Last month, Bradgate Park Trust held a series of events to commemorate the ‘Queen of Bradgate Park.’
I was honoured to deliver the eulogy at the Remembrance and Rose Petal Service for Lady Jane at Bradgate Chapel on Sunday 16th July.
You can read the eulogy here.
Issue 18 of History of Royals Magazine has an article that briefly mentions Lady Jane.
In ‘The Mystery of the Lost Princes’, seven historians give their opinion about the fate of the sons of King Edward IV. Matthew Lewis mentions Jane’s husband, Guildford Dudley, in his view about what happened to the Princes in the Tower.
(c) The British Library Publishing Division
‘Tudor Monarchs: Lives in Letters’ by Andrea Clarke added to the General Works section of the bibliography.
Entry added to the following:
Writings of Lady Jane Grey – Signatures.
8th August – The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory
‘‘How long do I have?’ I force a laugh.
‘Not long,’ he says very quietly. ‘They have confirmed your sentence of death. You are to be beheaded tomorrow. We don’t have long at all.’
Seventeen-year-old Jane Grey was queen of England for nine days. Using her position as cousin to the deceased king, her father and his conspirators put her on the throne ahead of the king’s half-sister Mary, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her crown and locked Jane in the Tower. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block. There Jane turned her father’s greedy, failed grab for power into her own brave and tragic martyrdom.
‘Learn you to die’ is the advice that Jane gives in a letter to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and find love. But her lineage makes her a threat to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and, when Mary dies, to her sister Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a potential royal heir before she does. So when Katherine’s secret marriage is revealed by her pregnancy, she too must go to the Tower.
‘Farewell, my sister,’ writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary finds it easy to keep secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare. After watching her sisters defy the queen, Mary is aware of her own perilous position as a possible heir to the throne. But she is determined to command her own destiny and be the last Tudor to risk her life in matching wits with her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Elizabeth.’
Further details – Philippa Gregory
Further details – Simon and Schuster UK
Further details – Amazon.co.uk
7th August 2017 – Discovering Tudor London: A Journey Back in Time by Natalie Grueninger (paper back)
‘This engaging and practical travel guide takes you on a journey through the best of Tudor London, to sites built and associated with this fascinating dynasty, and to the museums and galleries that house tantalising treasures from this rich period of history. Join the author as she explores evocative historical sites, including the magnificent great hall of Eltham Palace, the most substantial surviving remnant of the medieval palace where Henry VIII spent time as a child, and the lesser-known delights of St Helen’s Church, dubbed the ‘Westminster Abbey of the City’ for its impressive collection of Tudor monuments. A range of photographs, maps and visitor information, together with an informative narrative, bring the most intriguing personalities and stories of the thirty plus sites across Greater London vividly to life. This a must have companion for both those planning their own ‘Tudor pilgrimage’ and for the armchair traveller alike.’
