportedly overwhelmed with fear on leaving the Tower, Guildford was able to maintain his courage once arriving at the scaffold: contemporary reports described that Guildford "kneeled down and said his prayers; then holding up his eyes and hands to God many times; and at last, after he had desired the people to pray for him, he laid himself along, and his head upon the block". The executioner required only one blow of the axe to complete his task, following which the young man's body was 'thrown' into a cart, his head wrapped in a cloth, and taken back into the Tower (Tallis, 2016, p.271). His procession from the Tower and execution was observed by William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, an old ally of the Dudley family, who had one again found himself arrested and imprisoned in the Tower. Parr observed from his cell in the Devil's Tower, located in the north-west corner of the Tower precinct: directly opposite the scaffold, but too far away to hear young Dudley's final words (Ives, 2009).
Jane remained in the Gaoler's lodgings, as Guildford's decapitated body was carted back into the Tower, and taken into the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula - the medieval church sitting within the the inner ward of the Tower, at a north-west angle of Tower Green (Bell, 1877; Tallis, 2016). She had reportedly been witness to her husband being led from the Tower, and now, only a short time later, saw his decapitated body being brought back; there are conflicting reports of her response to this, with some reporting that she cried out "Oh Guildford, Guildford! O the bitterness of death!" at the sight of his corpse, with others insisting that Jane maintained calmness and composure in the face of her own impending death (Weir, 1996; Ives, 2011; Tallis, 2016).
Sir John Brydges then arrived at the Goaler's house: he had arrived to complete his duty, which was said to be causing him great distress, having become familiar with his young charge during her imprisonment. Jane had been examined earlier that morning by matrons, who had confirmed that she was not pregnant; therefore, it was determined that her execution would proceed as planned. As he had requested, Jane gifted Brydges her treasured pocket-sized prayer book for him to remember her by, inscribing a message to him on its pages; Jane dissuaded Brydges against the temptations of the world, and how one can achieve eternal joy in the afterlife: "for as the Precher sayethe there is a tyme to be borne and a tyme to dye and the daye of deathe is better then the daye of oure byrthe" (Weir, 1996; Tallis, 2016).
Accompanied by Brydges and her ladies, Mistress Tilney and Mistress Allen, Jane was then taken the short distance to a scaffold that had been erected on Tower Green, outside the 11th century White Tower. Feckenham was one of those present at the scaffold; however, he had resigned himself that Jane would remain resolute to her Reformist beliefs until her end, and therefore made no further attempts to persuade or convert her to the 'true religion'. When on the scaffold, Jane requested to those who had gathered, to "take her death as witness of her innocence", although acknowledged that "by law" she was "condemned to die", and that her actions against Mary I were "unlawful". As expected, Jane proudly proclaimed that she would "die a true Christian woman", and asked for the prayers of the witnesses to assist her on her death. Jane knelt on the scaffold, and read Psalm 51 in English - a psalm for the penintent. She was described as reading the psalm "in the most devout manner", with a calmness and confidence, to the end (de Lisle, 2008; Tallis, 2016).
Having prepared her soul for death, Jane then began to prepare her body for its end. She began to undress, with the assistance of her ladies, refusing the help of the executioner. She untied the laces of her black velvet gown - the same that she had worn for her trial - removed her headdress and loosened her hair. After the executioner asked for forgiveness for what he was about to do, anxiously asked that “I pray you dispatch me quickly”, swiftly needing reassurance that the fatal blow would not come "before I lay me down". Jane then knelt down on the platform and tied the handkerchief she had been handed around her eyes. Panicked, she found that the block was out of reach, reportedly crying out "what shall I do? where is it?"; her hands were then guided to the block, where having regained her composure, Jane placed her head down on the block. Her final words were then spoken - "Lord, Jesus, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" before the executioner's axe fell: as with her husband, only one blow was required to decapitate her head from its young body (de Lisle, 2008; Tallis, 2016).
Jane's decapitated body lay on the blooded-straw covered scaffold for several hours, until it was finally moved by her ladies into the Chapel of St Peter of Vincula, joining Guildford's, which had been taken in earlier in the day. Both corpses were then unceremoniously buried in unmarked graves, under the floor in the chancel of the chapel infront of the altar, joining other prominent Tudor courtiers who had also lost their lives on the scaffold, including Guildford's father Northumberland (Tallis, 2016; The Chapels Royal HM Tower of London, 2026).
By the mid-19th century, the chapel was in a state of disrepair; doorways had been bricked up, the walls whitewashed and the floor uneven and lifting. Queen Victoria therefore commissioned renovations, with the aim of restoring the chapel to its 'original condition', and creating an appropriate place of worship for the Tower residents, with renovations commencing in August 1876. As the chapel's floor was replaced, workmen discovered the many bodies buried beneath the stone paving; despite referring to the chapel's burial register, definitive identification of the bodies was impossible, as many coffins had intentionally been broken up, to make way for further burials over the centuries. It was also recognised that victims of the nearby scaffolds were buried in 'relative obscurity', and so intentionally had no grave markings. The exhumed bodies were "carefully collected and enclosed in boxes" and moved to a newly-created crypt (Bell, 1877, p.16).
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