Lady Jane (film)
Encyclopedia
Lady Jane is a 1986 British costume drama romance film
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...

 directed by Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...

, written by David Edgar
David Edgar (playwright)
David Edgar is a British playwright and author who has had more than sixty of his plays published and performed on stage, radio and television around the world, making him one of the most prolific dramatists of the post-1960s generation in Great Britain.He was resident playwright at the Birmingham...

, and starring Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...

 as the title character in her first major film role. It tells the story of Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey , also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed...

, the Nine Days' Queen, on her reign and romance with husband Lord Guilford Dudley. The film features several members of The Royal Shakespeare Company.

Plot summary

The death of King Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 throws his kingdom into chaos as his heir, Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

 is both under-age and in poor health. Anticipating the young king's imminent death from consumption
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 and anxious to keep England true to the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 by keeping the Catholic Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

 from the throne, John Dudley
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death...

, Lord President of the Council
Lord President of the Council
The Lord President of the Council is the fourth of the Great Officers of State of the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord High Treasurer and above the Lord Privy Seal. The Lord President usually attends each meeting of the Privy Council, presenting business for the monarch's approval...

, second only to the king in power, marries his son, Lord Guilford, to Lady Jane Grey and has the royal physician keep the young king alive—albeit in excruciating pain—long enough to get him to name Jane his heir.

Jane is not happy with the proposed marriage, and must be forced into it through corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...

 by her parents. At first Jane and Guilford decide to treat this purely as a marriage of convenience
Marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than the reasons of relationship, family, or love. Instead, such a marriage is orchestrated for personal gain or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as political marriage. The phrase is a calque of - a marriage of...

, but then they fall deeply in love.

After Edward dies Jane is placed on the throne. She is troubled by the questionable legality of her accession but, in consultation with Guilford, turns the tables on John Dudley and the others who thought to use her as a puppet.

After only nine days, however, Queen Jane is abandoned by her council precisely because of her reformist designs for the country. The council, then, goes over to Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

, who at first imprisons Jane and Guilford.

Consumed with guilt, Jane's father the Duke of Suffolk raises a rebellion to restore her to the throne, presumably in concert with Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Wyatt the younger
Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger was a rebel leader during the reign of Queen Mary I of England; his rising is traditionally called "Wyatt's rebellion".-Birth and career:...

's rebellion. When the rebellion fails, Queen Mary I offers to spare Jane's life only if she renounces her Protestant faith. When she refuses, Jane, her father and Guilford are all executed.

Cast

  • Helena Bonham Carter
    Helena Bonham Carter
    Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...

     as Lady Jane Grey
    Lady Jane Grey
    Lady Jane Grey , also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed...

  • Cary Elwes
    Cary Elwes
    Ivan Simon Cary Elwes , known professionally as Cary Elwes, is an English actor. The son of Dominick Elwes and Tessa Georgina Kennedy, Elwes acted in off-Broadway plays during college and moved to the United States in the early 1980s. He is known for his role as Westley in the cult classic The...

     as Lord Guilford Dudley, Jane's husband
  • Jane Lapotaire
    Jane Lapotaire
    Jane Lapotaire is a British actress.She studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the 1960s. Her role in the title role of Marie Curie first brought her to wide attention...

     as Queen Mary
    Mary I of England
    Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

  • Patrick Stewart
    Patrick Stewart
    Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...

     as Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk
    Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk
    Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, KG was an English nobleman of the Tudor period and the father of Lady Jane Grey.-Henry VIII's reign:...

    , Jane's father
  • Sara Kestelman
    Sara Kestelman
    Sara Kestelman is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Lady Frances Brandon, Lady Jane Grey's mother, in Lady Jane.-Biography:...

     as Lady Frances Brandon
    Lady Frances Brandon
    Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk , born Lady Frances Brandon, was the second child and eldest daughter of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France...

    , Jane's mother
  • Michael Hordern
    Michael Hordern
    Sir Michael Murray Hordern was an English actor, knighted in 1983 for his services to the theatre, which stretched back to before the Second World War.-Personal life:...

     as Doctor Feckenham
  • John Wood
    John Wood (English actor)
    John Wood, CBE was an English actor.-Biography:Wood was born in Derbyshire and studied law at Jesus College, Oxford where he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Changing to drama, Wood became known as a stage actor, appearing in numerous West End productions as well as on...

     as John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
    John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
    John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death...

  • Jill Bennett as Mrs. Ellen, Lady-in-Waiting
  • Adele Anderson
    Adèle Anderson
    Adèle Anderson is an Olivier Award-nominated singer and actress, best known as a third of the cabaret group Fascinating Aida.-Career:...

     as Lady Warwick
  • Warren Saire
    Warren Saire
    Warren Saire is an English actor.His roles include King Edward VI of England in the film Lady Jane.-External links:...

     as King Edward VI
    Edward VI of England
    Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...


Historical accuracy

Although the film is correct to portray Jane as a precocious and talented scholar, it contains a number of historical inaccuracies. Jane was not a social reformer during her reign as in the film. That type of social reform was not part of political thinking during the Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...

 era.

It is believed that Jane and Guilford did not get on well with each other, and lived apart for most of their brief marriage. Jane returned to her parents' house after her marriage, and Guilford's mother came and forced her to leave after a few weeks. Jane refused to make her husband king when she was made queen, offering instead to make him a duke. Guilford then attempted to leave the castle, which Jane refused to allow because of the way it would look to the public.

Mary and Jane actually had a very good relationship. Indeed, Mary at first insisted that Jane not be executed. It was only after the revolt led by Jane's father the Duke of Suffolk (who did not do so in an attempt to save Jane but rather to stop Mary's marriage to Prince Philip of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

) that Mary's advisers made it obvious that she was too much of a liability to be allowed to live. Mary sent her own confessor to try to convert her cousin to Catholicism, as is shown in the film.

External links

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