"My Lady Jane" and the Real Conspiracy to Take the English Throne
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Most weeks we discuss theories, stories we can't confirm. But this week we're covering an actual conspiracy to steal the British crown. In 1553, King Edward VI lay on his deathbed. He'd reigned for just six years, though since he was only 15, his chief advisor, the Duke of Northumberland, was calling all the shots.

But the Duke wasn't ready to give up his power, even though Edward's death and the coronation of his older half-sister Mary seemed imminent. So Northumberland and his supporters planned a coup. They'd replace Mary with a puppet they thought they could control, 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey. However, they made a crucial mistake. Jane Grey was no puppet.

With the crown on her head, she made her own power plays. And within two weeks, she was kicked off the throne. This week, we'll look at three complex conspiracies. The one that put Jane on the throne, the one that took her off of it, and the one that led to her death. We've got arranged marriages, convenient accidents, poisoning accusations, and a lingering question of

Was Jane Grey a teenage conspirator? Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday. You can listen to the audio everywhere and watch the video only on Spotify. We would love to hear from you. So if you're watching on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. And be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod.

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Jane I was England's first reigning queen in over 400 years. But she wasn't ever supposed to be queen.

Sure, her great-grandfather had been king, but he had many descendants, several of whom had better claims than Jane, like Jane's mother, Lady Frances Brandon Grey. To add modern context, Jane had about as much claim to the throne as Prince William's cousins, Beatrice and Eugenie, who are Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughters, but not the daughters of a monarch themselves.

But that didn't mean Jane was free of court politics. She was about the same age as the first in line to the throne, Prince Edward. So from early childhood, Jane's parents, Lady Frances and Lord Henry Grey, aggressively groomed Jane to be Edward's wife.

Jane frequently accompanied her mother to the royal court, where Francis served in the privy chamber of Queen Catherine Parr, King Henry VIII's final wife. And yes, we're talking about that King Henry VIII, famous for his six wives. As the saying goes, divorce beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived.

Catherine Parr is the one who survived when Henry VIII died in 1547. That year, nine-year-old Edward succeeded him. This kicked the Grey's hopes for Jane to marry Edward into overdrive. They allied with Thomas Seymour, King Edward's uncle and Catherine Parr's new husband. This family tree is getting convoluted, so here's a picture.

You can see Edward has his uncle married to his stepmom, while his cousin Jane's parents are trying to arrange her marriage to him, which would make the family tree a circle. A very powerful circle. Within a year, the families arrange for Jane to move into Thomas Seymour's and Queen Catherine's estate as Seymour's ward.

The hope was that Jane would deepen her ties to King Edward and learn how to be a proper noble wife from Dowager Queen Catherine. But Jane might have gotten some different lessons. Catherine Parr started off as a mere lady-in-waiting, but she worked her way to the very top as queen.

When her husband, King Henry VIII, went to war with France in 1544, he'd left Catherine in charge. And as Queen Regent, she wielded real power. Queen Catherine made progressive reforms, like allowing French residents safe haven in England, despite the ongoing war with France. She promoted public health by prohibiting anyone exposed to the plague from entering the royal court.

and she became the first English woman to publish a book under her own name. So even though Jane's parents hoped Catherine would teach her how to be a compliant, noble woman and dutiful wife,

It's possible Jane's takeaway was that a woman could wear the crown and rule England as she pleased. Jane was already showing a rebellious streak. Though her parents were socialites who loved gambling, hunting trips, and lavish dinner parties, Jane openly declared she'd rather stay home and read Plato instead.

She was an intellectual and deeply religious. By the time she was a teenager, she could proclaim her love for God in eight languages. Naturally, Jane admired the well-educated and independent Catherine Parr. They grew close until Catherine died in childbirth. Eleven-year-old Jane was the chief mourner at Catherine's funeral.

