SOME ACCOUNT

OF

LADY JANE GREY.*

LADY JANE GREY was an illustrious personage of the blood royal of England, by both parents-her grandmother on her father's side, (Henry Grey, marquis of Dorset,) being queen consort to Edward IV.; and her grandmother on her mother's, (lady Frances Brandon,) being daughter to Henry VII. queen dowager of France, and mother to Mary queen of Scots. Lady Jane had no brothers, she

was the eldest of three daughters, and was born in 1537, at Bradgate, her father's seat in Leicestershire. She very early gave astonishing proofs of her uncommon abilities, insomuch that, upon a comparison with Edward VI., who was nearly of the same age, and thought a kind of miracle, the superiority has been given to her in every respect. Her genius appeared in the works of her needle, and the beautiful character in which she wrote; besides which she played admirably on various instruments of music, and accompanied them with a voice exquisitely sweet in itself, assisted by all the graces that art could bestow. These, however, were only the inferior ornaments of her character; she was far from priding herself on them, while through the rigour of her parents in exacting such great attention to them, they became her grief more than her pleasure.

Her father had himself some taste for letters, and was a great patron of the learned. He had two chaplains, Hardingt

There are several biographical sketches of Lady Jane Grey extant, which have supplied the substance of the present account. The most recent," Howard's Lady Jane Grey and her times," contains numerous historical particulars relative to her family and contemporaries, which the author has collected with considerable industry. To the present sketch some letters are added, which have not before been accessible to the English reader.

+ Harding was a learned divine of Oxford. He professed the protestant religion on the accession of Edward VI., and became chaplain to the duke of Suffolk. When queen Mary came to the throne, he

and Aylmer,* both men of distinguished learning, whom he employed as tutors to his daughter; and under whose instructions she made such proficiency as surprised them both. Her own language she spoke and wrote with peculiar accuracy; the French, Italian, Latin, and, it is said, Greek, were as natural to her as her own; she not only understood them, but spoke and wrote them with the greatest freedom: she was versed likewise in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic, and all this while a mere child. She had also a sedateness of temper, a quickness of apprehension, and a solidity of judgment, which enabled her not only to become the mistress of languages, but of sciences; so that she thought, spoke, and reasoned, upon subjects of the greatest importance, in a manner that surprised all. She was brought up in piety as well as learning. Her early letters show that she lived in the fear of God, and that she followed the protestant faith from principle. As Burnet observes, She read the scriptures much, and acquired great knowledge in divinity.

With these endowments she had so much mildness, humility, and modesty, that she set no value upon those acquisitions; she was naturally fond of literature, and that fondness was much heightened as well by the severity of her parents in the feminine part of her education, as by the gentleness of her tutor Aylmer in this. When mortified and confounded by the unmerited chiding of the former, she returned with double pleasure to the lessons of the latter, and sought in Demosthenes and Plato, who were her favourite authors, the delight that was denied her in all other scenes of life, in which she mingled but little, and seldom with any satisfaction. It is true, her alliance to the crown, as well as the great favour in which the marquis of Dorset, her father, stood with Henry VIII. and Edward VI. unavoidably brought her sometimes to court, and she received many marks of Edward's attention, returned to popery, in consequence of which his former pupil addressed a letter to him written in severe terms, but such as he deserved for his apostacy. After the restoration of the protestant faith, Harding retired to the continent, and engaged in a warm and lengthened controversy with bishop Jewell.

Aylmer was an active preacher of the reformation; he boldly opposed popery on the accession of queen Mary. He then withdrew to the continent, where he remained till Elizabeth came to the throne. In 1576 he was appointed bishop of London. He is noticed in the life of Becon.

yet she seems to have continued for the most part in the country, at Bradgate.

Here she was with her beloved books in 1550, when the famous Roger Ascham* called on a visit to the family in August. All the rest being engaged in hunting, he went to wait upon Lady Jane in her apartment, and found her reading the "Phædon" of Plato in the original Greek. Astonished at this, after the first salutations, he asked her, why she lost such pastime as there needs must be in the park, at which smiling, she answered, "I wist all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant."

