Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537–1554), Aka Lady Jane Dudley, Aka "The Nine Days Queen"
Being the cousin of Edward VI (1537-1553), and his half-sisters, Mary (I) and Elizabeth (I) didn't save the life of this great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his youngest daughter, Mary Tudor. Neither did it save her to become the heiress of king Edward VI and thus inheriting his throne as the Queen of England and Ireland on the 10th of July, 1553. On the contrary, it cost her her life as she was deposed by the Privy Council of England on the 19th of July, 1553, and beheaded in the morning of the 12th of February, 1554.
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The irony of this sad tale of a young queen's downfall was that Jane didn't even want to inherit the throne of her cousin. She, who was brought up to be a dedicated Protestant, was a very learned and intellectual, young woman for her time, speaking and studying Latin, Hebrew and Greek. Hunting and other normal pastimes for people of her class didn't appeal to her as much as various academic studies. Nothing indicates that she was pining for the exalted status of the monarchy or that she had even thought about who was to inherit the throne of her cousin, Edward VI.
The son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward VI was brought up to believe that his half-sisters, Mary (I) and Elizabeth (I) were disowned by their father and that they were "illegitimate". As it was, Henry VIII had been married to their mothers, but the circumstances of both these marriages had turned the king against his daughters. In the opinion of Edward, and out of respect for his late father, none of them were acceptable as queens of England. Thus the natural heir to his throne would be his cousin, namely the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, 16 or 17 year old Jane Grey. However, one of his ulterior motives for choosing Jane over his eldest half-sister, Mary, was that she was a protestant, whereas Mary was a staunch Catholic.
Edward VI's "devise for the Succession"
Jane had not yet been crowned as a queen, and that may have given those who supported Mary's claim to the throne hope. The Privy Council, which had accepted the choice by Edward VI and thus honored Jane as the queen, suddenly changed sides and deposed her, only ten days after proclaiming her his heiress. That meant that Mary won the game, so to speak, and became the new queen on 19 July 1553.
Poor Jane, she obviously was more of a puppet for her very ambitious father-in-law, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Mary knew that and intended to spare her life as an innocent victim of her father-in-law's machinations, but then Jane's father did something in her opinion unforgivable: He became involved with Wyatt's rebellion against Mary's intention of marrying her maternal relative, Philip of Spain. As Mary was set upon this marriage his "treason" became the last straw, so to speak, and both Jane and her husband were executed on 12 February 1554. I see that as very unfair to the teenager who didn't have the ambitions of becoming the new monarch, but was talked into accepting the throne that was handed her by the late king, Edward VI.
This portrait may be of Jane as she looked at the time of her death. If so, then there is a strong resemblance to her cousin, Elizabeth I
https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/lady-jane-grey/
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