{"id":762,"date":"2010-03-04T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T08:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.ladyjanegrey.info\/?p=762"},"modified":"2017-03-07T17:33:24","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:33:24","slug":"faking-jane-by-leanda-de-lisle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/?p=762","title":{"rendered":"Faking Jane by Leanda de Lisle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leanda de Lisle\u2019s article in the March issue of BBC History Magazine<\/b><\/a> focuses on how the legend of Lady Jane \u2018inspired a fraud\u2019 (p35)<\/i> that has lasted for over a century.<\/p>\n

Only one contemporary description of the teenage Queen exists and has been used to identify various portraits but De Lisle argues that this letter is a fake and with this discovery, Lady Jane disappears from view.<\/p>\n

The letter written by Baptista Spinola, a merchant from Genoa, describes Queen Jane\u2019s procession to the Tower of London on 10th July 1553. (You can read his account here – Spinola<\/b><\/a>). This description of Jane was first published in \u2018The Nine Days Queen: Lady Jane Grey and Her Times\u2019 by Richard Davey in 1909.<\/p>\n

De Lisle describes how while researching her latest book, (\u2018The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey\u2019), she was unable to find the original letter in the Genoa archives or in any works prior to Davey.<\/p>\n

She writes that it \u2018became clear the letter is a fake that mixes details from contemporary sources with fiction\u2019 (p.36)<\/i>. The main points of her argument are:<\/p>\n

\u2022\tThe physical description of Jane in the letter also fits that of Delaroche\u2019s painting, \u2018The Execution of Lady Jane Grey\u2019 and is similar to contemporary descriptions of Mary Tudor.<\/p>\n

\u2022\tIn London at the time there was a merchant called Benedict Spinola and a soldier called Baptista Spinola.<\/p>\n

\u2022\tSpinola\u2019s description of Jane\u2019s clothes is similar to an illustration in Arden Holt\u2019s \u2018Fancy Dresses Described\u2019 which was published in 1882.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

(Thanks to Sonja Marie at The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum<\/a><\/b>.)<\/p>\n

\u2022\tDavey\u2019s book contains other \u2018invented\u2019 facts relating to Jane\u2019s imprisonment.<\/p>\n

De Lisle argues that Davey \u2018seems to have spotted a need for an account of Jane\u2019 (p36)<\/i>and with her revelation that Spinola\u2019s letter is most probably a fake, it is one that still needs to be met.<\/p>\n

Quotes – copyright BBC History Magazine<\/i>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leanda de Lisle\u2019s article in the March issue of BBC History Magazine focuses on how the legend of Lady Jane \u2018inspired a fraud\u2019 (p35) that has lasted for over a century. Only one contemporary description of the teenage Queen exists … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[108,85,38,61],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bbc-history-magazine","tag-delaroche","tag-spinola","tag-sisters-who-would-be-queen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5559,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/5559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}