When Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, he left his nine-year-old son Edward to rule a kingdom broken by religious strife. Catholic England turned reformed Catholic England now turned Protestant England under Edward VI and his maternal uncle, Lord Protector Edward Seymour. But in 1553, Edward at fifteen years of age knew he was dying and he wanted to keep England out of the hands of his Catholic older sister Mary. Yet he did not want to leave his favorite sister, Elizabeth, in charge either so he changed his father’s will. He left the throne to his cousin Lady Jane Grey’s male children, but when he realized he was fading too quickly (and Jane was nowhere close to being pregnant), he updated the will to leave the throne to Lady Jane and her male heirs. A subtle, yet major change.
Her Highness, the Traitor begins in 1555, two years into Mary I’s reign, with reminisces of the past from Jane Dudley and Frances Grey. As the title implied (at least to me), I thought Susan Higginbotham’s latest historical fiction novel was about Jane Grey’s rise to the throne and her husband, Guildford Dudley, the children of the two women previously mentioned.
And it was, but not to the extent I imagined. Written in the first person, past tense and alternating points-of-view between Jane Dudley and Frances Grey, they reminisce about the past (starting in 1512 for Jane Dudley and 1547 for Frances Grey) and how it led to their present situations in 1555. I thought Her Highness, the Traitor would be from Jane Grey’s point-of-view, but instead Lady Jane’s story played out through the eyes of her mother and mother-in-law. While it threw me off at first, I quickly became accustomed to it and enjoyed learning these two womens’ views on their children’s rise and fall along with their own motivations and biases.
Just a bit of basic background on these two characters: Jane Dudley knew and grew up with her husband John because after his father was executed as a traitor by Henry VIII, Jane’s family took him in as a ward and Frances Grey was the daughter of Charles Brandon, the duke of Suffolk, and Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s younger sister.
As previously stated, the story alternated between Jane Dudley and Frances Grey, as it moved forward in time, revealing the day-to-day and major events of both of their lives, including their children taking the throne and the later consequences.
I found it interesting to read a story I know from two different voices I had not heard before. I kept hoping things would work out for everyone involved, but if it had, history would not have progressed as it had. As historical fiction readers, I think sometimes we forget (at least I do) that these people were real, living, breathing people. Sometimes I am so caught up in a story that that gets away from me and I remind myself often -and then it makes my heart ache. Towards the end, tears came to my eyes over and over and eventually spilled. Have a box of tissues nearby.
Her Highness, the Traitor is definitely a journey of a book and a heartfelt one at that.
Recommended for historical fiction readers eighteen and up. The title is a bit misleading but the story is uniquely told by Jane Grey’s and Guildford Dudley’s mothers.
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Susan Higginbotham was a lawyer turned legal publisher (a full-time job she has kept along with her writing that allows her to work at home) and historical fiction writer. She writes about fourteenth and late fifteenth to sixteenth century England and Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II inspired her to write her first novel (and to continue on). She has written five novels including The Traitor’s Wife: A Novel of the Reign of Edward II, Hugh and Bess, The Stolen Crown, The Queen of Last Hopes and her fifth novel, Her Highness, the Traitor, is set in the sixteenth century during Edward VI’s short reign and Jane Grey’s bid for the throne after him. It will be available 1 June 2012.
