- Hardcover: 350 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (13 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345491351
- ISBN-13: 978-0345491350
- Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 2.9 x 24.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product Description
Product Description
Mary, Katherine, and Jane Grey–sisters whose mere existence nearly toppled a kingdom and altered a nation’s destiny–are the captivating subjects of Leanda de Lisle’s new book. The Sisters Who Would Be Queen breathes fresh life into these three young women, who were victimized in the notoriously vicious Tudor power struggle and whose heirs would otherwise probably be ruling England today.
Born into aristocracy, the Grey sisters were the great-granddaughters of Henry VII, grandnieces to Henry VIII, legitimate successors to the English throne, and rivals to Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Lady Jane, the eldest, was thrust center stage by greedy men and uncompromising religious politics when she briefly succeeded Henry’s son, the young Edward I. Dubbed “the Nine Days Queen” after her short, tragic reign from the Tower of London, Jane has over the centuries earned a special place in the affections of the English people as a “queen with a public heart.” But as de Lisle reveals, Jane was actually more rebel than victim, more leader than pawn, and Mary and Katherine Grey found that they would have to tread carefully in order to avoid sharing their elder sister’s violent fate.
Navigating the politics of the Tudor court after Jane’s death was a precarious challenge. Katherine Grey, who sought to live a stable life, earned the trust of Mary I, only to risk her future with a love marriage that threatened Queen Elizabeth’s throne. Mary Grey, considered too petite and plain to be significant, looked for her own escape from the burden of her royal blood–an impossible task after she followed her heart and also incurred the queen’s envy, fear, and wrath.
Exploding the many myths of Lady Jane Grey’s life, unearthing the details of Katherine’s and Mary’s dramatic stories, and casting new light on Elizabeth’s reign, Leanda de Lisle gives voice and resonance to the lives of the Greys and offers perspective on their place in history and on a time when a royal marriage could gain a woman a kingdom or cost her everything.
Born into aristocracy, the Grey sisters were the great-granddaughters of Henry VII, grandnieces to Henry VIII, legitimate successors to the English throne, and rivals to Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Lady Jane, the eldest, was thrust center stage by greedy men and uncompromising religious politics when she briefly succeeded Henry’s son, the young Edward I. Dubbed “the Nine Days Queen” after her short, tragic reign from the Tower of London, Jane has over the centuries earned a special place in the affections of the English people as a “queen with a public heart.” But as de Lisle reveals, Jane was actually more rebel than victim, more leader than pawn, and Mary and Katherine Grey found that they would have to tread carefully in order to avoid sharing their elder sister’s violent fate.
Navigating the politics of the Tudor court after Jane’s death was a precarious challenge. Katherine Grey, who sought to live a stable life, earned the trust of Mary I, only to risk her future with a love marriage that threatened Queen Elizabeth’s throne. Mary Grey, considered too petite and plain to be significant, looked for her own escape from the burden of her royal blood–an impossible task after she followed her heart and also incurred the queen’s envy, fear, and wrath.
Exploding the many myths of Lady Jane Grey’s life, unearthing the details of Katherine’s and Mary’s dramatic stories, and casting new light on Elizabeth’s reign, Leanda de Lisle gives voice and resonance to the lives of the Greys and offers perspective on their place in history and on a time when a royal marriage could gain a woman a kingdom or cost her everything.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By
This review is from: The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy (Hardcover)
This book covers an extremely complex bit of history, so I will try to keep this as short and sweet as possible. We all know about Henry VIII and out of six wives he had one son, Edward, and two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Henry's favorite sister Mary had a daughter Frances who in turn had three daughters - Jane, Katherine and Mary. Upon the death of Edward, well that is when things get complicated as those three sisters (or more specifically any sons they might bear) were potential heirs to the throne of England.Most Tudorphiles are familiar with the eldest daughter Jane, who becomes the Nine Day Queen and her tragic end. What's refreshing in this book is that de Lisle also shows us *the rest of the story* of the younger sisters Katherine and Mary, who as potential heirs to the throne are unable to marry without the Queen's permission - and Elizabeth was not about to give it and let them have sons who could threaten her crown. Katherine comes to court to serve Elizabeth and falls in love with Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, but without Elizabeth's permission to marry so they do so in secret, although the lovers face the Queen's wrath when the marriage is discovered. Years later a grown Mary arrives at court and she incurs the Queen's anger when she also marries in secret. And that's about as far as I'll go, if you know the basic history you know where the rest of the story goes and if you don't, well then read it for yourself. The author does a great job of breaking down some old myths (no, Frances wasn't quite the power hungry harridan she's always been portrayed as) as well as breaking new ground with solid facts and research and puts it all together in a very readable book. It was a tad bit dry at first (I don't normally read non-fiction) but once we got into Katherine and Mary's stories I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Curse of Being Royal - the lives of three Tudor Princesses,
By
This review is from: The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy (Hardcover)
