To Feel Sympathy for Lady Jane Grey

[ClareBlue]

I know she was executed nearly 500 years ago but you've got to feel for her even after all this time. She never wanted to become Queen but her father persuaded Edward VI to change the law and nominate her in his will to succeed him to avoid Mary, her cousin from succeeding who was Catholic and they wanted to keep it Protestant. The top bods supported this and she was made Queen, even though she said she was reluctant. Then Mary got pissed and raised an army. All top bods said Jane should not be Queen and she was dethroned 9 days later. Mary had her tried and sentenced to burn (nice) but decided to put her in the tower instead, like an original bubble, so to speak. She got married to a powerful guy but obviously couldn't break lockdown so stayed in the tower. Then daddy decided to rebel against the queen marrying Philip of Spain even though it was non of his business 🙄 So Mary thought the dad might get rid of her and reinstate Jane as Queen. Jane said she was not interested in being Queen but she was beheaded anyway, just in case. Along with husband and Dad a few months later. She was given a last chance to convert to Catholic and save her life. But she refused and said her faith was more important than her life.
She was 17 when executed
And I'm remembering her now because she was executed in 1554 and still deserves to be remembered.

[pollyglot]

I agree entirely. Poor girl - clever, intellectual, devout-and as with most royal women, simply a pawn in the schemes of ambitious family.

[BitOfFun]

Do you know of anybody who doesn't feel sympathy for her? Assuming they've heard anything about her, of course. I can muster a fair bit for Anne Boleyn too, even if some people think she was at least partly the architect of her own demise. Women of all classes had the shitty end of the stick back then, in relative terms to men. They still do.

History is a good thing to be interested in, definitely.

[ZaraCarmichaelshighheels]

There is a really good documentary on IPlayer I think about Lady Jane, it’s fascinating but she was not as innocent as you think, She wanted to hold onto that crown!

[BitOfFun]

This is such a powerful painting. I got to see it in National Gallery last year, and it was quite breathtaking.

[BitOfFun]

Zara, I'm going to put that on my watch list, thanks!

[IHaveBrilloHair]

I watched the film about her a while ago on Netflix, not sure if it's still on there but it has a young Cary Elwes in it.

[loreleigilmore28]

Excellent post OP. Totally agree, she was so young when she died.

[jessstan2]

You're not at all unreasonable. Poor girl, she was used as were so many at that time.

[mrbob]

Poor kid. Women of that time were just pawns and then suffered the consequences of men’s decisions

[SwelteringInTheHeat]

YANBU. She had no choice in any of it.
Alison Weir wrote a great fiction based on her life called “innocent traitor”, if anyone’s interested. Great book!

[ClareBlue]

I was reading about her as a Protestant Martar, so they might have played down her ambitions to keep the crown and focused on the faith battle between her and Mary. She seemed to have a strong sisterly bond with her sister Catherine too. What I can not work out is how Elizabeth survived her sister Mary to take over and rule for so long and change it back to Protestant. Mary was some piece of work. Best to stay on the right side of her.

[Pixxie7]

Because she believed in the supreme right of kings so couldn’t execute her half sister. Mary was brought up Catholic and Elizabeth Protestant.