I first became interested in Lady Jane Grey in 1994 whilst studying the Tudors for history A-level. I had heard of the ‘nine day queen’ before then but when we were shown a clip from ‘Lady Jane’ as part of historical resources analysis, I decided to find out more.
Doing some background reading in ‘The Kings and Queens of England’, I found the ‘Master John’ portrait and a paragraph stating that nowadays the nine days were viewed as an unimportant interlude before the reign of Mary Tudor.
I tried to find out more but the only two books readily available from my local library were Hester Chapman’s biography and Alison Plowden’s ‘Lady Jane Grey and the House of Suffolk.’
A few years later I came across Frank Prochaska’s article in History Today, ‘The Many Faces of Lady Jane Grey.’ This re-awakened my interest and I searched all the books I could find.
The lack of many books about Jane, led to the idea for my website. The nine days happened and Lady Jane lost her life because of them. Her place in history should not be over looked because of a lack of available information.
Over the last 10 years more books either about Jane or featuring her have been published.
Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII
Alison Weir
Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen
Alison Plowden
Tudor Cousins: Rivals for the Throne
Dulcie M Ashdown
The Chronicles of the Tudor Queens
David Loades
The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black Legend of the Dudleys
Derek Wilson
Some of the writings of Lady Jane have also been re-issued ‘in Documents of Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen of England 1553’ by James D Taylor Jr.
Stephan Edwards provides a critical review of some of these books and many others at his website ‘Some Grey Matter.’ (http://www.somegreymatter.com/index.html)