The Royal succession in Tiudor England was a very dangerous and unstable. Henry VIII's Third Succession Act 1543 granted Henry the right to bequeath the Crown in his Will. It returned both of Henry's daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession, behind Edward, any potential children of his, and any potential children of Henry by his current wife Catherine Parr. His Will specified that, in default of heirs to his children, the throne was to pass to the heirs of his younger sister Mary Tudor, The French Queen and Duchess of Suffolk, bypassing the line of his elder sister Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. Edward VI confirmed this by letters patent.This put suddenly Frances Brandon, the eldest daugther of Princess Mary and the Duke of Suffolk, and her three daughters by the Marquess of Dorset, the Ladies Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey into the spotlight. They were suddenly pretenders to the throne. They were Tudor princesses without having the title of princess. Leanda de Lisle re-creates the lives of these women in a most extraordinary period of English history, a time of great uncertainty and danger, of great changes, of religious divisions and of great political intrigue. The Tudor dynasty had more female heirs than every other, great women but a female ruler was regarded a liability. Mrs de Lisle tackles the difficult subject with great knowledge, passion and understanding. She forms her own opinions and does not just go with "historical reputation". Her views of Frances Brandon or on Lady Jane Grey are refreshing, more objective and I feel more accurate and in the end more convincing than previous books had presented these figures. Very interesting are the pages on the Lady Katherine and Lady Mary, especially the later is a rather forgotten person. The only objections I have is that Mrs de Lisle fills gaps with phrases like "have felt"... well that is merely guesswork. But all in all that does not make this book less interesting or less valuable. It is indeed a great inside into the politics surrounding the English's throne in the 16th century. I enjoyed every page and learned a lot. This is a great book and a great addition to every Tudor library.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews) 27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent historical synthesis,
By Baby Boomer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy (Hardcover)
I didn't expect much from this title because I'd read about these people many times before and knew it all, or so I thought. Big surprise. De Lisle does a marvelous job of debunking the nonsense of intervening historians and liars, and getting at what is true about the Brandon family line. She has consulted and compared original sources so we don't have to, even seeking out the advice of fellow scholars such as Eric Ives. This is high-quality, factual historical synthesis.I had not realized before just how much Katherine Grey was a figure for opposition to Elizabeth to rally around. Or just how organized and persistent Grey's supporters were. Even though she as a person was nonpolitical and completely harmless, unlike the brilliant and committed evangelical Jane. That's just one of the insights of this book, backed up by the author's careful research. I also find the reclaiming of Frances Brandon's reputation from cruel mother to loving parent very plausible. As well as her continued dynastic importance long after Jane Grey's execution. From the distance of history we have counted Frances out because we know her male children all died. But at the time, she could still have produced a son whose claim to the throne would have been backed by both Henry VIII's and Edward VI's wills. Since de Lisle makes it clear that Elizabeth always preferred the claim that Mary Stuart had to the English throne, a male heir of the Brandon line would have been a big problem for Elizabeth. No wonder she did everything she could to keep her female cousins from marrying, and to pretend that Katherine Grey's marriage never happened and her boy babies were bastards. Anyone fascinated as I am with the Tudor century will find riches in this book. 18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Takes the story further than most.,
By Marty McNutt - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy (Hardcover)
My main motivation for giving this book five stars is de Lisle's "alternative" interpretation of Jane Grey's role in the 1553 succession crisis. There is no shortage of reading material about Jane, but this new research uncovers a lot of whitewashing and untruths in previous biographies of the queen. I won't go into any detail so readers can find out for themselves, and it is definitely worth a look.It was also great to see the stories of Jane's overshadowed sisters, Katherine and Mary, fleshed out for probably one of the first times. Some books make references in passing to Katherine's tragic life, but Mary is almost always simply referred to as the "hunchback" or "dwarf." Beyond that description, there is usually nothing else mentioned of her. Looking back, that is extremely disappointing given the amount of information de Lisle was able to gather. She has even uncovered details of Mary Grey's burial which had previously been mislabeled and filed away in archival obscurity. The bit about Charles I's burial in the last chapter was also interesting! Overall, this book has enough new information in it to make it worth reading for even seasoned enthusiasts of the Tudor era. The photo insert is also very nice, with an aerial view of Bradgate Manor and some old maps of London and the Tower. 10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
looking at a bigger picture,
By Beth E. Williams "miguels girl" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy (Hardcover)
First, I would urge anyone who enjoys well researched history to give this a read, adding that the author has a lovely manner and is never overbearing with her apparently enormous wealth of knowledge of this period and its power brokers. But, unlike many of the reviewers for this book I am by no means a "tudorite" - indeed I can barely stomach the double standards afforded to this short lived "dynasty" - so my perspective continues to be "now what?" in regard to revelations about Tudor atrocities.There is a reason that Elizabeth I had to leave the Crown of England to the Scots(!) - of all her grandmother's enormous family by 1603 there was no one left. Think of it as a family genocide: from Henry VII's murder of the young Edward duke of Warwick (1499) to Elizabeth's crude and despotic treatment of the Grey sisters, they systematically and obsessively killed, imprisoned, tortured, harassed and destroyed anyone in their bloodline (read Yorkist blood) regardless of age, gender, or actual cause. What was new in this fine history was just how little I found to like in Jane, who I had always thought to be an unwilling pawn. But, it is the chapters on Katherine and Mary that are the real treat and if I had any remaining doubts as to the real nature of Elizabeth then what she does to these two sisters, their husbands and children is nothing short of a perverted and maniacal vindictiveness. Secondly, if you wish to introduce yourself to this dynasty then start with this expose of the Tudor psyche and it will serve you well as a buffer to the fantastical myth initiated by Henry VII and coddled by historians ever since. On a side note, I was fascinated to learn that two royal brothers, Henry Brandon (aged 15, duke of Suffolk) and Charles, aged 14, would both die on the same day and within an hour of each other from the same illness (sweating sickness). More than a little curious. |
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