SIGN 



his final overthrow. Having married his fourth son, Lord Guildford 

 Dudley, to the Lady Jane Grey, upon whom the youthful King 

 Edward weakened by ill-health and influenced by Northumber- 

 land passing over his sisters Mary and Elizabeth had settled the 

 succession he succeeded in persuading her, against her inclination 

 and her better judgment, to accept the crown. She and her 

 youthful bridegroom were living at Sion which had then newly 

 passed into her father-in-law's hands when the demise of the young 

 King occurred. Thence she went in semi-state, by water, to the 

 Tower, the usual residence of the monarchs of England on their 

 accession, there to be proclaimed Queen in due form. Sion, in all 

 its long history, has never witnessed a more sorrowful scene, for 

 whether the sun shone, or the rain beat, on the banks of the Thames 

 that day, it saw the first act in a tragedy, the catastrophe of which 

 was not far distant, when, controlled by the will of her formidable 

 father-in-law, urged even by her boy-consort himself but a puppet 

 in Northumberland's hands the pathetic figure of the unwilling 

 Queen stepped into the gaily-painted barge that was to carry her 

 to her doom. 



As in the case of the last owner, Somerset, Dudley did not long 

 enjoy possession. He paid the penalty of his ambition on the 

 scaffold, and two of his chief supporters also suffered. The Lady 

 Jane and her husband were condemned to die, and, after a delay 

 that had almost seemed to promise a pardon, they were executed. 

 Queen Mary retained the estate which by the attainder of the 

 Duke of Northumberland now reverted to the crown in her own 

 hands, until 1557, when she recalled the " Daughters of Sion." 

 She did her best to reinstate them in their old home, re-endowing 

 them with the manor and demesne of Isleworth and other 

 property ; but Queen Elizabeth again suppressed them, and kept 

 possession of the house and lands until her death, in 1603, when 

 they were bestowed, with the Manor of Isleworth, on Henry 

 Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland, in the possession of whose 

 family they have ever since remained. He expended large sums 

 on the improvement of the mansion, but soon fell on evil days ; for 

 he was accused and convicted by the Star Chamber, it is thought 

 unjustly, of complicity in the Gunpowder Plot, deprived of all his 

 offices, condemned to imprisonment for life in the Tower of London, 

 and to pay a fine of 30,000. His offer to- restore Sion to the JCing 



