Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537–12 February 1554), the Nine Days' Queen, was a great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his daughter Mary Tudor, proclaimed queen at sixteen or seventeen. The Duke of Suffolk's eldest daughter, educated in Latin and Greek, married Northumberland's son Lord Guildford Dudley in May 1553.

As Edward VI lay dying, Northumberland feared Catholic Mary would undo the Reformation, so the king's will named Jane heir over Mary and Elizabeth. After Edward's death on 6 July, Jane was proclaimed on 10 July and entered the Tower, where she refused Guildford kingship, offering only a dukedom. Support for Mary grew, and on 19 July the Privy Council made her queen.

Northumberland was executed within a month; Jane was convicted of treason in November. Mary spared her until her father joined Wyatt's rebellion against the Spanish marriage; Jane and Guildford were beheaded at the Tower on 12 February 1554.