After Catherine's death, Jane stayed in the Seymour home a while longer. Thomas Seymour still held influence as the king's uncle, and he promised the Greys he could still use his sway with the young king to arrange his marriage to Jane. As it turned out, Thomas Seymour was all talk.

allegedly he couldn't even get a meeting with his nephew. But Seymour was industrious. He figured he could just casually break into the king's private chambers and talk to him there. By some accounts, he was prepared to kidnap King Edward, if that's what it took. But he never got that far. During the break-in, Edward's pet spaniel barked at Thomas Seymour and Seymour cried.

killed the dog. He was found, arrested on the spot, tried for 33 crimes, and put to death. And here's where we get our first brush with a conspiracy theory. You see, Thomas Seymour might have been innocent, for the most part. While he did, sadly, kill the king's dog, the other 32 charges are more nebulous.

For example, they included marrying the Dowager Queen too quickly, plotting to marry Princess Elizabeth, piracy and overhiring. Some contemporary historians suggested that Seymour's rivals had him tried for trumped up charges and executed because he was too close to the throne. The main rival in question, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.

In Jane Grey's story, he's conspirator number one. Like pretty much everyone else in this story, the Duke of Northumberland spent his life pursuing power and status. But unlike the others, he started from nothing. When he was a child, Northumberland's father was executed for being a traitor. The family lost everything. Their titles, their money, their dignity. Young John dedicated his life

to redemption. He joined the military, won battles, and clawed his way back into the royal court. He earned his dukedom in his own right. He joined the Privy Council, the king's closest advisors. In short, he was ambitious, manipulative, charming, and not done yet. Shortly before Thomas Seymour's execution,

Northumberland realized that the Privy Council's leader, the Lord Protector, was the de facto regent for 11-year-old King Edward. Basically, the Lord Protector ruled England. Northumberland wanted that job, and he could get it. He just had to eliminate everyone in his way, starting with the king's two uncles, Thomas and Edward Seymour.

So, according to the conspiracy theory, in 1549, Northumberland convinced the Privy Council that Thomas Seymour was not only a threat to the throne, but also a dog killer. He had to go. Hence the 33 treason charges. It didn't help that during Seymour's trial, King Edward testified that his uncle encouraged him to start ruling the country on his own. If the young king started to think for himself...

He wouldn't need the Privy Council anymore, so it wouldn't have been hard for Northumberland to get the rest of the Privy Council on his side. Adding fuel to the Northumberland was behind it fire, about three years later, a similar thing happened to the king's other uncle, Thomas Seymour's brother. At the time, that uncle, Edward Seymour, was the Lord Protector.

Edward Seymour was executed for his alleged treason in 1552. With both the king's uncles dead, there was a blank space for a new lord protector. Northumberland moved right in, king of England in all but name.

Now, it's possible Northumberland was just in the right place at the right time, but in his own lifetime, people suspected the Duke had a hand in the quick downfalls of both Seymour brothers. And it feels even more likely when you consider what he did next. Not only did Northumberland slide into Edward Seymour's old job, he slid into Thomas Seymour's old relationship with the Gray family.

It's not clear when Northumberland first started making plans around Jane Grey, but in 1551, the same year Northumberland became Lord Protector, Henry Grey, Jane's father, was given the title Duke of Suffolk, perhaps at Northumberland's suggestion. Henry Grey also joined the Privy Council, working alongside Northumberland to rule.

The Greys' scheming was finally paying off. They'd never had more power and influence, and were back on track to possibly arrange a marriage between Jane and King Edward. Except for one tiny problem. King Edward was dying. In early 1553, it increasingly looked like there wouldn't be time for him to marry or produce an heir.

He was 14 years old and sicker every day. If the Greys wanted Jane to be queen, they'd need a new scheme. And the Duke of Northumberland had just the idea. One that would benefit him, of course. You see, officially, King Edward's older half-sister, Princess Mary, was next in line. But to the Privy Council, including the Duke of Northumberland and Henry Grey...

