Northumberland, Queen Jane and the Financing of the 1553 Coup

Northumberland, Queen Jane and the Financin of the 1553 Coup In some of the lists of national characteristics compiled in the early sixteenth century the EngUsh were dubbed perfidious kingslayers. The tag was not undeserved; between 1327 and 1485 five kings lost their thrones1 and four usurpers2 obtained it in their stead. This succession of changes, each of them necessarily sanctioned by some form of apologia, affected the ideas commonly accepted in the kingdom about the nature of the right to rule. Deceit, deviousness, distrust and 'uselcssness', irresponsibility, bad faith and a breach of coronation oath were amongst the justifications offered for a deviation from the ordinary rules.3 It has been argued by Dunham and W o o d that they ultimately legitimated arightto depose.4 If w e accept their argument dynasticrightwas less important than other elements in establishing a legitimate monarch in the fifteenth century. The use of parliament to sanction such a change has been a matter of debate.5 In 1460 parliament repealed an act of 1406 setding the throne, implying that it was able to reverse earlier parliament's decisions and moved the succession to the Yorkist line. The role of God's law and the assent of the people, and the divine imprimatur of military victory were also involved. If the fourth continuator of the Croyland Chronicle is to be believed, Henry VII's first partiament confirmed Henry's right to rule 'as being his due, not by one but by many tides: so that w e are to believe that he rules mostrightfullyover the English people, and that, not so much by right of blood as of conquest and victory in warfare'.6 The notion of being 'born within the land' was asserted more than once, and of the dying monarch'srightto indicate a choice. None of these things had been called into play since 1485 although it may be noted that in 1503 there had been some debate about who might foUow Henry VII which had not automatically assumed that Henry VIII was a certainty. They did, however, remain as evidence of the sort ofjustifications that might be caUed into play in an emergency, such as the currently ruling faction perhaps viewed Mary's potential succession to a dying Edward VI in 1553. Had Northumberland succeeded in putting Lady Jane Grey firmly on the ^ w a r d II, Richard II, Henry VI, Edward V and Richard III. 2 Henry IV, Edward IV, Richard IU and Henry VII. 3 W.Huse Dunham, Jnr, and Charles T. Wood, The right to Rule in England: Depositions and the Kingdom's Authority 1327-1485, American Historical Review 81, no.l, February 1976, 738. *Ibid, 739. S J.W.McKenna, The myth of parliamentary sovereignty in late-medieval England, English Historical Review 372, July 1979, 481 ff. 6 Quoted in McKenna, 502. 138 S.M. Jack throne, there would, therefore, have been no shortage of convenient, even timehallowed arguments to support her claim. Apart from anything else, if the descent of the throne followed the ordinary descent of land, then Jane and her sisters as heirs of the whole blood had a better claim than Mary. Nevertheless, to succeed, there had to be as wide a consensus as could be achieved amongst those holding public office and those magnates who represented a power in the land. Support from the commons would also be not unwelcome. No-one seems to have contemplated secret, ruthless, and unexpected action. There may have been a plot there is no evidence that there was any intention for it to be a coup. There has been a recent revival of interest in the events surrounding Mary's accession. Diarmaid MacCuUoch in a number of works has re-examined the role of East Anglia and popular support for Mary there.7 H e argues that 'the first reaction of the county leadership was to obey Westminster's orders . . . and proclaim queen Jane'. Robert Tittler and Susan Batdey have similarly recendy argued that a number of the boroughs in East Anglia including Kings Lynn had originally 'backed the wrong horse' and that even parts of the countryside had been against her.8 Jennifer...