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chyde's review against another edition
4.0
9th book of 2010. I've always been fascinated by Lady Jane Grey and knew absolutely nothing about her sisters. Turns out that they are both fascinating as well! I wish the book were a little longer actually, and talked more about Mary. Still a very good, interesting read.
freeflyt's review against another edition
5.0
The writing is interesting and clear. I feel that there was much substance in the facts, theories, and character descriptions. This book is filled cover-to-cover with good stories and neat tid-bits, many of which were new to me. This author's writing style was engaging. I felt no space was wasted, and that the story was told efficiently, with a fulfilling and thoughtful ending.
I really enjoyed the author's analysis of the different projections and portrayals of Elizabeth I, Jane Gray, and Francis Brandon, from different perspectives at different times. I really learned much about Francis in this book. Excitedly, I look forward to reading more from this author.
I really enjoyed the author's analysis of the different projections and portrayals of Elizabeth I, Jane Gray, and Francis Brandon, from different perspectives at different times. I really learned much about Francis in this book. Excitedly, I look forward to reading more from this author.
crankylibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
Most Tudor-philes are familiar with Lady Jane Grey, the tragic "9 Days Queen" bullied by her parents and in-laws into usurping the crown from Mary Tudor. The story is far more complicated however; Jane and her 2 younger sisters were considered the true heirs by a significant portion of the British population, and Jane's accession was the honest intent of the young King Edward. The Grey sisters had three advantages over Henry VIII's daughter Mary: they were unquestionably legitimate, they were Protestant, and they were 100% English with English husbands. De Lisle dispels many of the romantic myths that have grown up around Lady Jane: though shy, she was no innocent pawn but considered herself a leader of the Protestant cause. De Lisle also redeems from obscurity Jane's younger sister Katherine, whose secret marriage to a Protestant nobleman produced a male heir, making the Greys more of a threat to Queen Elizabeth's throne than the infamous Mary, Queen of Scots.
A fascinating dissection of how gender, religion, and xenophobia continued to threaten the succession for several generations.
A fascinating dissection of how gender, religion, and xenophobia continued to threaten the succession for several generations.
cancermoononhigh's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.0
It was an interesting book to read for a few reasons, it is hard to find a book during Elizabeth's time that isn't all about her or portraying her in such a way, but also interesting in getting to know the reasons behind why the Grey Sisters became such a thorn to Queen Elizabeth.
The future of the Grey Sisters were dominated by one document, King Henry's will. The entire Stuart Line, King Henry's eldest sister were excluded from succession. Henry's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth were deemed illegitimate. King Henry's younger sister Mary Brendon and her descendants were to be the successors of the crown, which meant by the stroke of a pen Lady Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey were named the heirs to Elizabeth.
King Edward also excluded his sisters, not forgetting that Elizabeth's mother died as a traitor to his father and an adulteress. Edward also believed, more so than his father, that only a man can wield full authority of the crown. In his mind, King Edward left his throne not to a woman, but to the sons Frances (the sisters mother) may produce. King Edward's will left an empty throne. The Grey sisters and their cousin Mary Clifford had to be lined up for a race to the birthing bed. King Edward described his relationship with the Grey sisters as if they were his own, his "true sisters." Edward did bypass Frances in the end and for Jane to be his heir.
Jane was the eldest Grey sister, the most important in rank and had the most time and money invested in her schooling. Jane's mother at the age of 9 had her join her in at King Henry's court as to prepare her for her role as Maid of Honor, serving Queen Catherine Parr. Jane ended up marrying Guilford Dudley, this marriage bounded the Dudleys to the Greys. Jane and her younger sister by 3 years, Katherine, were married on the same day. Katherine at the age of 12 was married to 15 year old Lord Henry Herbert.
The moment Jane found out King Edward died, she fell to the ground and wept, when she stopped she came to her feet and delivered a speech, which made clear that she intended to rule and not be a mere cipher. The day ended with her being proclaimed Queen Jane,with Mary and Elizabeth as illegitimate to the Crown. 9 days later Queen Mary was proclaimed Queen, she would soon become a prisoner. Queen Mary did want to pardon Jane but she did not quite grasp just how strong Jane's beliefs were, Jane already composed a letter damning all those who attended a catholic communion. It was widely circulated. Queen Mary signed a warrant of execution for her and her husband, Jane was to be burned. Her sister, Katherine was 13 and Mary was 9 years old at the time their sister was executed.
Lady Katherine was divorced during Queen Mary's time, both Katherine and her husband grew very fond of one another and claimed the marriage was consummated but it was unlikely, as she was only 13 years old. During Queen Elizabeth's time, Katherine was promoted to attend on the Queen personally, rumors has it Elizabeth was even talking about adopting Katherine, but it was due to the Spanish plot to smuggle Katherine out of the country.
