For several days after the death of young King Edward VI in early July 1553, two women considered themselves the ruler of England: his Catholic half-sister Mary Tudor and Lady Jane Grey Dudley. Tudor scholar and historian Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger explores the woman at the heart of the conflict as she considers the life and character of Jane Grey; the political and personal forces at play in Tudor England; Jane’s complicated relationship with Mary Tudor—and why it was necessary for one of them to lose her life.