Jane Dudley, Duchess of

Jane Dudley (née Guildford), Duchess of Northum- marriage.[5] berland (1508/1509 – 1555) was an English noble- Sir Edward Guildford died in 1534 before he could draw woman, the wife of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northum- up his last will. Since his son Richard had predeceased berland and mother of Guildford Dudley and Robert him, Guildford’s nephew, John Guildford, claimed the Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Having grown up with her inheritance. The Dudleys maintained that Guildford’s future husband, who was her father’s ward, she married at daughter Jane was the natural heir. They finally won about age 16. They had 13 children. Jane Dudley served the resulting court case with the assistance of Thomas as a lady-in-waiting at the court of Henry VIII and was a Cromwell.[6] close friend of Queen Catherine Parr. Reformed in reli- gious outlook, she was also a supporter of the Protestant martyr Anne Askew. Under the young King Edward VI John Dudley became 2 Court life one of the most powerful politicians, rising to be and later . After Jane Dudley served as a lady-in-waiting to Anne Bo- the fall of Lord Protector Somerset in 1549, Jane Dudley leyn, and later to .[7] She was interested joined forces with his wife to promote his rehabilitation in the Reformed religion and, with her husband, moved and a reconciliation between their families, which was in evangelical circles from the mid-1530s.[8] In 1542 John symbolized by a marriage between their children. In the Dudley was created Viscount Lisle.[1] He was on friendly spring of 1553 Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland terms with William Parr, whose sister Catherine became became the mother-in-law of , whom the Henry VIII's last queen in July 1543.[9] As one of her Duke of Northumberland unsuccessfully tried to estab- closest friends, the Viscountess Lisle was among the four lish on the English throne after the death of Edward VI. ladies leading her to the altar on the marriage day.[10] Jane Mary I being victorious, the Duchess sought frantically Dudley belonged also to the courtly sympathizers of Anne to save her husband’s life. Notwithstanding his and her Askew, whom she contacted during her imprisonment in son Guildford’s executions, she was successful in achiev- 1545–1546. The forthright Protestant was burnt at the ing the release of the rest of her family by befriending stake as a heretic in July 1546 on the contrivance of the re- the Spanish noblemen who came to with Philip ligiously conservative court party around Bishop Stephen of Spain. She died soon afterwards, aged 46. Gardiner.[11] Renaissance humanism and science figured large in the Dudley children’s education.[12] In 1553 Jane Dudley 1 Family and marriage herself commissioned two works from the mathemati- cian and Hermeticist John Dee about heavenly configu- [13] [1] rations and the tides. Jane Dudley was close to her Jane Guildford was born in Kent in about 1508/1509, [1] the only daughter of Sir Edward Guildford and Eleanor children; her eldest son, Henry, had died during the West, daughter of Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr. siege of Boulogne in 1544, aged 19. A postscript she Her schooling occurred at home together with her brother wrote in 1552 under a letter by her husband to their then Richard and her future husband, who was her father’s eldest son, John Dudley, 2nd Earl of Warwick, reads: [1] “your lovynge mothere that wyshes you helthe dayli Jane ward from 1512. In 1525, at about 16, she married Sir [1] John Dudley, who was 20 or 21 years old. The match Northumberland”. She also had health problems: In had been arranged by their parents some years before.[1] 1548 her husband was unwilling to leave her side, be- cause she “had had her fit again more extreme that she Jane Dudley gave birth to 13 children, eight boys and five [14] girls.[2] In most cases it is impossible to establish their had any time yet.” birthdates exactly. An exception is Robert, the future Under Edward VI John Dudley, Viscount Lisle was favourite of ; he was born in 1532 as the fifth raised to the title of Earl of Warwick, while Edward son, and possibly after the eldest daughter Mary, who be- Seymour, Earl of Hereford became Duke of Somer- came the mother of the courtier-poet Philip Sidney.[3] set and Lord Protector.[15] In October 1549 the Protec- The family life of John and Jane Dudley seems to have tor lost his power in a trial of strength with the Privy been happy and was free from any scandals;[4] around Council,[16] from which John Dudley, Earl of Warwick 1535 a poem praised the “love and devotion” of their emerged as Lord President of the Council and leader of

