The Last Tudor

Written by Philippa Gregory

Narrated by Bianca Amato

‘How long do I have?’ I force a laugh.
‘Not long,’ he says very quietly. ‘They have confirmed your sentence of death.  You are to be beheaded tomorrow.  We don’t have long at all.’
 
Jane Grey was Queen of England for nine days. Using her position as cousin to the deceased king, her father and his conspirators put her on the throne ahead of the king’s half-sister Mary, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her crown and locked Jane in the Tower. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block. There Jane turned her father’s greedy, failed grab for power into her own brave and tragic martyrdom.
 
‘Learn you to die’ is the advice that Jane gives in a letter to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and find love. But her lineage makes her a threat to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and, when Mary dies, to her sister Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a potential royal heir before she does.  So when Katherine’s secret marriage is revealed by her pregnancy, she too must go to the Tower.
 
‘Farewell, my sister,’ writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary finds it easy to keep secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare. After watching her sisters defy the queen, Mary is aware of her own perilous position as a possible heir to the throne. But she is determined to command her own destiny and be the last Tudor to risk her life in matching wits with her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Elizabeth. Read by Bianca Amato, narrator of Three Sisters, Three Queens and The Taming of the Queen. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio UK
• Release date: Aug 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781471167812

Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory, CBE, is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists. Her books include The Other Boleyn Girl, The White Queen, and most recently Dawnlands. A recognized authority on women’s history, she graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She is a fellow of the University of Sussex and Cardiff University and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. In 2020 she was made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to literature and charity. Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016 was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers’ Association. She is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Nielsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output. 

Reviews for The Last Tudor

[Nicole Walsh · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Found it to be a bit confusing in the first part as it jumped forwards and backwards in time and didn’t seem to finish the older sister Jane’s story before it moved onto Katherine. Didn’t find the character of Jane very engaging and very nearly stopped listening but enjoyed the stories of Katherine and Mary much more so it was worth sticking with in the end,

[cherylan · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The most boring book by this author. A very Disappointing read!

[even-star Hancock · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The book is probably fine but whoever uploaded it got the chapters mixed up. Eg chapter 30 of 119 is the end authors note!

[tina1969_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Last Tudor is the final book by Philippa Gregory about the Tudor period. This story involves the three Grey sisters, Jane, Katherine and Mary.The first part of the book is told by Jane Grey and and very quickly covers her marriage to Guildford Dudley and up to her execution. The middle part of the book is dedicated to Katherine and her secret marriage to Ned Seymour and her imprisonment in the Tower. The final part is told by the youngest sister Mary.I enjoyed the first part of the book very much and for a long time since The White Queen started to enjoy Philippa Gregory book again. In the past I've found the books too long and especially with the Cousin's War books found them very samey and covering the same ground. The second part of the book was the longest and this is where I started to lose interest. This section became over long and really needed to move on. It would have been so much better had it have been like the first part, short and to the point.It doesn't alter the fact that Philippa Gregory is a great historian and she is a much respected author. I have read and enjoyed many of her books and will continue to do so in the future. This book however I enjoyed the fact it was about somebody different for a change but it went on too much and needed to be at least one hundred pages shorter.

[carpe_librum · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Last Tudor is the story of the three Grey sisters, Jane, Katherine and Mary, cousins to Mary Tudor and Elizabeth Tudor. Beginning in 1550, the story unfolds from each sister's point of view in three separate sections, giving us uninterrupted access to their lives.Jane Grey is the eldest and a steadfast Protestant and was made Queen of England for just nine days. Katherine is the polar opposite of her sister and plans to enjoy the trappings of her station as cousin to the Queen of England.Mary Grey is the youngest of the three sisters and was said to be a little person, or a dwarf. She is largely overlooked and serves her cousin Elizabeth I faithfully, but like her sister Katherine, she falls in love and seeks only to be happy. Queen Elizabeth I is portrayed as a vain and jealous Queen, reluctant to let any of her ladies marry, and in the case of the Grey sisters, to prevent the birth of a Tudor heir.Drawing on real letters and historical fact, The Last Tudor has been impeccably researched and as a fan of Philippa Gregory's writing, I have come to expect nothing less. I was most interested in the life of Mary Grey but the threat of treason and death accompanied the lives of all three sisters.I highly recommend The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory to readers everywhere. It's just a shame this is her final novel based on the Tudor family.* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my first historical fiction by Philippa Gregory. You may ask why I would start with book #14 in a series. In attending our weekly trivia game, one of the questions had to do with the name of the Queen of England who lasted but nine days. We knew the answer was Lady Jane Grey, but did not know much about her life, so decided to investigate further, and this book came up in an online search. This book is basically a character study of the three Grey sisters, with approximately a third of the book devoted to each.

