Often referred to as England’s first queen, Woman Jane Gray solely reigned for 9 days in 1553 on the age of 16. It was rocky from begin to end: When she took the throne, the nation was fiercely divided between Protestants and Catholics.
A brand new historic fantasy sequence, My Woman Jane, premiering June 27 on Prime Video, imagines if these divisions have been between common people—generally known as verities—and Ethians, people who can flip into animals and are considered because the lowest caste of their society. Woman Jane Gray (Emily Bader) frantically spends her quick reign attempting to advertise unity, urging respect for Ethians, particularly as a result of her husband Guilford Dudley (Edward Bluemel) is an Ethian who can change right into a horse.
TIME talked to 2 Woman Jane Gray biographers, Nicola Tallis and Leanda de Lisle, about what to find out about the true Woman Jane who impressed the present.
Who’s Woman Jane Gray?
An incredible niece of Henry VIII, she was born in Bradgate, Leicestershire, England, in 1537.
Within the present, she’s depicted as a particularly intellectually curious teenager, at all times studying up on medicinal makes use of for herbs for a textbook she desires to write down. For this reason Guilford desires to marry her—he hopes she will discover a treatment that may cease him from turning right into a horse at surprising occasions.
The true Jane did love studying books, however was extra captivated with languages and theology than science. She spoke a number of languages, together with Arabic and Hebrew and relished exchanging letters with different educated individuals. “She was actually, actually educational,” says Tallis.
Woman Jane Gray’s actual love life
My Woman Jane depicts her as fiercely unbiased, and hell bent on by no means getting married. Within the present, Jane is married off to English nobleman Guilford Dudley in opposition to her will. However the present implies they fall in love, depicting Jane and Dudley experiencing an instantaneous attraction after they meet. Biographers say their actual marriage was removed from an actual love story.
“We all know Jane did not actually need to be married to him,” says Tallis, writer of Crown of Blood: The Lethal Inheritance of Woman Jane Gray.
Within the present, Jane’s mom Woman Frances Gray (Anna Chancellor) plans the wedding with Dudley’s father, the Duke of Northumberland, to make sure her household won’t have to fret about cash once more. However in response to Tallis, “there’s a supply that claims that her mom was additionally actually, actually in opposition to this marriage to Guilford Dudley. And I feel that that is in all probability fairly true.”
The Duke of Northumberland was pushing the wedding from the get-go. As one of many King’s chief politicians, he persuaded a dying Edward VI to call Jane his inheritor on this will in order that when she rose to the throne, his son could be King. It’s true, because the present depicts, that there was a rumor that the Duke of Northumberland (Rob Brydon) poisoned the king to hasten his son’s ascent to the throne.
De Lisle argues that Edward VI was a little bit of a “misogynist” in that he wished a married lady to be queen so {that a} man would at the very least be doing a number of the work of ruling. As she explains Edward VI’s considering again then, “Jane has a husband and her husband will principally be a king. That is Edward’s view. [His] sister Mary is just not married.”
What to find out about Woman Jane Gray’s reign
The true Edward VI died of some form of pulmonary an infection like tuberculosis on July 6, 1553. Within the present, his sister Mary is in on a plot to slowly poison him so she will get to the throne quicker, however that plot line is only fictional.
In actual life, Edward VI wished Jane to be his inheritor as a result of he wished a Protestant successor, and his elder half sister Mary had turn out to be a staunch Catholic.
Mary was not “Mrs. Fashionable with the powers that be as a result of she was a Catholic,” de Lisle explains. “England was a Catholic nation. Protestantism was largely being imposed by the king and by the elites.”
However throughout Jane’s reign, it was found that his will was not authorized as a result of it had not been handed by Parliament. That meant Mary was subsequent in line, legally, in order that’s why Jane was overthrown after 9 days. Mary assumed the throne on July 19, 1553.
Mary was extra widespread among the many normal public than Jane basically as a result of she was a daughter of Henry VIII and raised within the courtroom. “A lot of individuals are petrified of the thought of a girl bearing energy and notably one who they do not know,” says Tallis.
When Jane began talking out in opposition to all of Mary’s Catholic reforms, describing taking communion in a Catholic mass as a satanic type of cannibalism. On high of that, her household began organizing a marketing campaign to depose Mary. Whereas Mary by no means wished to execute Jane within the first place, she felt like she had no alternative. Mary noticed Jane as “a possible lightning rod for a insurrection,” as de Lisle places it.
Jane and Guilford Dudley have been each executed on February 12, 1554.