That prospect was terrifying. First, Mary was a grown adult who'd reign on her own. Second, she was a devout Catholic. She'd replace the current council, who were all Protestants, with her own people. Quick background. At this point in history, England had a major cultural divide between Catholics and Protestants. It wasn't just religion.

It was what to read, how to decorate, even what to wear. The conflict had simmered for almost 20 years, since before Jane Grey was born. It started when King Henry VIII wanted to divorce Princess Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon. But the Catholic Pope wouldn't allow it.

So the king changed England's official religion to the Protestant Church of England, put himself in charge, and granted his own divorce. Despite the king's declarations, many people kept practicing Catholicism in secret, especially Mary. She cultivated an underground Catholic stronghold in southeast England, where she owned several manors and castles.

If she became queen, the Catholics would take over and Protestants like the Duke of Northumberland and Henry Grey would be out of power. But Mary's Catholicism wasn't the only problem the men had with her. She was also a woman. England had never let a woman rule in her own right. Traditionally, female heirs could be skipped over in favor of any male relative, but

which is how Edward got the throne over his much older and much more qualified sister. Edward himself didn't like the idea of leaving his crown to a woman or a Catholic, so he went searching his family tree for non-Catholic male relatives he could name as his heirs and found none. Zip, nada, zilch, zero.

Here's who did have a claim to the throne. His half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, his cousin, Francis Gray, and her three daughters, Jane, Catherine, and Mary, then Francis's younger sister's daughter, Margaret Clifford. Edward's cousin once removed, Mary, Queen of Scots, was technically next, but she was Catholic.

Worse still, Mary, Queen of Scots, was betrothed to the French Dauphin. So handing her the crown would essentially mean handing England to France, their longtime enemies. That was even worse than giving the crown to his sister. So King Edward and the Privy Council got creative.

In the early 1550s, the king wrote a will saying that Mary was his heir for now, followed by Elizabeth. But hypothetically, if any non-Catholic male baby were born into the family, they'd jump to the front of the line. Yes, he'd rather crown a non-existent man than his own sisters.

King Edward thought he still had some time where he could wait for this baby prince to materialize, mothered perhaps by Elizabeth, Francis, or even Jane. Regardless of who the baby was, it was an extremely convenient setup for the Duke of Northumberland. If a baby inherited the throne, he'd have another 18 years of power.

But that baby king wasn't guaranteed. So the Duke of Northumberland set out to make it happen.

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In 1552, the Duke of Northumberland approached Henry Grey and proposed a bargain. He'd convince King Edward VI to name Jane Grey his heir outright, forgetting the hypothetical baby boys, and cutting Princesses Mary and Elizabeth out of the line of succession. How? Well, they'd been cut out before. Remember how King Henry VIII divorced Mary's mom?

In the process, he declared Mary illegitimate, saying he'd never been married to her mother, and his true wife was Anne Boleyn, Princess Elizabeth's mom. When Henry divorced Anne a few years later, he did the same thing to Elizabeth, declaring her illegitimate. This was a big deal because illegitimate children could not inherit the throne, so the princesses were kicked out of the line of succession.

But a few wives later, Henry VIII reversed this decision, restoring his daughter's birthrights. As Duke Northumberland saw it, the princesses had been cut out before, they could be cut out again. He told Henry Grey he'd convince King Edward to do it, making Jane heir to the throne, if she married Northumberland's son, Guilford Dudley.

Guilford and Jane were both minors, but that was fine. When Jane became queen, Duke Northumberland could simply keep his position as Lord Protector.

It was a total conspiracy. Jane's claim to the throne was tenuous. King Edward might not even agree. And if it worked, it would change the royal house of Tudor to the royal house of Dudley. A huge win for the son of a traitor. And Henry Grey was still obsessed with getting his family on the throne. If Jane couldn't marry the king, why not make her the reigning queen?

Driven by ambition, the two men negotiated a marriage contract for Lady Jane Grey and Guilford Dudley. They kept the plot about putting the couple on the throne secret for now. Meanwhile, Northumberland got to work on King Edward VI. By the spring of 1553, King Edward was bedridden.

