Lady Jane (film)

Infobox Film
name = Lady Jane


image_size = 165
caption = Cary Elwes and Helena Bonham Carter on VHS cover.
director = Trevor Nunn
writer = David Edgar
Chris Bryant (story)
starring = Helena Bonham Carter
Cary Elwes
Patrick Stewart
Jane Lapotaire
music = Stephen Oliver
producer = Peter Snell
cinematography = Douglas Slocombe
distributor = Paramount Pictures
editing = Anne V. Coates
budget = $8.5 million
released = flagicon|UK February 7, 1986
flagicon|USA February 7, 1986
runtime = 141 min
country = England
language = English
amg_id = 1:28056
imdb_id = 0091374 |

"Lady Jane" is a 1986 British costume drama romance film directed by Trevor Nunn, written by David Edgar, and stars Helena Bonham Carter in the title role. It tells the story of Lady Jane Grey the Nine Days' Queen, on her reign and romance with husband Guilford Dudley. The film features several members of The Royal Shakespeare Company. It is mainly remembered as Helena Bonham Carter's first major film role.

Taglines:
* "Under the shadow of the axe..."
*"Together they ruled England for 9 days."

Plot summary

The death of King Henry VIII throws his kingdom into chaos as his heir, Edward VI is not only under-age, but dying. Anticipating the young king's imminent death from consumption and anxious to keep England true to the Reformation by keeping the Catholic Mary from the throne, John Dudley, Lord President of the Council, second only to the king in power, marries his son Guilford to Lady Jane Grey and has the royal physician—by treating him with arsenic—keep the young king alive (though in excruciating pain) long enough to get him to name Lady Jane his heir.

Jane is not happy with the proposed marriage, and must be forced into it by her bullying parents. At first Jane and Guilford decide to treat this purely as a marriage of convenience, but then they fall deeply in love. Jane is placed on the throne after Edward dies. She is troubled by the questionable legality of her accession; but, in consultation with Guilford, she turns the tables on John Dudley and the others who had thought to manipulate her like a puppet.

After only nine days, however, Queen Jane is abandoned by her council precisely because of her reformist designs for the country. The council, then, goes over to Mary I of England, who at first imprisons Jane and Guilford. After Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, raises a rebellion to restore her to the throne—presumably in concert with Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, Mary finally has Jane, Jane's father, and Guilford executed.

Cast

*Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Jane Grey
*Cary Elwes as Guilford Dudley, Jane's husband
*Jane Lapotaire as Queen Mary
*Patrick Stewart as Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Jane's father
*Sara Kestelman as Lady Frances Brandon, Jane's mother
*Michael Hordern as Doctor Feckenham
*John Wood as John Dudley, Duke of Nothumberland
*Jill Bennett as Mrs. Ellen, Lady-in-Waiting
*Adele Anderson as Lady Warwick
*Warren Saire as King Edward VI

Historical accuracy

Although the film is correct to portray Jane as a precocious and talented scholar, apart from that it contains a number of historical inaccuracies.

In particular, it appears that Jane and Guilford did not get on well with each other, and lived apart for most of their brief marriage. Jane returned to her parents' house after her marriage, and Guilford's mother came and forced her to leave after a few weeks. Jane refused to make her husband king when she was made queen, offering instead to make him a duke. Guilford then threw a temper tantrum and attempted to leave the castle, which Jane refused to allow because of the way it would look to the public.

Jane was not a social reformer during her reign as the film portrays her. Indeed, that type of social reform was not part of political thinking during the Tudor era.

Also Mary and Jane actually had a very good relationship. Mary at first insisted that Jane not be executed. It was only after the revolt led by Jane's father the Duke of Suffolk (who did not do so in an attempt to save Jane but rather to stop Mary's marriage to Prince Philip of Spain) that Mary's advisers made it obvious that she was too much of a liability to be allowed to live. Mary still tried to save her cousin's soul by sending her own confessor to try to convert her to Catholicism. There could also be a problem with the treatment of Jane's age. Her exact date of birth is uncertain, but she was born in October 1537, which made her 15 at the time of her wedding and brief reign, and 16 when she was executed. In the beginning of the film she is described as just turned 16. Later, although there is not much explicit detail, Jane and Guilford are shown in bed together and implied to be sexually active. However recently one historian has claimed that she was born in early 1537, so the film may have been right after all. (In real life Helena Bonham Carter was 18 when it was filmed.) It must be remembered that what we would now see as very early marriages were the rule rather than the exception amongst the nobility at that time, although these marriages were often unconsummated for several years.

External links

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