⇒ Download Gratis Innocent Traitor A Novel of Lady Jane Grey Alison Weir 9780345494856 Books

Innocent Traitor A Novel of Lady Jane Grey Alison Weir 9780345494856 Books

Download As PDF : Innocent Traitor A Novel of Lady Jane Grey Alison Weir 9780345494856 Books

Innocent Traitor A Novel of Lady Jane Grey Alison Weir 9780345494856 Books

Even students of British history who know how this story ends will find this fictionalized version (that is solidly based on historical facts) a riveting and even mesmerizing read. Author Alison Weir masterfully tells the life story of Jane Grey, known as the nine-day queen of England. The great-niece of King Henry VIII, Jane was the eldest of three daughters in a time when only sons were wanted. She was physically and emotionally abused by her mother, but found solace in books and learning--highly unusual for a young girl of these times. But her life only gets worse. When her marriage is consummated, she is brutally raped by her husband.

The entire book is written in the first person but from the viewpoint of several people, including Lady Jane Grey; Mrs. Ellen, her loving and trusted nursemaid; Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, Jane's hateful mother; Queen Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII who took an interest in Jane; and John Dudley, the man who wrested the crown, albeit temporarily, from Princess Mary, the rightful heir.

The book is filled with the gossip, intrigue and conspiracies of court life with such vivid descriptions that the story just pops--making you feel as if you're living in the middle of it. In the author's note at the end of the book, Alison Weir writes: "It is my sincere hope that the story that has unfolded in these pages has both enthralled and appalled you, the reader." It did both magnificently.


Tags : Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey [Alison Weir] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live. Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel,Alison Weir,Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey,Ballantine Books,0345494857,Great Britain;History;Edward VI, 1547-1553;Fiction.,Great Britain;History;Mary I, 1553-1558;Fiction.,Queens;Great Britain;Fiction.,1537-1554,AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION,Edward VI, 1547-1553,England,FICTION Historical General,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction General,Fiction-Coming of Age,Fiction-Historical,GENERAL,General Adult,Great Britain,Grey, Jane,,Historical - General,History,Lady,,Queens,United States

Innocent Traitor A Novel of Lady Jane Grey Alison Weir 9780345494856 Books Reviews

One of my favorite books ever. Jane Grey's sad life will move you to tears. It did me, more than once while reading this book. Of course, since it is Alison Weir, the book is factually correct. On that you can depend. A great story teller it seems, as well as an esteemed historian. Is this book a sad book? Well yes, Jane Grey's life was a sad life, as were so many women (and men really) nobility born during this time. But, it is history and Ms. Weir feeds it to you, with this book, in the most delightful way. Simply, it tells the life story of young Lady Grey, forced into a marriage as a tween, forced to the throne as a teenager, Queen for only 9 days until her crown is taken by those who would put Mary Tudor on the throne, imprisoned and beheaded at age 16. It seems that all she wanted was a quiet life with her books. She was an extremely intelligent child, with no control over her life at all.
I had always wondered just who Lady Jane Grey was and how she was queen for 9 days. This book nicely explains how she was a great-niece of Henry the Eighth. Apparently, when his son Prince Edward died in his teens of TB, quite a few of the nobility were conniving to put a monarch on the throne who was not Catholic. Fourteen-year-old Jane was manipulated by her father and uncles to step up to the throne. All the kid wanted to do was to go home! When Princess Mary arrived in London with an army to claim HER throne, Jane and the husband who had been forced on her were put in the Tower of London. Seems that Mary was quite nice to poor Jane, but decided 6 months later that it would be politically expedient to kill off Jane and all the ruthless relatives who had started this mess. The child was no real threat to anything, but Mary was taking no chances.
I think there are a lot of us that find the story of Lady Jane Grey, the 16 year-old girl who was Queen of England for nine short days; only to be tried as a traitor and beheaded by Queen Mary so she (Mary) could marry Prince Philip of Spain - intriguing and incredibly sad.

