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Some photographs from real life of Lady Jane

posted 18 years ago by IsoldeJaneHolland
11 replies | jump to latest

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/lady_jane_01.jpg
Jane's home, Bradgate Hall in Liecestershire, also the setting
for the romantic real life meeting of Edward IV, England's handsomest
king, and Elizabeth Woodville, the most beautiful Queen until Alexandra
400 years later.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/25755_1.jpg

A book owned by Jane; that is her handwriting at the bottom.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/Bradgate_cover.jpg
A recent book about Bradgate

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/Newtownchurch3.jpg
The east window of Newtown Lindford church, which depicts Jane.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/d.jpg
A beautiful scene from the film.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/ovaljane.jpg
Victorian painting of Jane and Doctor Feckenham that inspired the
next to last scene in Nunn's film.

Historically inaccurate but highly entertaining. The real Jane
Grey had so little joy in her short (16 years) miserable existence
in a way I'm grateful that director Trevor Nunn vouchsafed her a
little bit here,- almost correcting the thoughtless omissions of
history.

But even I grabbed my head in one scene when Queen Mary's confessor
Doctor Feckenham is offering Jane spiritual consolation on the eve of
her execution and she disagrees with him about Transubstantiation
(whether the communion wine and bread literally become Christ's body)
and he backs down and says,"You are right, my lady, and the Queen is
wrong." Highly unlikely that a leading Roman Catholic Theologian and
scholar of the mid-16th century would ever utter this phrase! But
the thought that her martyrdom might have the power to persuade such
a man to re-think dearly held tenets of a lifetime would have been
extremely comforting to a rabid protestant reformer like Jane, who
believed she was dying to uphold her faith. And the real Doctor Feckenham
was indeed renowned for his many kindnessness (boys who had attended
his school would in their old age burst into tears of grateful
remembrance at the mention of his name) so the film is probably
faithful to the spirit of their solemn meeting. Just stick your
fingers in your ears and hum when Feckenham is saying,"Communion is
a lot of hooey!" LOL

It's very sweet when he promises to "be with her until the end" and
she bursts into tears like the child she still is. Kindness is the
only weapon she has not the resources to withstand.

When the film is historically authentic, it's quite unbearable.
It depicts the blindfolded Jane kneeling on the scaffold, having
misjudged the distance to the block, and groping blindly while
entreating onlookers,"Where is it? Where is it?" They visibly respond
to her plight but are too frozen with horror and pity to move. That is
exactly what happened when Jane died. (The judge who condemned her died
insane.) Again it is Feckenham (Sir Michael Holdern) who steps
forward, clasps her shoulders, and guides her to the block. She had
been close to hyperventilating from tension, but at the sure touch of
his hands the tautness visibly drained from her body. Artistically
the film desperately needed a redemptive grace note here, and Nunn
provided it.

Oddly enough there was also a tradition in sentimental Victorian art
which gloried in historical themes of singling out this moment:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/ovaljane.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/lady_jane_01.jpg
Jane's home, Bradgate Hall in Liecestershire, also the setting
for the romantic real life meeting of Edward IV, England's handsomest
king, and Elizabeth Woodville, the most beautiful Queen until Alexandra
400 years later.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/Bradgate_cover.jpg
A recent book about Bradgate

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/Newtownchurch3.jpg
The east window of Newtown Lindford church, which depicts Jane.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a118/IJH/d.jpg
A beautiful scene from the film.

[–] Lozcat2 18 years ago

i dont think Doctor Feckenham was saying Jane was right about her beliefes, only that the queen was wrong in thinking she could be swayed from them

[–] xylonian-1 18 years ago

Thank You....great pics!!!!

Read My Lips!!!!

[–] sweetloveu22 16 years ago

Also may i just point out that Lady Jane was believed to me wearing a black dress and a white collar frill on the day of her execution. It would have been scandelous if she had worn white

[–] ComtessaLaRue 16 years ago

That's exactly what I gathered from it, though it was meant to be misleading.

[–] maxvaughn 18 years ago

Do you know if Jane and Edward were really thrown together for marriage before he died or was that made up for the film?

The penguins are calling and I can't find my way out of the labyrinth.

[–] little_miss_sunnydale 18 years ago

Do you know if Jane and Edward were really thrown together for marriage before he died or was that made up for the film?

