then
those of Lady Jane, should succeed. He hoped still to live till such
an heir should be eighteen years old, in which case he could enter on
the government immediately after himself. If his death occurred
earlier, Jane was to conduct the administration during the interval,
not as Queen but as Regent, and conjointly with a Council of
government still to be named by him.[155] This Council of executors
was to avoid all war, all other change, and especially not to alter
the established religion in any point: rather it was to devote itself
to completing the ecclesiastical legislation in conformity with that
religion, and to the abolition of the Papal claims.[156] We see that
Edward's view was, like that of many other sovereigns, to secure the
continuance of his political and religious system of government for
long years after his own death. The members of the Privy Council,
before whom these arrangements were laid in the King's handwriting,
promised on their oath and their honour to carry them out in every
article, and to defend them with all their power.[157]

And if the affair had been undertaken in this manner, who could say
that it might not have succeeded? Northumberland did not neglect to
form a strong family interest in favour of the new combination that he
designed. He married his own daughter to Lord Hastings, who was
descended from the house of York, and one of Jane's sisters with the
son of the powerful Earl of Pembroke. He could reckon on the support
of the King of France, to whom the succession of a niece of the
Emperor was odious, and on the consent of the Privy Council, which was
in great part dependent on him; how could the Protestant feeling have
failed to gain him a large party in the country, especially since
something might be said for the plan itself.

But Edward VI's malady developed quicker than was expected. At the
last moment he was further induced to award the succession not to the
male heirs of Lady Jane, but to herself and her male heirs.[158] He
died with the prayer that God would guard England from the Papacy.

Lady Jane Grey had hitherto devoted her days to study. For father and
mother were severe and found much in her to blame: on the other hand
quiet hours of inward satisfaction were given her by the instructions
of a teacher, always alike kindly disposed, who initiated her into
learning and an acquaintance with literature: bending over her Plato,
she did not miss the amusement of the c