Today in 1553 John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, was arrested. Dudley is often seen as a Tudor Villain, because he led the plot to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne when the teenaged Edward VI died, and the throne would have gone to Edward’s Catholic sister, Mary, who became Mary I.Â
Dudley married his son to Lady Jane, and seems to have perhaps planned to rule through his children, but alas, the plot didn’t work out as planned. Mary was able to gather her forces and march to London, while those who planned the rebellion were killed. Initially, Mary wanted to show leniency to Lady Jane Grey, keeping her imprisoned but not killing her, but further rebellions made Mary think that she had no choice but to end Lady Jane as a potential threat. John Dudley’s plotting got himself killed, as well as his innocent son and daughter-in-law.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested link:
Episode 070: Tudor Times on John Dudley
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.