Crown of Blood

'Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same.' These were the heartbreaking words of seventeen-year-old Lady Jane Grey as she stood on the scaffold awaiting death on a cold February morning in 1554. She is known to history as 'the Nine Days Queen,' but her reign lasted for thirteen days. The human and emotional aspects of her story have often been ignored, although she is remembered as one of the Tudor Era's most tragic victims. While this is doubtless true, it is only part of the complex jigsaw of Jane's story. Crown of Blood is an important and significant retelling of an often-misunderstood tale: set at the time of Jane's downfall and following her journey through to her trial and execution, each chapter moves between the past and the ';present,' using a rich abundance of primary source material (some of which has never been published) in order to paint a vivid picture of Jane's short and turbulent life.