In his will, Henry VIII left a set of ‘The City of Ladies’ tapestries to Edward and another set to Elizabeth. Lady Jane Grey is mentioned in theories put forward by historians to trace the ownership of Henry’s tapestries.
In ‘City of Ladies’, Susan Groag Bell rejects her own theory that one of the above sets of tapestries could have originally been purchased by Henry VIII for his sister Mary as a wedding gift. She argues that the tapestries would have eventually passed to Mary’s granddaughter, Jane Grey.
Dr Erin Sadlack in ‘The French Queen’s Letters’, suggests that Bells’s orginal theory could be correct, as Mary had to return many of her goods to Henry after she married Charles Brandon.
These theories can be found in the following:
Women and power at the French court, 1483-1563 Susan Broomhall
The Lost Tapestries of the City of Ladies: Christine De Pizan’s Renaissance Legacy by Susan Groag Bell
The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth Century Europe by Erin A Sadlack
