John Dudley was born in 1504. He was the eldest of three sons of Edmund Dudley, a councillor of King Henry VII, and his second wife Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Edward Grey, 4th Viscount Lisle. His father was attainted and executed for high treason in 1510, having been arrested immediately after Henry VIII's accession because the new King needed scapegoats for his predecessor's unpopular financial policies.
Young John was placed under the guardianship of Edward Guildford, a minor courtier, whose daughter he later married and through whom he gained a place at Henry VIII's court. In 1523 he was knighted while serving in the army at Calais.
Dudley did not suffer from Cromwell's fall and execution but continued to gain favor and offices. In 1542 he was created Viscount Lisle—the title had previously belonged to his mother's second husband—and appointed high admiral. From 1544 to 1546 he was governor of Boulogne, and he acquired military renown in the conflict with France; he led the English delegation which obtained Francis I's signature to the Treaty of Ardres, which ended the war.
Dudley was the second most powerful man in England at the time of Henry VIII's death (1547), and he was one of the 16 executors named in the King's will. Dudley acquiesced in the arrangement whereby Edward Seymour obtained control of the government as Protector Somerset, and he helped Somerset win the great victory over the Scots at Pinkie. But by 1549 Somerset had shown himself unable to deal effectively with the problems of government, especially the uprisings in Cornwall and Norfolk; only Dudley was able to suppress Ket's rebellion, freeing the city of Norwich from the peasants and hanging their leaders.
Dudley and his supporters now forced Somerset to relinquish power, which was assumed by Dudley himself. Somerset was sent to the Tower for a time, then released, but finally executed in 1552. Dudley acquired additional offices, although he never took the title protector, and in 1551 he was created Duke of Northumberland. Although he lacked sincere religious conviction, he supported the increasingly Protestant policies of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and he gained wealth for himself from the pillage of the Church.
By the beginning of 1553 it was evident that Edward VI's health was failing, and Northumberland began to concern himself with the succession to the throne. Wishing to retain power and not desiring the accession of a Catholic, he conceived the "device" whereby Edward's sisters Mary and Elizabeth were excluded in favor of Lady Jane Grey, who had married Northumberland's son Lord Guildford Dudley. When the young king died in July, Northumberland proclaimed Jane queen. But he had not reckoned with the general support for Mary, who as Henry VIII's older daughter was regarded by the English people as the proper heir. Although he attempted to lead a force against Mary, Northumberland soon saw that the attempt was futile, and at Cambridge he proclaimed his support for Mary.
Northumberland was then arrested and sent to the Tower. He was executed on August 22, 1553. On the scaffold he denounced Protestantism and abjectly begged for his life, but without avail.
John Dudley's recantation of his Protestant faith before his execution delighted Queen Mary and enraged Lady Jane Grey. The general opinion, especially among Protestants, was that he tried to seek a pardon by this move. Historians have often believed that he had no faith whatsoever, being a mere cynic. Further explanations—both contemporary and modern—have been that Northumberland sought to rescue his family from the axe, [that, in the face of catastrophe, he found a spiritual home in the church of his childhood, or that he saw the hand of God in Mary's success
Dudley set out to restore administrative efficiency and maintain public order to prevent renewed rebellion as seen in 1549. Equipped with a new law "for the punishment of unlawful assemblies", he built a united front of landholders and Privy Council, the government intervening locally at any sign of unrest. He returned to the ancient practice of granting licences to retain liveried followers and installed Lord Lieutenants that represented the central government and were to keep ready small bands of cavalry. These measures proved effective and the country was calm for the rest of the reign. In fact, in the summer of 1552—a year before the succession crisis—the cavalry bands were disbanded to save money.
In 1525 Dudley married Guildford's daughter Jane, who was four years his junior and his former classmate. The Dudleys belonged to the new evangelical circles of the early 1530s, and their 13 children were educated in Renaissance humanism and science.
