“If we expect women to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.” - Plato, The Republic

Lady Jane Grey and her sisters were given ‘princely’ educations and were prepared for their duty: strong family alliances via marriage. Jane excelled at her lessons, speaking six languages, and reveling in her religious and philosophical studies, especially in the work of Plato. She exchanged letters with the great minds of Europe, was taken into the household of another esteemed scholar of her day, Catherine Parr, the final queen of Henry VIII, where her devotion to the Reformed Religion deepened. Jane took little pleasure in the hunting and games enjoyed by the rest of her family and preferred her books above all else. Duty, obedience, and a rigorous scholastic schedule were the cornerstones of Jane’s young life. Her marriage to Lord Guilford Dudley in May of 1553 was a natural, if unhappy, step in the life of this young noblewoman.

“Women and men have the same nature in respect to the guardianship of the state. “ -Plato, The Republic

Spring, 1553: As his illness rapidly advances, King Edward VI has no time to wait for a male heir and must finalize his Devise for the Succession. He adds an arrow and two words, ^and her, naming his cousin, the sixteen year old Lady Jane Grey, and her male heirs, as his successors, passing over his two half-sisters, Mary, and Elizabeth. Edward dies on 6 July 1553, probably of tuberculosis. He was fifteen years old. Jane is brought to Syon House and told she is now Queen of England, France and Ireland and Defender of the Faith. Overcome by shock and fear, she knows the way forward is treacherous and she asks God for strength.

“It is our duty to select the best and most dependable theory.. and use it as a raft to ride the seas of life.“ - Plato, Phaedo

On the 10th of July, Queen Jane is rowed by royal barge from Syon House to the royal residence at The Tower of London where she is to remain until her coronation. She sits under the canopy of state and is presented to the people for the first time. The people gathered are quiet and confused, and no one shouts, ‘God save the Queen.’ As Jane enters the imposing walls of the Tower, she has no way of knowing how events will unfold.

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself. “ - Plato, The Republic

Once in the royal residence of the Tower, the crown is brought to Queen Jane, and she is asked to try it on. She is told ‘a similar one will be made to fit your husband.’ At first, she refuses, still insisting it is not hers to wear.

But also realizing her marriage is a power play for the Dudley Family, and they intend to rule through Jane, she refuses to make her husband King and says she will only make him a Duke. After all, in their marriage, the only royal blood is hers.

“Nothing beautiful without struggle. “ - Plato, The Republic

Mary Tudor has raised an army to defend her own right to the throne. Queen Jane and her privy council write to their supporters as they muster troops and prepare for battle, reminding them of exactly what is at stake.

“If one has made a mistake, and fails to correct it, one has made a greater mistake.” - Plato

The battle of Queen Jane vs Mary goes terribly wrong. Reinforcements do not arrive, and mercenary soldiers side for Mary, who, in an epic blunder, was not captured from the start. One by one, Jane’s council members abandon her in the Tower and proclaim Mary as the true queen. The Duke of Northumberland is now on the run, having failed as commander of Queen Jane’s army. Jane’s father brings the news that Jane is no longer queen, removing the cloth of state from above her head, to which she is said to have replied ‘May I go home now?’. Her time as queen is over. It has been less than two weeks.

“The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.” - Plato, Apology

Jane spends the next several months under house arrest and uses her time to study and write, waiting for others to decide her fate. Though she is assured that Queen Mary will spare her life, she must endure a public trial and condemnation as a traitor. Her first venture outside the Tower walls is not for her coronation procession, but a humiliating public march to judgment.

Accompanying her are her husband, Guildford, three other ‘conspirators’, and a man holding an axe, the blade pointed away from them. When the trial concludes and they process back to the Tower, the blade points towards them, signifying to the crowd that they are traitors and condemned to death. Jane still holds on to hope that Queen Mary will not want to execute her own cousin.

“The soul takes nothing with her to the other world but her education and culture.” - Plato, The Republic

As her marriage to the Catholic Prince Philip of Spain is negotiated, Queen Mary is under increasing pressure to eliminate Jane. She is hesitant to execute her teenaged cousin until early 1554 when the Wyatt Rebellion, a Protestant plot to remove Mary from the throne, fails, and Jane’s father is arrested as a conspirator. Jane herself is not implicated, but her father’s failed judgment seals her fate. Jane and Guildford’s death sentences will have to be carried out, and Jane’s father will suffer the same. Queen Mary sends a Catholic priest to attempt to convert Jane, but she proclaims she will not trade her life for her soul or conscience. The same priest accompanies her, as a friend, to the scaffold on 12 February 1554, and while he prays in Latin, Jane says her final prayers, defiantly, in the language of the reformed religion, English.

“Those who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying, and they fear death least of all men.” - Plato, Phaedo

The day before she died, Jane wrote her last letter to her sister Katherine, hidden in her Greek copy of the New Testament. Knowing her belongings would be handed over to her family, she hid letters and notes to several people, including her father, in her bible and in the prayerbook she carried to the scaffold. In her letter to Katherine, she implores her to be true to the Reformed Religion, and to live a good Christian life, in preparation for the life eternal.