17th December 2024
I shared some of my thoughts on the great theologian, Lady Jane Grey, for the latest episode of the brilliant podcast - BBC History’s Youngest Heroes.
Jane is so often portrayed as an innocent pawn trapped by ambitious men. But her own words show she was no helpless victim nor anyone’s pawn. She was a young woman determined, who chose death as a religious and political act of great power, enforcing the image of women’s nature as spiritual. Her nine days named as queen were succeeded by two successive reigning queens with only female heirs.
Jane’s story is not helped by this woefully inaccurate 1833 portrait by Paul Delaroche. Delaroche shows Jane in a low-cut gown, the virginal colour of white, slumping into silence while a sensible man supports and advises her (mansplaining death). The executioner displays yards of leg and bulging codpiece (naturally) in skin-tight red stockings.
Listen in full with BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0026258 or you can find the series on Apple or Spotify.
Image: The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche, 1833. National Gallery