In Amazon Prime’s spellbinding adaptation of “My Lady Jane,” history takes a magical twist, blending politics and enchantment into a thrilling tale of betrayal and ambition.
History
The story is based on Lady Jane Grey, a 16-year-old queen who was declared a legitimate ruler by King Edward VI’s will. The extraordinary retelling mostly follows the original history but has a few minor tweaks.
In real life, it is speculated that King Edward VI died of an unknown disease and named Lady Jane Grey the queen because he wanted a Protestant heir. Mary Tudor, King Edward’s half-sister, had believed that she was to be the next queen, so when the news came out, she was enraged. Because England was Catholic at the time, Parliament also didn’t agree with Jane being the queen, and so the decision was not approved. Once they realized that King Edward’s will was not legal, Lady Jane was removed from the throne after just nine days.
Unfortunately, once Mary Tudor became Queen, she ordered Jane beheaded for even daring to be alive as a rival claimant of the crown.
In the Prime adaptation of the story, however, the story is tweaked and the narrator starts by saying that Jane will not die at the hands of Mary, and her story will continue after. Something else that was changed is the existence of magical creatures called Ethians who can can each shapeshift into one animal. The people who cannot shapeshift are called Verities, and they persecute the Ethians for having powers that seem unearthly. To avoid persecution, known Ethians hide in plain sight, making them very rare.
Characters
- Lady Jane is portrayed as a very smart, young woman who specializes in herbs and plants. After her distant cousin, Edward, names her Queen without her knowledge, her plans to further her career are thwarted, and she is forced into both a marriage and the dark side of politics.
- Lord Guildford Dudley is the main love interest, and their love story has many tropes like enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, and forbidden love. Sometimes all these different tropes don’t mesh well together, and the story seems confusing, but in My Lady Jane, they blend wonderfully together and showcase their slow burn in the best way.
- King Edward is a young king who has caught the Affliction. In this story, the disease is a slow-killing virus that causes body pains, extreme exhaustion, and coughing up blood. Later in the story, it is discovered that he is being poisoned by his step-sister, Mary Tudor.
- Mary Tudor is portrayed as a bloodthirsty and vengeful person who won’t stop at anything to get what she wants- in this case, the throne. To bring her plan to action, she goes to extreme lengths like slowly increasing the amount of poison the current King Edward intakes, until he slowly becomes too exhausted to make viable decisions.
The show’s future…
The story has a lethal combination of fantasy, mystery, romance, and humor, and had overwhelming support from fans. A massive cliffhanger in the final episode left fans with many questions, however, season 2 was canceled.
Luckily, Prime Video has started a petition to bring the show back, and if enough fans sign it, My Lady Jane’s second season will come back with a conclusion season 1 ended with, and Jane’s story will continue.
