THIS admirable young heroine should perhaps be inserted in the Royal Catalogue rather than here, as she was no peeress; but having omitted her there, as she is never ranked in the list of kings and queens, it is impossible entirely to leave out the fairest ornament of her sex. It is remarkable that her mother (like the countess of Richmond before mentioned) not only waved her small pretensions in favour of her daugh

2

It is very observable how many defects concurred in the title of this princess to the crown. 1. Her descent was from the younger sister of Henry the eighth, and there were descendants of the elder living, whose claim indeed had been set aside by the power given by parliament to king Henry to regulate the succession: a power which, not being founded on national expedience, could be of no force; and additionally invalidated by that king having, by the same authority, settled the crown preferably on his own daughters, who were both living. 2. Her mother, from whom alone Jane could derive any right, was alive. 3. The mother was young enough to have other children (not being past thirty-one at the death of king Edward"), and if she had borne a son, his right prior to that of his sister was incontestable. 4. Charles Brandon, father of the duchess of Suffolk, had married one woman while contracted to another; but was divorced to fulfil his promise: the

• See Vertue's print of this duchess and her second husband, where her age is said to be thirty-six, in 1559.

ter, but bore her train when she made her public entry into the Tower3.

Of this lovely scholar's writing we have"Four Latin Epistles,"

three to Bullinger, and one to her sister the lady Catherine; printed in a book called, "Epistolæ ab Ecclesiæ Helvetica Reformatoribus, vel ad eos scriptæ, &c." Tiguri, 1742, 8vo. The fourth was written the night before her death, in a Greek Testament, in which she had been reading, and which she sent to her sister.

"Her Conference with Feckenham, Abbot of Westminster, who was sent to convert her to Popery 4."

"A Letter to Dr. Harding, her Father's Chaplain, who had apostatized."

"A Prayer for her own Use during her Imprisonment "."

repudiated wife was living when he married Mary queen of France, by whom he had the duchess. 5. If, however, Charles Brandon's first marriage should be deemed null, there is no such plea to be made in favour of the duchess Frances herself, Henry duke of Suffolk, father of Jane, being actually married to the sister of the earl of Arundel, whom he divorced without the least grounds, to make room for his marriage with Frances.

"Four Latin Verses written in Prison with a

Pin "."

"Her Speech on the Scaffold3."

Hollingshed and sir Richard Baker

wrote divers other things, but know not where

they are to be found. Bale adds to the above mentioned:

"The Complaint of a Sinner."

"The Duty of a Christian."

[Lady Jane Grey, the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, marquis of Dorset and duke of Suffolk, by Frances Brandon, eldest daughter of Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk, by Mary, youngest daughter of king Henry the seventh, was not more distinguished by her descent than by her extraordinary accomplishments; and these were adorned with such sweetness of temper and innate goodness of heart, as rendered her the delight and wonder of all who knew her 3. Under the tuition of bishop Elmer she made a surprising progress in arts and sciences, and could express herself very

Ballard, p. 116. • Fox, p. 1420.

• Ib. p. 114.
• Ballard, p. 98.

• P. 110.

properly in the Latin and Greek tongues. We are assured by Ascham, that she wrote in the Latin with great strength of sentiment; and we are informed by her contemporary sir Thomas Chaloner3, that she was well versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, French, and Italian; that she played well on instrumental music, wrote a curious hand, and was excellent at her needle; and with all these rare endowments, was of a mild, humble, and modest spirit. Fuller adds, that she had the "innocency of childhood, the beauty of youth, the solidity of middle, the gravity of old age, and all at eighteen; the birth of a princess, the learning of a clerk, the life of a saint, yet the death of a malefactor for her parents' offences."

Ascham, who was queen Elizabeth's languagemaster, thus describes this pattern of every female excellence, as Mr. Seward justly terms lady Jane Grey:"Aristotle's praise of women is perfected in her. She possesses good manners, prudence, and a love of labour. She possesses every talent without the least weakness of her sex. She speaks French and Italian as well as she does English. She writes readily and with propriety. She has more than once spoken Greek to me." And again, in his Schoolmaster, he says, "I found her in her chamber readinge Phædon Platonis in Greeke, and that with as much delighte as some gentlemen would reade a merie tale in Bocase." The following pious and affectionate address from this most interesting victim of courtly ambition, was

* Strype's Memoirs, vol. iii.

4

Holy State, p. 311.

printed in Bentley's Monument of Matrons, 1582,
p. 100; but is here given from a more early and ac-
curate copy in the library of Mr. Brand, which is
appended to "A moste fruitefull piththye and learned
Treatise how a Christen Man ought to behave himself
in the Daunger of Death." Black letter, no date.
"An Exhortacion wrytten by the Lady Jane, the

Night before she suffred, in the End of the New
Testamente in Greke, whych she sent to her Sister
Ladye Katherine 5.

"I have sent you, good sister Katherine, a booke; whych although it be not outwardly trymmed with golde, yet inwardlye it is more worth then precyous stones. It is the booke, deare sister, of the law of the Lord: it is hys testament and last wyll, whyche he bequethed unto us wretches, whyche shall leade you to the path of eternal joye. And if you with a good minde reade it, and with an earnest desier folowe it, it shal bryng you to an immortal and everlasting life. It wil teache you to lyve, and learn you to dye. It shall wynne you more then you shoulde have gained by the possessions of youre wofull fathers landes. For as, if God hadde prospered hym, you should have inherited his landes; so if you apply diligentlye thys boke, sekyng to directe your lyfe after it, you shalbe

⚫ Ballard has printed a Latin copy of this exhortation. Bishop Burnet says, that lady Jane wrote it in Greek; but Mr. Baker supposed it to be written in English, because it was printed in that language by Fox in his Acts and Monuments. See Mem. of eminent Ladies, p. 111. A MS. copy occurs in the Harl. MS. 416, fol. 28.