The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 27, 2026


PREMIUM： Epochs #282 ｜ Lady Jane Grey

Topics
Ket's Rebellion
Hosted by
Edward McLaren Elizabeth Heverin Callum Edmunds Carl Benjamin Connor Tomlinson Harry Robinson John Wheatley Joshua Ferme
Mentioned
Mary The Lady Mary Elizabeth Henry Henry VIII Had Lady Jane Grey Are Edward Perhaps Anne Boleyn Had Dudley Lady Jane Gray Hatfield House Thomas Moore Mary Tudor Arthur Mary I. Okay Archbishop Cramler Catholic Catherine Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cranmer Poor Catherine Catholic Mary Mary Realises and 15 more
PREVIEW： Chronicles #65 ｜ Sharpe's Tiger with Beau & Samson： Part II Breakfast With Beau ｜ Monday 28th September 2026

Episode Stats


Length

30 minutes

Words per minute

178.49

Word count

5,459

Sentence count

186

Harmful content

Misogyny

27

sentences flagged

Toxicity

11

sentences flagged

Hate speech

28

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Hello and welcome back to Epochs. I should be continuing my story, long saga all about the
00:00:25 English monarchy. Last time, if you remember, we'd finished up with the death of the ill-fated
00:00:31 Edward VI, that is Henry VIII's son, his one and only son. And he was only like nine years old
00:00:38 when Henry VIII died. And he himself died of natural causes when he was only about 15.
00:00:46 So he ruled for about six years, but never truly in his own right. In those last years,
00:00:52 few years he started to sort of assert himself a bit but was never truly ruling in his own right
00:00:58 not even really close really he tried a bit I mean it's difficult when you're 15 there are examples
00:01:03 in history of very young men boys really that have been able to rule I mean William the Conqueror is
00:01:11 a good example he was about 15 as Duke of Normandy when he was able to truly truly take the reins of
00:01:18 power and command policy and tell much, much older, more veteran, grizzled men of the world
00:01:27 and ambition what to do, what they're doing now. And it worked. That's William the Bastard,
00:01:33 William I. There are a few other examples of when it's been possible, but not much younger than 15,
00:01:40 14 or 15 at the absolute youngest. Absolute youngest. I mean, it's very, very, very rare.
00:01:45 Quite often kings like that may never wrest control, real power from the powerful men around them
00:01:54 Many of them it takes until they're much older in their 20s
00:01:57 I mean I think of Henry III perhaps who had been a child king, a baby king
00:02:01 And it took him until he was deep into his 20s and a bit of a power struggle
00:02:05 So Edward VI, Henry VIII's son, never really got there
00:02:09 He was starting to
00:02:11 He did impress himself and his will on a few points of policy
00:02:17 But he wasn't ruling as anything like a true king
00:02:20 Anyway, he dies of natural causes
00:02:23 He's thought of often in history as being sickly his whole life
00:02:27 He wasn't
00:02:27 He seemed to have been perfectly, reasonably healthy his whole life
00:02:30 But at about 14, well into being 15
00:02:34 He got ill with perhaps pneumonia, something like that
00:02:38 seemed to get better from it or at least partially got better from it and then had a relapse a few
00:02:43 months later had a relapse and and ultimately died and again he knew he was dying before he
00:02:50 died for a few weeks before he actually died it was known he knew everyone knew he wasn't going
00:02:56 to be getting better from this and so he'd changed the order of succession i.e who was to be after
00:03:02 him. Henry VIII, his father, had written it all in stone, you know, had Acts of Parliament passed
00:03:09 over what the succession would be. And the succession would be Edward VI himself, of course,
00:03:15 obviously. And then, if Edward VI should die without issue, without any children of his own,
00:03:21 next in line would be Mary, Mary Tudor, the eldest daughter. Remember, the daughter of Catherine of
00:03:26 Aragon, Henry VIII's first daughter. Now, she had been sickly her whole life. She had been really
00:03:31 quite sickly and she was small physically small and people thought of her as a weakling physically
00:03:37 a weakling she was also a catholic she was she was quite weak of body but she wasn't weak of mind
