Ep. 124 Frances Grey: How the Vilified Mother of Lady Jane Grey May Not Have Deserved Her Reputation

This episode was supposed to be about Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days Queen" who was hastily placed on the English throne following the death of Henry VIII's son Edward VI, usurping his older sister Mary. But as I researched Jane Grey, I came across another character entirely who desperately needed her story "fixed." Frances Grey was Jane Grey's mother (and the niece of Henry VIII). History has not remembered Frances fondly. In the almost 500 years since her death, she has been cast as the evil mother figure, the very archetype of female wickedness. But who was Frances Grey really? Was she really as bad as her reputation would have us believe? And what part did she actually play in the tragic fate of her daughter? Let’s fix that.

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Sources:

• Susan Higginbotham" The Maligned Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk"
• The Tudor Society "Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk"
• Westminster Abbey "Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk & Family"
• Historic UK "Mary Tudor, Princess of England and Queen of France"
• Wikipedia "Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk"
• Royal Museums Greenwich "Young Elizabeth and the Seymour Scandal"
• History Extra "Did Thomas Seymour sexually abuse the teenage Princess Elizabeth?"

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