Birthplace of the Queen, Jane Gray, Discovered Under the Park

Archaeologists have discovered what may be the foundations of the childhood home of Lady Jane Gray, a relative of King Henry VIII and the Queen of England for nine days in July 1553.
The newly discovered remains of the stone building are located at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire, England, an archeological access point that researchers have been excavating since 2015. The park is home to Bradgate House, where different generations of the Gray family lived for more than 200 years
"While Bradgate House is such an iconic site, very little is known about the structure standing and how it changed over time," project co-director Richard Thomas, an archeology reader at the University of Leicester, said in a statement. "Our evidence suggests that the home that Lady Jane Gray would have recognized might have looked very different from what we see today."
During this year's excavation, Thomas's team hopes to better understand how Bradgate House changed over time. "We are focusing on a series of stone structures that underlie brick buildings on foot," he said. "We will try to date its construction and when they were demolished to make way for the current structures."
Archaeologists also hope to learn how the "most important families in the Tudor era" lived during that time.
The great-grandfather of Lady Jane was Henry VII; Henry VIII (known for starting the Protestant Reformation and marrying six wives) was his great uncle.
Before his death, Henry VIII named Jane as heir to the English throne, but said he could only become queen if his three sons, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, died first without problems. Edward ruled after his father's death, for only six years, until he died at age 15. His advisor, John Dudley, recoiled at the thought of the Roman Catholic Mary taking the throne, and persuaded Edward to leave the throne to Jane.
Jane married Dudley's son and was crowned queen on July 10, 1553. But her reign was short; on July 19, he ended his imprisonment at the Tower of London (essentially because Mary wanted the throne). Mary occupied the throne until 1558. Queen Elizabeth followed him and ruled until his death in 1603.
However, Gray died long before that. It was executed on February 12, 1554, at the age of 16 or 17 years.
His childhood home, Bradgate House, was built in 1520 by Thomas Gray. It is believed that Jane Gray was born there in 1537.
In addition to finding the foundations that date back to Gray's childhood, archaeologists also found evidence of hunting in the ice age, dating back 14,500 years, and Mesolithic hunting, which dates back approximately 9,000 to 6,000 years ago. The team also found evidence of an Iron Age settlement and a medieval hunting lodge.
By: Preeti Narula
Content: https://www.livescience.com/65839-jane-grey-house-found.html