On this Day in History ... 12 February

Chronicle of Queen Jane and Two Years of Queen Mary Feb 1554. 12 Feb 1554. The monday, being the xij th of Februarie, about ten of the clocke, ther went out of the Tower to the scaffolde on Tower hill, the lorde Guilforde Dudley (age 19), sone to the late duke of Northumberland, husbande to the lady Jane Grey (age 18), daughter to the duke of Suffolke (age 37), who at his going out tooke by the hande sir Anthony Browne (age 25), maister John Throgmorton (age 30), and many other gentyllmen, praying them to praie for him; and without the bullwarke Offeley^a the sheryve receyved him and brought him to the scaffolde, where, after a small declaration, having no gostlye father^b with him, he kneeled downe and said his praiers; then holding upp his eyes and handes to God many tymes^c; and at last, after he had desyred the people to pray for him, he laide himselfe along, and his hedd upon the block, which was at one stroke of the axe taken from him.

Note, the lorde marques (age 42)^d stode upon the Devyl's towre, and sawe the executyon. His carcas throwne into a carre, and his hed in a cloth, he was brought into the chappell [Map] within the Tower, wher the ladye Jane (age 18), whose lodging was in Partrige's house, dyd see his ded carcase taken out of the cart, aswell as she dyd see him before on lyve going to his deathe, a sight to hir no lesse^e then death^f.

Note a. Sir Thomas Offley; see note in Machyn's Diary, p. 353.

Note b. He had probably refused the attendance of a Roman Catholic priest, and was not allowed one of his own choice.

Note c. Misread by Stowe with teares.

Note d. The marquess of Northampton (age 42).

Note e. no lesse in MS., not worse as given by Stowe and Holinshed.

Note f. "Great pitie was it for the casting awaye of that fayre Ladye, whome nature had not onely so bewtified, but God also had endewed with singuler gyftes and graces, so that she ignorantly receaved that which other wittingly devised and offred unto her.

"And in like manner that comely, vertuous, and goodly gentleman the lorde Gylford Duddeley most innocently was executed, whom God had endowed with suche vertues, that even those that never before the tyme of his execution saw hym, dyd with lamentable teares bewayle his death." Grafton's Abridgment, 1563.

Chronicle of Queen Jane and Two Years of Queen Mary Feb 1554. 12 Feb 1554. By this tyme was ther a scaffolde made upon the grene over agaynst the White tower, for the saide lady Jane (age 18) to die apon. Who with hir husband (age 19) was appoynted to have ben put to deathe the fryday before, but was staied tyll then, for what cause is not knowen, unlesse yt were because hir father was not then come into the Tower. The saide lady, being nothing at all abashed, neither with feare of her owne deathe, which then approached, neither with the sight of the ded carcase of hir husbande, when he was brought in to the chappell, came fourthe, the levetenaunt leding hir, in the same gown wherin she was arrayned, hir countenance nothing abashed, neither her eyes enything moysted with teares, although her ij. gentylwomen, mistress Elizabeth Tylney and mistress Eleyn, wonderfully wept, with a boke in hir hande, wheron she praied all the way till she cam to the saide scaffolde, wheron when she was mounted, &c.

So far, our Diarist's narrative of this judicial tragedy has been adopted, somewhat abridged, by Stowe and Holinshed. The latter chronicler then proceeds thus (copying Grafton), "Whereon when she was mounted, this noble young ladie, as she was indued with singular gifts both of learning and knowledge, so was she as patient and mild as any lambe at hir execution, and a little before hir death uttered these words," (then giving her address to the people assembled). Whether our Diarist's conclusion," when she was mounted, &c."was intended to lead on to some other paper, written by himself or another, it is impossible to decide; but it seems not very improbable that he was also the writer of the account of the lady Jane's execution, which begins with the same words, and which was originally published in a small black-letter pamphlet^a entitled,

The Ende of the lady Jane Dudley, daughter of the duke of Suffolk, upon the scaffolde, at the houre of her death.

First, when she mounted upon the scaffolde, she sayd to the people standing thereabout: "Good people, I am come hether to die, and by a lawe I am condemned to the same. The facte, in dede, against the quenes highnesse was unlawfull, and the consenting thereunto by me^b but touching the procurement and desyre therof by me or on my halfe, I doo wash my handes thereof in innocencie, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day," and therewith she wrong [Note. wrung] her handes, in which she had hir booke. Then she sayd, "I pray you all, good Christian people, to beare me witnesse that I dye a true Christian woman, and that I looke to be saved by none other meane, but only by the mercy of God in the merites of the blood of his only sonne Jesus Christ: and I confesse, when I dyd know the word of God I neglected the same, loved my selfe and the world, and therefore this plague or punyshment is happely and worthely happened unto me for my sins; and yet 1 thank God of his goodnesse that he hath thus geven me a tyme and respet to repent. And now, good people, while I am alyve, I pray you to assyst me with your prayers."^a2 And then, knelyng downe, she turned to Fecknam^b2, saying, "Shall I say this psalme?" And he said, "Yea." Then she said the psalme of Miserere mei Deus in English, in most devout maner, to the end. Then she stode up, and gave her maiden mistris Tilney^c her gloves and handkercher, and her book to maister Bruges^d, the lyvetenantes brother; forthwith she untyed her gown.

