Asserts that the devout Protestant Lady Jane Grey was the rightful queen of England following her husband Edward VI's death and that the Catholic Queen Mary usurped her lawful power.
The tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, the "queen for nine days" has been told in romance and film as well as Tudor history. Ives (English history, University of Birmingham, emeritus) makes it clear from the start that he believes Jane was the rightful queen and that Mary, the elder daughter of Henry VIII, was the usurper. This argument may be debated but the research Ives has put into his account of the girl (she was beheaded at the age of seventeen) and the influences on her development is impeccable. Ives treats the political wrangling that seemed to make Jane nothing more than a pawn, but he also delves into her religious upbringing and makes a good case for Jane being chosen by Edward VI because of her sincere Protestant beliefs. This biography reads like a novel with the tension growing in each chapter as Jane approaches her doom. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
"A highly ingenious solution to the mystery of Jane Grey's thirteen-day usurpation of the throne. Ives's research skills are formidable and will make this book essential, if provocative reading."
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John Guy
Lady Jane Grey is the queen England rejected and one of the most elusive and tragic characters in English history. Here, Eric Ives, master historian and storyteller presents a compelling new interpretation of Jane and her role in the accession crisis of 1553, with wide-ranging implications for our understanding of the workings of Tudor politics and the exercise of power in early modern England.
- Presents a vivid portrait of Lady Jane Grey, one of the least studied figures of English history, depicting Jane as a forceful, educated individual
- Subjects Jane’s writings to an original literary and religious analysis
- Demonstrates that Edward VI’s will gave Jane and her supporters strong legal grounds for her claim to the throne
- Offers a fresh assessment of other characters involved in the 1553 accession crisis: including Edward VI; Mary Tudor; and John Dudley, the duke of Northumberland
- Illuminates the inner workings of Tudor politics and the exercise of power in Early Modern England
"A Tudor mystery is brilliantly solved, and the story of one of England's most dangerous crises is thrillingly told… This book, which takes us as close to the truth of these events as is possible, will convince scholars who thought that they knew the story already, and delight general readers."
—Susan Brigden, Lincoln College, Oxford
"Eric Ives has provided the first full-scale account of one of the most surprising sequences of events in the politics of Tudor England. It is an engrossing tale, here presented in incisive style by a scholar who has an instinctive grasp of how to bring the surprises back to life."
—Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Reformation, Europe's House Divided, and A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
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