Face From the Past

Lives "from history," such as the wives of Henry VIII, take on the feel of objects. The distance amplifies our pervasive us-them, I-it recovering-narcissism. It makes us ready to discount their ways and knowledge and assumptions. Yet they breathed, ate, longed, and feared like every other human being.

It is worth wondering, What sort of world, agreements, people, strategies, make it plausible this 17-year-old was beheaded for marrying a King?

Update, subtitled But There Were So Many of  Them..., correcting ignorant ruminations:

An educated consultant from the wider Chez circle informs us: 

Unless I am missing something, there appears to be an incorrect factual assumption in your post on Lady Jane Grey.  She was not one of Henry VIII wives.  She was beheaded for assuming the English crown for nine days.  She was a cousin to Mary I and Elizabeth I and within the circle surrounding Katherine Parr, Henry VIII surviving widow.  In an attempt to prevent Mary I, a Catholic from succeeding to the throne, a group of ambitious courtiers promoted Lady Jane Grey to the throne following the death of Edward VI, Henry VIII's son.  When Mary I subsequently assumed the throne as the rightful successor, Lady Jane Grey was imprisoned and executed a year later.  

 

Thus, she was beheaded, not for marrying a king, but for allowing herself to be manipulated by a group of ambitious courtiers to assume a position that she (and they) were not able to maintain.

Oh, right, a treasonous coup. Controlling Legal Authority not exactly a joke, in those days.

Thank you sir. I have always depended upon the kindness of, well, you...

In company with the link to Laudator Temporis Acti, courtesy of the revivified Mirabilis