Nine Days a Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey (18 page)

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standing at the block, they might well rush the executioner to stop the whole thing. Mary could not have such a riot. She knew better.

She would wait until the last moment, he told me, and then send a reprieve.

Still, Guildford and I were to die in two days. There wasn't much time. I heard that Guildford was still sobbing himself near to death in his rooms and sent him another message.

My rooms looked out directly on the scaffold, and I spent many an hour gazing at it, imagining how I would be led to it, how I would kneel and the crowds would hush and then at the last minute, the very last minute, would come the reprieve. And the crowds would cheer and I would bow and smile, and tears would come down my face and I would say, "Long live Queen Mary."

The day appointed was quiet under the familiar mists of early-morning England. As I looked out my window I could see the outline of forms all around the execution block. People were gathering for the show.

Guildford was to go first. As he passed under

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my window he turned, looked up, and waved. He was no longer crying.

He was not to be executed on that block, but outside the Tower, because he was not of royal blood. Would Queen Mary carry through with his death? I pushed the feelings from me.

What would happen to Guildford and me when we were pardoned? Would we go home? Where was home? Did I have to be his wife now or could the whole marriage be considered the sham it was?

Then I heard the sound of a cart and looked down.

What had happened? There was a body in the cart. Guildford! A headless body! Oh, I felt so weak, so despairing. They had executed Guildford! He was dead! He who had passed by this very window but a scant while ago and waved to me.

Gone forever. Oh, Guildford! What a waste: I sank down on my knees by the window, and Mrs. Ellen came running over. "What is it, child?"

"Guildford is dead."

She opened her mouth to say something, and

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then Father Feckenham came into the room. "Jane, it is time," he said.

I froze. I could not do this thing now. Not even though I knew I would be pardoned. It would seem such a mockery in the face of Guildford's death.

But then, before I knew what was happening, Father Feckenham was taking me by the hand and telling me to be brave. He had it on good account that I was going to be pardoned. "Come now," he said quietly, "don't let the crowd see you crying. They'll think you have little faith in our Queen."

He was right. I allowed him to take my hand and lead me out into the mists of morning. Oh, there were so many people! I couldn't see their faces, but I could hear them crying, "Jane, Jane, Jane."

We walked to the execution block, and behind me I heard Mrs. Ellen sniffling and I urged her to be quiet. "When the sun breaks through the mist, I will walk from this place," I told them.

Drums were beating, low and steadily in the distance. I thought they were the sound of my

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blood beating in my head.

The executioner nodded a greeting to me then and asked my forgiveness. I forgave him, as was the custom. Then the drums stopped and all was silent. I heard a crow caw.

"Kneel, Jane," Father Feckenham said to me. "You must make it look real."

"Where is the courier with the pardon?"

"You know how Queen Mary likes drama," he said. "He will be here on time. Don't fear,

Jane.

Sometimes we have to believe, I reminded myself, even when we know better.

I knelt and they put a blindfold around my eyes. But then I couldn't find the block. In what seemed like an endless amount of time I felt around in the straw for it. "Where is it?" I asked. "Where is the block? I can't find it. Help me, please."

Someone grasped each of my wrists and put them to either side of me and then guided my head to the block. I knelt, waiting. The whole world waited.

Soon now, soon, he would come, the courier. Running up the hill, mayhap even as

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the executioner had his axe raised. The crowd would cheer. They would raise me up and take the blindfold from me. The sun would be out, and I would be allowed to go home.

I waited. If only I could see! In another moment I would ask Father Feckenham where the courier was with the reprieve. But for now I would be good. I would make them all proud of me.

And then, and then, and then. Ohhh.

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Lady Jane Grey

1537-1554

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author's note

L

ady Jane was beheaded that day by the executioner. There never was a reprieve. Ten days later the same fate was accorded her father, Henry Grey.

Two weeks after Henry Grey's death, Jane's mother, Lady Frances, married his groom of chambers, and during Queen Mary's reign, she was always at court, with no evidence of bad feelings between her and the Queen for having executed her daughter, husband, and son-in-law.

Queen Mary became known as "Bloody Mary" because of the violence and deaths that occurred during her reign. She did marry Philip of Spain and restored the Catholics to England, then burned hundreds of Protestants. She

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reigned for five years and had no children. When she died, the Protestant Princess Elizabeth took over the throne of England and reigned successfully for forty-five years.

Everything in the book that follows the historical line of events is true, even down to Princess Elizabeth and Sir Thomas carrying on in her bedroom when she was just fourteen or fifteen.

I have fictionalized some events for the sake of story, and interpreted others to tighten my plot, but otherwise, no amount of invention or creativity could add to this incredible story.

Robert Dudley, brother of Guildford, was pardoned by Queen Mary and released from the Tower. He went on to become Earl of Leicester and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, whom he served faithfully all his life. But that is another story.

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Chapman, Hester W.

Lady Jane Grey.

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The Autobiography of Henry

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London: Allison and Busby Ltd., 1998. Malvern, Gladys.

The World of Lady Jane Grey.

New York: The Vanguard Press, 1964. Maxwell, Robin.

The Secret Diary of Anne

Boleyn.

New York: Scribner Paperback

Fiction, 1997. Weir, Alison.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

New

York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

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--.

The Children of Henry VIII.

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Ballantine Books, 1986. --.

Henry VIII: The King and His Court.

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