Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk

Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was the daughter of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and the mother of Lady Jane Grey. Through this royal descent her children stood close to the Tudor succession.

Frances and her husband Henry Grey promoted Protestant learning and became involved in the attempt to place Jane on the throne after Edward VI’s death. She survived the collapse of the scheme, later married her gentleman usher Adrian Stokes and lived quietly until 1559. Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk was born in Hertfordshire and died in Surrey.

Leanda de Lisle’s The Sisters Who Would Be Queen examines Frances Grey chiefly through the dangerous inheritance she transmitted to her daughters Jane, Katherine and Mary, challenging the caricature of her as merely a brutal Tudor mother. Alison Weir’s A Dangerous Inheritance shows the later consequences of that bloodline through Katherine Grey’s forbidden marriage and claim to the succession. Innocent Traitor brings Frances into Jane Grey’s upbringing and the family ambitions that help place Jane on the throne in 1553. Ann Rinaldi’s Nine Days a Queen likewise views Frances from Jane’s perspective, making parental pressure part of the young queen’s loss of control over her marriage and political fate.