Pawns in the royal game

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen, by Leanda de Lisle

Only recently a portrait minature by Lavina Teerlinc was identified as being of Lady Jane Grey. Her diminutive size, coiffed red hair and crimson lips had suggested that it might be her — except that the eyes are blue, while Jane’s were known to be brown; but Teerlinc was accustomed to giving all her subjects blue eyes. It is all we have; no other portrait of Jane is known to exist.

The absence of a recognisable image reflects the problem facing any historian wishing to study her. The evidence is simply not there to form a credible description, let alone a biography, of England’s shortest reigning monarch. In its place, there have been many attempts over the centuries to promote the image of a Protestant stalwart, or the innocent lamb led by Mary to slaughter.

In The Sisters Who Would Be Queen, Leanda de Lisle avoids this trap by turning her attention not merely to Jane, but also to Katherine and Mary, her two younger sisters. Through their mother, Lady Frances Brandon, the niece of Henry VIII, all three were potential heirs to the Tudor throne, placed by Henry’s highly controversial will next in line to his own children. Their story is therefore also the story of the Tudor succession.

Katherine’s and Mary’s fates, though less familiar than Jane’s, were similarly tragic, and de Lisle’s account makes for a thrilling read that could sit comfortably beside any novel by Philippa Gregory. Her pen- portraits of the many characters deftly reveal a fascinating network of marriages and alliances amongst the nobility, set against the turbulent religious changes of the time.

The early chapters, on Jane, essentially cover the bloody history of the reigns of the precocious boy king, Edward VI and his sister Mary.