On Saturday 4th March, Nicola Tallis was interviewed by Sue Davies about ‘Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey.’
(c) Joey Menghini
The main points Nicola makes are:
Over the centuries the myths and legends around Jane had obscured the real her and Nicola wanted to uncover the truth about Jane.
When Nicola delved back into the archives and sources, she found there was a very different story to be told than the one that had been presented thus far.
Parts of Jane’s life we have no evidence for. It is not known when/where she was born. Other parts of her life are much better documented, as soon as Jane becomes Queen there is much more evidence for that part of her life, and sadly for her end too.
Jane was not an obvious choice to become Queen. A modern parallel would be Princesses Beatrice or Eugenie becoming monarch ahead of Princes William or Harry.
Nicola was surprised about the amount of myths that had grown up around Jane. So many people think of Jane was this tragic pawn, executed at 17. Jane deserves to be remembered in a far more positive way than that. She was an incredibly intelligent young woman whom people talked about on the continent.
Jane’s youth and the fact that she died a violent death are part of people’s fascination with her. There is more to her than that.
Jane is one of history’s what ifs? What would have happened if Jane had had the chance to rule or just to live? Nicola thinks she would have made her mark on the pages of history for very different reasons.
Had Jane had the opportunity to reign, she would have been up there with Elizabeth I as one of England’s most respected Queens.
‘Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey’ was the product of 5 years research and writing. Nicola is grateful to everyone who has read and reviewed it.
Keep an eye on the Events page on Nicola’s website for details of upcoming talks.
Nicola is currently writing her second book. She is not allowed to say what it is about yet. All will be revealed in May….