Jane and Edward VI were never engaged to be married. However it appears that Jane's parents, Henry and Frances Grey had for some years, great ambitions to marry Jane to the King. This is probably the reason as to why they sent Jane to live with Katherine Parr and her husband Thomas Seymour. Seymour, Edward's maternal uncle, had promised Frances and Henry that he would arrange a marriage between Jane and Edward if they agreed to place Jane under his custody. However Seymour's intentions were not the best; at the same time he was actually planning to gain power for himself and even overthrow the council. Seymour was eventually arrested in 1549 after trying to kidnap Edward. Before he was arrested the Greys had become suspicious of Seymour's intentions, and when Katherine Parr died in late 1548, they removed Jane from his custody. It was then that they probably gave up on the idea of marrying Jane to the King.

So far as we know, Edward never intended to marry Jane. In fact he was more concerned with marrying Mary Queen of Scots who he was permitted to marry under the Treaty of Greenwich. If he was to marry anyone it would have been a foreign princess for political reasons. He would have got very little out of marrying Jane.

Jane eventually was forced to marry Guildford due to an alliance between her parents and John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Although the film suggests that they eventually fall in love, this was never the case. Apparently Guildford was a selfish youth spoilt by his mother and Jane, when made queen for a few days, attempted to prevent Guildford from becoming King. They of course both died after her father made the foolish decision of participating in Wyatt’s rebellion.

We are born princes and the civilizing process makes us frogs - Syrus

[–] maxvaughn 18 years ago

I knew about her living with Seymour and Parr, but I din't know about about Edward and Mary of Scots. Thanks :-)

The penguins are calling and I can't find my way out of the labyrinth.

[–] little_miss_sunnydale 18 years ago

I knew about her living with Seymour and Parr, but I din't know about about Edward and Mary of Scots. Thanks :-)

Yep, the treaty of Greenwich was a result of the battle of Solway Moss (1542) in which the English defeated the Scots. The Scottish king, James V, died shortly after the battle leaving the infant Mary as queen.
Henry wished to resolve the problem of poor English-Scottish affairs by enforcing a treaty onto the Scots that was very much in the English favour. The treaty stipulated that Edward was to marry Mary and the English also wanted Mary to be raised in England.
However both the regent of Scotland (Mary's mother, Marie of Guise) and the Scottish nobility disliked this situation. They viewed Henry as 'roughly wooing' Mary for his son. They did not want their queen raised in what was perceived to be a heretical country and by their traditional enemies. After Henry died Edward was keen on maintaining the agreement and was disappointed when Mary was sent to France to marry the Dauphin.

Apparently after Mary was sent to France, Thomas Seymour suggested to Edward that he should think about Jane as a possible bride. Jane and Edward were quite similar; they shared similar religious ideas and were both quite reserved children. Even bishop John Bale who was close to Edward suggested Jane. However when Seymour approached him about it, Edward was said to be not interested and instead looked forward to marriage with a foreign princess.

Later when England and France achieved peace in July 1551, Edward signed a treaty which renounced his claim to marry Mary Queen of Scots and instead he was contracted to marry Elizabeth Valois, daughter of Henry II. This of course never happened as Edward died young and Elizabeth went on to marry Philip II of Spain.

We are born princes and the civilizing process makes us frogs - Syrus

[–] maxvaughn 18 years ago

Thanks again. I have degree in that England at that time period, but every professor just skimmed over Jane Grey. "It's just too sad" they'd always say.

The penguins are calling and I can't find my way out of the labyrinth.

[–] sueveh 16 years ago

I perceived Dr. F's comment "you are right m'lady, the Queen is wrong" to mean that Jane was immovable in her faith. Queen Mary mistakenly thought that Jane would fold and convert. Wrong - she was steadfast in her faith and truly died a martyr for it (ironic, with the lack of iconoclasts in the Protestant faith) --

[–] herefordg1 15 years ago

Thaks for sharing the pictures. Whenever I see one of those wonderful English houses or castles, I wonder how in the world they kept warm inside them. Still I marvel at their size and beauty. I will never get to visit England due to dreadful fear of flying, but I have many picture books and watch English movies to see the various places that are shown.
I live in the USA in Alabama