Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625)

On 12th February 1554, Lady Jane Grey, aged about sixteen, was executed in the Tower of London. She had been tried for treason and condemned the previous year, following the coup which attempted to put her on the throne in July 1553. Jane was a brave and principled girl – modern scholarship suggests she was less of a passive victim than she has been portrayed in the past, but she was not responsible for the original coup. Originally, Queen Mary had had no intention of having the death sentence carried out on her young cousin, but a second rebellion, in which Jane’s father was prominent, suggested that whilst Jane lived she would be the focus of plots. Jane died firm in her Protestant faith.

There is no definite likeness of Jane. The picture, © Surrey History Centre, shows a rare document signed by Jane the Queen.

On 11th February 1503, Elizabeth of York, Queen of England, died in the Tower of London. It was her 37th birthday. The daughter she had born nine days earlier also died. Elizabeth was a pivotal figure in the resolution of the Wars of the Roses. As the daughter of Edward IV, she commanded the loyalty of those Yorkists who had been unhappy with the deposition of her brothers and her marriage to Henry VII brought York and Lancaster together. Elizabeth inherited the good looks of her famously attractive parents but also the Yorkist tendency to plumpness. She bore seven children in total, but only three lived beyond 15. Her husband and children mourned her death sincerely. She is buried in Westminster Abbey in the fabulous tomb carved by the Italian sculptor, Torregiano.

On 10th February 1537 Sir Francis Bigod’s rebellion in Cumberland, related to the Pilgrimage of Grace, was crushed. Bigod, who was actually an evangelical, rather than a supporter of a return to Papal Supremacy, was a well-connected member of the northern gentry families. Once betrothed to Margaret Neville, step-daughter of Katherine Parr, he was involved in the compilation of Valor Ecclesiasticus, the survey of monastic wealth ordered by Henry VIII and Cromwell. However, it was his view that the monasteries should be reformed rather than suppressed.