Abstract
In her will of 1554, Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland, bequeathed her parrot to the Duchess of Alva. In 1746, almost 200 years after her death, Arthur Collins wrote of Jane that she was “the greatest example in the fortitude of mind in adversity; and of modest virtue; and whose wisdom, care, and prudence, restored her overthrown house, even in a reign of cruelty and tyranny.”1 In the nineteenth century, Victorian guidebooks commonly stated in the duchess’ biography that accompanied descriptions of her tomb, that Jane had been beheaded alongside her husband in 1553 after the fall of Jane Grey, a romantic but incorrect statement. Contemporary historians and novelists remark on Jane’s bequest of her parrot.
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Notes
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© 2015 Carole Levin and Christine Stewart-Nuñez
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Medici, C. (2015). More Than a Wife and Mother: Jane Dudley, the Woman Who Bequeathed a Parrot and Served Five Queens. In: Levin, C., Stewart-Nuñez, C. (eds) Scholars and Poets Talk about Queens. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137534903_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137534903_26
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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