Review of 2015

The year started off with Lady Jane getting a mention in the January issue of BBC History Magazine. Part 2 of ‘The Tudors in 50 Moments’ by Tracy Borman, briefly mentioned Jane’s reign and execution. The paperback of Elizabeth Fremantle’s ‘Sisters of Treason’ was published at the end of the month.

12th February saw the 461st anniversary of Jane’s execution and also the publication of ‘A Queen of a New Invention: Portraits of Lady Jane Grey Dudley, ‘England’s Nine Days Queen’ by Stephan Edwards. The book features in depth analysis of twenty nine portraits and also discusses some missing paintings. Stephan answered my questions in an interview.

The February edition of ‘Tudor Life’ from the Tudor Society was a Lady Jane special. I was very pleased to have my article, ‘Lady Jane Grey’s Death and Burial,’ included in the magazine.

The Real Tudors exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery closed on 1st March. However, this was not the last chance to see the ‘Lady Jayne’ Streatham portrait. During #Museumweek, the National Portrait Gallery (@NPGLondon) posted a photo of the portrait being reframed.

‘Henry VIII’s Last Love: The Extraordinary Life of Katherine Willoughby, Lady in Waiting to the Tudors’ by David Baldwin was published. The book about Jane’s step-grandmother includes a chapter on the events of July 1553. Jane was also mentioned in David Baldwin’s BBC History Magazine article, ‘A Seventh Wife for Henry VIII?’ David answered my questions in an interview. Also published this month, Jane and her sisters featured in ‘Elizabeth I and Her Circle’ by Susan Doran.

Susan Doran’s article in the April edition of BBC History Magazine mentioned Katherine and Mary Grey. Two months after the publication of his book, Stephan Edwards announced that he had discovered another possible portrait of Jane, the South Carolina portrait.

The ‘Lady Jayne’ Streatham portrait went back on display in Room 2 at Montacute House, in Somerset in late spring. See ‘A look at how the Streatham portrait has been displayed over the years…’

Lady Jane was a main character in Suzannah Dunn’s ‘The Lady of Misrule’ which was published in May. Suzannah answered my questions in an interview.

An archaeological dig at Bradgate Park began this month. You can read about their findings at their Facebook page –Bradgate Park Fieldschool. Elizabeth Fremantle’s Tudor trilogy was completed in June, with the publication of ‘Watch the Lady.’ Elizabeth answered my questions in an interview. BBC History Magazine published their History Hot 100. Lady Jane was number 45. Jane also featured in Tracy Borman’s ‘The Story of the Tower of London.’

Framlingham Castle (where Mary Tudor raised her standard against Queen Jane) featured in ‘Exploring English Castles: Evocative, Romantic, and Mysterious True Tales of the Kings and Queens of the British Isles’ by Edd Morris. I asked him in an interview why he had chosen Framlingham as one of the nine castles featured.

Also published in July, was the last part of the Boleyn Trilogy by Laura Andersen. After non speaking appearances in the two previous books, Jane had a larger role in ‘The Boleyn Reckoning.’ Laura answered my questions in an interview.

Leanda de Lisle’s article about Lady Jane appeared in BBC History Magazine’s ‘Royal Women’ collector’s edition in August. The publication featured previous articles from BBC History Magazine and Leanda’s article had also appeared in the March 2010 edition and as ‘Slaughter of the Innocent’ in the collector’s edition, ‘The Story of the Tudors: The Rise and Fall of a Dynasty, from Henry VII to Elizabeth I’, which was published in July 2014.

In August, Lady Jane had a small role in Philippa Gregory’s ‘The Taming of the Queen’ and there was news of a forthcoming biography about Jane, called ‘Crown of Blood’ that is currently being written by historian, Nicola Tallis.

On 9th September, Her Majesty the Queen, became our longest reigning monarch. Lady Jane was featured in the souvenir cover of The Times, which listed monarchs by length of reign. There was also an article about Jane in the magazine ‘Book of the Tudors.’

The 25th September marked the 400th anniversary of the death of Arbella Stuart in the Tower of London. Arbella, who had a claim to the throne through her grandmother, Margaret Douglas, had married William Seymour (grandson of Katherine Grey) without permission. In the summer I had visited Hardwick Hall and viewed the Arbella exhibition. See ‘Arbella Stuart and the Greys’ for more details.

In October, this website took part in the ‘Middle Ages Unlocked’ blog tour. The authors, Gillian Polack and Katrin Kania wrote an article for this site entitled, ‘Why we wrote the book’.

November saw two books published that featured Jane and both authors gave interviews to this website. The first was,‘The King is Dead: The Last Will and Testament of Henry VIII’ by Suzannah Lipscomb and Jane also featured in an article that Suzannah wrote for the November issue of BBC History Magazine. The second book was,‘The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor’ by Elizabeth Norton. My interview with Elizabeth was featured on the Head of Zeus website.

The year ended with Lady Jane Grey being one of the answers in ‘The Great History Quiz: The Tudors’ which was broadcast on BBC2 on Christmas Eve. I am pleased to say that I got that answer and other answers correct!

Books published in 2015 that featured Jane included: ‘A Queen of a New Invention: Portraits of Lady Jane Grey Dudley, England’s ‘Nine Days Queen’ by Stephan Edwards, ‘Sisters of Treason’ (paperback) by Elizabeth Fremantle, ‘The Other Tudor Princess: Margaret Douglas, Henry VIII’s Niece’ by Mary McGrigor, ‘Henry VIII’s Last Love: The Extraordinary Life of Katherine Willoughby, Lady in Waiting to the Tudors’ by David Baldwin, ‘Elizabeth I and Her Circle’ by Susan Doran, ‘Exploring English Castles: Evocative, Romantic, and Mysterious True Tales of the Kings and Queens of the British Isles’ by Edd Morris, ‘The Story of the Tower of London’ by Tracy Borman, ‘The Boleyn Reckoning’ by Laura Andersen, ‘The Taming of the Queen’ by Philippa Gregory, ‘The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox’ by Alison Weir, ‘Charles Brandon: Henry Viii’s Closest Friend’ by Steven Gunn, ‘The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor’ by Elizabeth Norton and ‘The King is Dead: The Last Will and Testament of Henry VIII’ by Suzannah Lipscomb.