I am currently reading the new biography of Lady Jane Grey by Eric Ives. It seems that interest in Jane as a marriage pawn really started up after the death of Henry VIII, when Thomas Seymour and her father, the Marquis of Dorset, were hoping to marry her to the young King Edward. While Henry VIII was alive, did he ever express any interest in the marriage potential of his great-niece? She was nearly ten when he died, and so were there any possible matches bandied about that King Henry had a hand in?
2 comments:
i have not researched Jane that much but the few books and web sites i have looked at seem to say that although Henry had thought about Jane as Queen in reality she was well down the pecking order. he had 3 children and 1 of these would have a child or 2.
while it was Edward that contemplated her as queen, following his fathers wishes once Mary and Elizabeth had died childless, as he didn't want his sister Mary to come to the throne and make it catholic once more, he removed her from the running making Jane the next in line. this is when Seymour payed for her to become his ward so Edward or himself could marry her.
the 2 website may help you more
http://englishhistory.net/
tudor/relative/janegrey.html
http://www.ancientworlds.
net/aw/Post/726646
Jane Grey was actually fifth in line to the crown as after Edward Mary and Elizabeth, her mother Frances Brandon was next. In truth Henry VIII probably never contemplated Jane as monarch, or even his daughters as it was expected that Edward would marry and have heirs.
The one great-niece to which Henry VIII really attacthed any importance to was Mary Queen of Scots (the granddaughter of his eldest sister Margaret Tudor); he wanted to force a marriage between her and Edward; thus uniting England and Scotland under Tudor rule.
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