"My Lady Jane" and the Real Conspiracy to Take the English Throne
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What conspiracy led to Jane Grey becoming Queen?
Most weeks we discuss theories, stories we can't confirm. But this week we're covering an actual conspiracy to steal the British crown. In 1553, King Edward VI lay on his deathbed. He'd reigned for just six years, though since he was only 15, his chief advisor, the Duke of Northumberland, was calling all the shots. But the Duke wasn't ready to give up his power, even though Edward's death and the coronation of his older half-sister Mary seemed imminent. So Northumberland and his supporters planned a coup. They'd replace Mary with a puppet they thought they could control, 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey. However, they made a crucial mistake. Jane Grey was no puppet. With the crown on her head, she made her own power plays. And within two weeks, she was kicked off the throne. This week, we'll look at three complex conspiracies. The one that put Jane on the throne, the one that took her off of it, and the one that led to her death. We've got arranged marriages, convenient accidents, poisoning accusations, and a lingering question...
Was Jane Grey a teenage conspirator? Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday. You can listen to the audio everywhere and watch the video only on Spotify. We would love to hear from you. So if you're watching on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. And be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. Stay with us.
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Jane I was England's first reigning queen in over 400 years. But she wasn't ever supposed to be queen. Sure, her great-grandfather had been king, but he had many descendants, several of whom had better claims than Jane. Like Jane's mother, Lady Frances Brandon Grey. To add modern context, Jane had about as much claim to the throne as Prince William's cousins, Beatrice and Eugenie, who are Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughters, but not the daughters of a monarch themselves. But that didn't mean Jane was free of court politics. She was about the same age as the first in line to the throne, Prince Edward. So from early childhood, Jane's parents, Lady Frances and Lord Henry Grey, aggressively groomed Jane to be Edward's wife. Jane frequently accompanied her mother to the royal court, where Frances served in the privy chamber of Queen Catherine Parr. King Henry VIII's final wife. And yes, we're talking about that King Henry VIII, famous for his six wives.
As the saying goes, divorce beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived. Catherine Parr is the one who survived when Henry VIII died in 1547. That year, nine-year-old Edward succeeded him. This kicked the Grey's hopes for Jane to marry Edward into overdrive. They allied with Thomas Seymour, King Edward's uncle and Catherine Parr's new husband. This family tree is getting convoluted, so here's a picture. You can see Edward has his uncle married to his stepmom, while his cousin Jane's parents are trying to arrange her marriage to him, which would make the family tree a circle. A very powerful circle. Within a year, the families arrange for Jane to move into Thomas Seymour's and Queen Catherine's estate as Seymour's ward.
The hope was that Jane would deepen her ties to King Edward and learn how to be a proper noble wife from Dowager Queen Catherine. But Jane might have gotten some different lessons. Catherine Parr started off as a mere lady-in-waiting, but she worked her way to the very top as queen.
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