Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey
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, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey-"the Nine Days' Queen"-a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century. The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn's beheading and the demise of Jane's infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane's adolescent cousin, and Henry's successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor. Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy. Alison Weir uses her unmatched skills as a historian to enliven the many dynamic characters of this majestic drama. Along with Lady Jane Grey, Weir vividly renders her devious parents; her much-loved nanny; the benevolent Queen Katherine Parr; Jane's ambitious cousins; the Catholic "Bloody" Mary, who will stop at nothing to seize the throne; and the protestant and future queen Elizabeth. Readers venture inside royal drawing rooms and bedchambers to witness the power-grabbing that swirls around Lady Jane Grey from the day of her birth to her unbearably poignant death. Innocent Traitor paints a complete and compelling portrait of this captivating young woman, a faithful servant of God whose short reign and brief life would make her a legend. "An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the . . . historical fiction game."
-The Independent "Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her first work of fiction . . . Weir manages her heroine's voice brilliantly, respecting the past's distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit."
-London Daily Mail
-The Independent "Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her first work of fiction . . . Weir manages her heroine's voice brilliantly, respecting the past's distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit."
-London Daily Mail
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Community Reviews
of the blood. . .I think i might have mentioned once or twice that i am a tudorphile. As such, i have read (and own) many of Alison Weir’s excellent histories. So i was rather excited to hear of her debut novel Innocent Traitor (which may sound like a Nora Roberts title but is actually the story of the rather tragic nine day reign of Lady Jane Grey). The story is told from multiple points of view from various members of the Tudor court (the prologue, told from Jane's point of view, waiting in the Tower of London for her pardon from Queen Mary tells how
"in my tormented reverie I hear voices, clamoring to be heard, all speaking at once. I know them all. They have all played a part in shaping my destiny."
she goes over, in her head~although she is exhausted and all she wants to do is sleep~i can definitely relate to that~for the thousandth time how she came to be there), beginning with Jane's birth up to her execution.
It is so interesting, how, even when you know the story well, it can still move you to tears when it is well told, as it is here in Weir's expert hands. Weir is an accomplished and much respected historian, her accuracy is not in question, but she writes in her afterword about how freeing it is to be able to speculate on the psychology and inner workings of the players in this very real drama (it's also interesting to note that some of the most unbelievable pieces of the story are the ones that are of undisputed fact). This story is not only about Jane, but about the life and death intrigue of the day to day life of the Tudor court~and many of the voices in this novel often wish to be commoners rather than players on the royal, and very public stage (although i've always said IF i HAD to live in that place and time the only person i would want to be would be Anne of Cleves, because, though she was said to be ugly {which i'm not entirely convinced of} and smell bad), she had the most freedom of all {once her marriage was annulled}).
To be of the blood, by the by, means to be of the royal blood, which also, i am convinced carries with it a high possibility of inheriting the migraine gene (Henry, Mary, Elizabeth, and Jane also suffered from them...hmm, perhaps i am of the royal Tudor line after all...). But i also relate it to the blood soaked politics that goes along with playing that game. Family and Politics. Sex and Politics. Religion and Politics (in this case though, it is not Christianity versus anything else, or whose God is God, but which Christianity is the True Faith, and as always people must shed blood over it). All of it is here. This is a great read (though i must admit to being a slightly partial to the story between Jane and Guildford Dudley depicted in Lady Jane~i know, i know call me a romantic if you must...
"in my tormented reverie I hear voices, clamoring to be heard, all speaking at once. I know them all. They have all played a part in shaping my destiny."
she goes over, in her head~although she is exhausted and all she wants to do is sleep~i can definitely relate to that~for the thousandth time how she came to be there), beginning with Jane's birth up to her execution.
It is so interesting, how, even when you know the story well, it can still move you to tears when it is well told, as it is here in Weir's expert hands. Weir is an accomplished and much respected historian, her accuracy is not in question, but she writes in her afterword about how freeing it is to be able to speculate on the psychology and inner workings of the players in this very real drama (it's also interesting to note that some of the most unbelievable pieces of the story are the ones that are of undisputed fact). This story is not only about Jane, but about the life and death intrigue of the day to day life of the Tudor court~and many of the voices in this novel often wish to be commoners rather than players on the royal, and very public stage (although i've always said IF i HAD to live in that place and time the only person i would want to be would be Anne of Cleves, because, though she was said to be ugly {which i'm not entirely convinced of} and smell bad), she had the most freedom of all {once her marriage was annulled}).
To be of the blood, by the by, means to be of the royal blood, which also, i am convinced carries with it a high possibility of inheriting the migraine gene (Henry, Mary, Elizabeth, and Jane also suffered from them...hmm, perhaps i am of the royal Tudor line after all...). But i also relate it to the blood soaked politics that goes along with playing that game. Family and Politics. Sex and Politics. Religion and Politics (in this case though, it is not Christianity versus anything else, or whose God is God, but which Christianity is the True Faith, and as always people must shed blood over it). All of it is here. This is a great read (though i must admit to being a slightly partial to the story between Jane and Guildford Dudley depicted in Lady Jane~i know, i know call me a romantic if you must...
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