It was getting down to the wire. The king needed to formally name an heir, a real heir, not a hypothetical future baby. Eventually, Edward and the Privy Council produced a document called My Devise for the Succession.

It declared Princesses Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate children. Then it declared that the throne would pass to, quote unquote, heirs male of Edward's eldest cousin, Lady Frances Grey, if the male heirs were born before King Edward died. It was Edward's last-ditch shot for a male heir.

After them, the throne would pass to Francis's eldest daughter, Jane, and any heirs male she had. In short, Jane Grey was the first living person in line to the throne. And allegedly, she had no idea. The specifics of the device for succession were kept secret so Princesses Mary and Elizabeth couldn't challenge it.

It's not even clear how involved King Edward was. At the time, he was only 15 and he was quite sick. It's possible Northumberland handed him a document and Edward signed it blindly. But by mid-May 1553, the plan was in full swing. Jane Grey married Guilford Dudley on May 25th.

Legend has it she was dragged into the marriage, kicking and screaming. After all, she was being kept in the dark about the true plans. In her eyes, the Grey's master plan had evolved from Jane marrying the king to Jane marrying the grandson of a traitor. And he was a fourth son. He wouldn't even inherit the Northumberland dukedom. Jane's mom also thought Henry was throwing their daughter's future away.

It's possible Henry was forced to let Jane in on the conspiracy to convince her to walk down the aisle, and that from this point on, she was an active collaborator. There were some other wedding guests aware of the plan. The Duke of Northumberland, the Duke of Suffolk, the Duke of Pembroke, and the Earl of Hastings. The four noble fathers were all involved in the conspiracy to change the line of succession, and now...

They were cementing their scheme through marriage alliances. Because Jane and Guilford weren't the only newlyweds that day. It was actually a triple ceremony. In addition to the union of Jane and Guilford, Jane's sister Catherine married Henry Herbert, son of the Duke of Pembroke, and Guilford's sister married Henry Hastings, son of the Earl of Hastings.

The marriages were a sort of blood oath among the conspirators. If it worked, they'd all rise to power together. If it failed, they'd all lose their heads. The biggest winner of the day was Guilford Dudley. He probably felt like he'd won the lottery. He'd grown up with low expectations. His three older brothers would inherit the best shares of his father's titles, money, and power, and he'd be left with scraps.

But in 1553, he just so happened to be Northumberland's only single son. Right place, right time. It's not clear if he knew about the conspiracy, but marrying a woman with even a drop of royal blood was beyond his wildest dreams. Social mores stated that a woman, her titles, and her inheritance became property of her husband upon marriage. Guilford was making out like a bandit.

But that was the only making out he was doing. According to Nicola Tallis in her book, Crown of Blood, almost everyone at the wedding banquet got food poisoning. Maybe it was a coincidence. Or maybe it was an intentional move by Frances Grey to keep her daughters from immediately consummating their marriages.

At the time, if a marriage wasn't consummated, it was fairly easy to annul, and the woman could remarry with her honor and virtue intact. A woman inside an unconsummated marriage was technically available for a better offer, should it arrive. And we do know Frances wanted to keep her daughter available.

After the lavish ceremony, Lady Frances took Jane back to the Greys' home, Bradgate Manor, and made sure Jane remained a virgin. She couldn't stop her husband's plot, but she could rebel against it. The Northumberlands likely responded in kind, reminding Henry Grey that Edward's succession device was still subject to change, because not long after,

Jane moved in with her new husband and became his wife in every sense. But that's not the only accusation of poisoning in this story. Around this time, King Edward grew much, much sicker. The timing. After Jane Grey was irrevocably married to Guilford Dudley, not a little too convenient. According to the books Crown of Blood and Jane Grey, A Tudor Mystery...

Some suspect that the Duke of Northumberland poisoned the king. He hoped to speed Edward's death along so Jane and Guilford could take the throne. But that is just a theory. It comes from the same contemporary sources suggesting that Northumberland engineered the executions of both of King Edward's uncles. Though again, it aligns with what happened next.

