"The Tragic Life of Lady Jane Grey: The 9 days' Queen"
Illustrated by YouTube, Published 11 September, 2020
INTRODUCTION
There have been a number of different rulers that each provide a unique characteristic about their legacy as a ruler to where they were from, what they did when in office and what became the downfall of their life. This translates to what my view of the theme for the understanding of humanities in this semester, and that is evaluating the unique creations that have been portrayed either in paintings or sculptures of those rulers and what make those creations so unique to how the ruler was portrayed in life. We’ve looked at a number of male kings and rulers and not looked deeply into the history of women rulers or queens, and one of those that stood out when looking at different legacies was the name of Lady Jane Grey. One of the unique characteristics about Grey is that she was only fifteen years old when she was promoted as Monarch and Queen of England, but also to point out she was only on the council for nine days before she was executed for treason. To go further into details, we will be presenting the important events of Lady Jane Grey, who she was, how she became Queen, and how she was executed, plus there will be an analysis of an author who presents a theory into some features that went into the painting and we will be comparing those to the performance of Grey and how it translates to my theme for humanities.
"The Streatham Portrait called Lady Jane Grey"
Owned by the National Portrait Gallery
Released in 1590s
Released in 1590s
SUMMARIZING LADY"S LEGACY
To begin, Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, she was raised in Leicestershire and had a connection to King Henry VII by being the great granddaughter of the King. In 1553, she married Lord Guildford Dudley who happened to be the duke of Northumberland and very close friend to King Edward. After Jane and Guildford got married, King Edward became ill and was dying from sickness, because of this it persuaded the result of finding the next ruler of England, which is why Jane’s father-in-law John Guildford persuaded to tell Edward that Jane should be the next and rightful heir to the throne, in which after Edward’s dies, Jane became the new queen of England. This is where the painting of the "Streatham" portrait came into place, and the emotional side of this painting does not entail the legacy of Grey but of other values in Streatham portraits. For instance, in Susan James article, she claims that “it was not painted from the life, or indeed made during Jane Grey’s lifetime, but is a commemorative image” (James, 2018). This idea was from the possibility that things were not going to do well in terms of populace and ascendance, because Jane had the support of the royal council, but did not have the populace because of Mary Tudor who was the father of Henry VIII and theoretically the rightful heir to the throne after Edward died. For some reason, Dudley decided to depart from London in order to suppress Mary, but ultimately, the royal council declared him a traitor for his departure and both he and his wife Jane were sentenced to death for treason. Many people to this day do not understand the estimation of Jane’s execution other than to conclude that Jane’s father Henry Grey decided to join Sir Thomas Wyatt for the insurrection to go against Mary, but sometime later she had the intention to marry Phillip II of Spain, for the purpose of trying to terminate all of her opponents that could potentially stop her from being Queen. Because of this move, she then signed the death warrants of both Jane Grey and her husband and both were executed on February 12, 1553
DOWNFALL AND ANALYSIS
The devastation of Jane Grey’s execution was some of the biggest events in the history of England, and could be resulted by the presentation in which the portrait of Jane was used to describe her characteristics of life. In Susan James, article she presents a unique theory about the portrait of Lady Jan Grey, which was entitled, the “Streatham of Lady Jane Grey” which according to the National Portrait Gallery, it was determined to be released in 1580, which was almost thirty years after she was executed. This became the historical context of James article, since James found out that there were some circumstances leading that there was an original portrait made of Jane Grey that regards a commemorative likeness for her well-being as a protestant to the royal council. In the author words, she claims “In addition to the unlikelihood of there being time or interest in having Jane sit to a portrait painter during those brief chaotic days, an analysis of the evolution of both the upstanding fan-shaped collar the subject is wearing” (James, 2018). This would be ideal to the outline of Jane Grey’s portrait because there were some indentations of the jewelry and style of clothing that would not be ideal to the time period of 1580. In James estimate, it would have determined to be from the mid-1540s as well as the early 1550s. But even though there is a different portrait regarding the time and phase of Lady Jane Grey, the portrait was deemed to show that portraits were not focused on the ruler’s passion of what their legacy holds in their psychological figures, they were determined to present a phase of what rulers would’ve been deemed to look like in a time where everyone could see the highs and lows of one particular person.
To fully analysis Susan James' article, check out the link below and follow up more on the Streatham
"The Execution of Lady Jane Grey"
Created by Paul Delaroche
Published in 1833
WHY IT WAS MEANT TO BE
Even though Susan James’ article may present more of a historical context of Lady Jane Grey’s portrait from 1580, it still provides great detail of what my view of her process was when she became Queen and monarch of England. One of the things that made me choose this particular ruler was because she had a legacy that was deemed for success, such as her being a protestant and trying to protect that legacy for other future citizens of England, and once she determined that she was not going to live out that legacy she still stood by her belief when she was tempted to convert from being a protestant before being executed. This can be determined by which Jean Marsden wrote in her article “Sex, Politics, and She-Tragedy: Reconfiguring Lady Jane Grey” about the indication of Jane’s determined will and strive as a protestant of all women during her time period. For example, Marsden’s estimates “These female figures are spectacles with one specific and noninterchangeable function: either model or virtue or fallen heroine” (Marsden, 2002). This accommodates with the situation that many people during the renaissance era of England, that some rulers were not fearsome of others and not willing to succumb to their beliefs that there era was no longer meant to be part of the world, Jane Grey died willingly with her strong belief in the continuation of protestants and something that focusses my view for the theme of humanities, it’s making someone feel the confidence that someone had willingly to strive for something greater but did not make amends, and in the process became an icon for future citizens to understand and learn from. Lady Jane Grey’s legacy for only nine days shows a tragedy of great succession with great traumatic downfalls that makes them an icon and a hero for the history of humanities.
WORK CITED
James, Susan E. “Lady Jane Grey or Queen Kateryn Parr? National Portrait Gallery Painting 6804: Analysis and Historical Context.” Cogent Arts & Humanities, vol. 5, no. 1, Cogent, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2018.1533368.
Marsden, Jean I. “Sex, Politics, and She-Tragedy: Reconfiguring Lady Jane Grey.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 42, no. 3, 2002, pp. 501–22, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1556177. Accessed 27 Apr. 2022.
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