Katherine was more of a woman of the heart. She fell in love with Edward Seymour, the first earl of Hertford. They seemed to be madly in love with one another and had to be married in secret as to not upset the Queen. Katherine now become a huge threat to Elizabeth, she was ordered under armed guard to the tower and Queen Elizabeth demanded Hertford return from France. Katherine gave birth to a son Edward Seymour, heir to Elizabeth under the will of Henry VIII which meant England had a protestant Heir, Elizabeth allowed the child to be baptized but refused them a priest. Katherine and her husband would have one more son together. They would be separated, her husband in one prison, her older son with her mother in law and Katherine and the baby together. She would die from starvation, self inflicted of course.
The least is known about the youngest sister Mary. She wasn't the best looking out of the three daughters, that point was made. She fell in love like her sister Katherine to a guard named Thomas Keyes, she was hoping because of his modest rank she would be able to marry him. Queen Elizabeth was furious when she found out and ordered the couple to separate prisons in separate towns. Keyes would die imprisoned. Mary would also die young at the age of 33.
With the 3 Grey sisters executed or died, and Katherine's son's declared illegitimate, there was only threat left to Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Clifford, their cousin. Within weeks she was accused of employing a magician to cast spells on the Queen. She was placed in jail, for 18 years where she died.
The future of the Grey Sisters were dominated by one document, King Henry's will. The entire Stuart Line, King Henry's eldest sister were excluded from succession. Henry's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth were deemed illegitimate. King Henry's younger sister Mary Brendon and her descendants were to be the successors of the crown, which meant by the stroke of a pen Lady Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey were named the heirs to Elizabeth.
King Edward also excluded his sisters, not forgetting that Elizabeth's mother died as a traitor to his father and an adulteress. Edward also believed, more so than his father, that only a man can wield full authority of the crown. In his mind, King Edward left his throne not to a woman, but to the sons Frances (the sisters mother) may produce. King Edward's will left an empty throne. The Grey sisters and their cousin Mary Clifford had to be lined up for a race to the birthing bed. King Edward described his relationship with the Grey sisters as if they were his own, his "true sisters." Edward did bypass Frances in the end and for Jane to be his heir.
Jane was the eldest Grey sister, the most important in rank and had the most time and money invested in her schooling. Jane's mother at the age of 9 had her join her in at King Henry's court as to prepare her for her role as Maid of Honor, serving Queen Catherine Parr. Jane ended up marrying Guilford Dudley, this marriage bounded the Dudleys to the Greys. Jane and her younger sister by 3 years, Katherine, were married on the same day. Katherine at the age of 12 was married to 15 year old Lord Henry Herbert.
The moment Jane found out King Edward died, she fell to the ground and wept, when she stopped she came to her feet and delivered a speech, which made clear that she intended to rule and not be a mere cipher. The day ended with her being proclaimed Queen Jane,with Mary and Elizabeth as illegitimate to the Crown. 9 days later Queen Mary was proclaimed Queen, she would soon become a prisoner. Queen Mary did want to pardon Jane but she did not quite grasp just how strong Jane's beliefs were, Jane already composed a letter damning all those who attended a catholic communion. It was widely circulated. Queen Mary signed a warrant of execution for her and her husband, Jane was to be burned. Her sister, Katherine was 13 and Mary was 9 years old at the time their sister was executed.
Lady Katherine was divorced during Queen Mary's time, both Katherine and her husband grew very fond of one another and claimed the marriage was consummated but it was unlikely, as she was only 13 years old. During Queen Elizabeth's time, Katherine was promoted to attend on the Queen personally, rumors has it Elizabeth was even talking about adopting Katherine, but it was due to the Spanish plot to smuggle Katherine out of the country.
Katherine was more of a woman of the heart. She fell in love with Edward Seymour, the first earl of Hertford. They seemed to be madly in love with one another and had to be married in secret as to not upset the Queen. Katherine now become a huge threat to Elizabeth, she was ordered under armed guard to the tower and Queen Elizabeth demanded Hertford return from France. Katherine gave birth to a son Edward Seymour, heir to Elizabeth under the will of Henry VIII which meant England had a protestant Heir, Elizabeth allowed the child to be baptized but refused them a priest. Katherine and her husband would have one more son together. They would be separated, her husband in one prison, her older son with her mother in law and Katherine and the baby together. She would die from starvation, self inflicted of course.
The least is known about the youngest sister Mary. She wasn't the best looking out of the three daughters, that point was made. She fell in love like her sister Katherine to a guard named Thomas Keyes, she was hoping because of his modest rank she would be able to marry him. Queen Elizabeth was furious when she found out and ordered the couple to separate prisons in separate towns. Keyes would die imprisoned. Mary would also die young at the age of 33.