On July 10th, 1553, Jane Grey was summoned to the Tower of London. It's famous today as a prison, but throughout history, the tower was used as a royal residence, defense fortress, and meeting place. Once inside, Jane sat before the lords of the Privy Council, including the Duke of Northumberland and her parents. The lords informed Jane that King Edward VI had passed away four days ago.

And she was the new Queen of England. Officially, this is how Jane found out about the change to the line of succession. If her father had clued her in beforehand, she didn't let it show. She reacted exactly as tradition dictated, refusing the crown in a show of humility before accepting that this was God's plan. Though we'd give more credit to her father and Northumberland.

To celebrate the Duke of Northumberland through a feast honoring the new queen, or perhaps honoring his family's success. From day one, the Dudleys acted as if they were in charge. And Guilford was king. This was Duke Northumberland's plan all along. Get his teenage son on the throne and rule by proxy. But Jane wasn't going to let that happen.

She told Guilford he wouldn't be crowned king. He'd receive the courtesy title of Duke of Clarence as the queen's consort. Jane even forbade Guilford from wearing a crown. The Dudleys were not happy. In response, Guilford pulled a Lysistrata, a sex strike. Yes, really.

The logic here was that Jane needed an heir to secure her lineage, and she wouldn't get one without Guilford's assistance. Considering that Jane was never thrilled about marrying Guilford, it's unlikely this had the desired effect. Jane was only 16. She had plenty of time to conceive an heir later. Jane embraced her new status, signing documents, Jane the Queen.

She moved into the Tower of London, where England's kings and queens traditionally stayed before their coronation. And she requested her servants bring her the royal jewels so she could start wearing them, all while brushing off the Dudleys. Tensions got so high, Guilford threatened to abandon Jane. This would have been publicly embarrassing, so she ordered her guards to keep him inside the Tower of London.

But Guilford wasn't the only one upset. In some of her surviving letters, Jane wrote that she suspected her mother-in-law of trying to poison her. Whether Jane was actually poisoned is unknown, but they were very much trying to take her crown. If Jane conveniently died and left it to her husband, so be it. But they weren't alone in plotting against Jane.

In the same way the Privy Council neglected to tell Jane about the changed line of succession until they needed her to succeed, they neglected to tell Princesses Mary and Elizabeth entirely. But the conspirators couldn't keep the coup secret forever. Shortly after Jane was declared queen, a letter to the Privy Council arrived in London.

Princess Mary Tudor had just gotten word of her brother's death and was wondering why they hadn't declared her queen yet. Awkward. Very quickly after that, Mary learned Jane was queen. Mary was queen.

furious. She was King Henry VIII's eldest child. She had the divine right to the throne. So she declared herself queen, sent a letter to Jane about it, and started gathering supporters. Soon, Jane got word that five royal ships mutinied on the south coast, declaring for Mary. At this point,

Jane could have rolled over and said, yes, Mary should be queen. That's how it works in merry old England. She could have acquiesced and declared allegiance to her new queen before anyone's life was in danger. Mary even is said to have offered a pardon for those who abandoned Jane's claim and supported her. But that's not what Jane did. She didn't think Mary, a Catholic, belonged on the throne.

So Jane doubled down. Now that she was queen, she was going to stay there, even if it meant war. Within a few days, Princess Mary set up at Framlingham Castle on the south coast. She used it as a base for her supporters. Soon her forces numbered 15,000, including the entire city of Norwich. So,

Jane sent her own army to kill two birds with one stone. She put the Duke of Northumberland in charge of it. This is actually pretty smart. The Duke had a storied and successful military career, and the post sent her power-hungry father-in-law far away from London. It also opened up a spot at the head of the Privy Council, which Jane filled with her father.

