If you've spent any time at all in Tudor history, you have run into the grays.

They're kind of like the family that just keeps showing up at every turning point.

Elizabeth Woodville? Well, she was a gray before she was a queen. Lady Jane Grey, briefly a queen herself, if only for nine days.

Catherine Gray, she secretly married into the Seymours, and wound up a prisoner in the tower.

Then there was Mary Gray scandalizing Elizabeth I by marrying her household guard.

And it's not just the famous women. The Greys were everywhere. Nobles, courtiers, soldiers, and statesmen.

It feels like no matter where you turn in late medieval and tutor history, there's a gray, hovering in the background, sometimes in favor, sometimes in disgrace, but always a part of the story. So the question is,

were all of these grays related? Well, the short answer is yes. At least most of them were branches

of the same sprawling family tree, with roots going back to the gentry of Bedfordshire

and branches that reached the highest level of Tudor politics.

But the real story isn't just the genealogy.

It's how the grays managed to weave themselves into the fabric of English royalty,

sometimes as loyal supporters, sometimes as rivals, and sometimes as tragic victims.

That is what we are going to explore in this episode, the saga of the Grays,

from their medieval beginnings to their moment in the spotlight with Lady Jane Grey,

and the way their story sums up the perils of being

almost royal.

Hello, friend, and welcome back to the Renaissance English History podcast, a part of the

Agora podcast network, and the original Tudor history podcast telling stories of Tudor England since

2009, 16 years old this podcast is.

Anyway, I am your host, Heather, and as always I am delighted that you are here with me today

as we talk about the grays.

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