The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

by Leanda de Lisle

First published 2008

Amazon

4.2(407)

This triple biography follows Lady Jane Grey and her younger sisters Katherine and Mary, granddaughters of Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor and therefore potential heirs to the English crown. De Lisle reassesses Jane’s education, religious convictions and brief reign during the succession crisis of 1553, arguing against the familiar image of a passive child manipulated entirely by older men. Jane’s fall and execution form only the first part of the family story.

The later chapters trace Katherine and Mary Grey under Mary I and Elizabeth I, when their royal blood made their marriages and children matters of state. Secret marriages brought both sisters imprisonment and kept the succession question alive throughout Elizabeth’s reign. By following all three sisters, de Lisle connects the nine-day reign of Jane Grey to the longer Tudor anxiety over female rule, legitimacy and the identity of Elizabeth’s eventual successor.

Historical Periods

Elizabethan Age1558–1603 CE Lady Jane Grey Succession Crisis1553-07-06–1554-02-12

Genres

Political History

Historical people

Mary I1516–1558 Edward VI1537–1553 Elizabeth I1533–1603 Lady Jane Grey1537–1554 Lord Guildford Dudley1535–1554 Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk1517–1559 Katherine Grey1540–1568 Mary Grey1545–1578