Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Brief Life of Guildford Dudley

Author Susan Higginbotham shares her research on the ill-fated husband of Lady Jane Grey, saying:
Jane’s last days have been described in detail; Guildford’s have not. Among the graffiti carved into the walls of the Beauchamp Tower by the Dudley brothers is the word “Jane,” which might have been Guildford’s effort; it is unlikely to refer to his mother by the same name, as she was in no danger of death and there was no need to memorialize her. At some point Guildford wrote a message to his father-in-law in a prayer book, the one which Jane was to take to the scaffold: “Your loving and obedient son wishes unto your grace long life in this world with as much joy and comfort, as did I wished to myself, and in the world to come joy everlasting your most humble son to his death G Duddley.”[27] A few pages later in the same prayer book, Jane added her own note to her father: “The Lord comfort your grace and that in his word wherein all creatures only are to be comforted and though it has pleased God to take away 2 of your children, yet think not, I most humbly beseech your grace, that you have lost them but trust that we, by losing this mortal life have won an immortal life and I for my part, as I have honored your grace in this life, will pray for you in this life. your Grace’s humble daughter Jane Duddley.” Jane had expressed nothing but contempt for Guildford’s own father after his downfall; it says something about Guildford, surely, that he was able to write without rancor to Jane’s father, the man whose ill-advised participation in Wyatt’s rebellion had sealed his fate.
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2 comments:

Susan Higginbotham said...

Thanks for the link, Elena!

elena maria vidal said...

Thanks for your great articles, Susan!