1 2 4 DOWNFALL AND STRUGGLE FOR HER FAMILY

aged about 17, married Lady Jane Grey, while Katherine, who was between eight and ten years old, was promised to the Earl of Huntingdon's heir, Henry Hastings.[25] A few months later these matches came to be seen as proof of a conspiracy by the Duke of Northumberland to bring his family to the throne. At the time the marriages took place, however, their dynastical implications were not consid- ered significant by even the most suspicious of observers, the Imperial ambassador Jehan de Scheyfye.[26] Modern historians have considered them either as part of a plot, or as “routine actions of dynastic politics”, in the words of David Loades.[27] The initiative for the matches had prob- ably come from the Marchioness of Northampton.[28] After Edward’s death on 6 July 1553 Northumberland undertook the enforcement of the King’s will.[29] Lady Jane Grey accepted the Crown only after remonstrances by her parents and parents-in-law.[30] On 10 July the Duchess of Northumberland accompanied her son and daughter-in-law on their ceremonial entry into the Tower of , where they were to reside for the rest of the short reign.[31] According to Jane’s own exculpatory let- ter to Queen Mary a few months later,[32] Guildford now wanted to be made king. The young people agreed on having him declared king by Act of Parliament; but then John Dudley, Jane Dudley’s husband, 1540s Jane changed her mind and declared she would only make him a duke.[33] “I will not be a duke, I will be King”, Guildford replied and went to fetch his mother.[34] Fu- the government.[17] Somerset, who had been imprisoned rious, the Duchess took the side of her son, before she in the Tower of London, was soon allowed to rejoin the told him to leave the Tower and go home. Jane, however, Council.[18] Before his release, the Duchess of Somer- insisted that he remain at court.[33] According to her the set and the Countess of Warwick had arranged daily ban- Duchess also “induced her son not to sleep with me any quets in order to reconcile their husbands. A marriage more”,[32] and it is clear from her writings that Jane dis- between their respective eldest son and daughter, Anne liked her mother-in-law.[35] Seymour and John Dudley, was equally promoted by the two ladies.[19] In June 1550 a grand wedding was staged at the palace of Sheen, attended by the twelve-year-old 4 Downfall and struggle for her King Edward.[20] Jane Dudley continued as a great lady at court during the ascendancy of her husband, who became family Duke of Northumberland in October 1551. She was in- fluential with him; the financier Thomas Gresham and the To claim her right, Mary Tudor began assembling her diplomat Richard Morrison sought her patronage,[1] and supporters in East Anglia and demanded to be recog- she also interceded for Mary Tudor,[21] who had stood nized as queen by the Privy Council in London.[36] When godmother to one of her daughters in 1545.[22] her letter arrived on 10 July 1553 during dinner, the Duchess of Suffolk, Jane’s mother, and the Duchess of Northumberland broke into tears.[37] Mary was gathering strength, and on 14 July the Duke marched to Cambridge 3 Mother-in-law to a queen with troops to capture her.[38] As it came, he passed a tranquil week until he heard on 20 July that the Coun- King Edward fell ill in early 1553. He drew up a docu- cil in London had declared for Mary.[39] On the orders ment, “My Devise for the Succession”, whose final ver- of the Privy Council Northumberland himself now pro- sion of June 1553 was to settle the Crown on his Protes- claimed Queen Mary at the market-place and awaited his tant cousin Lady Jane Grey, overturning the claims of his arrest.[40] His wife was still in the Tower, but was soon half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth.[23] Jane Grey was the released. She tried to intercede personally for her im- daughter of Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, a niece prisoned husband and five sons with Mary, who was stay- of Henry VIII by his younger sister Mary. On 25 May ing outside London. However, five miles before reaching 1553[24] three matrimonial alliances were celebrated at the court the Duchess was turned away on the Queen’s Durham Place, the Dudleys’ London town mansion. Two orders.[21] She then wrote a letter to her friend Lady of their younger children were concerned: Guildford, Paget, the wife of William, Lord Paget, asking her to 3

