Peter Carroll is the author of Queen of Misfortune, the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. The novel is due for release in January of 2011.
For more information on Peter Carroll and his work please see also his author page here on FrogenYozurt.com.
My Research for “Queen Of Misfortune” – A Lady Jane Grey Novel – Part 1
by Peter Carroll
My research for “Queen of Misfortune” started during the time my wife and I were spending in Leicester, England, at the invite of my cousin.
She had a keen interest in local history and although I had heard of Lady Jane Grey it stopped there, mainly because as a child I had history drummed into me which rather put me off.
She said she’d like to take us to Bradgate Park, that we could picnic there and take a walk and look at the ruins of Bradgate House.
It sounded interesting so we went along with the idea not having a clue what this casual Sunday afternoon trip would curtail.
I certainly didn’t want to show my ignorance in asking my cousin the significance of the ruins.
“You’ve heard of Lady Jane Grey haven’t you, Pete?”
I had, but confessed it stopped there. “Wasn’t she something to do with royalty?” I asked and then of course she explained all to me and the rest is history – literally. Because being there, that day – I really felt something very spiritual was drawing me, I knew not what it was exactly but something, something emanating from the widespread ruins of that which was obviously once a great house, welled up my need to write about that elusive spark which had ignited my being.
I wanted to know all about the family who lived there and specifically Lady Jane. And then to my dismay, I discovered the truth about her, in as much as I was able to deeply research her short and sorrowful life, the sheer injustice that unwillingly came her way because of John Dudley’s craving for power.
I felt I needed to spend time on this one, she had led such a wretched life and a horrible death on the gallows in The Tower of London. And she was only sixteen years of age! What on earth had she done to deserve that axing of her sweet head? Simply nothing at all save being a pawn in that Tudor power game in which the fortuitous Duke of Northumberland , arranging to marry Jane off to his son, Guildford, so she could nominate him as King – the husband of Jane, the woman who was in a direct blood line to Henry VIII.
She gave her life in vain and the injustice was done and, I believe covered up to some extent because the incoming Queen Mary Tudor was obliged to have Jane and her Husband executed for treason.
The more I looked into Jane’s life the more I felt urged to try to put her case to rights, that indeed she had been so unjustly sentenced to death given the obvious proof that she had been put into such an untenable position by those ruthless Tudors.
But where should I begin her story? Initially my research led me in so many different directions, I soon discovered just how difficult it was to get to the truth, there are so many varying notions in novels that have already been written about her, although they are few in number – I suspect that is because her life was so short and she could never have known real romance and love.
Although mine is a faction piece I have tried my utmost to keep to the facts I know, some of which, because they vary so much, I have put together and come to hopefully a feasible conclusion.
But I need a spur to latch me onto something which may have given her some pleasure in her jaded life.
It came when on researching her execution I discovered that ‘a stranger from the crowd’ assisted her in finding the block when, blindfolded, she sprawled and could not find it.
That is where her beloved Tutor, whom she called her ‘Schoolmaster’ came in – he could have well been the stranger – and this linked to Jane’s discussion with Roger Ascham, telling him so many words that life would be unbearable if it wasn’t for here beloved tutor, John Aylmer.
That was the spark I needed and soon the story started to blend together, as if a romance actually did blossom between them and it gave me the means in which I was able to tell the story from John Aylmer’s point of view, he being so close to him during those younger years and right up to her teenage ones.
So the scene was set and I hope I have given Jane, a queen who was never included on the monarchy list, true recognition of the wonderful person she was, how brave and how intelligent she was, and how she stuck to her guns hell for leather, despite it meaning the loss of her precious life,
But I truly believe at least she did find some romance in her short life given the wonderful attributes of her ‘Schoolmaster.’
Queen of Misfortune
A Novel by Peter Carroll – Due for release in January 2011
Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]
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