Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide

The Good Book Guide reviews ‘Tudor’ by Leanda de Lisle

Posted on 31st January 2014 by Tamise

Another excellent review for ‘Tudor: The Family Story’ by Leanda de Lisle.

‘Unlike many books that claim to tell the story of the Tudors, but focus mainly on four characters (namely Henry VIII and his three children who all ruled England after him), this excellent book includes so many members of the Tudor family who may not always be forgotten, but are often sidelined.

Henry Tudor himself would have been nothing without the determination of his mother, Margaret Beaufort, who gave birth to him as a thirteen-year-old widow, but was still by his side when he died 52 years later. Henry VIII may be at the heart of this book, but the importance of his sisters is also recognised. His elder sister Margaret, married James IV of Scotland, acting as regent after his death, while his younger sister, Mary, was briefly Queen of France, and her grandchildren, the Grey sisters, were pawns in many a Tudor power play. From Lady Margaret, the obsessive mother of Henry VII, through to his childless granddaughter, Elizabeth, this is the full story of a fascinating family.’

The Good Book Guide – 2 January 2014

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Lady Jane Grey Stamp

Posted on 26th January 2014 by Tamise

Lady Jane Grey was included in a set of Tudor stamps in 2009. I just found this blog post that features the Lady Jane stamp at The British Postal Museum & Archive.

The British Postal Museum & Archive – Kings and Queens: Constructing a Legacy

You can buy the Tudor set of stamps here:

Tudor Stamps –Buckingham Covers

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Margaret Tudor: Book of Hours

Posted on 12th January 2014 by Tamise

I’ve just finished reading the wonderful ‘Crown of Thistles: The Fatal Inheritance of Mary, Queen of Scots’ by Linda Porter and have started ‘Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen’ by Alison Weir. Both authors use the same picture of Margaret from the ‘Book of Hours of James IV and Margaret Tudor’ which I hadn’t seen before. It makes you realise just how young she was when she got married.

Margaret Tudor at prayer, ONB/Vienna, Cod. 1897, fol.243v p.509

Image from Wikipedia

Linda Porter writes that it was a gift from James IV of Scotland to his new queen, when they were married on 8th August 1503.

‘Yet one most beautiful artefact does survive from all the splendour and pageantry of the occasion, though sadly it cannot be seen in Scotland. This the Book of Hours of James IV and Margaret Tudor, a superbly decorated late medieval manuscript now held in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.

We can be certain that this was a gift to Margaret when she became queen of Scotland…Margaret, in her picture, kneels before an altar, dressed in gold, with a blue velvet jacket and train. She looks, as indeed she was, very young. As with her husband, the likeness would appear to be consistent with the few other portraits we have of her.

We cannot be sure of the emotional significance Margaret attached to her Book of Hours. At some point after she became a widow, she gave it to her sister, Princess Mary Tudor, who may, in turn, have passed it on to their niece, later Queen Mary I. By the mid-seventeenth century it had found its way into the hands of Leopold of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor. It remains in Vienna, the tangible and sumptuous witness of sixteenth-century Britain’s most important royal marriage.’ (p.146-147, Porter).