00:03:43 not at all not remotely um but she was quite frail physically she's now about like you know
00:03:50 late 30s she's like 37 or something at this point when edward VI is 15 and dies she's in her late
00:03:56 30s, but she's Catholic. Everyone knows she's Catholic. She'd been one of the last to renounce
00:04:02 her Catholicism when Henry VIII had insisted that everyone renounce Catholicism, at least
00:04:07 nominally, and sign an oath, sign their name to the fact that Henry was now head of the church
00:04:14 in England and that he was head of all things spiritual. She had been one of the last and very
00:04:19 nearly, very nearly fell foul of her own father, Henry VIII. He might have had her executed. Who
00:04:24 knows. He wasn't above executing people very close to him, was he, Henry VIII? But she held
00:04:30 out for years and years. In fact, if she'd been anyone else, probably Henry would have
00:04:34 had, well, Henry would have had her executed had she been anyone else. Think of Thomas
00:04:38 Moore, for example. Thomas Moore tried to hold out in exactly the same way as Mary did. 0.53
00:04:42 Well, he had his head chopped off, didn't he? As did quite a few others. So Mary held
00:04:46 out to the last possible moment, really, until she was going to be completely and utterly
00:04:51 disowned and then maybe thrown in the tower and then maybe executed. Only at the last moment did
00:04:56 she give in. And everyone knew, she didn't really make a secret of it, especially after Henry was
00:05:01 gone, that she was in fact a lapsed Catholic. She still thought of herself as a Catholic. So anyway,
00:05:06 Henry VIII line of succession would be his eldest son, or his only son, Edward. Then, if he should
00:05:12 die without children, it would go to Mary. Then, if she should die without children, it would go to 0.98
00:05:17 the next daughter down, Elizabeth. Okay. Then Henry VIII said, if all of those die without any 0.68
00:05:24 children, who's next? Who's next in line? Well, the next in line, if that should happen, would be
00:05:30 a young girl called Lady Jane Grey. And who was she? Okay, it's a little bit complicated. Well,
00:05:37 not that complicated. Who she is, she was still a member of the royal family. She was a cousin
00:05:41 of Edward and Mary and Elizabeth. So her grandmother, Lady Jane Grey's grandmother,
00:05:48 was Henry VIII's sister. Henry VIII had a couple of sisters, one of whom was called Mary. She'd
00:05:54 been married to the King of France. She had had a daughter, Frances, a girl, Frances, and she had
00:06:01 had a daughter, and that's Lady Jane Grey. This Frances, the daughter, the niece of Henry VIII,
00:06:07 Francis she'd been married to what the Duke of Suffolk I think um and so their name was Gray
00:06:13 and yet so her daughter was Lady Jane Gray she was young she was only in her late teens
00:06:19 but she was staunchly Protestant okay so that's what Henry VIII had put in place it would go
00:06:25 Edward, Mary, Elizabeth and should it be needed Lady Jane Gray right so six years later six years
00:06:32 after Henry VIII's death, Edward now, on his deathbed, the 15-year-old boy, staunch Protestant
00:06:37 himself, Edward, he decides to put his oar in, because he's still king, right, he's not dead,
00:06:43 so he's still king, he's legally the monarch and everything, he decides to write a document, and
00:06:48 now, interestingly, it was never ratified by Parliament or anything, he just wrote this
00:06:54 document, and the document said, there's a new line of succession now, and we're just bypassing
00:07:00 Mary and Elizabeth. The next in line, after me, Edward, when I die, any minute, kind of thing,
00:07:07 when I die, it passes straight to Lady Jane Grey. Okay, so why? Question is, they've always,
00:07:13 always asked the question, why did he do that? Well, it was, there was a complication, there was
00:07:20 a fly in the ointment, and that was, talked about it briefly last time, but this becomes key to
00:07:24 everything. That was that Henry VIII had also confusing issues. As well as naming Mary and
00:07:32 Elizabeth in the line of succession, number two and number three to the throne, as well as doing
00:07:37 that, he had also disinherited them and never revoked that. So if you remember, just to recap,
