Interestingly, the sister most difficult for me to capture right away was Kat. I was most familiar with Jane’s story as well so her point of view had been simmering in my subconscious for decades while Kat and Mary were much more recent discoveries. Her great challenge: when her personal code of ethics and her parents’ demands are in opposition. Jane was easiest in the beginning because she is the most like me personality-wise– the oldest child, serious and bookish, kind of an oddity in her family and trying very hard to be obedient to her parents and do the right thing.
Which sister was it easiest to write as and why? In the novel you write from the point of view of Jane, Catherine and Mary. The Grey sisters fates would have affected each other as well as themselves. Oddly, in spite of being half-sisters and having their half-brother Edward, Elizabeth and Mary Tudor were very isolated in the tide of England’s political climate. There is a wealth of information about Elizabeth Tudor, much of it making her an icon rather than a flesh and blood woman and much about Mary Tudor, often vilifying her. I imagined the horror the sisters must have felt seeing the site where Jane had died and not knowing if they would follow her to the block. Jane and their father both were beheaded there. All three Grey sisters were thrown into the Tower of London at some point. But what stunned me was the fact that the two sisters also served in the household of their cousin Mary I during the turbulent time after Jane’s fall from power and her eventual execution. Both Katherine Grey, a renowned beauty, and Mary Grey, a dwarf called Crouchback Mary, served as maids of honor to Elizabeth Tudor. I did not realize she had sisters that also had their own political and personal dramas until I was researching Maids of Honor during Elizabeth’s reign.
What teenage girl could resist the tragedy of a sixteen year old being beheaded because her parents forced her to take the crown from her cousin? Jane’s effort not to become the puppet her supporters expected her to be was heroic, her courage as she faced death so moving. I have been fascinated with Lady Jane Grey’s story from the time I was in high school. Why did you choose to write about the Grey sisters? Many thanks to Ella for answering my questions. Ella March Chase is the author of ‘Three Maids for a Crown’ and ‘The Virgin Queen’s Daughter.’
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