Period dramas have never been such big business.
After the Regency era got the Netflix treatment with Bridgerton, now it’s the turn of Tudor times with the new series from Prime Video My Lady Jane.
Based on Cynthia Hand’s 2016 young adult novels, the eight-part series is streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video offering a re-imagining of the life of teenager Lady Jane Grey who became Queen of England for nine days.
With an all-star cast which includes Rob Brydon, Dominic Cooper, and Anna Chancellor, the series takes a modern approach to this historical tale with a little magic thrown in for good measure.
But at its heart is the story of Lady Jane, played by Emily Bader, and her soon-to-be-husband Guildford Dudley (Edward Bluemel).
Who was the real Lady Jane Grey?
Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, the eldest daughter of Lady Frances and the 3rd marquess of Dorset Henry Grey.
They were a high ranking family in Tudor society, Lady Frances was the daughter of Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s youngest sister.
At the age of 10, she was sent to live in the household of Thomas Seymour to help her make a good marriage.
Seymour was a close family friend but also the uncle of the new young king Edward VI (Henry VIII’s son) and he planned to marry Jane to Edward.
As King Edward was just nine-years-old when he acceded to the throne, a Council of Regency was formed, led by Thomas Seymour’s elder brother Edward.
The power wielded by this council saw the two brothers clash and eventually Thomas was arrested, sent to the Tower of London and executed in 1549.
With her protector dead, Lady Jane returned home to her family.
Meanwhile, Edward Seymour’s tenure leading the Council of Regency proved to be unsuccessful. He was executed, like his brother, and a new leader of the council emerged – John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland.
By 1553 the health of the 15-year-old King was starting to fail, it is believed he may have had tuberculosis. And so he wrote a plan of succession, disinheriting his two half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth and naming Lady Jane Grey as his heir.
The 16-year-old had, by this time, married 18-year-old Guildford Dudley, the son of John Dudley who led the Council of Regency.
On 6 July 1553, King Edward VI died bringing his brief reign to an end and Lady Jane was brought to London to be crowned queen.
Angered by this move, Henry VIII eldest daughter Mary wrote to the Privy Council to demand that she be made Queen.
And when a plan to capture the Catholic princess at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk failed, the Privy Council turned in Mary’s favour.
Just nine days after Lady Jane had been crowned Queen, she was succeeded by Princess Mary on 19 July 1553.
Lady Jane was held prisoner at the Tower of London, along with her husband, and both were convicted of treason in November 1553.
On the 12 February 1554, they were executed.
Jane was just 17 when she was beheaded at the Tower of London.
How true to real life is My Lady Jane?
Although rooted in the history of this time, the series is described by Prime Video as a “quick-witted romantic new series set in an alt-fantasy Tudor world”.
Inspired by Hand’s books, My Lady Jane is a retelling of the English royal history in which King Edward VI does not die of tuberculosis and neither Lady Jane Grey nor her husband are beheaded.
Instead, it is billed as a modern-day fairytale in which the “damsel in distress saves herself” with history, fantasy, comedy and romance melded together.
And if that is not enough, there are humans who can transform into animals or birds.