00:07:46 Henry VIII had been married to Catherine of Aragon and had that daughter, Mary. Then he had
00:07:52 annulled that marriage in order that he could remarry somebody else, Anne Boleyn, right? And
00:07:56 in annulling that marriage, his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who he was married to for
00:08:01 like 20 years, he annulled that marriage. Remember the whole wolsey thing? And he said he'd never
00:08:06 been married to her. That was an illegal marriage. She was still married to his brother, Arthur,
00:08:12 his older brother, Arthur, who had died before he was ever supposed to be king. That whole marriage
00:08:16 And Catherine of Aragon
00:08:17 Was null and void 0.90
00:08:19 And therefore Mary 1.00
00:08:21 As an heir to the throne 0.77
00:08:23 Was null and void
00:08:24 So he'd voided her
00:08:26 He'd disinherited her
00:08:27 And that still stood
00:08:28 That still stood
00:08:29 As well as him naming her
00:08:32 As second in line to the throne
00:08:33 Right
00:08:33 So it's complicated
00:08:34 A little bit
00:08:35 Same
00:08:36 Very very similar situation
00:08:38 For Elizabeth
00:08:39 Henry had been married
00:08:41 To Anne Boleyn
00:08:42 Had that daughter
00:08:44 Elizabeth 1.00
00:08:45 then decided that she was an adulterous witch and he divorced her and had her head chopped off for 0.99
00:08:51 treason, well for adultery and treason. At the same time cutting Elizabeth out of the line of 0.98
00:08:57 succession she was also effectively illegitimate. Okay so they're both illegitimate but also by
00:09:06 act of parliament named as second and third in lines of the throne. Okay so in other words all
00:09:11 of that is to say that there was doubt. If you wanted to doubt Mary and Elizabeth's claim to
00:09:18 the throne, you could. You could point to those things and say, ah, no, despite the Act of
00:09:24 Parliament, Henry passed. Also, and at the same time, we're not sure. It doesn't necessarily have
00:09:30 to pass to them. Remember, they're illegitimate children, aren't they? If you wanted to do that
00:09:35 for political reasons or any reason, you could. Okay, well, it just so happens that people did
00:09:40 want to. Edward himself and the powerful men around him, the arch-Protestant men around him,
00:09:46 the Dudley boys, the Duke of Northumberland and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer,
00:09:53 they all would rather, I mean they were dying to cut Mary out of the succession because they knew
00:09:59 she was Catherine really in her heart and if she became queen, if she became the monarch in her own
00:10:05 right because she's not married so it's not like they could marry her off to some arch noble 0.85
00:10:10 protestant and he would rule the household and rule her she would be put in this in the in on
00:10:16 the back burner and they could deal with her husband whoever that is assuming he's a protestant
00:10:21 and everything would be good that wasn't on the cards at this moment in time so all the powerful
00:10:26 people really were badly dying for mary not to inherit the throne after edward remember edward 0.76
00:10:34 is dying. He is going to die. So they sort of need, they make the conclusion, they need to cut her out
00:10:39 of the line of succession. Okay, so that all makes sense, right? There's a reason and a logic to all
00:10:44 of this so far. I hope I've made it clear. Why then, and this is the next question that all
00:10:49 historians and scholars, even people at the time, asked, why then would you not, if you want to cut
00:10:56 Mary out because of the Catholicism thing, okay, okay, why have you then cut? Elizabeth is about 0.51
00:11:02 18 or 19 years old at this point she's super clever by the way super super clever I mean
00:11:08 a child prodigy type clever intelligent not just book learning book smarts clever but wily cunning
00:11:15 intelligent really really nobody's fool she could speak loads and loads of languages she was a great
00:11:21 poet in her own right she could play all sorts of instruments she was extremely precocious
00:11:27 Extremely clever and well read
00:11:29 People said that when she was a child
00:11:31 When she was like 7, 8, 9 years old
00:11:33 She was as intelligent as a 40 year old
00:11:36 That's what they said
00:11:37 And that by the time she was 18, 19
