Very well researched and informative. The author looks beyond the myths surrounding the Grey sisters and uses primary sources to get to the truth of the matter. Truly excellent reading.

Excellent, readable history -- though not for those who only want a positive portrait of Elizabeth I. I hadn't realized how significant Lady Jane Grey was, and I hadn't even heard of her sisters.

It is rare to find a book about the Tudor era that covers substantial new ground, but Leanda de Lisle achieves it quote notably in The Sisters Who Would Be Queen. Beyond the myth of Lady Jane Grey, you have three sisters who were at times pawns and at times role models. Although much has been written about Jane, her sisters Katherine and Mary are even more fascinating with clandestine marriages, imprisonment, redemption and in one case survival.

The Stuart vs. Tudor/Brandon claims to the throne are meticulously detailed. If the Henrician era was thought to be one of the toughest and bloodiest this book debunks that myth. By far the machinations for the Tudor throne were more terrifying.

"I have send you, good sister Katherine, a book, which, though it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, yet inwardly it is of more worth than precious stones. It will teach you to live it will learn you to die..."

Leanda de Lisle's The Sisters Who Would Be Queen offers fascinating insight into the lives of the previously overlooked Grey sisters. Thoroughly researched, the book depicts a contrasting image of Jane Grey: a strong-willed figure, raised to become a fierce leader. The impression created of Jane during the previous years (and centuries) was of an innocent and powerless girl, incapable of making her own decisions and prone to the controlling force of others. We are finally presented with a genuine description of the woman she really was, a woman born to be a queen.

The stories of her two sisters, Katherine and Mary, are utterly tragic and unsettling. Forced to spend a substantial part of their lives imprisoned and isolated from everyone they loved, they became the victims in an international quest for power. It is clearly evident that they chose to have a life of warmth and affection, disregarding their role in the succession. Nevertheless, they represented a great threat towards the English monarchy and, consequently, they were not allowed to live and die freely. Sadly, they remained prisoners in a war they could not fight.

The three Grey sisters seem to have been doomed from the start. Proud, uncompromising and determined, they were compelled to endure the sufferings of sacrifice, depression and isolation in the only way each of them knew how. "Learn to die..." indeed.

Extremely interesting book about Lady Jane Grey and her sisters. Did even know she had sisters? Theirs is a fascinating and tragic story, but also a completey different side of the Tudor dynastic struggle than I've ever heard before. Very engaging.

This book, unfortunately, seemed to take me forever to get through. I've read a good amount of history books on the Tudors (and just history in general) and this book just seemed lackluster. Rarely do we get to see letters referring to, from, or to the gray sisters though these letters are often talked about. Mary Grey is barely covered. It seems like Katherine Grey's sons are covered more than Mary Grey. Lots of info is repeated multiple times. You just don't get a good feel for the type of women the Grey sisters were. There is also very little opinion on the Grey sisters which is crucial for a history book that you are basing off less noted people. Still it is at least worth a read.

I really enjoyed reading and learning more about the Grey sisters - in fact, before this book, I barely knew of the existence of the younger two Grey sisters. I know a good deal of information about the big players in the Tudor era, but not the less prominent ones. I’m quickly trying to remedy that by now actively seeking out books about all of the “side characters” of this time period.

Lady Jane Grey’s story is well-known, but that is what a lot of it is…story. The facts have been twisted and manipulated to fit particular time periods and particular ideas of women as a type of propaganda. Lady Jane was not the beautiful, obedient, malleable young woman with uncaring, cruel parents who thought nothing of her safety. Jane was plain, highly intelligent, and devout in her Protestant faith. She never sought the throne, but once it was offered to her through Edward VI’s will and the Privy Council, she took it as God’s will and vowed to her best. Her mother, Frances Brandon, was not intentionally cruel to Jane or her other daughters but is immortalized as such throughout history since she pleaded her case with Queen Mary and removed herself from overt Protestant faith, and that of her daughter’s cause, in order to appear conservative and to protect her other young daughters from a similar fate.

Lady Mary Grey was the youngest of the sisters. She served Queen Elizabeth and eventually fell in love with a man of lesser rank than her. They married without the queen’s consent and were imprisoned and separated from each other for the rest of their lives.

It was the middle sister’s, Katherine Grey’s, story which resonated with me the most. Hers was the most romantic and heartbreaking. She, too, served Queen Elizabeth, her cousin. She was kept close to ensure she wasn’t after the throne. Eventually, she fell in love with Edward Seymour, the Earl of Hertford (who was the elder son of Edward Seymour, Lord Protector). Both had links to the blood royal and both of their father’s has been executed for treason. They were well-matched in age and heart. Queen Elizabeth, as well as others, warned them to stay away from each other. Yet, they could not and decided to marry secretly. The queen was unaware until Katherine was almost at the end of her pregnancy with her first son. The queen looked for danger everywhere, and the joining of the Seymour and Grey lines, especially with a male heir, greatly threatened her throne, even though Katherine and Hertford did not desire it. The Council, Cecil in particular, approved of Katherine as heir to Elizabeth and constantly pushed the issue and it was always possible that others would rise in rebellion to place Katherine and Hertford on the throne because female rule was an unnatural thing and Elizabeth was cleverly sidestepping every suitor presented to her. Katherine and her husband ended up in the Tower but lived. They were eventually placed on house arrest separately from each other and were never allowed to see each other again.

I’ll now leave you with the last paragraph of the book proper which remains etched in my mind:

Bradgate remains one of the most romantic places in Leicestershire and deeply evocative of its Tudor past. If the house still stood it would surely be thick with the history of later times: eighteenth-century portraits of bewigged grandees, mementos of men who died in the Great War, fading photographs of children who have grown. Instead, there is little more than the crumbling brick the sisters would have known and the deer picking through the trees in the park, as quiet as ghosts (page 280).

You can see the original review here.

Very interesting read, paints a very different picture of Lady Jane Grey. Far from being an innocent pawn in the fight for the crown after being persuaded to accept it she actually becomes determined to remain queen as the alternative would be a catholic as queen and seemingly that would be a bad thing. This is a young woman who would rather die than take the catholic mass.

The way Elizabeth deals with Jane's sisters Katherine and Mary after they marry without royal approval makes her come across as insecure,cruel and vindictive. Her actions can be seen as understandable in Katherine's case as her children were heirs to the throne but Mary had no children and was no threat to her.