The Great English Queen-Off: Lady Jane Grey and Mary I in historical fiction

The struggle between Mary I and Lady Jane Grey for the English throne played itself out in just under two weeks in July 1553 and concluded with Jane’s execution on 12 February 1554. Despite the spectacle of two women battling for the right to be England’s first queen regnant, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the way that this conflict has been represented in historical fiction. It is striking, too, that historical novels sideline any consideration of the interpersonal relationship between these Tudor cousins, perhaps reflecting the tendency for the historiography to downplay this relationship. Instead, historical fiction largely reiterates stereotypes about both, with Jane and Mary represented as religious obsessives on either side of the Protestant/Catholic divide. The two women are used as embodiments of contesting ideologies, with Mary representing the world of traditional Catholic conservatism, while Jane has been understood as representing progressive Protestantism. This conservative/progressive opposition goes some way towards explaining why Mary has been unable to escape the ‘bloody’ epithet, while mythology around Jane Grey has been challenged by twentieth- and twenty-first century historical novelists looking for stories about admirable women from history. While Mary’s piety is associated with sexual frustration, fanaticism, and delusion, Jane’s youth and intellectual precocity are frequently celebrated and cast in feminist terms; Mary is perceived as old-fashioned in her pursuit of Counter-Revolution, while Jane is associated with political and religious revolution. Mary has thus been unable to escape mythologizing as “Bloody Mary,” the failed queen destined to be outshone by her sister forever. Historical fiction about Lady Jane Grey has, however, been increasingly willing to challenge the romantic story of the doomed ‘Nine Days Queen,’ with recent novels self-consciously critiquing the effect of Jane’s religiosity on her life and choices.