![]() ![]() ![]() This is a truly tragic story, but through it shines a brave, intelligent and principled young woman, who deserves acknowledgement of her place in history. At the age of just 17 she bravely refused to recant her faith and was beheaded on Tower Green. She was destined never to leave it, as her witless father organised a cock-eyed and hopeless rebellion against Mary, which forced the Queen reluctantly to order Jane and Guildford's execution. Inevitably she was overthrown and sent to the Tower. Jane tried to make the best of it, in her brief rule she demonstrated her strength of character and refusal to bow down to the men who tried to manipulate her, but she was doomed by the lack of support from the people, who wanted Mary to reign. Tallis picks apart the scanty evidence of Jane's short existence, giving a excellent picture of her growing up in one of the most powerfully-connected nobles families, her formidable intelligence and her love of study, her passion for the reformed faith, her forced marriage to Guildford Dudley and the utterly tragic story of how, very much against her will, she was selected as a figurehead by powerful and unscrupulous men to take the throne instead of her fiercely Catholic cousin Mary. ![]() An engaging, very readable account of the short life of the most tragic Tudor, Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Day Queen (or as Tallis points out, actually the 13 Day Queen). One of the best books on the Tudors I have read for a long times. ![]()
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