By the way, all of this happened within the first three days of Jane's reign. Yep. On day three, Jane was at war with her cousin. Her scheming father-in-law was riding into battle. Her husband was under lock and key. Her mother-in-law was hopefully scared enough to keep her poison to herself. And her dad had a shiny new job. Talk about eventful. However, Jane didn't realize that her extended family wasn't her only problem.

The Privy Council allegedly gathered to help her reign, but like Northumberland, they'd gotten used to running the show. When Jane made it clear she was no one's puppet, the tide started to turn. Each member of the Privy Council had signed their approval of King Edward VI's succession plan, but not all of them meant it. From day one, Jane's court had a traitor in their midst.

And with the Duke of Northumberland out of the castle, the traitor prepared to turn.

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Another conspiracy to steal the throne was afoot, and it came from within Jane's own family. Jane's uncle, the Earl of Arendelle, openly supported Jane's reign, but secretly he clung to his Catholic faith and hoped to restore the religion across England through Princess Mary.

The Earl of Arendelle teamed up with the Duke of Pembroke to stoke dissent against their Protestant queen. This is the same Duke of Pembroke from the triple wedding. He'd allied with the Greys and Dudleys, but now was turning tail. Poor Jane only knew Arendelle as her friendly uncle and former advisor to King Edward, so she welcomed his reports.

Meanwhile, Henry Gray, brand new head of the Privy Council, failed to give Jane important updates, like when the Privy Council began openly second-guessing Jane's leadership. By the time Jane learned what was being said, the rebellion was in full swing. Jane is said to have handled this problem by locking the entire Privy Council in the Tower of London. They were hostages alongside Guilford Dudley.

Jane also worried about the peasants of London revolting, so she instituted an 8:00 p.m. curfew. This was understandably not popular. Locked inside the Tower of London, the Earl of Arendelle took advantage of everyone's frustration. He pointed out that within a week, Jane had gone from a puppet to a tyrant. She couldn't be controlled like King Edward.

Princess Mary might be harder to control, but at least she was single. Any of the lords could marry her and become king himself. The Earl of Arendelle's pitch may not have been realistic, but it spurred the men to action. The Privy Council hatched a plan.

They claimed that France might be able to send military support for the war against Mary, so they needed to meet with the French ambassadors in order to negotiate this deal. The guards believed this tale and let the privy councilmen out of the tower. But instead of going to the French embassy, they went to the Duke of Pembroke's house. Then they split up to enact their coup.

Some of the group, led by Pembroke, stayed in London and worked on a public announcement. Another group, led by the Earl of Arendelle, raced to the Framlingham Castle, Princess Mary's headquarters. There, Arendelle and his men were granted an audience. As Princess Mary entered, the lords dropped to their knees, pulled out daggers, and held them above their own stomachs.

Arendelle told Princess Mary he was willing to stab himself should his new queen command it. So were his men. Mary did not want to see anyone stabbed, so the dramatic flair worked. She agreed to accept the Earl of Arendelle and the rest of the Privy Council as her supporters on one condition, that Arendelle prove his loyalty in a more fruitful way.

She commanded him to find the Duke of Northumberland, arrest him, and bring him to her. Arendelle took the bargain. Princess Mary was smart to doubt the loyalty of the man who had been one of Jane's key advisors just two days before. But if he could defeat Jane's army and capture the Duke of Northumberland, she'd know she'd won.

Back in London, the remaining members of the Privy Council signed a new decree, proclaiming Mary the Queen of England. They gathered an army of a thousand men and marched to the Tower of London, ready to take it by force if necessary. When they arrived, they found Henry Grey in command of the Tower's guards. Naturally, he'd been left out of the plan to coo Jane.

When Henry Grey saw the council's soldiers marching on the tower, he had a choice to make. Hold his ground or admit defeat. He chose the second. He said, quote, I am just one man. And he swore his loyalty to Queen Mary. Then Henry raced to the queen's chambers where Jane sat beneath the canopies of state. They were sewn of gold and fabric embroidered with the royal insignias.

