Mary I of England and The Grey Family
Frances Brandon was the eldest daughter of Mary Tudor (King Henry VIII’s sister) and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. This made Frances a first cousin to Queen Mary. Growing up in the royal circle, Frances and Mary shared a close bond. Mary even served as a godmother to Frances at her baptism, acting through a proxy because she was only 17 months older than her cousin.
During the reign of Edward VI, Frances and her husband, Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset, became associated with the Protestant faction at court. Mary, by contrast, remained a committed Catholic. Despite these religious differences, there is little evidence of personal hostility between Frances and Mary before the succession crisis of 1553.
The relationship became strained when Edward VI's advisers, led by John Dudley, attempted to exclude Mary from the succession and place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Frances and Henry Grey supported Jane's claim, although historians continue to debate the extent of Frances's enthusiasm for the scheme.
When Mary successfully claimed the crown in July 1553, she demonstrated remarkable restraint. It was left to Frances to defend the family line and she rode immediately to Mary, now at Beaulieu in Essex, to do so. Mary listened as Frances pleaded that the Grey family were victims of Northumberland’s ambitions.
Henry Grey was initially pardoned despite his prominent role in placing Jane on the throne. Mary showed considerable leniency and allowed him to retain his life. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Mary allowed Frances to remain at liberty.
Mary remained determined that Jane's life should be spared, and she intended to grant Jane a pardon after her trial had run its course. Jane had sent to Mary a letter exonerating herself of ever having wished to be Queen. Mary hoped that she could be reconciled to the Catholic faith and removed from politics.
In early 1554, Henry Grey joined Thomas Wyatt the Younger in Wyatt's Rebellion against Mary I. Henry raised forces in the Midlands but was quickly captured. This second act of rebellion proved fatal. He was convicted of treason. Mary now faced intense pressure from her council and foreign allies to eliminate Jane as a potential figurehead for Protestant resistance. Although reluctant to do so, Mary signed the death warrant. Jane and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were executed. Eleven days after his daughter had died, Henry Grey was executed. The Grey sisters, meanwhile, cleaved to their mother, Frances, who encouraged them to play the Catholic.
Contemporary evidence suggests that Mary did not regard Frances as one of her principal enemies. Even after the succession crisis, Frances was not subjected to the severe treatment that might have been expected for the mother of a rival claimant. In fact, Frances was eventually restored to favor at court and continued to enjoy a degree of royal acceptance. Some properties and lands were granted on her.
Only six months after Jane’s death, Katherine and Mary were back at court with their mother, and without their father’s ambition and religious fervour driving the family, their future looked safe, for the time being.
Both Katherine Grey and Mary Grey served in the household of Queen Mary. Katherine Grey is specifically recorded as a maid of honour to the Queen, while Mary Grey also attended at court as a gentlewoman in the Queen's service.
One notable sign of reconciliation came in 1555, when Frances Brandon married her Master of the Horse, Adrian Stokes. The marriage was socially unequal for a duchess, yet Mary did not object and allowed Frances to live quietly thereafter. With her marriage, however, Frances did retire largely from court, with worsening health, and reportedly enduring a series of failed pregnancies. Her younger daughter, Mary, now ten years old, remained in her care.
There is little about her in the sources until she was almost twenty years old, but Katherine, rising fifteen, was often at court, where she began to make her own life, against the current of Queen Mary’s stormy last years. Katherine, as the daughter of the Queen’s first cousin, had her own room at court, as well as personal servants.
Katherine Grey, like her mother and sister, maintained her old friendships with Protestant friends, but these friends, like the Greys, disguised their true beliefs. Katherine attended the funeral of Queen Mary in December 1558. At the time, she served as a lady-in-waiting to the new queen, Elizabeth I, and took part in the funeral procession held at Westminster Abbey. Katherine was dressed in her funeral garb like the others, the black cloth trailing to the ground.
It is fair to say that Queen Mary treated Katherine and Mary Grey with a degree of restraint and clemency, especially considering the political dangers they represented. Katherine Grey and Mary Grey were not executed, imprisoned for long periods, or permanently excluded from court.
Leanda de Lisle, The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Grey
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