Innocent Traitor

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RC: Yet despite the patriarchal culture, strong women could and did emerge, women like Jane and her cousin, Elizabeth. What accounts for that, do you think?

Innocent Traitor - Wikipedia Innocent Traitor - Wikipedia

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. There are, I know, a few fussy writers who insist on the facts and the gaps in availability of historical data to be left as empty and dark as a question mark. However, this book, does offer a glow in that abyss. John Man speculates fairly well when he has to deal with gaps in history. His fillers, however, are more based on reason and logic. He does wonderful justice too – makes for interesting reading. Yet, it is all in the third person. AW: I was trying to portray Henry VIII as Jane would have seen him on this occasion, and for this I relied on the many descriptions we have of him as a sociable, affable, and witty man who was concerned to put others at their ease. He was not always the monster of popular caricature, nor the buffoon played by Charles Laughton!Alison Weir: I’ve been writing historical novels for fun since the 1960s, and this one was no exception. I first wrote it eight years ago, while I was researching Eleanor of Aquitaine. It was then called Light After the Darkness, and was more “faction” than fiction. Historical novels weren’t selling very well at that time, so I just put the manuscript away when I finished it. I rewrote the whole thing a couple of years ago and was delighted when it was accepted for publication. Jane is openly displeased with the man chosen to be her husband. On Edward's death, Northumberland and Henry Grey go forward with their plan and put Jane on the throne, proclaiming her to be the rightful heir to the throne. One point: I'm tired of Tudor-era books writing graphic descriptions of rape. It's out of place and just feels really uncomfortable -- kind of like gore-porn. Just because it's historical doesn't make rape entertaining or somehow okay to portray in ways that modern fiction would shy away from. 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

Innocent Traitor - Wikiwand Innocent Traitor - Wikiwand

Evocative . . . a rich tapestry of a bygone age and a judicious assessment of her subject’s place within it.” The Lady Elizabeth was bad but mildly entertaining, possibly because of the appearance of one of the most interesting figures from history, but Innocent Traitor is just plain bad. It begins with two very dull parallel birth scenes and gets worse from there. The language is tedious and pedestrian, sending me to sleep rather than catching my attention. The plot drags and is utterly predictable, for example, one day after the family has heard news that some heretics are to be burned, Jane’s nurse decides to take the children out for the day on a trip to visit her sister who lives in Smithfield. Gee, I wonder what will happen?! Yep, that’s right, it all ends in tears and traumatised kiddie-winks. This writing is just so juvenile and limp. The descriptions read just the same as in Weir’s non-fiction histories – incredibly dry, unmemorable lists. The worst of by far though was Weir’s poor research and total misunderstanding and the era. 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.”Hrm. I think I would've enjoyed this more if it had been a straightforward history textbook instead of an attempt at prose. The multiple POVs are mutually indistinguishable, Jane at age 4 sounding the same as her mother as the queen as the duke and so on. The dialogue all sounds scripted, and the emotions are overwrought and rarely wring true. This riveting, richly descriptive novel chronicles the life of Lady Jane Grey. For those unfamiliar with British royal history, fifteen-year-old Lady Jane was named queen of England for nine days in July 1553. She was well-born, highly educated, and a devout Protestant. As the great-niece of King Henry VIII, it would have been customary for her family to forge a marriage alliance with one of the first families of the realm. Her parents have royal ambitions, however, and that is what precipitates tragedy. 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.

Innocent Traitor - Penguin Random House Innocent Traitor - Penguin Random House

Roger Ascham was so impressed with Jane's intelligence that he set up correspondence between her and many learned men, in England and Europe. A staunch Protestant, she would correspond and debate with them on various subjects including theology. Edward VI died on July 6 1553 and the unwilling Jane's famously short reign as Queen began on July 10th, ending on July 19th when Mary I was named the true monarch and Jane was charged with treason. Her sad life ended on Tower Green in Tower of London on 12th February 1554. Alison Weir explores Jane's life, from her birth to her early death, in her first work of fiction, Innocent Traitor.Lady Jane Grey, the grand niece of Henry VIII, and queen of England for just over a week in 1553 is the subject of Innocent Traitor, Alison Weir’s first work of historical fiction. With over ten works of history to her credit, Weir is one of my favorite British Renaissance and Reformation historians mostly because she presents the Catholic and Protestant theological differences of the era in an impartial manner without resorting to inflammatory or stereotypical rhetoric. The device of having multiple narrators is a useful one, making it easy to reveal the thoughts of key characters, but I'm not convinced that Wier has the novel-writing expertise to pull it off. There were places where she showed her pedigree as an historian by having people describe the quotodian in a way that helped to set the scene but that no-one talking to a contemporary would have thought to do. For example, a subtle anachronism - a reference to the discomfort of travelling in an unsprung carriage at a time when few, if any, benefitted from this convenience - was the very one I remember being cautioned against by my Latin teacher.

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir | Waterstones Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir | Waterstones

Lady Jane Grey, born either 1536 or 1537, was highly gifted, precocious and intelligent but she was born into a time when her life was constrained by her parents and their machinations at the royal court. Her birth was a disappointment to her parents who, like most medieval parents, had longed for a son although they soon pinned their hopes on her marrying Henry VIII's son, Edward VI. But during Edward's final illness their choice for Jane changed, due to the machinations of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and Edward's Regent, and she was betrothed to the Duke's own son, Guildford Dudley. Jane was, of course Edward's cousin and had been named his successor to the throne, apparently after much 'handling' by the Duke. The story starts with her birth in 1537. The daughter of Lady Frances Brandon and Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Jane is seen as a burden by her parents, both of whom resent her for being a girl instead of a boy, and is regularly beaten by her mother. 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.” Reader’s Circle: After ten enormously popular and critically acclaimed nonfiction books, what inspired you to make the jump to fiction with Innocent Traitor? Jane grows up close to her nurse, Mrs. Ellen and is highly educated, to the standards of a princess. After Henry VIII's death and Catherine Parr's marriage to Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Jane goes to live with the former queen and her husband to further her education while her elders plot her marriage to Edward VI of England.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. Events in the book are portrayed first person, through the eyes of a number of people—from Lady Jane Grey to her parents to Mrs. Ellen to Queen Jane Seymour to Queen Mary to the Duke of Northumberland and so on. While this adds a personal perspective that works pretty well, it can sometimes be a bit too kaleidoscopic for my taste. Through these various characters, we learn of the great events of the day as they happen—Henry VIII’s marriages to Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr, Edward VI’s brief reign, internal and external crises facing the country. Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) was born during the reign of Henry VIII to ambitious parents who trained her for an important position. She was a quiet, precocious girl who loved learning and was extremely well educated. Jane was a Protestant who spent much of her time on religious studies. Jane always felt that her parents were disappointed that she was not a boy. After forcing Jane into a marriage that she did not want, they hatched a plot to gain power in the royal court. This, from what I could tell, is much better researched than the usual Tudor trope, but the writing made it less enjoyable than the lesser works. I definitely would rather read a textbook written in conversational style. [EDIT: I've now read some of her straight-up history texts, and prefer them immensely to this. I was right -- Ms. Weir just can't handle prose and character voice.] 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.