With the 3 Grey sisters executed or died, and Katherine's son's declared illegitimate, there was only threat left to Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Clifford, their cousin. Within weeks she was accused of employing a magician to cast spells on the Queen. She was placed in jail, for 18 years where she died.
catzkc's review against another edition
4.0
Very readable historical non-fiction. Before I read this I don't think I even knew Jane had sisters. Turns out their stories are every bit as intriguing and tragic as Jane's. I also enjoyed learning of a different side of Elizabeth's reign. It did not paint her good side. Turns out she was as cruelly paranoid about being overthrown as her father was.
june_englit_phd's review against another edition
5.0
If all history books were written like this, I would not have ditched the subject after O'Grade at school! Wow, is all I can say!
The book traces the lives, its zeniths and nadirs of the Grey sisters: Lady Jane, Lady Catherine and Lady Mary. It is a book of avarice, greed, conspiracies, injustices and executions, as well as it demonstrating determination in two female heirs to the throne, in the days when females were very much looked down on as being the weaker sex.
The historical figures in the book were very well described; one could not help but feel sorry for the child King Edward VI, horror at the mass executions during the reign of Queen Mary ("Bloody Mary"), and shock at the injustices and cruelty of Queen Elizabeth I in imprisoning Katherine and Mary (and their husbands) as they were rivals to her position as Queen. In a nutshell, the Tudors were a bit "wild"!
I have loved reading this book, and am now so intrigued about the Tudors, and even previous monarchs, I am off to read some more!
The book traces the lives, its zeniths and nadirs of the Grey sisters: Lady Jane, Lady Catherine and Lady Mary. It is a book of avarice, greed, conspiracies, injustices and executions, as well as it demonstrating determination in two female heirs to the throne, in the days when females were very much looked down on as being the weaker sex.
The historical figures in the book were very well described; one could not help but feel sorry for the child King Edward VI, horror at the mass executions during the reign of Queen Mary ("Bloody Mary"), and shock at the injustices and cruelty of Queen Elizabeth I in imprisoning Katherine and Mary (and their husbands) as they were rivals to her position as Queen. In a nutshell, the Tudors were a bit "wild"!
I have loved reading this book, and am now so intrigued about the Tudors, and even previous monarchs, I am off to read some more!
kalyca's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent history that reads like fiction. Very good narrator, and I can't wait to read more of de Lisle's Tudor histories. She even discovered unknown facts and documents concerning the Greys during her research. Catherine is a new favorite Tudor of mine, and I can't believe there isn't more written of her.
atroskity's review against another edition
3.0
According to the title of this book, there were three Grey sisters- Jane, Katherine and Mary- all of whom played an important role in Tudor history. According to the bulk of the narrative, there was Lady Jane Grey and two sisters who served as an epilogue to their elder sister’s tragedy. I don’t think this is the fault of de Lisle so much as it is the fault of history; few people recorded their thoughts on the two younger Greys, even though they were possibly more important than Jane in the grand scheme of English succession. Or, if they were important in their day, the grander and more romantic demise of Jane soon overshadowed their (only slightly) longer and less dramatic lives.
A lot of rumor and mythmaking surrounds Jane Grey, and it can be hard to separate the truth from the legends; the “Nine Days Queen” has been many things to many people (and she is the only monarch since 1500 to have no surviving portrait). For the Victorians, she was an innocent led to slaughter by the ambitions of her family- an image exemplified by the painting of her execution by Paul Delaroche. For those displeased by the Catholic rule of monarchs like Mary Tudor and James Stuart, she was a brave martyr to the Protestant cause. Some thought she was merely a tool being manipulated by her husband to maneuver himself onto the throne, and a small minority even considered her an overzealous evangelical looking for a heroic death. So, which is it? Martyr or pawn? Leader or follower?
In reality, drawing a distinction between two opposing labels in this instance will not work. Like any human being, Lady Grey was more complicated than a single label can capture. In The Sisters Who Would be Queen, de Lisle provides shade to better delineate Jane from the bright, lamblike innocent of her later mythology. While her parents were of royal blood and may have been ambitious, her early education and court life don’t indicate the training of a monarch so much as the training of a religious leader. De Lisle focuses often on the Great Chain of Being when discussing the decisions made for Jane- who she married, how she would function at court, and eventually who she would be-all things that would be determined by the fierce hierarchy of Tudor society. In many ways, just being born the relative of a king decided Jane’s fate, and it would determine the lives of her sisters as well.
In de Lisle’s opinion, which is supported with very good research, the middle sister Katherine was really more “important” in the grand scheme than her elder sister. When Mary Tudor died and her half-sister Elizabeth took the throne, Katherine Grey became the de facto heir to the Virgin Queen. Since many were unhappy with the way the succession seemed to be devoid of heirs male, pressure fell on Katherine from both sides- those who wanted a king to supplant Elizabeth were hoping for her to marry and procreate, while Elizabeth did everything in her power to keep Katherine single and out of the limelight. Katherine defied the queen, was married (to someone with similarly strong royal claims, even) and gave birth to not one but TWO sons. But Elizabeth never gave her royal consent, so poor Katherine was locked away in The Tower, like her unfortunate sister, and died there after her children were falsely declared illegitimate.
