Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

One of the saddest stories in the Tudor family is that of Lady Jane Grey - the nine day queen.  Born in 1537, she was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey and Frances Brandon and the granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary.  She could also claim descent from Elizabeth Woodville as her great-great grandmother on both her mother and father's side.  Highly educated and a supporter of the reformed religion, she became a pawn in the succession crisis that arose from the death of Edward VI in 1553 which led her to being proclaimed queen.  Her reign ended nine days later when Mary Tudor (Henry VIII's daugher by Katherine of Aragon) gathered enough support to be named queen instead.  Jane was imprisoned and in February 1554, after a failed rebellion protesting Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain, she was executed along with her husband Guilford Dudley.