00:11:39 She's not just basically a scholar
00:11:41 She's like a savvy, really savvy political operator
00:11:45 She is Protestant
00:11:46 She's very Protestant actually
00:11:49 Not quite as zealous as Edward
00:11:52 Perhaps, perhaps
00:11:54 Not quite as zealous as Archbishop Cramler 0.85
00:11:56 But still, full-blown, absolute slam-dunk Protestant. 0.98
00:12:00 So why don't they just cut Mary out of the wheel, 0.99
00:12:03 out of the line of succession, and give it straight to Elizabeth? 0.68
00:12:07 That would make sense, wouldn't it?
00:12:08 Well, it would. It would make sense.
00:12:10 But they didn't.
00:12:11 Edward, on his deathbed, or a few weeks away from his death,
00:12:14 signs a new line of succession, which cuts them both out.
00:12:18 And it says Lady Jane Grey should be next.
00:12:21 OK, so what's going on there?
00:12:23 Well, a couple of things.
00:12:24 A couple of different takes
00:12:26 A couple of different sort of views you could take of it
00:12:29 And perhaps they're both right at the same time
00:12:31 One is to give credit to Edward
00:12:34 Some credit to Edward
00:12:36 And this is the thinking that
00:12:38 And I think it's true
00:12:40 That he, Edward, simply saw Mary and Elizabeth as illegitimate
00:12:45 That part of the history
00:12:48 Where his father, Henry VIII
00:12:50 Had cut them both out for being illegitimate
00:12:52 Edward sort of believed that
00:12:53 he sort of genuinely took that at face value. It wasn't just some machination because he happened
00:13:00 to favour Lady Jane Grey, his cousin, over his half-sister. It was that he took that seriously.
00:13:06 The whole story of Anne Boleyn being a witch, an adulterer, a mass adulterer, even as far as
00:13:13 incest with her own brother, and being executed for it. It seems Edward VI took all of that
00:13:20 that seriously, very seriously. And so when Henry VIII cut Elizabeth out of the line of succession,
00:13:25 in Edward's mind, that stood, even though, as I say, later, Henry VIII put them back in the line
00:13:30 of succession. Edward didn't like that, didn't agree with that. It's not that he hated, there's
00:13:34 no evidence that he hated Elizabeth, that he wanted to screw over Elizabeth for some reason.
00:13:40 He had a personal animosity to her and I think, no, it was just that Mary and Elizabeth were
00:13:44 illegitimate, but Lady Jane Grey, even if it's through his auntie, Lady Jane Grey is sort of
00:13:49 the true Tudor heir that's the way he saw it apparently it does seem to be the case okay so
00:13:54 that's one take that's one view of it the other view is a bit more cynical a bit more cynical
00:13:59 and it's the the people of power who were to you know be in the cockpit of power when Edward died
00:14:06 like Northumberland Cramner the Dudley family and all sorts of other powerful magnates the other
00:14:12 powerful families of court they thought almost certainly correctly that if they put Lady Jane
00:14:17 Grey in, they put her on the throne, they will be able to control her much, much more easily than
00:14:25 Elizabeth. Everyone knew that Elizabeth was not only clever and cunning and wily, but she had her 0.74
00:14:32 own mind. Even at the age of 18 or 19, if she was to succeed and become queen, she would do things
00:14:38 her way. Well, if you put in Lady Jane Grey, who's a little younger and nowhere near as headstrong or 0.98
00:14:44 intelligent or cunning or wily, they would be able to control her and they'll keep her nominally 0.89
00:14:49 as the queen, but they would still be able to do much as they pleased. And so that's in their
00:14:55 interest, isn't it, to do that? So, okay, Edward signs this thing that says Lady Jane Grey will be
00:15:01 next. All right. So then he dies. Then he does promptly die. But the thing is, most people in
00:15:08 the country, the vast majority of people, had never heard of Lady Jane Grey. They'd heard of
00:15:13 Mary. Mary and Elizabeth were household names, particularly Mary. Household names. Everyone had
00:15:18 heard of them. Everyone knew that they were supposed to be, they were next in line, particularly
00:15:22 Mary, right? Mary's 37. She's been on the scene, if you like, for a generation now. Normal people
00:15:31 did know by this point about Henry VIII's various wives. They did know all about Catherine of Aragon.