This naturally leading him to inquire how a lady of her age had attained to such a depth of pleasure, both in the language and philosophy of Plato, she made the following very remarkable reply: "I will tell you, and I will tell you a truth, which perchance you will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits which ever God gave me is, that he sent me such sharp and severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad; be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing any thing else, I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways, which I will not name for the honour I bear them, so without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time come that I must go to M. Aylmer, who teaches me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing while I am with him; and when I am called from him, I fall to weeping, because whatsoever I do else but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear, and wholly misliking unto me. And thus my book has been so much my

Ascham was an eminent scholar of the university of Cambridge, and particularly well skilled in Greek. In 1548, he was appointed tutor to the princess (afterwards queen) Elizabeth; afterwards he was Latin secretary to Edward VI. He continued to be a protestant in the reign of Mary, but was allowed to continue unmolested, and indeed patronized, on account of his abilities. To his other attainments, he added that of writing a most beautiful hand. He was re-appointed Latin secretary and tutor to queen Elizabeth. Ascham died in 1568. His last words were, "I am suffering much pain, I sink under my disease; but this is my confession, this is my faith, this prayer contains all that I wish for, I desire to depart hence, and to be with Christ.'

pleasure, and brings daily to me more and more pleasure; in respect of it all other pleasures in very deed are but trifles and troubles unto me." What reader is not affected with Ascham's account of this interview? We may also observe that although lady Jane was treated as a child by her harsh parents, yet learned and pious men, such as Ascham, Bucer, and Bullinger, regarded her as far beyond her years in piety and learning.

At this time Ascham was going to London to attend sir Richard Morrison on an embassy to the emperor Charles V. In a letter written the December following, to the dearest of his friends, having informed him that he had lately had the honour and happiness of being admitted to converse familiarly with this young lady at court, and that she had written a very elegant letter to him, he proceeds to mention this visit at Bradgate, and his surprise thereon, not without some degree of rapture. Thence he takes occasion to observe, that she both spoke and wrote Greek to admiration; and that she had promised to write him a letter in that language, upon condition that he would send her one first from the emperor's court.

This rapture rose much higher while he was penning a letter addressed to her the following month. In the letter speaking of these interviews, he assures her, that among all the agreeable varieties which he had met with in his travels abroad, nothing had occurred to raise his admiration like that incident in the preceding summer, when he found her, a young maiden by birth so noble, in the absence of her tutor, and in the sumptuous house of her most noble father, at a time, too, when all the rest of the family both male and female, were amusing themselves with the pleasures of the chase; "I found," continues he, "the divine maid diligently studying the divine Phædon of the divine Plato in the original Greek. Happier, certainly, in this respect, than in being descended, both on the father and mother's side, from kings and queens."*

46

John ab Ulmis, writing from Bradgate in June 1551, to Bullinger, spoke in very high terms of lady Jane. He says, From the learned epistle, written to you by the daughter of this prince, you will easily perceive the respect and esteem she entertains towards you. Surely there never lived any one more to be respected than this young female if her family be considered, more learned if we regard her Ascham, Ep. ad. Sturmium, i. 4, iii. 7.

age, or more excellent if we consider her in both.

She is greatly praised by all the nobility, and they talk of her being espoused to the king. If that event should take place, how happy would the union be, and how beneficial to the church! But God will direct concerning these things; he only causes to prosper, he cares for, remembers, foresees, and disposes of all things agreeably to his will."

About this time some changes happened in the family; for her maternal uncles, Henry and Charles Brandon, both dying at Bugden, the bishop of Lincoln's palace, of the sweating sickness, her father was created duke of Suffolk, October 1551. Dudley, earl of Warwick, was also created duke of Northumberland the same day; and in November the duke of Somerset was imprisoned for a conspiracy against him as privy counsellor. From that time lady Jane appears to have been occasionally at court. In the summer of 1552 the king made a great progress through some parts of England, during which lady Jane went to pay her duty to his majesty's sister, the lady Mary, at Newhall in Essex. During this visit, her piety, and zeal against popery, prompted her to reprove the lady Ann Wharton, for making a courtesy to the host, or consecrated wafer, enclosed in a box, suspended, as was then usual, over the altar. Lady Jane observing her companion courtesy, asked if the princess were coming. Her companion replied No, but she made obeisance to Him that made us all. Why, said lady Jane, how can that be he that made us all, for the baker made him? which being carried by some officious person to the ear of the princess, was retained in her heart, so that she never loved lady Jane afterwards; and indeed the events of the following year were not likely to work a reconciliation

2

Another anecdote of her is related by Aylmer. He says, that having received from the lady Mary goodly apparel of tinsel cloth of gold and velvet, laid on with parsement lace of gold, when she saw it she said, "What shall I do with it ?" Wear it, said a gentlewoman standing by. Nay, answered she, it were a shame to follow my lady Mary against God's word, and leave my lady Elizabeth who followeth God's word.

The dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland, who were now, after the fall of Somerset, grown to the height of their wishes in power, upon the decline of the king's health in 1553, began to think how to prevent that reverse of