I was of the generation that saw the movie about Lady Jane with Helena Bonham Carter and cried at the end of the movie, but relieved to know that at least she found true love with her arranged marriage to Guildford Dudley before she died. Nothing could have been further from the truth and is an excellent example of Hollywood altering historical facts to make a motion picture.

Lady Jane was an incredibly intelligent girl who liked nothing more than to read or focus on her studies. Her parents didn’t understand her and her mother, in particular, was more often than not, quick with a beating, whipping, or withholding meals until her “willful” child obeyed. Although it was historically appropriate for parents to treat their children with (what to our modern eyes) excessive and cruel punishments, even the contemporaries of Jane Grey felt her parents were unduly harsh with her.

Lady Jane grew up knowing she was the living proof that her mother failed in producing a son and heir for her husband. But she couldn’t understand why her cold and heartless mother could lavish attention on the second daughter, Katherine, and spare none for her. In a time when people born with birth defects were either left to die or secluded somewhere out of sight, the third daughter, Mary, a hunchback, was given the same education (very extraordinary in those times) as her sisters (educating women was still frowned upon). So Jane saw that her parents were even tolerant of her youngest sister where they had zero tolerance for her. Of her parents, she is recorded as saying, “when I am in the presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it as it were in such weight, measure and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs and other ways (which I will not name for the honour I bear them) ... that I think myself in hell.”

The only true happiness she knew was when she was sent to be one of Catherine Parr’s ladies. She found a kind and loving mother-figure in Catherine and relished her time with the fortunate last wife of King Henry the Eighth. This happiness was cut short when Catherine died and, although she was retained in the household by Thomas Seymour (who was working with Jane’s parents to be proposed as a bride for Edward; Henry the 8th’s son), but was eventually retrieved by her parents when it was secretly made known that Edward was dieing.

Jane was then embroiled in a fantastic scheme to put her on the throne and have Princess Elizabeth and Princess Mary passed over after Edward’s impending death. Everything was done without her consent and she was a pawn in the hands of the people who should have protected her. She was married against her wishes (only capitulating after severe beatings) to the spoiled, childish Guildford Dudley; who threw tantrums and ran to his mother. Such was her disgust with this child-man, that when he begged to see her before his death, she refused.

This story is Alison Weir’s venture into Fiction. The story is told in the first-person narrative from different viewpoints; her mother, her teachers, herself, and gives us insight into what was possibly going on in the heads (and hearts) of those involved at the time. The historical material is all incredibly true and due to Ms. Weir’s incredible research, you are given probably what is the closest thing we have to the inner thoughts and feelings of the people involved.

This was a book that I had difficulty putting down once I started. It fed my love of historical non-fiction as well as historical fiction. I highly recommend this book!
My library has many of Alison Weir's books of history, but I was looking for a "first novel" by someone who writes history.
Lady Jane Grey is one of the Brit rulers of whom very little has been written, so with a touch of fiction she fills in the spaces and turns poor Lady Jane into a realistic personage. No research has been spared to do this, and like a few other history novelists, at the end of the book she explains where fiction was needed to flesh out the story.
Even students of British history who know how this story ends will find this fictionalized version (that is solidly based on historical facts) a riveting and even mesmerizing read. Author Alison Weir masterfully tells the life story of Jane Grey, known as the nine-day queen of England. The great-niece of King Henry VIII, Jane was the eldest of three daughters in a time when only sons were wanted. She was physically and emotionally abused by her mother, but found solace in books and learning--highly unusual for a young girl of these times. But her life only gets worse. When her marriage is consummated, she is brutally raped by her husband.

The entire book is written in the first person but from the viewpoint of several people, including Lady Jane Grey; Mrs. Ellen, her loving and trusted nursemaid; Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, Jane's hateful mother; Queen Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII who took an interest in Jane; and John Dudley, the man who wrested the crown, albeit temporarily, from Princess Mary, the rightful heir.

The book is filled with the gossip, intrigue and conspiracies of court life with such vivid descriptions that the story just pops--making you feel as if you're living in the middle of it. In the author's note at the end of the book, Alison Weir writes "It is my sincere hope that the story that has unfolded in these pages has both enthralled and appalled you, the reader." It did both magnificently.