‘Lady Katherine Grey: A Dynastic Tragedy’ by Conor Byrne added to the Other Biographies section of the bibliography.
Entries added to the following:
Primary Accounts – Aschan, Chapel, Spinola, Captivity, Trial,
Writings of Lady Jane Grey – Letters – Letter to Sir Thomas Seymour, Letters as Queen, Farewell Letters – Letters to Father, Letter to Katherine Grey, Speech from Scaffold.
‘Rome 1611.
A jewel-bright place of change, with sumptuous new palaces and lavish wealth on display. A city where women are seen but not heard.
Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist. Motherless, she grows up among a family of painters – men and boys. She knows she is more talented than her brothers, but she cannot choose her own future. She wants to experience the world, but she belongs to her father and will belong to a husband.
As Artemisia patiently goes from lesson to lesson, perfecting her craft, she also paints in private, recreating the women who inspire her, away from her father’s eyes.
Until a mysterious tutor enters her life. Tassi is a dashing figure, handsome and worldly, and for a moment he represents everything that a life of freedom might offer. But then the unthinkable happens.
In the eyes of her family, Artemisia should accept her fate. In the eyes of the law, she is the villain.
But Artemisia is a survivor. And this is her story to tell.’
Further details – Amazon.co.uk
‘Some of the stories told in these records, of pretenders to the throne, of people who laid claim to the throne and others whose names were used in vain as part of rebellions, uprisings, and plots.
The series gets its name from the leather bags that these records were contained in.
Our next pretender is Lady Jane Grey, the nine days queen that reigned between Edward VI and Mary I in 1553.
For the purposes of this talk, Lady Jane Grey is a pretender to the throne because that is what Mary I accused her of being in her trial records.
The Protestant Edward VI not wanting his Catholic sister Mary to succeed him, had instead named Lady Jane Grey as his successor.
One of Mary I’s first acts as Queen was to punish these usurpers, including Lady Jane Grey.
Lady Jane Grey was tried in November of that same year along with Archbishop Cranmer, Guildford Dudley, Ambrose Dudley and Henry Dudley.
It is these trial records that are contained in KB 8/23 and pictured on the slide is the leather bag that these records would have been kept in.
The lettering on the bag was a Latin inscription saying where and when this trial occurred.
At the Guildhall in the City of London on 13 November 1553 before the Mayor of London, Sir Thomas White.
The indictment of Lady Jane Grey is collected with her trial records.
The indictment describes how Guildford Dudley and his wife, Lady Jane took possession of the Tower of London and proclaimed Jane to be the true and undoubted Queen of England.
Though Jane could have claimed to be a pawn in these machinations, what ultimately condemned her, was the fact that she signed several writings as Jane the Quene, ie. she denied the authority of and usurped the true Queen, Mary I.
This document is another really common record in the bag of secrets series. It is a commission of oyer and terminer, which was special commissions made by the crown to investigate wrong doing.
Authorised by the crown using the royal seal.
This commission dated 11 November 1553, appointed the judges for the trial of Lady Jane Grey and the others, which would take place 2 days later.
Here’s the seal attached to this commission in a little more detail, along with an image of the beginning of the commission which begins ‘Maria, the Latin for Mary.
The great seal was how the crown authenticated documents. When a monarch succeeded to the throne, one of the first things that had to happen was that a new great seal was made, to replace the seal of the previous monarch.
However, Lady Jane Grey’s trial happened so soon into Mary I’s reign that the new great seal had not yet been made. So Mary was forced to authenticate the commission using the great seal of her predecessor, Edward VI.
Considering that it was Edward’s device for the succession that had named Jane as his successor in the first place, there is a great irony that his seal would be used to authorise Jane’s trial.
Another key record collected in the bag of secrets was the pleadings or plea rolls which contained the copies of the indictments and the verdict of those on trial.
These plea rolls are made on the day of the trial. Lady Jane Grey and all those who were tried with her were found guilty of high treason against Mary I.
The trial record states that Lady Jane Grey was to be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded, as the Queen should please.
March 2024 – 1000 Tudor People by Melita Thomas
‘The incredible lives and deaths of 1000 Tudor people are explored in this authoritative single volume: royalty, military and religious leaders, Lords Chancellor, Knights of the Garter, philosophers, traders, gardeners, musicians, rebels, witches and many more feature in this illustrated compendium. Every Tudor follower should have this as their companion.’
‘In 1601, as the reign of Elizabeth I drew to a close, the civil lawyer Thomas Wilson identified the prevailing uncertainty over the English succession: ‘upon whose head it will fall is by many doubted’. During the first decade of the last Tudor monarch’s reign, however, Lady Katherine Grey, great-granddaughter of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, and sister of the ill-fated Lady Jane, was widely viewed as the heir to Elizabeth’s throne, especially by Protestants hostile to the prospect of a Catholic succession. This book proposes a re-examination of the life and legacy of Katherine Grey in the context of late sixteenth-century succession debates, sexual intrigue and Reformation politics. Katherine’s importance as a claimant to the throne of Elizabeth I will also be explored with regard to contemporary attitudes to female monarchy. While Katherine has usually been identified as a tragic figure, her significance as heiress to the crown, according to the last will and testament of Henry VIII, has perhaps been neglected given that Elizabeth was eventually succeeded by James VI of Scotland, son of the executed Mary, Queen of Scots. If the wishes of Henry had been followed, however, then it would surely have been Katherine’s eldest son, Edward, who became king of England in the spring of 1603.’
Further details – Amazon.co.uk