00:15:38 Catherine of Aragon had been beloved
00:15:40 Cast your mind back now, 20 odd years, 15, 20 years
00:15:45 When Henry had first divorced or annulled his marriage to Catherine of Aragon
00:15:50 It played out in public
00:15:52 And the whole country was Catholic at that point 0.84
00:15:55 Right before Henry decides to annul her 0.92
00:15:58 Before he sets Wolsey and then Thomas Cromwell to conduct a reformation
00:16:03 An English reformation 1.00
00:16:04 The whole country had been Catholic 0.85
00:16:05 Catherine of Aragon was Catholic
00:16:07 Mary was Catholic. The King Henry VIII was Catholic. Then everything changes and oh we're
00:16:13 supposed to be Protestant now are we? Well a lot of people never accepted that in that generation.
00:16:19 A lot of people never ever ever accepted it. Like no just because Henry VIII has got a problem in
00:16:24 his own household that doesn't stop me from practicing the religion, a glorious religion
00:16:30 Of a thousand years
00:16:32 That doesn't stop me
00:16:33 Being loyal to Rome
00:16:34 And the saints
00:16:36 And the relics
00:16:37 And the whole nine yards
00:16:39 I'm still Catholic
00:16:40 Of course I am
00:16:41 So Catherine of Aragon 1.00
00:16:42 Is a poor 0.87
00:16:44 Put upon victim
00:16:46 In all of this
00:16:47 Henry VIII
00:16:48 Is a bit of a beast 0.99
00:16:49 Poor Catherine of Aragon
00:16:51 You feel nothing but sorrow
00:16:53 For her
00:16:53 She's just
00:16:54 As I say
00:16:55 Just a victim
00:16:55 In all of this
00:16:56 Same goes for Mary
00:16:58 Our lovely
00:16:59 Beloved Mary
00:17:00 She wasn't bloody Mary at that point 1.00
00:17:01 She was the poor, put-up-on, completely innocent, good Catholic girl
00:17:05 Never hurt anyone 0.53
00:17:07 And her whole life here now, up to this point
00:17:10 Her whole life has been one of victimhood
00:17:13 She's been treated terribly her whole life
00:17:17 By her family and the court
00:17:18 Poor Mary, everyone knew Mary
00:17:20 And lots and lots of people, most people 0.54
00:17:22 Even a lot of Protestants
00:17:24 And we'll get into that probably in the next episode 0.57
00:17:26 When we talk all about Mary and her reign
00:17:28 Even a lot of Protestants, or these proto-Protestants, early English Protestants
00:17:33 Even a lot of those had sympathy for Mary
00:17:37 Well, in fact, we will talk about that later in this episode
00:17:39 How that was a big factor
00:17:41 Most people sympathised with Mary and her life
00:17:44 And she was well-known
00:17:46 And Elizabeth, to a lesser extent, but still was also well-known
00:17:49 A lot of people had sympathy for her
00:17:51 A lot of people didn't like Anne Boleyn
00:17:53 Thought of her as some sort of courtesan, really 0.97
00:17:56 some uh some really just a woman of court of ill repute who usurped the good and honest and noble
00:18:03 and righteous Catherine of Aragon but people a lot of people most people seemed to have sympathy for
00:18:09 Elizabeth because Elizabeth was innocent right she's just an innocent kid remember Elizabeth was
00:18:13 only about I think three years old when Anne Boleyn fell from grace and was executed she was
00:18:18 only like three so anyone who's got any sympathy in their heart whatsoever would recognize that
00:18:24 Elizabeth is innocent. It's not her fault what her mum might or might not have done. It's not her
00:18:29 fault how her father reacted to what her mother may or may not have done. She's an innocent little
00:18:33 kid. Okay, so when Edward dies, the country just sort of told Northumberland, remember? Dudley,
00:18:41 the Duke of Northumberland, was the power behind the throne. You know, he's the protector. They
00:18:46 never actually gave him the title of Lord Protector, but he was the most powerful man in
00:18:50 the country by far, the leader of the Privy Council, who was controlling things. It's in his
00:18:55 interest, absolutely in his interest, that it passes to Lady Jane Grey. He marries his son,
00:19:02 Guildford, to her. So all his eggs are in one basket. He absolutely needs to cut Mary and
00:19:09 Elizabeth out of succession and make it go straight to Lady Jane Grey. Because then, of course, he will 0.84
00:19:14 be able to remain as the most powerful man in the country. At the very, very least, the power behind
