If you walk into the small stone chapel at Cheam, on a quiet weekday morning, you can still find her.

Jane Lumley lies in pale polished alabaster, carved in the pose of a tutor noblewoman at rest.

Hands joined, eyes lifted, as if she simply paused between chapters of a good book. The monument was

added years after her death by the husband who outlived her, but it preserves the impression

her contemporaries had of her, a woman of learning, born into one of the oldest noble families

in England, connected by blood to Lady Jane Gray,

and raised in a household where books mattered as much as land.

Jane Lumley belongs to the Fitz-Allen line, an ancient family that weathered every turn of

Tudor politics. Through her marriage, she entered the Lumley world,

another house with deep medieval roots and a taste for scholarship. Jane Lumley stands at the

intersection of these two stories, a place where noble bloodlines, religious uncertainty,

and humanist education all meet.

Music religious uncertainty and humanist education all meet. Hi, friend, welcome back to the Renaissance English History podcast, the original Tudor

History podcast telling stories of Tudor England since 2009. I am Heather, your host,

and I am, as always, delighted, thrilled that you are here with me today to talk about Jane Lumley

and the Fitz-Allens. Let's get started. The Fitz-Allens were already an established dynasty long before the

tutors appeared on the political map. They had held the earldom of Arendel since the 13th century,

and their Sussex estates, centered around Arndale Castle, signaled a level of wealth and influence

that placed them among the top

tier of English nobility. Jane's father, Henry Fitz-Allen, the 19th Earl of Arundel,

some say the 21st, 19th potato potato, I'm not sure there's a debate. Anyway, he inherited not only

that long history, but also the expectation that he would manage these

...