POLITICAL HISTORY 



their fidelity to Warwick, their salaries of 50 were increased by yet 

 another $o. ln Wroth was already a favourite of the king, having been 

 appointed a gentleman of the chamber to Edward before his accession, a 

 post which he owed to Cranmer's influence. 178 During the campaign of 

 Pinkie, Wroth had been sent to Scotland in order that Edward might 

 have a full and trustworthy account of the war. 177 After Somerset's fall 

 he was made keeper of Syon House, which then reverted to the king 

 until 1553, when it was granted to the duke of Northumberland. 178 

 Wroth was an ardent Protestant, and as such was privy to Northumber- 

 land's schemes to continue the Protestant succession after Edward's death. 



Lady Jane Grey spent the greater part of her life in Middlesex. 179 

 She entered the household of Queen Catherine Parr when barely nine 

 years old, and continued to live with Catherine and her second husband, 

 Lord Thomas Seymour, both at Chelsea and at Hanworth. 180 After 

 Seymour's impeachment and the fall of his brother Somerset, Jane's father 

 allied himself closely with the Dudleys, and in 1553 brought his family 

 to East Sheen, on the Surrey side of the river, in order to be near 

 Northumberland's house at Syon. A marriage was arranged for Jane with 

 Northumberland's fourth son, Guildford Dudley, as part of the plot to 

 win the succession from the Tudors to the Dudleys. The marriage took 

 place on Whit-Sunday (21 May, 1553) at Northumberland's London 

 house in the Strand, 181 after which Jane went to live with her husband's 

 parents in order that she might be at hand when Edward should die. 

 She detested the duke and duchess, and after some trouble, obtained 

 permission to retire ' for recreation ' to Chelsea Place, which then 

 belonged to Northumberland. 188 She was taken so ill there as to imagine 

 herself to be poisoned. 183 



Edward VI died on 6 July. 184 Northumberland took great pre- 

 cautions that the news of the king's death might be kept secret, in order 

 to secure the persons of his sisters, so no public announcement was made 

 until 8 July. 185 Jane was still at Chelsea. Thither came Lady Sidney 189 

 on the ninth, with the news that Jane must repair the same night to Syon 

 House, 187 where she must appear before the assembled council. They 

 went up the river in a barge, the tide running so strongly that it was two 

 hours before they reached Syon House. Lady Jane has herself described the 

 scene which followed ; the deference of Northampton, Arundel, and 

 Pembroke ; her astonishment when her own mother and mother-in-law 

 paid their homage. 188 Finally, the duke of Northumberland, as president 

 of the council, declared the death of the king, and that Edward had left 



'" Actt of the P.C. 1547-50, p. 345. >" Diet. Nat. Sing. bciii, 164. 



177 Literary Remains of Edvi. VI, 50. "' Lysons, Environs of Lond. (1795), iii, 87. 



79 Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 97. 



80 Howard, Life of Lady Jane Grey, 156 ; Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Engl. iii, 246. 

 1 Durham House. 1M Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 141. 



ra Pollino, L'Historia Ecclesiastica delta Revolution d" Inghilterra, 335-8. 



84 Literary Remains ofEdto. VI, cxix. 18S Lingard, Hist, of Engl. v, 370. 



16 The sister of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and mother of Sir Philip Sidney. 

 187 Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 143 ; cf. Gent. Mag. May, 1847, p. 491. 

 181 Pollino, op. cit. 335-8. 



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