This storyline is filled with political intrigue, imagined and real conspiracies, religious differences between “Papists” and “Reformers,” and rationale for various claimants’ rights of succession to the throne. I enjoyed the historical part of this novel, learning more about Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey than I had known previously, along with prominent families such as the Stewarts, Dudleys and Seymours. I particularly enjoyed the way the author handles Lady Katherine’s pets. She gives them each a personality and I found it endearing when the sisters interacted with them.

Unfortunately, there’s only so much action to be found when one is confined to the Tower of London or placed under house arrest. Visitors and letters were used as vehicles to relate what was happening off stage. Elizabeth is portrayed as a one-sided villain, a capricious ruler who locks up her cousins due to jealousy. I found it repetitive and the ending felt rushed. It contained references to items and knowledge that didn’t exist in the 1500’s and communications would have taken much longer back then. Even so, it held my interest through fifteen audio discs, and it spurred me to look up more about these historic people. The narrator of the audio book, Bianca Amato, did an excellent job of portraying many characters with distinct voices. I plan to seek out non-fiction about the lives of the Grey sisters and Queen Elizabeth I to see how much of The Last Tudor is based on fact and learn more about this period in English history.

[nwieme-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

NEVER thought I would like this book. I'm not a fan of English Monarchy - I'm not well versed in it... but I LOVED her writing!! I may go back and start at #1!

[starbox_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I guess no novel based on the tragic lives of Lady Jane Grey and her two sisters could be anything but gripping.Narrated in three sections by each girl in turn, this begins with the author's perhaps least successful creation of the three - Lady Jane is an insufferable prig, and not entirely convincing because of it. Her swift and inexplicable turning from horrified refusal at accepting the crown to a fiercesome determination that it is right to do so also confuses. Nonetheless her time in the Tower awaiting her end is well described, watching the body of her executed husband carted off, knowing she is next...Middle sister Katherine is Jane's complete opposite, preoccupied with the frivolities of life.Now in the bizarre situation of being returned to Queen Mary's court (with her younger sister) as maids..."constant companions of the queen who executed my sister and my father", she soon falls in love with nobleman Ned Seymour. But as the capricious Elizabeth I takes the throne, they realize they must marry in secret...the ensuing revelation means they (and their sons) are seized and imprisoned for years. Fear of another claim to the throne? Sheer cruelty? As Mary Queen of Scots' escapades are revealed, the constant hope that the unmarried Elizabeth will appoint the Protestant Greys as her heirs and release them is endlessly roused and dashed...And youngest sister, Mary, tiny, perhaps the most likeable, also finally marries for love...the tall sergeant Thomas Keyes. It all seemed terribly ill-judged, given Katherine's fate; despite Keyes' humble background, which might seem less dangerous than that of a lord, they too are separated, the husband dying shortly after release from a lengthy spell in a 'very small cell' in the Fleet prison.Elizabeth I comes out of this with more in common with the tantrumming character on 'Blackadder' than the fearless monarch. The meaningless imprisonment of these individuals, the ruined lives, certainly show another facet to the queen's character.Not great literature but very very readable and informative!

[cariola_6 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

[The Last Tudor] by [[Philippa Gregory]]Why, oh why, do I keep giving Philippa Gregory another chance? Especially when her books just keep getting worse? I thought [The Other Boleyn Girl] was OK, rather liked [The Queen's Fool], and I liked [Earthly Joys] until she stuck in an impossible gay affair that never would have happened (when you're a duke and the king's lover, you don't risk fooling around with the gardener on the side). The rest have been drivel. Yet her I sat for an interminable amount of time listening to the audio version of this one. Much of the same wretched formula is on display here: Elizabeth I is a vicious bitch and a whore and her other female characters are either so weak and pathetic that you want to slap them or impossibly strong for women of that era. Others readers have noted her tendency to pit women against each other; sure, it happens in real life, but I doubt it was a constant, even in Elizabethan days. This one focuses on the three Grey sisters, Jane, Catherine, and Mary. I've never read a characterization of Jane Grey that is quite so boring and self-righteous, and I was glad when her head came off and the proselytizing stopped. As for her sisters, they both made the same fatal mistake: marrying for love without the queen's permission. So one martyr to Protestantism, two for love. Of course, the suffering both endured for this mistake is historical fact, but it didn't make for very captivating reading. As next heirs to the throne, and as ladies-in-waiting who had seen firsthand how the queen responded to such elopements, they should have known better, Gregory plays their patheticness to the hilt. Again, boring boring boring. Halfway through, I couldn't wait for it to be over. I have two more of her books on audio, [The Taming of the Queen] and [Three Sisters, Three Queens]. Hopefully it's not too late to return them.