Henry had a final look at his daughter, the Queen of England. Lost for words, Henry strode to Jane. He reached over her head, grabbing the canopy. It ripped as Henry yanked it from the ceiling. He explained it wasn't hers anymore. None of this was hers. Jane was no longer queen. According to legend, Jane's response was, Can I go home now? She could not.

Shortly after her father delivered the news, guards arrived. They marched Jane out of the Queen's apartments, across the Tower lawn, and into a cottage used for holding political prisoners. By the end of the day on July 19th, 1553, everyone in London knew Jane was no longer Queen. She'd reigned for only nine days.

13 if you include the time between Edward's death and Jane being declared queen. Her fall from power was just as swift as her reign. The documents she signed were quickly revised from Jane the Queen to Jane not the Queen. Her new title was Guilford Dudley's Wife. The news rocketed across England, reaching Northumberland and Jane's armies.

Savvy as ever, Northumberland went into hiding. He'd bide his time and hope to come out on top. Henry Grey was also biding his time. Publicly, he declared Mary Queen of England. Privately, his conspiracy to keep Mary off the throne wasn't over. But first, the Greys had to keep their heads. By the end of July 1553, Queen Mary was formally on the throne.

Jane and Guilford were imprisoned in the tower, presumably to await execution. Mary held a soft spot for Jane's mother, Frances. Mary was Frances' godmother. And years ago, when Mary's father tried to divorce her mother, Frances petitioned him to reconsider. All this to say, when Frances arrived at Mary's castle at 2 a.m., Mary let her in.

Frances desperately pleaded with her cousin, spare her and her husband's lives. She pinned the entire conspiracy to take the throne on the Duke of Northumberland, accusing him and his wife of manipulation and poisoning. Notably, Frances did not defend Jane. She seemed to think her daughter's fate was sealed. Mary either bought the story or felt the bonds of family.

because she pardoned Francis and Henry Grey, and she decided to let Jane live. She'd keep her locked in the Tower of London and let her fade into obscurity, forgotten. From inside the Tower, Jane had a front-row seat to the new regime. Mary swiftly moved into the Tower of London per royal tradition. She and Jane were neighbors, but Mary didn't visit.

She focused her attention on the man she blamed for the conspiracy, the Duke of Northumberland. It didn't take long for the Earl of Arendelle's army to track him down. Once cornered, the Duke went easily, choosing his and his family's lives over his pride. Merry had Northumberland locked in the tower alongside his family and Jane.

From there, Queen Mary quickly sent the Duke to trial where he was found guilty and sentenced to death. His execution was set for August 21st, barely a month after Mary took power. That morning, thousands of people waited around Tower Hill ready to see the traitor's head fall. Even Jane looked out her window expecting to see the Duke led to his execution. She saw him walking outside,

But not to the executioner's block, to the church. The Duke of Northumberland claimed a last-minute change of heart, insisting he be allowed to convert to Catholicism so he could see heaven. In reality, it was probably a last-ditch scheme, a Hail Mary, so to speak.

Except it only bought him one night. The next morning, Northumberland lost his head on the same scaffold his father had 45 years prior to the very day. With the rebellion officially squashed, Mary did exactly what Edward's Privy Council had feared. She made England Catholic again. The tides turned quickly.

Those who'd been secretly Catholic came out of hiding and into power. Those who openly preferred the Church of England found themselves locked up alongside Jane Grey, which worried Mary's privy council. They feared that as long as Jane lived, she'd plot to retake the throne. It also set a bad precedent. If Jane wasn't punished for usurping the throne, what was to stop someone else from rebelling?

Under pressure, Mary finally took action. In November 1553, Queen Mary I put Jane and Guilford Dudley on trial for treason. They pleaded guilty. There was no getting around the fact that Jane had declared herself queen and acted as one. But it also raised the question, how involved in the conspiracy were Jane and Guilford, really? Was it the promise of a crown that finally convinced Jane to marry Guilford?

then consummate that marriage? And once Mary challenged Jane's claim, why didn't she step aside? Regardless of their guilt, the most the teen couple could hope for was mercy, which they received. Though Jane, Guilford, and others involved in Jane's reign were sentenced to death, Mary simply didn't schedule their executions. She didn't mind labeling them traitors, but she drew the line at killing her relatives.

