ane Grey was headed for death.
The daughter of Henry VIII’s niece Frances, Jane was destined, at least originally, for greatness. But her path to queenship, her brief reign and her untimely death all show the politics underpinning succession in the Tudor years. Her story is a powerful antidote to the "Tudor myth"–a longstanding view of sixteenth-century England as a political and social golden age, ruled by the divinely-appointed Tudors. It demonstrates that the line of succession, something which had been portrayed as fixed, was as political and changeable as any other public office. And it shows the religious conflicts underpinning this era in English history.
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