LADY KATHERINE GREY: A Dynastic Tragedy

Sister of Lady Jane Grey, Lady Katherine was imprisoned in the Tower of London after her secret marriage to Edward Seymour, dying heartbroken at the age of 27 while being a potential heir to Elizabeth I. When Elizabeth died in 1603, James VI of Scotland, son of the executed Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded her as king of England. According to the last will and testament of Henry VIII however, there was another candidate with 'most right' to succeed Elizabeth: Edward Seymour, son of Lady Katherine Grey. During the early years of Elizabeth's reign, Katherine was regarded by many at court as heir presumptive. However, she incurred Elizabeth's lasting displeasure when she secretly married Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, and bore him two sons. The couple were first imprisoned in the Tower of London, then separately placed under house arrest, never to see one another again. A commission declared their marriage unlawful and their son illegitimate. Katherine was not simply a tragic figure, but a figure of national and international significance, and in this special book her dynastic importance is brought to the forefront. Politicians, courtiers and diplomats both in England and on the Continent offered support for Katherine's claim to the throne, whether to safeguard a protestant monarchy, to protect England's national interests from the ills of foreign rule, or to prevent the succession of a candidate who threatened the interest of another power, and many of these goals were intertwined. She suffered an untimely death on a cold January morning in the Suffolk countryside, far from the royal court in which she had once lived and loved. 288 pages, colour photos.