The 12 year old actress who plays Lady Jane Grey in a film for the ‘Queen Katherine Parr Quincentenary Festival 2012 at Sudeley Castle, was interviewed by the Gloucestershire Echo.
Winchcombe Word – Starring a Lady Jane Grey
Apparently there is a distant connection between the actress and Lady Jane. According to another article, Francesca is descended from one of Jane’s siters.
Lady Jane Grey film: casting was just fate
Further information about the celebrations available at:
Gillian Blagwell, author of ‘The Darling Strumpet’ and ‘The September Queen’ is currently working on a new novel about Bess of Hardwick.
As part of her research she has assembled a wonderful collection of paintings and photos of people and places related to Bess.
Bess of Hardwick – Pin Interest
These include some Lady Jane Grey related objects:
Syon Portrait of ‘Jane Grey’
The ruins of Bradgate House
Letter from Queen Jane to the sheriff and men of Surrey.
Lady Jane Grey’s prayerbook
Effigy of Frances Grey at Westminster Abbey
Last week I had a very interesting and enjoyable conversation with Lara from ‘Tudor History Blog’ on Twitter (@tudorhistory) about the two ‘Jane’ carvings on the walls of the Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London.
The Tower of London Virtual Guide states that there was a third ‘Jane’ carving but it was destroyed during building work.
’48. “JANE” This interesting inscription, repeated also in the window (85), has always been supposed to refer to the Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and wife of Guildford Dudley, fourth son of the Duke of Northumberland. A second repetition in another part of the room was unfortunately obliterated when a new window was made to fit this chamber for a mess-room.
It is sometimes, but erroneously, supposed that the name was carved by this Queen often days herself hut it is improbable that she was ever imprisoned in the Beauchamp Tower. She is known to have lived in the house of Partridge, the Gaoler.
It is much more probable that the two inscriptions were placed on the wall either by Lord Guildford Dudley, her husband, or by his brother…’ (Tower of London Virtual Guide).
Historic Royal Palaces (@HRP_Learning) very kindly posted photos of the two carvings and details of their location in the room in the Beauchamp Tower (one is by the window; the other is on a wall between two window bays).
Natalie at ‘On the Tudor Trail’ is running a competition to win a signed copy of ‘The Winter King’ by Thomas Penn.
The paperback is published today (1st March).
You have until 5th March to enter.
1st March – Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn – Paperback
‘He were a dark prince, and infinitely suspicious, and his times full of secret conspiracies and troubles’, Sir Francis Bacon
It was 1501. England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and counter-coups. Henry VII had clambered to the top of the heap – a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England’s crown who through luck, guile and ruthlessness had managed to win the throne and stay on it for sixteen years. Although he built palaces, hosted jousts, gave out lavish presents and sent ambassadors across Europe, for many he remained a usurper, a false king.
But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. Now, in what would be the crowning glory of his reign, his elder son would marry a great Spanish princess. On a cold November day this girl, the sixteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon, arrived in London for a wedding upon which the fate of England would hinge…
In his remarkable debut, Thomas Penn recreates an England which is both familiar and very strange – a country that seems medieval yet modern, in which honour and chivalry mingle with espionage, realpolitik, high finance and corruption. It is the story of the transformation of a young, vulnerable boy, Prince Henry, into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen. And at its heart is the tragic, magnetic figure of Henry VII – controlling, paranoid, avaricious, with a Machiavellian charm and will to power.
Rich with incident and drama, filled with wonderfully drawn characters, Winter King is an unforgettable story of pageantry, surveillance, the thirst for glory – and the fraught, unstable birth of Tudor England.
From Amazon.co.uk
