Trial
Mary wasted no time in exerting her power. Despite their radical change of allegiance, she had Sir Henry Grey and Northumberland arrested for their part in Lady Jane’s brief reign, eventually releasing Grey and executing Northumberland on 22nd August 1553. Mary simultaneously released several prominent Catholics from prison, confirming the fears of the Protestants who had opposed her accession to the throne. She now turned her attention to the imprisoned teenage couple. Unusually, given her later bloodthirstiness, Mary was sympathetic to Jane, whom she saw as an unwilling pawn in Northumberland’s power-play, but still charged her with high treason.
The trial of Jane, Dudley and two of his brothers, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, began on 13th November 1553 at the Guildhall, London. Jane and Dudley were led in procession from the Tower of London on foot. A Tudor chronicle describes Jane’s appearance at her trial: ‘the lady Jane was in a blacke gowne of cloth, tourned downe; the cappe lined with fese velvet, and edget about with the same, in a French hoode, all black, with a black byllyment, a black velvet boke hanging before hir, and another boke in hir hande open, holding hir’.
Specifically, Jane was accused of high treason by taking the Tower of London and proclaiming herself queen, evidenced by her signing several documents ‘Jane the Quene’. Despite her testimony, all were found guilty as charged, and Jane was sentenced to ‘be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases’. However, no date was set for Jane’s execution, and it was believed by the Papal ambassador that she was to be spared. This may have been a political move by Mary, using the life of the young Protestant as collateral against any uprisings by her anti-Catholic opponents.