00:19:19 the throne. Okay, so when Edward dies, it's sort of, everyone's expecting, all the normal people
00:19:24 are expecting, all right, okay, now, you know, it's a shame the king has died, but these things
00:19:30 happen, you know, long live the queen. The next person in line is Mary Tudor, isn't it? Queen
00:19:36 Mary I. Okay, here we go, we're getting ready for a coronation, we're going to have a queen
00:19:41 for the first time in a long, long, long time. Well, since really Matilda, the Empress Matilda,
00:19:47 She was briefly crowned full-blown queen in her own right in Westminster Abbey
00:19:51 Back in the 11th century, sorry, 12th century
00:19:55 We're going to have a queen, okay, it's not ideal
00:19:58 Hopefully, the thinking was, hopefully she'll get married to a good, strong, honest man
00:20:02 And he'll be a good king for us
00:20:04 But at least for now, it is long live Queen Mary I
00:20:08 But no, they're told, it comes out by royal proclamation from the royal palaces
00:20:13 No, it's not Mary, it's this Jane
00:20:16 there is a new queen you're right there's a queen now and her name is Jane Jane the first until very
00:20:22 recently Lady Jane Grey a niece grandniece of Henry VIII a cousin of Edward she's queen now
00:20:30 and most people like the normal people of London or wherever the whole country are like who sorry
00:20:35 wait well who who's this Jane what um we don't know this person we've been told for a long time
00:20:42 And isn't it written in stone
00:20:44 Isn't it in an act of parliament
00:20:46 Or more than one act of parliament actually
00:20:48 That the line of succession
00:20:49 This is all established isn't it
00:20:51 The next one is Mary
00:20:53 The Lady Mary, we love her, we want her
00:20:55 We've always liked her
00:20:58 We've always felt sorry for her
00:20:59 She's had a terrible life hasn't she
00:21:01 And now finally it's her chance, it's her shot
00:21:03 At the big show
00:21:05 But you're saying it's not her, it's this girl
00:21:07 We've never heard of, some minor
00:21:09 Member of the family, I mean she's not minor
00:21:11 but some lesser person oh right lady jane grey okay so happens she's an arch protestant is it
00:21:20 oh okay i mean most of us are still catholic basically oh okay it's another protestant is
00:21:26 it oh and she's been married into the dudley family has she oh right people saw through it
00:21:33 quite quickly well immediately some did i mean one thing to say at this point is a lot of people
00:21:39 didn't know or care one way or the other. That is the thing to say, because, you know, obviously in
00:21:44 the 16th century, we're before any sort of mass media, obviously, we're before really the widespread
00:21:50 use of the printing press even. It did exist, but it wasn't the widespread use of it. So news,
00:21:56 in other words, news would travel very slowly. There would be people in rural areas, in the
00:22:02 Midlands, in the North, in Wales, in Scotland, there would be people there that had barely heard
00:22:07 and much less cared about exactly what's going on in the court in Hampton Court or the Palace of
00:22:14 Westminster or Kenilworth Castle or whatever oh the king has decided he's Protestant now is he
00:22:19 really don't care don't care oh the succession is some other girl some niece some some cousin
00:22:26 instead of uh instead of Mary okay it doesn't make any difference to my life and I've only
00:22:31 heard about it like a year later all the events have already played out there's another two steps
00:22:35 three steps down the road i'm only hearing about the first one so a lot of people didn't know and
00:22:40 didn't care but okay those that did of the urban the urban mob of london for example get all these
00:22:46 proclamations um they're a little bit aghast lady lady jane grey is it we'll see about that we'll
00:22:53 see we'll see how this plays out okay so what does mary and elizabeth do well in this whole period
00:22:58 And if anyone knows their history at all
00:23:03 Hopefully it's not a spoiler to say 0.53
00:23:05 That Lady Jane Grey famously, famously 1.00
00:23:08 Rules for nine days
00:23:11 Just nine days
00:23:12 Depends on how you count it
00:23:14 You could say it's actually 13 days
00:23:15 Depends how you count it
00:23:16 We'll get into all of that
00:23:17 Only for a few days
