Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery (Tudor Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Eric Ives (Author)

Book Description

Series: Tudor Mysteries | Publication Date: October 20, 2009

"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." John Guy

"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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

Amazon Exclusive: Commentary from Author Eric Ives

In Lady Jane Grey, Eric Ives, author of The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, explores one of the most elusive characters in British history. Jane Grey was queen for only 13 days—not nine as has been traditionally thought—before being sent to the Tower of London and later beheaded. Get an inside look at main characters and their motivations in this Tudor mystery with portraits and illustrations from inside the book.

Anon., Edward VI and the Pope (c. 1570) Back row left to right: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Edward Seymour duke of Somerset; Thomas Seymour Lord Sudeley; Thomas Cranmer; John Russell, earl of Bedford; William Paget (?) Front row left to right: John Dudley, earl of Warwick; Cuthbert Tunstal; William Paulet, Lord St. John (?) Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, died unexpectedly at the age of 16 without a male heir. Contrary to popular belief, Edward wanted to reinstate the traditional rules of succession rather than subvert them. He left several detailed versions of his plans for the royal succession, which corrected the mess his father had made of the rules of succession. Edward’s plan recognized that the rightful queen was Jane Grey, his Protestant cousin, not his Catholic (and illegitimate) sister, Mary.

Anon., Jane Grey (c. 1590) [the ‘Houghton Jane’] Images of Jane Grey have been much contested, but this painting, published for the first time, is her best likeness. Jane Grey, the cousin of Edward VI, was the presumed heir to the throne after his death. Described as “very short and thin, but prettily shaped and graceful” and “a gracious and animated figure” by a contemporary, her role in history is difficult to trace since she died at the age of 16 and did not leave much impact on the historical record. However, she was greatly admired for her scholarly achievement. With the backing of John Dudley, earl of Warwick and duke of Northumberland, she was proclaimed Queen on July 10, 1553.

Hans Eworth, Mary I Jane’s cousin and the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, Mary was more than 20 years older than Jane. In 1553, at the age of 37, Mary was short, skinny, and myopic. She was also armored with an absolute conviction about her duty to God, and was prepared to do whatever it took to ascend the throne and return the country to Catholicism. With the help of key supporters and an unexpected turn of events, Mary deposed Jane in a political coup that led Jane to the scaffold.

Anon., Henry Grey, marquis of Dorset, duke of Suffolk (engraving of lost portrait 1826) Henry Grey, Jane’s father, married Henry VIII’s niece Frances in 1533. Henry ignored him, but he came to favor under Edward. Mary pardoned him for supporting Jane in July 1553, but six months later he joined a conspiracy to stop her marrying Philip II of Spain. Mary panicked and had Jane executed.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Presenting a startling dissection of the historically elusive Jane Grey's 13-day reign, British scholar Ives (The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn) decodes the character, actions and motives of the key figures responsible for the fate of the Tudor teenager. He maintains that Jane herself, while precociously intellectual, was the least influential figure in the succession crisis of 1553. Taking center stage is her father-in law, John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who in Ives's hands isn't England's most powerful man, compelling King Edward VI to add Jane to the succession to make her husband, and Dudley's son, king upon Edward's death. Rather, Ives posits the Dudley-Grey marriage as a routine aristocratic alliance and that Northumberland, as the son of an executed traitor, was obsessively loyal to an independent Edward; Edward initiated Jane and her possible future sons' promotion to achieve his long-term goal of an all-male succession. Moreover, Edward's privy council endorsed Jane's accession because they saw Jane as the rightful queen of England. Turning traditional scholarship on its ear, Ives's radical reinterpretation of one of history's briefest, most puzzling reigns is masterfully researched, authoritative and a difficult but seductive read. Illus., one map. (Oct.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405194138
• ISBN-13: 978-1405194136
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll never have to read about this again., November 19, 2009

By 

Marty McNutt (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery (Tudor Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Ives has compiled an exhaustive resource for anyone looking to study the English Succession Crisis of 1553. Though the book takes the name of its unfortunate central figure, Lady Jane Grey, the story within reaches far beyond her. In fact, the best parts of the book in my opinion are dedicated to meticulously scrutinizing the behaviors of two major power players: Mary and Northumberland.

Obviously the value of this book lies in Ives's master analysis, so I do not want to give anything away. However, be assured that in this version of events, nothing is taken at face value. Instead of another retelling of this all-too-familiar story, Ives breaks it down as far as possible. Piecing together Northumberland's service to the crown in the years prior to Edward VI's reign portrays him in an entirely different light than his post-succession crisis reputation. Likewise, very little in Mary's past would lead anyone to believe she was capable of coordinating a swift and decisive armed rebellion against London and Queen Jane. Ives tracks her every movement and explains in detail the mechanisms that allowed her to triumph over Jane in the end.

Also interesting are the chapters on Edward VI. His role in these events is usually reduced to something along the lines of, "he named Lady Jane Grey his heir and then died." However, Ives really did a lot of research on Edward's so-called "Deuise" for the succession. In the end, he presents a possible timeline of events leading to this highly consequential document's existence.

