"They rolled him up in a sheet of lead,
A sheet of lead for a funeral pall;
They plunged him in the cauldron red,
And melted him, lead, and bones, and all."
R. S. F.
Perth.
Replies to Minor Queries.
List of English Sovereigns (Vol. v., p. 28.).
—The principal reason why the names of the Empress Matilda, King Henry junior, and Queen Jane (Grey or Dudley), are not inserted in the lists of English sovereigns, as J. J. S. suggests they should be, arises from the fact of the periods of their supposed reigns being concurrent with those of other monarchs, and our constitution recognising one only at a time. The name of Queen Jane has, however, found a place in some recent lists; following that given in Sir Harris Nicolas's Chronology of History (edit. 1833, p. 330.), where he states that her nominal reign extended from the 6th to the 17th July, 1553. Appended to The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary (printed for the Camden Society), I have given a list of all the public documents or state papers known to be extant which bear date in the reign of Queen Jane, and the last is a letter of the Privy Council to Lord Rich, dated the 19th July; this extends the period two days longer than in the Chronology of History, and was certainly the last public document that recognised Jane's authority. Only one private document so dated has been discovered. It is a deed relating to the parish of St. Dunstan's in Kent (dated 15th July), which was communicated by Mr. Hunter to the Retrospective Review, N. S. vol. i. p. 505. But an act of parliament of the 1st March, 1553-4, legalised all documents that might be so dated from the 6th of July to the last day of the same month (Nicolas, p. 316.). Among our historians, Heylin, in his History of the Reformation, has apportioned a distinct division of his narrative to "The Reign of Queen Jane."
JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.