And then there is Mary, perhaps the least known of the sisters. Not only diminutive in biographical detail, she was apparently very small physically, and possible even deformed. This didn’t keep her from defying Elizabeth just like her elder sister Katherine and marrying without royal permission, and like her sister, being imprisoned and dying away from her husband before the age of 40.
While Katherine and Mary did not end so grandly as Jane, I found myself much more interested in theirhalf third of the book than Jane’s story, which was interesting but felt a rather drawn out by political detail and frequent reiteration of how everyone else has gotten Jane wrong all these years. I found myself engaged with them in their simple desires- to be married and have a family while being thwarted at every turn simply because they were born into royal blood. De Lisle’s descriptions of their motivations and characters kept me interested and made me feel connected to them as people, and I often found myself furious with Queen Elizabeth, just as I would have been in a fictional rendition of the same material, which is an impressive feat in historical writing.
While Jane will always be the grand mystery of the Grey sisters- a mystery fueled by continuing fascination and romanticizing- I found the three sisters equally fascinating in their attempts to live normal lives in extraordinary circumstances, and I give de Lisle a lot of credit for bringing their stories together, even if she couldn’t resist giving Jane the lion’s share. I think it is simply this imbalance between the three figures in the narrative, along with a little unnecessary repetition, that prevented this from crossing from 3-star to 4-star quality for me.
(I listened to this particular edition in audio. The narrator Wanda McCaddon was excellent.)
A lot of rumor and mythmaking surrounds Jane Grey, and it can be hard to separate the truth from the legends; the “Nine Days Queen” has been many things to many people (and she is the only monarch since 1500 to have no surviving portrait). For the Victorians, she was an innocent led to slaughter by the ambitions of her family- an image exemplified by the painting of her execution by Paul Delaroche. For those displeased by the Catholic rule of monarchs like Mary Tudor and James Stuart, she was a brave martyr to the Protestant cause. Some thought she was merely a tool being manipulated by her husband to maneuver himself onto the throne, and a small minority even considered her an overzealous evangelical looking for a heroic death. So, which is it? Martyr or pawn? Leader or follower?
In reality, drawing a distinction between two opposing labels in this instance will not work. Like any human being, Lady Grey was more complicated than a single label can capture. In The Sisters Who Would be Queen, de Lisle provides shade to better delineate Jane from the bright, lamblike innocent of her later mythology. While her parents were of royal blood and may have been ambitious, her early education and court life don’t indicate the training of a monarch so much as the training of a religious leader. De Lisle focuses often on the Great Chain of Being when discussing the decisions made for Jane- who she married, how she would function at court, and eventually who she would be-all things that would be determined by the fierce hierarchy of Tudor society. In many ways, just being born the relative of a king decided Jane’s fate, and it would determine the lives of her sisters as well.
In de Lisle’s opinion, which is supported with very good research, the middle sister Katherine was really more “important” in the grand scheme than her elder sister. When Mary Tudor died and her half-sister Elizabeth took the throne, Katherine Grey became the de facto heir to the Virgin Queen. Since many were unhappy with the way the succession seemed to be devoid of heirs male, pressure fell on Katherine from both sides- those who wanted a king to supplant Elizabeth were hoping for her to marry and procreate, while Elizabeth did everything in her power to keep Katherine single and out of the limelight. Katherine defied the queen, was married (to someone with similarly strong royal claims, even) and gave birth to not one but TWO sons. But Elizabeth never gave her royal consent, so poor Katherine was locked away in The Tower, like her unfortunate sister, and died there after her children were falsely declared illegitimate.
And then there is Mary, perhaps the least known of the sisters. Not only diminutive in biographical detail, she was apparently very small physically, and possible even deformed. This didn’t keep her from defying Elizabeth just like her elder sister Katherine and marrying without royal permission, and like her sister, being imprisoned and dying away from her husband before the age of 40.
While Katherine and Mary did not end so grandly as Jane, I found myself much more interested in their
While Jane will always be the grand mystery of the Grey sisters- a mystery fueled by continuing fascination and romanticizing- I found the three sisters equally fascinating in their attempts to live normal lives in extraordinary circumstances, and I give de Lisle a lot of credit for bringing their stories together, even if she couldn’t resist giving Jane the lion’s share. I think it is simply this imbalance between the three figures in the narrative, along with a little unnecessary repetition, that prevented this from crossing from 3-star to 4-star quality for me.
(I listened to this particular edition in audio. The narrator Wanda McCaddon was excellent.)