A Lamentable Ditty ON THE DEATH OF LORD GUILFORD DUDLEY AND LADY JANE GREY, THAT FOR THEIR PARENTS' AMBITION IN SEEKING TO MAKE THESE TWO YOUNG PRINCES KING AND QUEEN OF ENGLAND, WERE BOTH BEHEADED IN THE TOWER OF LONDON. CONTRIBUTED BY FREDERIC R. SURTEES, ESQ. URING the bloody reign of Queen Mary of England, no one, either at the stake or on the scaffold, died more really innocent, or more generally lamented than Lady Jane Grey. Her melancholy fate is well known. To advance the aspiring views of her father the Duke of Suffolk, and her father-in-law the Duke of Northumberland, whose fourth son she had married, she was compelled to usurp a crown which she was too happy to abandon to its rightful owner, and which she had positively refused, until overcome by the authority of her father and the entreaty of her husband, she reluctantly acceded to their wishes. This, the Duke of Northumberland acknowledged in his letter to the council, in which he declared, "that the good Lady Jane was so far from aspiring to the crown, as to be rather made to accept of it by enticement and force." He was beheaded August 25, 1553. It would have been well for his kinsmen had he only fallen a victim to his ambition. His brother, his eldest son, the Earl of Warwick, Lord Dudley, Lady Jane Grey, as well as many others, expiated their disloyalty on the scaffold. At his execution he abjured the religion which he had professed for thirty years, hoping by so doing to obtain the Queen's mercy, of which (according to Fox) "he had a promise made him if he would recant, yea though his head were on the block." It is difficult to understand how he could have expected a pardon, since he had been the principal instigator of the rebellion, but whilst there is life there is hope, says the adage, and to that reed this unhappy man must have trusted. The following letter extracted from the Harleian MS. 787 (which is supposed hitherto never to have been printed) will demonstrate how humbly the boon was solicited. The volume containing that MS. is said to be a "transcript of many letters and papers found in the study of Mr. Dell, secretary to Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury." "The Duke of Northumberland his letter to y Earl of Arundell Fitz Allen. Honble La, and in this my distress my especiall refuge, most woeful was y newes I receyved this Eveninge by Mr. Lieutenant. That I must prepare myselfe agst tomorrowe to receyve my deadly stroke. Alas! my good L, is my crime soe heynows as noe redemptōn but my blood can wash away ye spottes thereof; (an old proverbe there is) yt most true, yt a lyvinge dogge is better than a dead Lyon.* Oh! yt it would please her good grace to give me life, yea the life of a dogge, y' I might but lyve, and kiss her feet, and spend both life and all in her hon'ble services, as I have yo best part already, under her worthy brother and her most glorious ffather. Oh that her mercy were such, as she would consyder, how little proffitt my dead and dismembered body can bring her, but how great and glorious an hon'r it will be in all posterities, when ye report shall be, yt soe gracious and mighty a Queen, had granted life to soe miserable and penitent an Abject. Your hon'ble usage and promises to me since these troubles, have made me bold to challenge this kindness at your handes. Pardone me, if I have done amiss therein, and spare not I pray your bended knees for me in this distress, ye God of heaven, it may be, will requite it one day on you or yours. And if my life be lengthened by your media'con, and my good Lord chancellors, (to whom I have allso sent my blurred L'), I will ever vowe it to be spent at your hon'ble feet. Oh! good my Lord, remember how sweet life is, and how bitter the contrary, spare not your speech and paines, for God I hope hath not shut out all hopes of comfort from me in y gracious Princely and womanlike Harte, but that, as the doleful newes of death has wounded to death both my soul and body, soe the comfortable newes of life shall be as a new Resurectōn to my woeful hart. But if noe remedy can be founde, eyther by Imprisonm't, confiscatōn, Banishm't and ye like, I can say noe more, but God graunt me patyence to endure, and a hart to forgive the whole world. Once your fellowe and loving companōn, but now worthy of noe name but wretchedness and misery. J. D." The Ballad here given was originally taken from a copy in the Cotton MSS., but it was subsequently found, that it had been before printed in 'Evans' Ballads,' published in 1777, a work now scarce, the latter edition especially so. It has been compared with the copy in that collection. Mr. Evans has not stated where he For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. Eccles: ix. 4. discovered it, however, as on comparison his ballad exactly corresponds with this, it may be presumed they have both come from the same source. A LAMENTABLE DITTY. W HEN as king Edward' left this life, Began such deadly hate and strife, More than ten thousand, thousand, thousand, 2 The earldom and the baronies of Percy and Poynings having become extinct on the death of the sixth earl of Northumberland, of the Percy family, by the failure of issue, and the attainder of sir Thomas Percy barring the succession to the nephews of the late earl, the title of duke of Northumberland was conferred on John Dudley, earl of Warwick, the nobleman here mentioned. However, in 1557, twenty years after his execution, the title was restored by queen Mary to the Percy family in return for eminent services performed by the eldest son of the attainted sir Thomas Percy. 3 Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, who had married Frances, one of the co-heirs of Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk, by Mary his wife, youngest sister of king Henry the 8th. The duke of Northumberland had persuaded Edward the 6th to make a will in their favour. Queen Mary rested her claims to the throne on a will of Henry the 8th. See Rapin and other historians. But mark! the end of this misdeed, And being thus adjudged to die, Sweet princes, they deserved no blame, And bearing of so great a name, Let all men then conclude in this, Now, who more great than they of late? 5 Then princes all, set down this rest, Prepar'd, at last drew on the day, 6 5 Auream quisquis mediocritatem Sordibus teeti, caret invidendâ Hor: Lib. ii. Car. x. 6 On the morning of his execution, lord Guilford requested permission to have an interview with his wife, to bid her farewell, though she strongly advised him to the contrary. "All she could do was to give him a farewell out of a window, as he passed towards the place of execution on Tower Hill. His dead body being laid in a car and his head wrapped up in a linen cloth, were carried to the chapel within the Tower, in the way to which, they were to pass under the window of lady Jane, which sad spectacle she likewise beheld; but of her own account, and not either by accident, or, as some have insinuated, by design, and with a view to increase the weight of her affliction."-Biographia Britt. Whilst he unto the block did go, She in her window, weeping, weeping, weeping, Their eyes that looked for love erewhile, But wished that she had angels wings, And mounting on the scaffold then, "I come" quoth she "thou flower of men, For death shall not my soul dismay : The gates of heaven stand open wide, To rest for ever, ever, ever," And thus those princes died. Their parents likewise lost their heads, For climbing thus one step too high: Ambitions towers have slippery leads, And fearful to a wise man's eye. For one's amiss great houses fall, Therefore take warning, warning, warning, By this you gallants all. |