The hangman went to her to help her of therewith; then she desyred him to let her alone, turning towardes her two gentlewomen, who helped her off therwith, and also with her frose paast^a3 and neckercher, geving to her a fayre handkercher to knytte about her eyes.

Then the hangman kneeled downe, and asked her forgevenesse, whome she forgave most willingly. Then he willed her to stand upon the strawe: which doing, she sawe the block. Then she sayd,

"I pray you dispatch me quickly." Then she kneeled down, saying, "Wil you take it of before I lay me downe?" and the hangman answered her, "No, madame." She tyed the kercher about her eys; then feeling for the blocke, saide, "What shall I do? Where is it?" One of the standers-by guyding her therunto, she layde her heade down upon the block, and stretched forth her body and said: "Lorde, into thy hands I commende my spirite!" And so she ended.

Note a. This is here copied from a reprint edited by the Rev. John Brand in the 13th volume of the Archaeologia. I have not been able to find a copy of the original. It was incorporated into the narratives of Grafton and Foxe, with some variations, which will be noticed in the ensuing notes.

Note b. Holinshed has amplified this into the following more explicit statement: "My offence agaynst the queenes highnesse was onely in consent to the device of other, which nowe is deemed treason; but it was never my seeking, but by counsell of those who shoulde seeme to have further understanding of things than I, which knewe little of the lawe, and much lesae of the tytles to the crowne."

Note a2. Another report of "lady Jane Dudley's speech on the scaffold," somewhat more verbose but not so impressive, is printed in Nicolas's Remains, &c. p. 52.

Note b2. This circumstance, that Feckenham (the new dean of St. Paul's) was attendant upon her, is suppressed by Grafton, but preserved by Foxe.

Note c. Altered by Grafton, &c. to "her mayden (called mystresse Eleyn)" that is, her other female attendant.

Note d. Grafton altered this "to mayster Bruges, then lieutenant of the Tower;" and Foxe says, "maister Bruges" only. The book is supposed to have been the same manual of English prayers which is now preserved in the British Museum as the MS. Harl. 2342; and which contains the three following notes, the two former it will be perceived addressed to the duke of Suffolk, and the last to sir John Brydges:

Your lovyng and obedyent son wischethe unto your grace long lyfe in this world, with as muche joye and comforte as ever I wyshte to my selfe, and in the world to come joy everlasting. Your most humble son tel his death. G. DUDDELEY.

The Lorde comforte your grace, and that in his worde, whearin all creatures onlye are to be comforted. And thoughe it hathe pleased God to take away ij. of your children, yet thincke not, I most humblye beseach your grace, that you have loste them, but truste that we, by leasinge this mortall life, have wunne an immortal life. And I for my parte, as I have honoured your grace in this life, wyll praye for you in another life. Youre gracys humble doughter, JANE DUDDELEY.

Forasmutche as you have desired so simple a woman to wrighte in so worthye a booke, good mayster lieuftenaunte, therefore I shall as a frende desyre you, and as a Christian require you, to call uppon God to encline your harte to his lawes, to quicken you in his waye, and not to take the worde of trewethe utterlye oute of youre mouthe. Lyve styll to dye, that by deathe you may purchase eternall life, and remembre howe the ende of Mathusael, whoe, as we reade in the scriptures, was the longeste liver that was of a manne, died at the laste: for, as the precher sayethe, there is a tyme to be borne, and a tyme to dye; and the daye of deathe is better than the daye of cure birthe. Youres, as the Lorde knowethe, as a frende, JANE DUDDELEY."

These passages (facsimiles of the first and last of which are engraved in "Autographs of Remarkable Persons," 4to. 1829, Pl. 19) were evidently written very shortly before the execution of the noble pair, as is shown by an expression in the lady Jane's address to her father; and there is every probability in sir Harris Nicolas's conjecture that this book was employed as the messenger to convey these assurances of duty and affection, when personal intercourse was denied. The duke of Suffolk was brought back to the Tower only two days before his daughter's decapitation, and it is possible that she was spared the additional pain of knowing how imminent his fate also was. From the passage addressed to the lieutenant, it would further appear that the book, "so worthye a booke," already belonged to him; if, therefore, it is the same which the lady Jane carried with her to the scaffold, she would place it in the hands of "maister Brydges" (whether the lieutenant or his brother) as returning it to its owner. In some accounts of the lady Jane's last moments it will be found stated that she gave a book to sir John Gage; this error, into which Mr. Howard in his Memoir has fallen, arises merely from a confusion of the constable with the lieutenant of the Tower, sir John Gage having been erroneously named as the lieutenant in the description of the manual in the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS. This interesting relic is a small square vellum book, now in modern binding.

Note a3. Sir Harris Nicolas (p. xci.) states that, after having taken considerable pains to ascertain the meaning of the article here named, he was inclined to coincide with a literary friend who suggested "Fronts-piece." Foxe, however, has it spelt "frowes past," which is probably "frow's paste," or matronly head-dress: the paste being a head attire worn by brides, as explained in the glossarial index to Machyn's Diary, p. 463. The term was thought probably too familiar, if not inapplicable, by Grafton, who altered it in his chronicle to "her other attyres."