Alison Weir

a novel of Lady Jane Grey

Innocent traitor

Alison Weir, our pre-eminent popular historian, has now fulfilled a life's ambition to write historical fiction. She has chosen as her subject the bravest, most sympathetic and wronged heroine of Tudor England, Lady Jane Grey. Lady Jane Grey was born into times of extreme danger. Child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she was merely a pawn in a dynastic power game with the highest stakes, she lived a life in thrall to political machinations and lethal religious fervour. Jane's astonishing and essentially tragic story was played out during one of the most momentous periods of English history. As a great-niece of Henry VIII, and the cousin of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, she grew up to realize that she could never throw off the chains of her destiny. Her honesty, intelligence and strength of character carry the reader through all the vicious twists of Tudor power politics, to her nine-day reign and its unbearably poignant conclusion.

Innocent Traitor

Sarah Sammis

Take my review of Innocent Traitor with a grain of salt. I am an infrequent reader of historical fiction especially ones based around monarchs. So I came to this book already feeling skeptical.

Innocent Traitor covers the life and death of Lady Jane Grey, known sometimes as the "nine day queen" for her brief reign before Mary. With all the political machinations on the various sides all vying for the throne should make for an interesting novel but throughout the novel I found my attention wandering.

Weir chooses to write both the narrative and dialogue with a stilted and formal way that for me broke the natural flow of the novel. She also allows for a number protagonists which balloons the story to 416 pages. Had it only been written from Jane's point of view, the novel would have been shorter, more suspenseful and more interesting.

Alina

** spoiler alert **
           This book intrigued me when I first heard about it. I thought this book was the culmination of years of research, since Jane Grey is so rarely known. Clearly, I was mistaken. It doesn’t really tell us much about Jane Grey’s life. It’s more of a fictionalized account of her life, and the lack of factual information disappointed me. The book could have been better if it had included more accurate details on Jane Grey's life.

 It begins with two very dull parallel birth scenes, then gets progressively worse. Instead of capturing my attention, the language is tedious and pedestrian. From what I understand, Jane Grey’s parents did not complain about the fact that she was a daughter. It is possible they expected Jane to perform well, but I do not believe they were disappointed because she was a daughter. I find it extremely irritating when the author depicts women in a historical fiction novel as being like one another. The author portrays the characters with similar bland personalities, always showing them as weak and not resembling humans at all.

 The story of how the Duke of Northumberland poisoned Edward VI, smothered a lookalike, and switched their bodies to hide the foul play is buried among the gibberish. There are no words to describe how absurd this is. This is a complete fabrication, as there is no evidence to support this conspiracy theory. I know all that for sure is that Edward VI died of an illness at a very young age. The rest is just speculation and rumor.

It’s been a while since I read anything about Jane Grey’s life. Most of these books/articles dismiss the idea that someone forced Jane Grey into a loveless marriage and exploited her. All accounts, including contemporary accounts, show that Jane was a strong and independent woman who could make her own decisions. She actually agreed to marry Guildford willingly. She was (reportedly) the driving force behind her inauguration as queen. It also ordered the same husband by her to be a duke instead of a king.

Jane Grey could have been a victim of domestic violence and chosen for her husband's ambition. Weir lacks a history degree, but many qualified historians believe that Jane and Guildford had a happy marriage and genuinely loved each other.

The author may have made Guildford look bad to make the novel's heroine seem innocent. It would make readers more invested in the heroine's character and story by garnering sympathy.. It would also provide an interesting narrative arc and drive the story forward.

I lost a lot of trust in Weir at that point, regardless of her past accomplishments. Innocent Traitor is dull, wildly inaccurate, and unimpressive.

Lacy W

This is a rewrite of the review. The previous one that I written was so god awful, that I didn't like it. So enjoy this one instead. 

This is the story about the nine day queen known as Lady Jane Grey. Her life was hard. She had a strict mother who essentially hated her because she wasn't a boy. She had a father that really couldn't care less about her. The only shining parts of her life were her books, Mrs. Ellen and Katherine Parr, King Henry's last wife.

I felt just so awful for poor Jane. Her parents plotted ways to get her on the throne to make themselves seem better. Her mother was so god awful to her. She was constantly hit and yelled at for the smallest infractions. How she managed to still go on everyday is an amazement to me. She is clearly much stronger than anybody gives her credit for. 

I will definitely be picking up more books about her. I adored how she was all about her studies. She was so progressive for someone of her age back then. It truly is a shame, what happened to her. She didn't deserve it. I hope that the people that convinced Queen Mary to execute her, had nothing but a guilty conscious until the day they died. I hope the same for Queen Mary as well.

My gosh this was powerful. To write such a captivating book when everyone already knows the ending is a true skill. This taught me so much more about the tragic life of Lady Jane Grey and the kind of strong and fierce person she was. A very emotional read that really moved me. This is a story that deserved to be told.  

Beth Bartholomew

Veronica

I love reading books in this time period. This was not a disappointment!

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I really enjoy good historical fiction and had high hopes for this novel, which were disappointed. This is the first book I've read from this author. Since she has written several historical fiction books, I figured she must have something good going on. Well, maybe not.

This is the story of the Nine Days Queen, Lady Jane Gray, who ascended to the throne of England after the death of King Henry VIII's only son, King Edward, died. What could have been a captivating story about Lady Jane, her overly ambitious parents, King Henry, his daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and the scheming Northumberland was sadly rendered dull and lifeless. The author tells the story using alternating first person and I had to make sure to refer to the heading on each passage to tell who was narrating. Everyone sounded alike. Lady Jane's mother was a one-dimensional villain with nothing likeable about her. I also felt the lack of historical detail that really makes historical novels come alive and transport the reader back to a different time and place. Since the outcomes of novels like this are already known, the author must relate character, conflict, and setting in such a way as to pull the reader in since we already know how things will end. This book just didn't do that for me.

I would be willing to try another of her books to see if this is an anomaly. This one was not bad, just so-so.

Innocent traitor a novel of Lady Jane Grey

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