The puppet queen

It is easy to see why the bare century of the Tudor dynasty’s rule has drawn so much attention from contemporary women historians. Without breaking sweat, I can think of at least ten — four of whom garland this book with advance praise — who have written biographies or studies of the Welsh upstarts, leaving aside the acclaimed fictional efforts of Hilary Mantel. For of the six Tudor monarchs who steered England’s destinies through the tumultuous 16th century, three were female. The half-sisters Elizabeth and Mary — who both loom large in Nicola Tallis’s stunning debut — need no introduction, but the third, Lady Jane Grey, the subject of her searching biography, has until now remained in the shadows.

The main reason for that obscurity, of course, is the brevity of the reign of ‘Jane the quene’, as she styled herself on one of the few documents she signed during her fortnight on the throne. (Tallis points out that Jane’s nickname, ‘the nine days’ queen’, is inaccurate: in fact she reigned for an unlucky 13 days in July 1553.)

Jane, therefore, simply did not have the time to assert her authority and establish her identity in the same manner as her forceful cousins. But Tallis leaves us in little doubt that had she been afforded that opportunity she would have proved as true a Tudor as the rest of her imperious family.

Stubborn, wilful, sometimes angry and intellectually able to run rings round most of the men surrounding her, the Jane Grey drawn by Tallis is neither a pallid, passive victim of ruthless male power players, nor the saintly woman in white martyr’s weeds depicted in Paul Delaroche’s famous painting of her execution.

The broad outlines of Jane’s story are well known.