GREY, LADY JANE, an illustrious and unfortunate lady, descended of the blood-royal of England by both parents, was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey marquis of Dorset, and Frances, daughter of Charles Brandon Lord Suffolk, by Mary, dowager of Louis XII. king of France, and youngest daughter of Henry VII. king of England. Born in the year 1537, at Broadgate, Leicestershire, she discovered an early propensity to all kinds of literature; and having a fine genius, improved under the tuition of Elmer, she made surprising progress in the languages, arts, and sciences. She understood and could express herself with propriety in the Latin and Greek tongues; she was well versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, French, and Italian; and she performed instrumental music, and was excellent at the needle. We also learn from Chaloner, that she accompanied her performances on a musical instrument, with a voice exquisitely sweet in itself, assisted by all the graces that art could bestow. In the year 1553, the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland, who, after the fall of Somerset, had reached the height of power, began, on the decline of the king's health,
think of preventing that reverse of fortune which, as things then stood, they foresaw would happen upon the death of Edward. To attain this end, no other remedy was judged sufficient but a change in the succession of the crown, and transferring it to their own families, by proclaiming Lady Jane Grey queen. The excellent and amiable qualities which had rendered her dear to all who had the happiness to know her, joined to her near affinity to the king, exposed her to become the tool of an ambition notoriously not her own. Upon this account she was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, fourth son of the Duke of Northumberland, but without discovering to her the real object of the match, which was celebrated with great pomp in the latter end of May, and so much to the king's satisfaction, that he contributed bounteously towards the expense. The young king Edward VI. died in July following; and our fair scholar, with infinite reluctance, overpowered by the solicitations of her ambitious friends, allowed herself to be proclaimed Queen of England, on the strength of a deed of settlement extorted from Edward by her father-in-law the Duke of Northumberland, which set aside the succession of Mary, Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scots. But her regal pageantry continued only a few days. Queen Mary's undoubted right prevailed; and the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, with her husband, being committed to the Tower, were, on the 13th of November, arraigned and found guilty of high treason, and, on the 12th of February following, beheaded on Tower-hill. Her magnanimity in this dreadful catastrophe was astonishing. Immediately before her execution, she addressed herself, with amazing composure, to the weeping multitude, acknowledged the justice of the law, and died in charity with that world which she had so much reason to execrate. Her writings are, 1. Four Latin Epistles, three to Bullenger, and one to her sister Lady Catharine, printed in a book entitled Epistola Helvetica Reformatoribus, vel ad eos scripta, Tiguri, 1742, 8vo; 2. Her Conference with Fleckenham, Ballard; 3. A Letter to Dr Harding, her father's chaplain, printed in the Phoenix (vol. ii. p. 28); 4. A Prayer for her own use during her confinement (see Fox's Acts and Monuments); 5. Four Latin Verses, written in prison with a pin; 6. Her Speech on the Scaffold, Ballard.