NPG – Unknown Woman | Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide

Unknown woman, formerly known as Lady Jane Dudley
Unknown Artist
National Portrait Gallery

This portrait was on display as part of the ‘On the Nature of Women: Tudor and Jacobean Portraits of Women 1535-1620’ at Montacute House in Somerset between April and October 2008 and March and November 2009. See ‘On the Nature of Women’ for details.

It was reported in May 2008 that a copy of a rare portrait of the young Princess Elizabeth had been discovered in the private collection at Boughton House, Northamptonshire. The portrait shows Henry VIII, his jester Will Somers, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth.

Research by historians Alison Weir and Tracy Borman in the June issue of the BBC History Magazine, suggests that this new portrait of Elizabeth could be used to identify the portrait of an unknown woman owned by the National Portrait Gallery and previously thought to be Lady Jane Grey. They also mention other similar portraits at Syon House, Audley End House and Berry Hill.

A New Face for the Virgin Queen by Alison Weir and Tracy Borman (BBC History Magazine, June 2008)

The Boughton House portrait can be found in the following:

The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the secrets of Britain’s greatest dynasty by Tracy Borman

Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots by Kate Williams

The National Portrait Gallery painting can be found in the following:

Lady Jane Grey by Hester W Chapman

A Queen of a New Invention: Portraits of Lady Jane Grey Dudley, England’s ‘Nine Days Queen’ by Stephan Edwards

The Chronicles of the Tudor Queens by David Loades

Silent But For The Word: Tudor Women as Patrons, Translators, and Writers of Religious Works edited by Margaret Patterson Hannay

Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth by Mary S Lovell

The House of Tudor by Alison Plowden

Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen by Alison Plowden