[kuglar · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Where to start? The style of writing was quite simplistic - very "See Dick and Jane run. See Spot run." The Grey sisters were all extremely unlikable. Jane was a sanctimonious prig, Katherine a fool, and Mary a fool as well. As written, they were puffed up with their own importance and seemed to be deluded about the events going on around them versus the reality they made up in their heads.

Jane pretty much had to die. Mary couldn't keep her alive as a rallying point for rebellion. Jane was so obnoxious here that I wasn't sorry to see her go, which is a terrible thought to have about a teenager. My favorite parts of this section were when her mother checked Jane's rampant assholery.

Katherine could not marry because any children of hers (especially sons) would also be a rallying point for rebellion. How is it possible that Katherine did not realize this? How did she come from a prominent family, spend so much time at court, watch her sister's life unfold, and still not know this? It has just happened, too! Henry VII pretty much wiped out the Plantagenet line because he wanted no rallying point for rebellion.

So Mary did the same stupid thing that her sister did! Married without permission. And assured herself and her husband that all would be well, even though her sister was at the time imprisoned for her marriage. And yammered on and on and on about her royal blood while marrying a commoner, who died for his pains. But hey, she got a nice house and red petticoats at the end, so it was all good.

Extra [negative] points for:

-pointing out who was who and what their titles were ad nauseam. Stop patronizing your readers. We can remember that Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, are cousins.

-the vicious slandering of Elizabeth. Thirty one years old and elderly with gray hair and wrinkles? Constantly calling her a whore and barren? Implying that she was unintelligent and had no skill at statecraft? No wonder she hated the Grey sisters. I'm more a Plantagenet fan than a Tudor fan and I rather hate them, too, now.

-the sisters' extreme pride in their lineage (understandable for the time) juxtaposed with the fact that none of them had the skill to actually rule. Plus their frank contempt of Elizabeth, who actually did have the skill to rule and the attributions of that skill to luck.

-dwelling on Mary's height. There was no need to mention it over and over. And then mention the husband's height over and over. We get it. And we get that the sisters were beautiful - no need to mention that over and over again, either. That's particularly obnoxious in a first person account.

One star because I couldn't give it fewer. This was so so bad.

[maryreinert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story of the three Grey sisters: Jane, Katherine, and Mary. Their grandmother was a sister to Henry VIII so their mother was a cousin to Elizabeth I. After the death of young Edward (Henry VIII's only son), her father and his allies made Jane Grey the queen even against her wishes. Jane is a strong believer in the Protestant faith. Her reign lasted only nine days because the Catholic followers of Mary, Edward's half sister raised an army and imprisoned Jane. She was later beheaded while Mary was queen.Katherine, the second sister, loves life and has no intention of being caught up in the political mess. She marries Ned Seymour, the brother of her best friend and relative of the mother of King Edward. By this time, Elizabeth I is on the throne. Elizabeth does not approve the marriage and Katherine finds herself pregnant and imprisoned. She will spend the rest of her short life in prison but does have contact with Ned and gives birth to another son. Katherine starves herself to death and dies at an early age.Mary Grey was considered a dwarf but it is unsure of what her real condition was. She was extremely short and therefore often ignored by the court although she does serve as a lady -in waiting to Elizabeth. Mary does fall in love with an extremely tall keeper of the gate, Thomas Keyes. Again Elizabeth does not approve and Mary is imprisoned in the homes of several different families. Thomas eventually dies and Mary is released but lives a quiet and fairly independent life.A typical Phillipa Gregory novel; interesting, historically pretty accurate, interspersed with fluff.