00:23:19 So let's get into the detail of how those few days played out
00:23:22 What actually happened
00:23:23 First let me tell you about what Elizabeth did
00:23:26 Because it's sort of easiest to explain
00:23:27 And then we'll get that out of the way
00:23:29 And we don't have to mention her anymore
00:23:30 She just stayed quiet
00:23:32 She just stayed stum
00:23:34 She kept mum the whole time
00:23:36 She holed herself up in one of the
00:23:39 Was it Hatfield House?
00:23:41 It might have been Hatfield House
00:23:41 I can't remember
00:23:42 Somewhere, just a country house somewhere
00:23:44 And just stayed quiet the whole time
00:23:47 And just, it's like, let's see where they're going with this
00:23:49 You know, just, I'm going to keep my head down
00:23:51 Main thing here, as far as Elizabeth was concerned
00:23:53 You can only imagine
00:23:54 Her calculation was
00:23:56 and she was calculating things for herself, as I said, she's 18, 19 now, so, and she can make up
00:24:01 her own mind, what she wants to do, she's just, I'm just going to keep my head down, the main thing
00:24:05 here is that I don't get put in the tower and executed, let's just make sure, let's get that
00:24:10 in the bag, let's get that in the bank, let's not get executed here, and see how things play out,
00:24:16 so that's what Elizabeth does, essentially, she's very quiet this whole time, although one last
00:24:21 thing to say about Elizabeth before we move on, just be aware, where there's going to be a power 1.00
00:24:25 Struggle here between Lady Jane Grey's faction 1.00
00:24:27 It's not really Lady Jane Grey herself 0.96
00:24:29 She's a kid, she's a puppet
00:24:31 Largely, although not 100%, we'll get into that 0.60
00:24:33 But she's largely a puppet of more powerful men
00:24:35 Like Northumberland and other people
00:24:37 So it's a power struggle between that
00:24:39 Faction and Mary's faction
00:24:41 Right, and the powerful men around her
00:24:43 Now, from the point of view of
00:24:45 Elizabeth, Queen Bess 0.99
00:24:47 Goes on to be Elizabeth I, a golden age
00:24:49 One of our greatest monarchs
00:24:51 Greatest queens of all time, and this stage
00:24:53 It's absolutely in her interest
00:24:55 for Mary's faction to win, because if Mary's faction loses, Elizabeth loses. She's going to 0.67
00:25:02 keep quiet in all of this, but it is in her interest that Mary wins, because if Lady Jane
00:25:08 Grey, or rather Lady Jane Grey's faction, if they win, Elizabeth will be cut out of the line of
00:25:12 succession forever. If Lady Jane Grey should go on to just rule as the Queen for years and years and 0.95
00:25:18 have a child of her own, well, Elizabeth is forever cut out and thrown away and discarded. 1.00
00:25:23 So if Elizabeth does ever want power,
00:25:26 if she does ever want to be queen herself, 1.00
00:25:28 she'll be hoping for, she'll be gunning for her elder sister, Mary, 0.99
00:25:32 to win in all of this.
00:25:34 But she does, she basically doesn't feature in this story
00:25:37 the nine days, the 13 days.
00:25:39 She doesn't really feature in it at all.
00:25:40 She plays no active part in the events.
00:25:42 Okay, next then, let's talk about Mary. 0.98
00:25:45 What happens to Mary? 0.98
00:25:46 Well, she gets news that the powers that be,
00:25:50 the real powers that be,
00:25:51 Have cut her out of the succession 0.60
00:25:53 And have named Lady Jane Grey 0.99
00:25:55 She realises, Mary
00:25:57 Realises that she's no fault as well
00:25:59 Absolutely no fault
00:26:00 She realises, ah
00:26:02 Not only is that just obviously and simply bad
00:26:05 It's not just that I've obviously been robbed
00:26:07 Of my right
00:26:08 Obviously had power stolen from me
00:26:12 But more than that
00:26:13 I'm in danger
00:26:15 I'm in danger, right
00:26:16 Because if the men around Lady Jane Grey
00:26:19 Are ruthless enough
00:26:20 They would probably like to do away with Mary entirely
00:26:24 Either put her under house arrest forever 1.00
00:26:26 Exile her off to France 1.00
00:26:29 Or just execute her 1.00
00:26:30 Or just have her pulled up 1.00
00:26:32 Have her thrown in some rural castle somewhere
00:26:37 And she's never seen from again
00:26:38 She's starved to death
00:26:40 Or just murdered Henry VI style 0.52
00:26:44 Edward II style