Queen Mary may have had a more devious punishment in mind, forcing hyper-religious Jane to give up her faith and convert to the one she'd spent her entire life denouncing, because that's what Mary was doing to everyone else. She'd go down in history as Bloody Mary, known for executing around 300 people for heresy, aka refusing to convert to Catholicism.

Within the first few months of Mary's reign, most of the nobles openly embraced Catholicism for political reasons, if not spiritual ones. Even Henry Grey converted. But Jane wouldn't give in. In this, Jane and Mary actually had a lot in common. They were both deeply religious, borderline fanatical. They just followed two different religions. Still,

Mary left Jane's death warrant unsigned. Perhaps in a different universe, Jane Grey would have peacefully lived out her days in the Tower of London. Perhaps she would have become queen again after Queens Mary and Elizabeth died childless. But Henry Grey was not going to wait around. He still thirsted for power. So he joined a new conspiracy to dethrone Queen Mary...

They'd taken the throne once, they could do it again. Except this time, he didn't have the scheming Duke of Northumberland. Henry Grey and his brothers severely underestimated how crucial Northumberland's plotting was to their prior success. As Henry tried to rally support for Jane, Mary sent her men after him.

He and his men quickly realized that they'd screwed up and planned to flee the country. But before they could board their ships, Mary's soldiers closed in. Henry and his brother looked around and decided the best course of action was to hide on the grounds of the estate. As Mary's soldiers searched the premises, Henry Gray hid in a hollow tree. Not to be outdone in cartoonishness, his brother hid in a bale of hay.

They tried to stay quiet as Mary's men and their dogs searched the premises, but the dogs sniffed them out. Henry Grey and his brothers were arrested for conspiring to usurp the throne. High treason. At this point, Queen Mary had to face the music. As long as Jane Grey lived, someone might scheme to make her queen again. Jane was a liability. So Mary looked at Jane's long-unsigned death warrant and...

and picked up her pen. On February 12th, 1554, Lady Jane Grey was executed. The conspiracies around Jane cost her her life. It was her royal blood that put her on the throne, and her royal blood that killed her. At least, officially. As historians have dug back into the records of Jane Grey, they found a headstrong woman firm in her convictions.

A woman who believed she could and should rule a nation. That raised the questions. Did Jane know about the plot to put her on the throne? Did she encourage it? And was she part of her father's plot to put her back in power? After her execution, Jane was buried somewhere on the grounds of the Tower of London. Legends say she haunts the castle. Her grave was unmarked. Mary wanted her forgotten.

To that end, many records of Jane's reign disappeared or simply weren't preserved. To this day, no confirmed portrait of Lady Jane Grey exists. For those watching on video, the images we've shown on screen are artists' representations. What we do know is that when Jane had power, she embraced it, much like the Duke of Northumberland.

Whether he killed the Seymours and poisoned King Edward to put Jane on the throne, or just negotiated a powerful marriage contract, we'll never be sure. It's possible both Jane and the Duke were simply two underdogs who found themselves with more power than they ever anticipated, took advantage, and died because of it. Or they masterminded one of the wildest conspiracies in English history.

Thank you for tuning in to Conspiracy Theories. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're watching on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or email us at conspiracystories at spotify.com.

Amongst the many sources we used, we found the books Crown of Blood by Nicola Tallis and The Sisters Who Would Be Queen by Leanda Delisle, Mary Tudor, England's First Queen by Anna Whitelock, and the documentary England's Forgotten Queen, The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey, extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story and the efficient story.

isn't always the truth. This episode was written and researched by Maggie Admire, edited by Mickey Taylor and TTU, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, video edited by Alex Button, and sound designed by Kelly Geary. I'm your host, Carter Roy.