Presenting a startling dissection of the historically elusive Jane Grey's 13-day reign, British scholar Ives (The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
) decodes the character, actions and motives of the key figures responsible for the fate of the Tudor teenager. He maintains that Jane herself, while precociously intellectual, was the least influential figure in the succession crisis of 1553. Taking center stage is her father-in law, John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who in Ives's hands isn't England's most powerful man, compelling King Edward VI to add Jane to the succession to make her husband, and Dudley's son, king upon Edward's death. Rather, Ives posits the Dudley-Grey marriage as a routine aristocratic alliance and that Northumberland, as the son of an executed traitor, was obsessively loyal to an independent Edward; Edward initiated Jane and her possible future sons' promotion to achieve his long-term goal of an all-male succession. Moreover, Edward's privy council endorsed Jane's accession because they saw Jane as the rightful queen of England. Turning traditional scholarship on its ear, Ives's radical reinterpretation of one of history's briefest, most puzzling reigns is masterfully researched, authoritative and a difficult but seductive read. Illus., one map. (Oct.)
