ON THIS DAY - 12 February 1554

On This Day (12 February) in 1554, Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were executed, following their convictions for high treason.

'Execution of Lady Jane Grey'. English School, 19thc. ©Bridgeman Images/Look and Learn

Jane and Guildford had initially arrived at the Tower of London on 10 July 1553, the day that her supporters had proclaimed her Queen of England. However, by 19 July, Jane had been deposed, and Mary I proclaimed queen, with the Tower now becoming their prison.

Their trial was held at London's Guildhall on 13 November 1553, where both were found guilty of high treason, by attempting to 'deprive' and 'destroy' the rightful queen, Mary, and forcibly holding the Tower; they were subsequently sentenced to death, Guildford initially to be hanged, drawn and quartered, and to be Jane burnt or beheaded.

Only Guildford's father John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and his close allies Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer, had been executed for their roles in the attempted coup by the beginning of 1554. Despite Jane and Northumberland's five sons, including Guildford, having had death sentences passed upon them, Mary was reluctant to act on these, continuing to see the elder Duke as the one who had manipulated the younger prisoners. However. in response to the attempted uprising 'Wyatt's Rebellion' in early 1554, protesting Mary's proposed marriage to Philip II of Spain, in which her father Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk was a primary participant, the decision was made to proceed with the young couple's executions.

'Lady Jane Grey meeting the body of her husband on the way to the scaffold, 1554' Artist: George Cruikshank, 1840 © Heritage Prints

On the morning of the 12 February 1554, Guildford was taken first from his room that he shared with his brothers in the Beauchamp Tower, to nearby Tower Hill; his original traitor's sentence had been graciously been commuted to beheading. After his body was returned to the Tower, Jane was then led to a scaffold which had been erected on Tower Green, where she was also beheaded.

Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London ©Historic Royal Palaces

Following the executions, both of their bodies were then taken to the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, within the grounds of the Tower, where they were reportedly buried under the chancel floor. However, when the chapel was being renovated in 1876, on the orders of Queen Victoria, their bodies were among those that had not yet been located and subsequently identified, prior to the collapse of the chancel floor. This caused further digging to be abadoned, the floor to be filled, and the names of the young couple to be added to a stone plaque which commemorating the undiscovered condemned, recordered to have been buried.