To the visiting scholar Roger Ascham, who found her reading Plato, she is said to have complained: For when I am in the presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it as it were in such weight, measure and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs and other ways (which I will not name for the honour I bear them) ... that I think myself in hell.

Although Jane Seymour managed to reconcile Henry briefly with his daughters,[32] the monarch's formal reconciliation with them would come only in 1543, at the urging of his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.

Henry's will reinforced the succession of his three children and then declared that, should none of them leave descendants, the throne would pass to heirs of his younger sister, Mary, which included Jane.

For reasons still unknown, Henry excluded his niece and Jane's mother, Lady Frances Brandon, from the succession,[34] and also bypassed the claims of the descendants of his elder sister, Margaret, who had married into the Scottish royal house and nobility.

Although he briefly recovered,[39] in May he suffered a relapse again, and by early June his health had seriously deteriorated to the point that royal doctors informed Dudley and other noblemen close to the young monarch that he had only a few weeks to live.

Aware of his impending death and still with a clear conscience, Edward, guided primarily by Dudley, planned the exclusion of his older half-sister from the line of succession.

He could not follow Salic law because of the paucity of men in the Tudor line: the only such man, the Scotsman Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, barely 6 or 7 years old and son of the King's first cousin, Lady Margaret Douglas, was Catholic and therefore unacceptable to the monarch.

Edward VI personally supervised the copying of his will which was finally issued as letters patent on 21 June and signed by 102 notables, among them the whole Privy Council, peers, bishops, judges, and London aldermen.

[53] On 10 July she was officially proclaimed Queen of England, France and Ireland and that same day, she and her husband Guildford made their ceremonial entry into the Tower of London, where English monarchs customarily resided from the time of accession until coronation.

[62][63] In 1547 the death of her father made Mary the largest landowner in East Anglia: according to the provisions of Henry VIII's will, she received 32 estates in Norfolk, Sussex and Essex.

[64][note 1] Along with the inheritance, Mary received for the first time in her life a large support group "on the land" — clients from the local nobility and common people.

The Princess, probably fearing Dudley's provocation, did not act immediately, but waited for confirmation from a reliable source — most likely her personal physician, Thomas Hughes, who had access to the palace.

[73] Mary's party consisted of a core of committed Catholics hoping to reestablish the traditional faith and defeat Protestantism, and many fellow travelers who joined the rebellion for a variety of motives.

[74] Mary made full use of the underground network of like-minded Catholics, but she also needed the support of Protestants and therefore refrained from religious rhetoric for the time being.

[86] Dudley interpreted the letter as a threat, although at that time he had not prepared for resolute action on Mary's part since he needed at least a week to try to build up a larger force.

[84] On 12 July, Mary and her supporters gathered an army of nearly twenty thousand at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, Duke of Norfolk's property, eventually to confront the forces led by Dudley.

[95][96] That same day, Northumberland, accompanied by his sons John, Earl of Warwick, the Duke's heir apparent, and Lord Ambrose, left London and headed to Cambridge with 1,500 troops and some artillery, having reminded his councilors colleagues of the gravity of the cause.

[98] Dudley reached Bury St. Edmunds, turned back, and returned to Cambridge on 20 July, where he was overtaken by news of a coup d'état in London.

"[103] Two members of the Council, the Catholics William Paget and Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, rode to Framlingham to beg Mary's pardon, on behalf of the majority of the councillors, for having signed the document removing her from the succession and placing Jane Grey on the throne.

[119] On 19 July, the Council met at Baynard's Castle, Pembroke's property, to end the claim of Lady Jane Grey to the throne and proclaim Mary as Queen of England.

[127] Also executed that same day was Sir John Gates, Northumberland's friend and intimate, and one of the instigators of the plan for Edward VI to modify his will to facilitate Jane's succession.

[128] The day before their executions, Northumberland and Gates were escorted to the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, in the Tower grounds, where they both attended a Catholic Mass, took the communion and returned to that faith, abjuring Protestantism.

[136] Among other members of the Privy Chamber, Northumberland's intimate Sir John Gates has been suspected of suggesting to Edward to change his devise so that Lady Jane Grey herself—not just any sons of hers—could inherit the Crown.

[137] Whatever the degree of his contribution, Edward was convinced that his word was law[138] and fully endorsed disinheriting his half-sisters: "barring Mary from the succession was a cause in which the young King believed".

The Duke of Suffolk was also accused of high treason and sentenced to death, but thanks to his wife's close friendship with Mary, he was temporarily saved from being executed, although he remained under house arrest.

The Queen's marriage plan was greeted with widespread opposition, not just among the populace but also among Members of Parliament and some of the privy councillors, and the Rebellion, which was joined by the Duke of Suffolk and Guildford's brothers, Robert and Henry Dudley, resulted from this dislike.

The former Queen was becoming a serious threat to Mary,[151] so the executions of Grey and Guildford Dudley were also an opportunity to remove possible inspirations for future unrest and unwelcome reminders of the past.

[154] Bishop and Lord Chancellor Gardiner pressed for the young couple's execution in a court sermon,[155] and the Imperial ambassador Simon Renard was happy to report that "Jane of Suffolk and her husband are to lose their heads.

With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted in the Gospel of Luke: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!

[169] Five months after the couple's death, John Knox, the famous Scottish reformer, wrote of them as "innocents ... such as by just laws and faithful witnesses can never be proved to have offended by themselves.