| Lady Jane | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Trevor Nunn |
| Produced by | Peter Snell |
| Written by | David Edgar Chris Bryant (story) |
| Starring | Helena Bonham Carter Cary Elwes Patrick Stewart Jane Lapotaire |
| Music by | Stephen Oliver |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Editing by | Anne V. Coates |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 7 February 1986 |
| Running time | 141 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8.5 million |
Lady Jane is a 1986 British costume drama romance film directed by Trevor Nunn, written by David Edgar, and starring Helena Bonham Carter as the title character in her first major film role. It tells the story of Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days' Queen, on her reign and romance with husband Lord Guilford Dudley. The film features several members of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
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The death of King Henry VIII of England throws his kingdom into chaos as his heir, Edward VI is both under-age and in poor health. 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, Lord Guilford, to Lady Jane Grey and has the royal physician keep the young king alive—albeit in excruciating pain—long enough to get him to name Jane his heir.
Jane is not happy with the proposed marriage, and must be forced into it through corporal punishment by her parents. At first Jane and Guilford decide to treat this purely as a marriage of convenience, but then they fall deeply in love.
After Edward dies Jane is placed on the throne. She is troubled by the questionable legality of her accession but, in consultation with Guilford, turns the tables on John Dudley and the others who thought to use her as 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, who at first imprisons Jane and Guilford.
Consumed with guilt, Jane's father the Duke of Suffolk raises a rebellion to restore her to the throne, presumably in concert with Thomas Wyatt's rebellion. When the rebellion fails, Queen Mary I offers to spare Jane's life only if she renounces her Protestant faith. When she refuses, Jane, her father and Guilford are all executed.
Although the film is correct to portray Jane as a precocious and talented scholar, it contains a number of historical inaccuracies. Jane was not a social reformer during her reign as in the film. That type of social reform was not part of political thinking during the Tudor era.
It is believed 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 attempted to leave the castle, which Jane refused to allow because of the way it would look to the public.
Mary and Jane actually had a very good relationship. Indeed, 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 sent her own confessor to try to convert her cousin to Catholicism, as is shown in the film.