00:26:46 Who knows?
00:26:47 She's in danger
00:26:48 She's not just been wronged and robbed
00:26:50 But she's in danger
00:26:51 So, okay
00:26:52 She flees to four places
00:26:54 East Anglia, basically
00:26:56 East Anglia 0.99
00:26:57 Which is a bit of a savvy move
00:27:00 On a couple of levels
00:27:01 One, she, Mary
00:27:03 Has got lots and lots of estates and affinities there
00:27:07 Over the years
00:27:08 Again, she's knocking 40
00:27:10 What is she, 37 or something
00:27:11 Over the years
00:27:12 Where Henry VIII has executed
00:27:15 Or exiled
00:27:16 Or just stolen the property
00:27:17 of all sorts of people all over the place, he's given quite a lot of that stuff in East Anglia
00:27:23 to Mary. So she's got many, many, many houses, many, many retainers, quite a lot of money and men
00:27:31 in East Anglia are loyal to her personally. So if there was a heartland, sort of a Queen Mary
00:27:39 heartland, it would be East Anglia. If she was going to be safest anywhere, it probably wouldn't
00:27:44 be on the continent it probably wouldn't be in some extremely far-flung scotland highlands or
00:27:50 something it'd probably be in east anglia so that's where she goes to and of course in scheme
00:27:53 things not very far from london um so she goes she flees to east anglia with the men of power
00:27:59 and influence around her uh and the the second thing why that's a bit of a savvy move is that
00:28:05 the duke of northumberland dudley is extremely disliked there extremely disliked now do you
00:28:12 Remember last time we talked a bit about Ket's Rebellion.
00:28:15 Remember that? 0.80
00:28:16 That's important now.
00:28:17 That becomes important.
00:28:18 Just quickly to say, if you didn't watch the last one,
00:28:21 Ket's Rebellion was sort of a working class.
00:28:25 They didn't really have working class and middle class,
00:28:26 but you know what we're talking about.
00:28:28 There was a peasant's revolt, a working class rebellion,
00:28:31 if you like, against landowners.
00:28:34 It was actually all over the place,
00:28:35 but particularly in East Anglia,
00:28:36 places like Suffolk and Norfolk.
00:28:38 Ket's Rebellion against enclosure,
00:28:39 where richer land-owning people had thrown a lot of the normal people, peasantry, off their land
00:28:45 that they'd owned and worked since time immemorial so that they could enclose the land with fences,
00:28:52 gates, hedgerows, and turn it into pasture for sheep, largely sheep, for the giant wool industry.
00:29:00 Okay, now, the average people hated that, of course. They've just been, they've just had their
00:29:03 land stolen. They've just had one of the only things they really need for subsistence stolen
00:29:08 from them. So some rich landlord can make tons more money out of it with wool, selling wool to
00:29:14 the Netherlands or whatever. So the normal people hated this enclosure stuff. It was true robbery.
00:29:20 It was turning them into, they were going to die of penury, of starvation, you know. So they hated
00:29:25 it. So Ket, was it William Ket? Ket's rebellion was to reverse all of that, take their land back,
00:29:31 which they did for a while until, remember, Duke of Northumberland turns up with an army, largely
00:29:37 German mercenaries actually turns up with an army and massacres three and a half thousand of them
00:29:41 massacres them there were no wounded three and a half thousand dead and no wounded well read
00:29:47 between the lines that's a massacre isn't it then right so that wasn't very long ago that was only
00:29:51 what two or three years previous was that the Duke of Northumberland had come through there
00:29:57 and massacred them and taken away what they'd just taken back for themselves given the land back to
00:30:04 the greedy landowners so they could do enclosures. So in East Anglia, places like Suffolk and Norfolk,
00:30:10 Duke of Northumberland was despised, absolutely despised, and Mary was beloved. So it's a good 0.96
00:30:16 move. When this happens, Mary gets news that this has happened. They've cut her out and it's Lady
00:30:21 Jane Grey now. She flees to her heartland, the safest place probably in the world she could have
00:30:28 gone. We hope you enjoyed that video and if you did, please head over to lotusseeters.com
00:30:33 for the full unabridged video.