plead with the Queen’s ladies, Gertrude Courtenay, Mar- to receive her green parrot; to Don Diego de Acevedo she chioness of Exeter and Susan Clarencius: gave “the new bed of green velvet with all the furniture to it; beseeching him even as he hath in my lifetime showed Now good madam, for the love you bear to himself like a father and a brother to my sons, so shall [I] God forget me not: and make my Lady Mar- require him no less to do now their mother is gone”.[49] quess of Exeter ... to remember me, to Mis- She also remembered “my lord, my dear husband”,[50] tress Clarencius to continue as she hath begun and stipulated: “in no wise let me be opened after I am for me ... in speaking for my husband’s life. ... dead. ... I have not lived to be very bold before women, I have held up my head for my great heaviness much more I should be loth to come into the hands of any of heart that all the world knows cannot be lit- living man, be he Physician or Surgeon.”[51] She avoided tle: till now that indeed I do begin to grow into to be specific on religion,[43] but stressed that “who ever weak sickness, and also such a rising the night doth trust to this transitory world, as I did, may happen to from my stomach uptoward that in my judg- have an overthrow, as I had; therefore to the worms will ment my breath is like clean to go away, as my I go as I have before written.”[51] women well can full say it as they know it to be true by their own pain they take me. Good madam, of goodness remember me. So God 5 Ancestry to keep you[r] ladyship long life ... your lady- ship’s poorest friend Jane Northumberland as long as please the queen & good madam desire 6 Notes my lord [Lord Paget] to be good lord unto my poor five sons: nature can no otherwise do but [1] Loades 2008 sue for them although I do not so much care for them as for their father who was to me & to [2] Loades 1996 p. 23 my mind the most best gentleman that ever liv- [3] Adams 2008a; Adams 2008b ing woman was matched [with]all: as neither those about him nor about me cannot say the [4] Loades 2008; Ives 2009 p. 106 contrary & say truly: how good he was to me that our lord & the queen’s majesty show their [5] Ives 2009 p. 307 [41] mercy to them. [6] Loades 1996 pp. 30–32; Beer 1973 p. 8

Her plea, if it went not unheard, was in vain,[42] and the [7] Loades 2008; Loades 1996 p. 41 Duke of Northumberland was executed on 22 August [8] Loades 2008; MacCulloch 2001 pp. 52–53 1553 on Tower Hill after having recanted his Protestant faith. Following Wyatt’s rebellion, Guildford Dudley was [9] Loades 1996 p. 60–61 beheaded on 12 February 1554 shortly before his wife.[1] [10] Porter 2010 pp. 143, 163 Knowing the Queen’s character, in June 1554 Jane Dud- ley pleaded with the authorities to allow her remaining [11] Loades 2008; Loades 1996 p. 79 sons to hear mass.[43] During 1554 the Duchess and her son-in-law Henry Sidney worked hard pleading with the [12] Wilson 1981 pp. 11, 15–16; French 2002 p. 33 Spanish nobles around England’s new king consort, Philip [13] French 2002 pp. 32–33 of Spain. Lord Paget may also have proved helpful, and Henry Sidney even travelled to Spain in their cause. In the [14] Beer 1973 p. 68 autumn of 1554 the Dudley brothers were released from the Tower, though the eldest, John, died immediately af- [15] Loades 1996 p. 90 [44] terwards at Sidney’s house Penshurst in Kent. At the [16] Loades 2004 pp. 46–50 same location Philip Sidney was born on 30 November 1554. His godmother was his grandmother Jane Dudley, [17] Loades 2004 p. 88 while his godfather was Philip of Spain.[45] [18] Loades 1996 p. 150 Amid the confiscation of the Dudley family’s possessions in July 1553, Mary had allowed Jane Dudley to retain [19] Beer 1973 pp. 95–96 her wardrobe and plate, carpets, and other household [20] Ives 2009 p. 111 stuffs, as well as the use of the Duke’s house in Chelsea, London.[46] There, she died on either 15 or 22 January [21] Gunn 1999 p. 1267 1555,[47] and was buried on 1 February at Chelsea Old [22] Loades 1996 p. 74 Church.[48] In her will she tried to provide for her sons financially and thanked the Queen, as well as the many [23] Ives 2009 p. 137; Loades 2004 pp. 121–122; Loades Spanish nobles she had lobbied. The Duchess of Alba was 1996 pp. 239–241 4 7 REFERENCES

