Sep 19, 2023

Jane Grey

I once officiated at a double wedding for two sisters who wanted to be married to their respective grooms on the same day. That’s nothing! Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) was married at age sixteen to Lord Guildford Dudley in a triple wedding!
Jane became Queen of England in the same year she married. They called her the “Nine-Day-Queen” because that’s how long her reign lasted. She was replaced by her half sister Mary whose nickname, Bloody Mary, tells you something about her style of leadership. The group responsible for royal appointments quickly changed allegiances to Mary, the result of shady religious dealings. Jane the Protestant was replaced with Mary the Catholic. Jane was arrested and charged with high treason, which carried the sentence of death. Her execution was postponed three days to give her a second chance to convert to medieval Catholicism. How thoughtful! Jane didn’t buckle; she stayed the course.

You get a sense of Jane’s deep convictions in a letter she wrote in prison to her fourteen-year-old sister Katherine, which reads in part, “Live or die, that by death you may enter into eternal life, and then enjoy the life that Christ has gained for you by his death. Don’t think that just because you are now young your life will be long, because young or old, as God wills.” Need I remind you; Jane is sixteen. Jane carried to her execution a collection of prayers from fourth-century Christian leaders like Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose, all saints in the Catholic tradition. She entered the following original prayer into her journal shortly before her execution:

O merciful God, consider my misery, best known unto thee; and be thou unto me a strong tower of defense,
I humbly entreat thee, suffer me not to be tempted above my power, but either be a deliverer out of this great misery, or give me grace patiently to bear thy heavy hand and sharp correction…
Give me grace to await thy leisure,
and patiently to bear thy works, assuredly knowing thou will deliver me, when it shall please thee, not doubting or mistrusting thy goodness toward me; for thou knows better what is good for me than I do; therefore do with me in all things what thou will… Only in the meantime, arm me, I beseech Thee,
with Thine armor,
that I may stand fast…
above all things taking to me
the shield of faith…
Praying always that I may
refer myself wholly to thy will,
abiding Thy pleasure, and comforting myself
in those troubles that it shall please Thee
to send me, seeing such troubles are
profitable for me; and I seeing that I am
assuredly persuaded that it cannot be well in all thou does.
Hear me, O merciful Father, for his sake, who, thou would be a sacrifice for my sins; to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory. Amen!

Faith Cook, Lady Jane Grey: Nine Day Queen of England. John Stephan Edwards, The Lady Jane Grey Prayer Book.

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.