Today’s
Scripture Reading (July 27, 2019): Psalm
119:145-176
The sad story of Lady Jane Grey actually begins with the reign of King
Edward VI. Edward was the son of Henry VIII. Henry VIII is probably best known
for his series of marriage crises that led to Henry’s departure from the Roman
Catholic Church and the rise of the English Reformation. Henry VIII wanted a
legitimate son to succeed him. He had one, Henry, born on January 1, 1511, to
Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. But the child only lived for
twenty-two days, and Catherine was unable to provide Henry with another son.
And so he began to chase through wives in pursuit of a son, having his first
two marriages voided so that he could marry someone else. Jane Seymour became
his third wife, and she gave birth to Edward on October 12, 1537. But the
pregnancy left her weak, and Jane Seymour died on October 24, 1537, less than
two weeks after Edward’s troubled birth.
Edward VI began his reign as the King of England and Ireland upon
the death of his father, Henry VIII, on January 28, 1547. Edward was all of
nine years of age when he took his father’s crown as his own. But early in 1553,
Edward became sick, and it looked like he would die. So Edward, at the age of
fifteen, had to work out his own plan of succession. As a fifteen-year-old, Edward
had no children. Because his father had voided the marriages to Catherine of
Aragon and Anne Boleyn, his older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, were considered
to be illegitimate, and therefore could not inherit the throne of England. So
Edward took the step of naming his successor; enter Lady Jane Grey. Jane Grey
was his cousin, once removed and was a descendant of Henry VII through Henry VIII’s
younger sister Mary.
Edward VI died on July 6, 1553, but his death is kept secret for
four days. On July 10, Jane rises to the throne on the strength of the
succession declaration signed by the young Edward VI. She was sixteen or
seventeen at the time, slightly older than her predecessor. But her reign would
be short. On July 19, 1553, nine days after becoming queen, Jane is arrested
and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Parliament had overturned Edward’s
choice of succession in favor of his older sister, the once considered illegitimate
Mary. Jane, once the queen of England, was now a resident of the prison at the
Tower of London, and would live there until her execution on February 12, 1554.
In less than a year, she went from being a friend of Edward VI to being Queen,
and then prisoner, and finally executed because she was considered to be a
threat to the throne of Mary I, now the Queen of England.
It seems that Jane’s major crime was that she was the friend of
Edward and that Edward had named her as his successor. As she knelt before the
executioner who was preparing to take off her head, she recited Psalm 51, in
English; “Have mercy upon me, O God.” Jane’s last words were also the last
words of Jesus, as recorded by Luke. “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Jane could have recounted this portion of Psalm 119. “Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word.” Mary could demand Jane’s life
for no other reason than that Mary was Queen, and Jane was not. But in the end,
Jane knew that her spirit belonged to God, and not the queen who we would come
to know as Bloody Mary. Jane may have been persecuted by an earthly queen, but
her heart trembled at the word of God,
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Psalm 120 & 121
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