[24] Ives 2009 p. 321 7 References

[25] Loades 1996 p. 239; Adams 1995 p. 44 • Adams, Simon (ed.) (1995): Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of , Earl of [26] Loades 2004 p. 121; Ives 2009 pp. 152–154 Leicester, 1558–1561, 1584–1586 Cambridge Uni- versity Press ISBN 0-521-55156-0 [27] Loades 1996 p. 239; Ives 2009 pp. 152–153; Jordan and Gleason 1975 pp. 10–11; Christmas 1997 • Adams, Simon (2002): Leicester and the Court: Es- says in Elizabethan Politics Manchester University [28] Ives 2009 p. 153 Press ISBN 0-7190-5325-0 • [29] Alford 2002 p. 172 Adams, Simon (2008a): “Dudley, Robert, earl of Leicester (1532/3–1588)" Oxford Dictionary of Na- [30] Ives 2009 p. 187 tional Biography online edn. May 2008 (subscrip- tion required) Retrieved 2010-04-03

[31] Ives 2009 pp. 188, 241 • Adams, Simon (2008b): “Sidney, Mary, Lady Sid- ney (1530x35–1586)" Oxford Dictionary of Na- [32] Ives 2009 p. 186 tional Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-06 [33] Ives 2009 p. 189 • Alford, Stephen (2002): Kingship and Politics in the [34] Chapman 1962 p. 118 Reign of Edward VI Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0-521-03971-0 [35] Ives 2009 pp. 186, 189, 255 • Beer, B.L. (1973): Northumberland: The Political [36] Loades 1996 pp. 259–261 Career of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland The Kent State University Press [37] Chapman 1962 p. 122 ISBN 0-87338-140-8 • Chapman, Hester (1962): Lady Jane Grey Jonathan [38] Loades 1996 p. 261 Cape OCLC 51384729

[39] Ives 2009 pp. 246, 241–242 • Christmas, Matthew (1997): “Edward VI” History Review Issue 27 March 1997 Retrieved 2010-09-29 [40] Loades 2004 p. 134 • French, Peter (2002): John Dee: The World of an [41] Gunn 1999 pp. 1270–1271 Elizabethan Magus Routledge ISBN 978-0-7448- 0079-1

[42] Gunn 1999 p. 1269 • Gunn, S.J. (1999): “A Letter of Jane, Duchess of Northumberland, 1553” English Historical Review [43] Adams 2008a vol. CXIV pp. 1267–1271

[44] Adams 2002 pp. 157–158 • Ives, Eric (2009): Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery Wiley-Blackwell ISBN 978-1-4051-9413-6 [45] Stewart 2000 p. 9 • Jordan, W.K. and M.R. Gleason (1975): The Say- [46] Beer 1973 pp. 195, 197; Loades 1996 p. 308; Wilson ing of John Late Duke of Northumberland Upon the 1981 p. 67 Scaffold, 1553 Harvard Library LCCN 75-15032 • Loades, David (1996): John Dudley, Duke of [47] Loades 1996 p. 272 Northumberland 1504–1553 Clarendon Press ISBN 0-19-820193-1 [48] 'Diary: 1555 (Jan - June)', The Diary of Henry Machyn: Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London (1550-1563) • Loades, David (2004): Intrigue and Treason: The (1848), pp. 79-90 Retrieved 9 September 2013. Tudor Court, 1547–1558 Pearson/Longman ISBN 0-582-77226-5 [49] Adams 2002 p. 134 • Loades, David (2008): “Dudley, John, duke of [50] Beer 1973 p. 165 Northumberland (1504–1553)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Oct 2008 (sub- [51] Richardson 1907 p. 5 scription required) Retrieved 2010-04-04 5

• MacCulloch, Diarmaid (2001): The Boy King: Ed- ward VI and the Protestant Reformation Palgrave ISBN 0-312-23830-4

• Porter, Linda (2010): Katherine the Queen: The Re- markable Life of Katherine Parr Macmillan ISBN 978-0-230-71039-9 • Richardson, Aubrey (1907): The Lover of Queen Elizabeth: Being the Life and Character of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester 1533–1588 T. Werner Laurie • Stewart, Alan (2000): Philip Sidney: A Double Life Chatto & Windus ISBN 0-7011-6859-5

• Wilson, Derek (1981): Sweet Robin: A Biography of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester 1533–1588 Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0-241-10149-2

8 External links

• Monuments, Chelsea Old Church 6 9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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