Jane receives her due coverage in the book, with a few chapters on her upbringing and reputation among her contemporaries. Moreover, the last chapter is dedicated to her legacy as portrayed in the arts and popular culture. I will leave Ives's conclusions about Lady Jane and her role in the succession crisis for readers to discover on their own.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, detailed history, December 4, 2009

By 

P. Rickter (Belmont, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery (Tudor Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Ives creates a detailed history of the puzzling story of Lady Jane Grey, named heir to the English throne by a dying Edward VI and overthrown by supporters of Edward's Catholic half-sister Mary after ruling for just 13 days. The story that has passed down through the years is one of a foiled power-play by Jane's father in law John Dudley, but Ives slowly and carefully demolishes the conventional wisdom about what happened in 1553.

Starting by analyzing the motivations of the major players, he shows Edward to be an independent king trying to resolve the crisis of who would succeed him as he lay dying, creating several versions of a "deuise" for the succession before finally drafting a version that names Jane his successor, removing Mary and Elizabeth from the succession -- ostensibly because both are illegitimate, but really to prevent the firmly Catholic Mary from becoming queen. Edward dies shortly after getting the backing of his council for this decision. Dudley is shown to be less the schemer trying to get his daughter in law named queen and more the loyal councilor trying to carry out Edward's orders. As it happens, Dudley fails to take Mary into custody, allowing her to rally popular support. And Edward's council, after swearing to carry out Edward's orders and initially proclaiming Queen Jane, realize that Mary will prevail and quickly blame Dudley for the whole affair. Their alibi that Dudley pushed Edward and the council to name Jane as successor becomes established history, even though Ives shows that that story fails to fit with the personalities of the people involved.

Meanwhile, Jane comes off as an extraordinarily intelligent woman and fervent Protestant, but essentially a passive player in events. Ives portrays her as someone who never sought the throne, but who was thrust into this situation by others. Her death is ultimately a tragic ending to the story, made necessary by an increasingly unpopular Mary needing to remove Jane as a focus for rebellion against her rule.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't quite forget everything you thought you knew, but ..., January 4, 2010

By 

Judith Loriente (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery (Tudor Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Eric Ives' study of Lady Jane Grey is everything you'd expect from the author of the biography of Anne Boleyn against which all others must be measured. Not that it's really a biography. It's an academic yet perfectly readable study of Jane, the chief protagonists in her story, and why her thirteen-day reign failed - the reasons for which turn out to be far more complicated is usually made out to be the case.

Right from the second chapter, Ives also has you seriously questioning how much of what has been written about Jane over the last 450 years can be trusted. John Foxe, in his Book of Martyrs, may have altered the wording of her letters. The oft-quoted letter of reproach she wrote to her father in the Tower is shown to have been unlikely to have been written by her at all - he arrived there less than two days before she was executed, and she wrote him a genuine letter in her prayer book around the same time. Suspiciously, the letter only surfaced at least ten years after her death.

Ives also revises her birthdate, usually given as October 1537. Since Jane Seymour was her godmother, she apparently had to have been born before Jane Seymour `took to her chamber' to have Edward in mid-Sept 1537 - and he pinpoints May 1537 as the most likely date. These may seem like minor things, but once he starts to establish that some of the `facts' of her life aren't actually facts at all, you start to wonder how much else about her has become accepted as fact largely through repetition.

There are a few minor but annoying problems - e.g. on p. 86 he says of Bloody Mary, "Katherine of Aragon had taught her to see herself as half a Habsburg and her cousin Charles V became her sheet anchor". Katherine of Aragon may have heavily allied herself and her interests with her nephew Charles V (eldest son of her sister Juana and Philip the Handsome, a Habsburg), but she was not a Habsburg, and thus Mary was not "half a Habsburg", either in theory or in practice. Ives said the same thing in The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, referring to Katherine as "a highly respected Habsburg queen". OK, maybe this seems unnecessarily picky - but Katherine simply was not a member of the Habsburg dynasty, and didn't even have any Habsburg ancestors going back to at least her great-grandparents. Her mother and father were both members of the House of Trastamara.

Another minor but annoying mistake on p. 39: "On the other hand Frances [Lady Jane's mother] was in the reformist camp. According to a later story, she and her cousin Eleanor Clifford had been under the influence of the martyr Anne Askew." Eleanor Clifford, born Eleanor Brandon, was actually Frances Brandon's sister - Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon's younger daughter - which is made clear in the family trees at the start.

One last one (p. 290): "The play was dedicated to George I's daughter Caroline of Ansbach, the Princess Royal, and clearly pleased since Rowe was appointed poet laureate three months later." Caroline of Ansbach, wife of the future George II, was George I's daughter-in-law, and was not Princess Royal - but rather, Princess of Wales.

The central argument and ultimate conclusion of the book is a bit too complicated to explain in detail, but to put it briefly, Ives concludes that Lady Jane's right to the throne - unwanted though it was - really was better than Mary and Elizabeth's. Though Henry VIII reinstated his daughters in the succession before his death, he never actually declared them legitimate after bastardising them. Ives contends that he therefore had no right to appoint legally illegitimate children as his successors; it would have been no different from trying to declare his bastard son the Duke of Richmond heir, had he still been alive.

Whether or not you agree with him, it's an unusual way of viewing these events, and an interesting study of the legalities (or illegalities) of Henry VIII's and Edward VI's attempts to nominate their own successors. It's not quite as brilliant a book as The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, and it doesn't completely replace previous biographies (Hester Chapman's, for instance, will always be worth reading). Nonetheless, its exhaustive research, and its willingness to avoid blindly reiterating legend - instead subjecting it to scholarly analysis - leave it very much deserving five stars.