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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Lady Jane Grey
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(1537–54) Queen of England for nine days (10-19 July 1553) and one of the most tragic figures in English history. Famous in her own time for her childhood proficiency in Greek and Latin, she was thrust unwillingly into public affairs in the last months of the reign of *Edward VI because of a distant claim to the throne through her grandmother, a daughter of Henry VII (see the *royal house). The duke of Northumberland married her to his son, Lord Guildford Dudley, and persuaded the young and dying king to make Jane his heir.
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Her new father-in-law proclaimed her queen a few weeks later, on 10 July 1553, after Edward's death. She was still only 15. It was a coup with little chance of success. Northumberland's support evaporated and the rightful heir to the throne, Edward's sister, was proclaimed on July 19 as *Mary I. Jane pleaded guilty to high treason and was executed in the Tower of London in February 1554, on the same day as her husband and some six months after her father-in-law.
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