Review: Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live.

Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey–“the Nine Days’ Queen”–a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century.

The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn’s beheading and the demise of Jane’s infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane’s adolescent cousin, and Henry’s successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor.

Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy.

Weir has been a favorite Historian of mine for a long time. I was surprised yet ecstatic that she was going to publish some fiction along the way in her career. Born to study and delve through Tudor history, Weir brought to a new understanding to the plight of Lady Jane in this first fiction novel.
Most of us who read historical fiction know the story of the teenage Queen of nine days. However what is mostly left out of the spotlight is the way she must have felt on her way to the throne, the way her father and other family members must have schemed to get her there. How they all turned on her in the end or met their ends with her. This book although fiction was written by one of the most famed historians of our time and her expertise in the subject matter shines through the pages of the novel.
Jane’s story starts with the death of Edward, son of the famed Henry. Edward was the son of another famous Jane, one of the six wives. Sick and on the throne not long Edward succumbs. In a plot to keep the throne protestant, Jane Grey’s father marries her off to and sets her on the throne. The next nine days are tumultuous and we follow these nine days inside the mind and feelings of the teen queen. Her advisors keep her out of the loop and she rarely knows what is really going on in the city.
Her cousin comes in a rage, Jane’s throne is upset and she is in prison. Will Mary the Bloody Queen have mercy on a child whose claiming of the throne was through no fault of her own?
It is not often that a book moves me to tears. The ending of this book was hard to read and see due to the fact that my eyes were streaming through out the last chapter. If you haven’t picked up this book and are any small fan of Tudor fiction then I suggest you click one of the links above or run to your bookstore and pick it up. Let us know how you liked it!