Is this the only portrait of Lady Jane Grey, England’s 9-day queen, done during her life?

A portrait purporting to be of a living Lady Jane Grey, best-known from a post-death painting of her execution, has gone on display

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English Heritage conservator Rachel Turnbull gives a portrait believed to be of Lady Jane Grey a final examination before it goes on display. Photo: English Heritage via AP

Published: 7:15pm, 10 Mar 2025

A painting that has gone on public display in Britain could be the only portrait of England’s shortest-reigning queen, Lady Jane Grey, painted during her lifetime, according to the conservation group English Heritage.

It said there is “compelling” evidence to suggest that the portrait, on loan from a private collection, shows Jane, who was no older than 17 when she became queen for just nine days in the summer of 1553.

One of England’s most tragic regal figures, she was executed at the Tower of London in 1554. Jane was a devout Protestant at a time of religious upheaval, the ultimate innocent victim of the deception of the Tudor court in the chaotic aftermath of Henry VIII’s reign.

She is perhaps best-known from Paul Delaroche’s painting, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, which hangs in the National Gallery in central London. Jane, who may have been as young as 16, is shown blindfolded as an executioner with an axe waits to behead her.

But that painting, like the few others that purport to show Jane, all date from after her death.

Now English Heritage says a Tudor-era work could be a “live” painting of Jane. The portrait, along with six others, will hang at Wrest Park, a country estate west of London managed by English Heritage which incidentally is the location of many scenes in Netflix’s steamy period drama series Bridgerton.