The October issue of BBC History Magazine has an article by Tracy Borman that has the briefest mention of Lady Jane.
‘The lie of succession’ looks at ‘evidence that the transition from Tudor to Stuart dynasties may not have been quite as seamless as we’ve been led to believe.’ The article includes potential claimants to the throne and among them is Lady Katherine Grey and her descendants.
‘In March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, lies dying at Richmond Palace. The queen’s ministers cluster round her bedside, urging her to name her successor – something she has stubbornly resisted throughout her reign. Almost with her last breath she whispers that James VI of Scotland should succeed her. She dies shortly afterwards and the throne of England passes peacefully from Tudor to Stuart.
Or so we’ve been led to believe . . .
But, as enthralling new research shows, this is not what happened. In the years that followed, history was literally re-written on the orders of James VI to hide the truth: Elizabeth went to her grave without formally naming an heir. The notion of an approved succession from Tudors to Stuarts is little more than an elaborately constructed fiction.
And so James’s rule in England began with a lie – a lie that went on to have devastating consequences. The Stuart regime rapidly descended into turbulence and uncertainty, conspiracy and persecution, witchcraft and gunpowder – culminating in the destruction of the monarchy in the English Civil War.’
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Further details – Amazon.co.uk
‘These are the stories of the female kings: women who risked everything, sometimes unwillingly, to find their place in a man’s world.
Female kings have always been a rarity, an oddity, or an undesirable outcome. In almost all places throughout the world a male ruler was preferred to a woman, with female inheritance vanishingly rare and frequently disputed. In spite of this, women have secured crowns – or fought for them – over several millennia.
From the lush oases of Ancient Egypt to the cherry blossomed lands of Japan, the machinations of the Tudor court to the far reaches of Pacific Island kingdoms, Women Who Ruled the World is an expansive and comprehensive history of female royal power.
Covering five millennia of global history, renowned historian Elizabeth Norton weaves together the stories of women rulers throughout the ages. Establishing beloved and already celebrated figures amongst those who have been left in the margins of history, Norton peels away the layers of time, geography and culture to reveal what it was to be a woman who ruled.’
Further details – Amazon.co.uk
Last month, Dr Stephan Edwards and I were incredibly lucky to view these documents relating to Lady Jane Grey at the Inner Temple Library, London.
Our grateful thanks to the Librarian and Keeper of the Manuscripts, Rob Hodgson, for this private visit to the library that we will never forget.
Devise for the Succession
[Petyt MS 538 vol. 47 f.317]
Written in his own handwriting, Edward VI drafted his ideas for who should succeed him. Originally the King left the throne to ‘L’ Jane’s heires masles’ but later changed this to ‘L’ Jane and her heires masles.’
Original letter of Lady Jane Grey as Queen
18 July 1553
[Petyt MS 538 vol. 47 f.12]
‘On the 18th July 1553 Lady Jane Grey wrote to Sir John St. Lowe and Sir Anthony Kingston, signing herself “Jane the Quene” and instructing them: “Our most lawful possession of the crown, with the free consent of the nobility of our Realm and the states of the same is both plainly known and accepted”. She requires them “to assemble, muster and levy all the power you can possibly make, either of your servants, tenants, officers or friends, as well horsemen as footmen, reserving to the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke their tenants servants and officers, and to repair with all possible speed towards Buckinghamshire, for the repressing and subduing of certain tumults and rebellions moved there against us and our crown, by certain seditious men”. (1)
Original Letter signed ‘Mary the Queene’
9 July 1553
[Petyt MS 538 vol. 47 f.13]
‘Three days after Edward’s death, on the 9th July 1553, Mary sent this letter to Hastings from Kenninghall manor, Norfolk signing herself “Marye the Quene”. In the letter Mary announces the death of Edward “upon Thursday late at night”, by which the crown had come to her “by act of parliament and by the testament and last will of our late dearest father King Henry the Eighth”. She orders Hastings to secure “the surety of our person, the universal quietness of the whole realm, specially that of our counties of Middlesex and Bucks”.’ (2)
Sources
1.‘Booklet of the Treasures’, Inner Temple Library & Archives Grand Day Treasures (November 2024), p.4. URL: https://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Booklet-of-the-Treasures.pdf Date accessed: 10 August 2025.
2.Booklet of the Treasures’, Inner Temple Library & Archives Grand Day Treasures (November 2024), p.3. URL: https://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Booklet-of-the-Treasures.pdf Date accessed: 10 August 2025.
‘Secrets of the Tudor Portraits’ by Sylvia Soberton added to the General Works section of the bibliography.
Entries added to the following:
Art – Paintings – Jersey and Master John.
Primary Accounts – Ascham
