At the beginning of the movie, when Jane and King Edward are talking outside in the snow, there is a little red-haired girl playing with a doll. When Edward faints, she tries to revive him. Anyone have any idea who she's supposed to be? After some thought, I thought it may be Jane's sister Catherine Grey. Not sure though...any thoughts?
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"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent." ~Qui-Gon Jinn, The Phantom Menace
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I thought that at first, too. But Elizabeth was older than Edward and Jane- about four years, if I remember correctly. This little girl was definitely younger.
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"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent." ~Qui-Gon Jinn, The Phantom Menace
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I think it was Elizabeth and they got the age thing wrong. Cause really who els could it of been.
shareNooo! The red haired girl was clearly younger then Jane. Elizabeth is really about four years older then Jane.
shareThe little red-haired girl is Katherine Grey, Jane's younger sister. Her name appears in the credits, not Elizabeth's.
~There's nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends~
it wouldnt be elizabeth - thats just stupid
it was katherine her sister - even though i though katherine was older than that its regardless!
it was chathrine ..when lady jane dies at age 17 her sister is 14 so she was younger
shareCatherine Grey was younger than Jane; she was the second of three Grey sisters. The casting appears to be physically accurate, as Catherine Grey is recorded as being red-haired (a Tudor family trait) and very pretty with a fair complexion. Catherine would serve both Queen Mary Tudor and later her half-sister Queen Elizabeth an attendant for a number of years (as would the third sister, Mary).
Catherine made the incredibly stupid blunder of marrying without the permission of her sovereign, Queen Elizabeth I. (As she was in the line of succession as set down in the will of Henry VIII, her marriage was an affair of state.) Her husband was Edward Seymour, a nephew of the late queen Jane Seymour, Edward VI's mother (the Seymours, it should be noted, were a notoriously ambitious family). Anyway, they managed to keep the marriage a secret until Catherine came up pregnant; Elizabeth was so angry she had both sent to the Tower. A son was later born, but the Queen had their marriage annulled and the child declared illegitimate. Edward was fined 3,000 pounds as further punishment.
It seems that the husband and wife managed conjugal visits while in the Tower which resulted a second pregnancy and a second son -- which made the Queen even angrier. They were eventually released from the Tower, but kept under house arrest. Catherine and the younger son were held separately from Edward and the older boy. Seven years after their marriage Catherine died of tuberculosis; she never saw her husband again.
biography found here: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/CatherineGrey.htm
The third sister, Mary Grey, whom I believe was physically deformed -- a hunchback, reportedly about four feet tall -- failed to learn from Catherine's mistakes. She too married without the Queen's permission, and most unsuitably. The man was one Thomas Keyes, a gatekeeper in the Royal Household. Two weeks after their wedding both were arrested; Mary was held under house arrest for the rest of her life and, like Catherine, never saw her husband again.
her bio: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/MaryGrey.htm
Thank you for this wonderful piece of history! I've always wondered about the red haired girl myself--you see her in the wedding scene also--but I think the main question about her might be: what was the dramatic purpose for including this rather puzzling silent child in the film?
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Thanks for the info! It all sounds depressing to me. This reads like it would become a really good soap opera!!
sharewow!~that was Catherine! and the whole time i thought it was elizabeth. amazing! thanks to those who posted this
shareI thought it was Elizabeth too, and I have a degree in history! I was
puzzled because yes I knew that Elizabeth was several years older
than Jane. I think because that little girl looks just like Princess
Elizabeth in the twelve zillion movies made about her. I just assumed
the producers had gotten their history mixed up. That happens a lot.
In Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth the pivotal character of Sir William Cecil
is played by 70ish actor Sir Richard Attenborough. Cecil was only a
few years older than Elizabeth, and was thus 30 or so at the time of
the events depicted.
In view of Catherine's future it's rather sad that we see her playing
wistfully with a baby doll, and knowing she would in the future be
forced to endure seperation from her children and husband.
Elizabeth's abuse of her cousin Catherine is one of the things I like least about her, though on balance I am in awe of Elizabeth. Just because Elizabeth couldn't put herslf in the position to marry, why torment everyone else? I would have thought that Elizabeth would have been pleased to have a Protestant male cousin available as heir, as an alternative to Mary Queen of Scots. Though I suppose Elizabeth instead saw Catherine's sons as a threat.
In addition, Jane & Catherine's grandmother - Henry VIII's favorite sister Mary -- hated Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Mary died in 1533, just before Elizabeth was born, but Mary stuck up for Henry's first wife Catherine of Aragon until the end. That gave Elizabeth one more reason to dislike the Greys.
The problem with a Protestant heir for Elizabeth is very simple. She was well aware from her own experience as an heir to the throne just how dangerous it was to have 'competition' as it were. As soon as Elizabeth named a successor, her position as Queen would have been even more tenuous. There would have been even more plots to remove her than were already in place. The fact that Katherine married a Seymour (same house as that of Queen Jane, third wife of Henry VIII) made the offspring that much more dangerous.
Remember, Elizabeth was viewed by many as a bastard, possibly not even Henry VIII's daughter. Her position was never really secure.
The reason you automaticaly think it is elizabeth is that she is wearing an almost identical dress to the portrait of young elizabeth that is so well known
shareThat portrait is extraordinary, and her self-contained poise astonishing
in a girl of thirteen.
Isn't it interesting that when King Edward collapses Jane has a panic
attack and paces about repeating "What do I do?" while her younger sister
prompty rushes to his aid and holds him until his attendants can reach
them? Jane is too flustered to offer any help. I wonder if the director
wanted to make a point about Jane being too high strung and over-sensitive?
Katherine Grey secretly married Edward Seymour, Earl of Hereford, the
nephew of Queen Jane Seymour, King Edward's mother.
Remember the Tudors had usurped the throne themselves in 1485, and their
origins were a 'romantic' secret liason and marriage between the young
widowed Queen Katherine of Valois and her household usher, the Welsh
bard Owen Tudor. Her son by Henry V became King at nine months old and
Katherine shipped off to (they thought!) sleepy retirement at a country
estate by the Protector and Regent. But when she died ten years later
and they went to inventory her possessions, they found three little
kids. And less than fifty years later the son of one of them decided
he would make a better king than the Plantagenets who had ruled England
for 330 years. So I guess Elizabeth had every right to be concerned,
although her policies made it pretty miserable for young ladies like
the Grey girls and Arabella Stuart who were unfortunate enough to
have royal blood in their veins.