 King Edward fell ill in early 1553 . He drew up a document , " My <unk> for the <unk> " , whose final version of June 1553 was to settle the Crown on his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey , <unk> the claims of his half @-@ sisters Mary and Elizabeth . Jane Grey was the daughter of Frances Grey , Duchess of Suffolk , a niece of Henry VIII by his younger sister Mary . On 25 May 1553 three <unk> <unk> were celebrated at Durham Place , the Dudleys ' London town mansion . Two of their younger children were concerned : Guildford , aged about 17 , married Lady Jane Grey , while Katherine , who was between eight and ten years old , was promised to the Earl of <unk> 's heir , Henry Hastings . A few months later these matches came to be seen as proof of a conspiracy by the Duke of Northumberland to bring his family to the throne . At the time the marriages took place , however , their <unk> implications were not considered significant by even the most suspicious of observers , the Imperial ambassador <unk> de <unk> . Modern historians have considered them either as part of a plot , or as " routine actions of dynastic politics " , in the words of David <unk> . The initiative for the matches had probably come from the <unk> of Northampton . 
