Alison Weir - Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey

Also by Alison Weir

Britains Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

The Princes in the Tower

Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses

Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII 15471558

Elizabeth the Queen

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Henry VIII: King and Court

Mary, Queen of Scots,and the Murder of Lord Darnley

Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England

AUTHORS NOTE

This novel has been based on a true story. Lady Jane Grey is an intriguing and tragic figure, and readers of my historical works will know that I have already written about her in two previous books: her childhood is documented in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and her nine-day reignthe shortest in English historyin its horrific sequel, Children of England.

Most of the characters in this novel really existed, and most of the events actually happened. However, where the evidence is scanty or missing, I have used my imagination. For example, we do not know the identity of the female quack who was called in by Northumberland to administer arsenic to Edward VI, but I have spun a tale around her. There is no evidence that Jane witnessed the burning of Anne Askew in 1546, but I have used it as the catalyst for her conversion to the Protestant faith.

Some parts of the book may seem far-fetched: they are the parts most likely to be based on fact, such as the discovery, by one of Katherine Parrs ladies, of the death warrant that had been dropped in a corridor. This story is related by John Foxe in his Book of Martyrs, and most historians now accept it as the truth. However, there is no historical evidence that it was Jane who found the warrant, although she was in Katherine Parrs household at the time. And my account of the fate of Edward VIs body is not as incredible as it sounds, for what happened to that body is described in a letter written by the Earl of Warwick, Northumberlands son.

Above all, I have tried to penetrate the minds of my characters, which is something that serious historians attempt only at their peril. Writing this book has therefore been something of a venture into the realms of psychology, as well as a foray into the past, because history does not often record peoples motives, emotions, and reactions, and I have had to make some educatedand occasionally wildguesses, to ensure that they sound credible within the context of the known facts.

After having published ten historical nonfiction books, writing this novel filled me with a heady sense of freedom. No longer was I focusing only on the available source material and the strict disciplines of historical interpretation, but I could allow my imagination free rein. It has been wonderful to be this creative, and even provocative, while at the same time striving for historical accuracy.

Lady Jane Greys story is compelling and shocking. Although she was the product of her age and its prejudices against women, within the constraints of her time she remained true to herself and her ideals and beliefs. Precocious, highly gifted, and intelligent, she was educated to an unusually advanced standard for a girl and realized that there was more to a womans life than just marrying, having children, and running a household. Never one to compromise, she was outspoken, feisty, and unafraid to challenge the received wisdom of her day. In these respects, she could be considered a modern heroine. In telling her story, I have used as many of her own words as possible, although in places these have been slightly modernized so as not to appear incongruous in a twenty-first-century text.

The Tudor period continues to exert a perennial fascination over the imagination of vast numbers of people, and this novel deals with one of its most dramatic episodes. It is my sincere hope that the story that has unfolded in these pages has both enthralled and appalled you, the reader.

About the Author

A LISON W EIR was born in London, England, and educated at the City of London School and the North Western Polytechnic (Department of Teaching Studies), where history was her main subject. But her passionate interest in history had arisen some years earlier, when after reading her first adult historical novel at the age of fourteen she took up genealogy and history as hobbies. After some years of employment in the Civil Service (including a spell working on the in-house magazine of the Cabinet Office in Whitehall), Alison published her first book, Britains Royal Families, in 1989, and has since written nine other historical works, among them The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth the Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII: King and Court, and The Princess in the Tower, as well as her first novel, Innocent Traitor, about Lady Jane Grey. She currently has three more books in preparation. From 1991 to 1997, she ran her own school for children with special needs. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, and is married with two adult children. She lives in Surrey, England, and her hobbies and interests include genealogy, art, foreign travel, rock music, reading, films, poetry, and eating out.

Frances Brandon,
Marchioness of Dorset

BRADGATE HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE, OCTOBER 1537

My travail begins as I am enjoying a walk in the garden. There is a sudden flood of liquid from my womb, and then, as my maid runs for cloths and assistance, a dull pain that shifts from the small of my back to the pit of my stomach. Soon, they are all clustering around me, the midwives and the women, helping me through the great doorway of the manor house and up the oaken stairs, stripping me of my fine clothing and replacing it with a voluminous birthing smock of bleached linen, finely embroidered at the neck and wrists. Now I am made to lie upon my bed, and they are pressing a goblet of sweet wine to my lips. I dont really want it, but I take a few sips to please them. My two chief ladies sit beside me, my gossips, whose job it is to while away the tedious hours of labor with distracting chatter. Their task is to keep me cheerful and to offer encouragement when the pains grow stronger.

And they do grow stronger. Less than an hour passes before the dull ache that accompanies each pang becomes a knifelike thrust, vicious and relentless. Yet I can bear it. I have the blood of kings in my veins, and that emboldens me to lie mute, resisting the mounting screams. Soon, God willing, I will hold my son in my arms. My son, who must not die early like the others, those tiny infants who lie beneath the flagstones of the parish church. Neither lived long enough even to sit or crawl. I do not account myself a sentimental person; indeed, I know that many think me too strong and hard-willed for a womana virago, my husband once said, during one of our many quarrels. But hidden within my heart there is a raw place reserved for those two lost babies.

Yet it is natural that this third pregnancy has often led me to revisit this secret place, to disturb and probe it gently, testing to see if past tragedies still have the power to hurt. I know I should forbid myself such weakness. I am King Henrys niece. My mother was a princess of England and Queen of France. I must face the pain of my loss as I do my laborwith royal dignity, refusing to indulge any further in morbid fancies, which, I am assured by the midwives, could well be harmful to the child I carry. One must try to be positive, and I am nothing if not an optimist. This time, I feel it in my bones, God will give us the son and heir we so desperately desire.

Another hour passes. There is little respite between each contraction, but the pain is still bearable.