The brief reign of Lady Jane Grey is generally viewed as an insignificant coup in the middle of the Tudor dynasty. John Dudley, the duke of Northumberland, is credited with masterminding the illegal plan of usurpation which had little chance of success and less support at all levels of English society. Eric Ives turns the common view of this episode on its head. He begins by pointing out that the attempt to put Jane Grey on the throne was lawful. Existing laws and the wishes of the dying Edward vi supported its legality. Instead of Northumberland, Edward vi was the prime mover in altering Henry viii's will to make Jane Grey his successor not Mary Tudor. Nor was Edward vi alone in his desire to exclude Mary Tudor from the succession. As Ives indicates, the political elite almost uniformly backed Lady Jane Grey and if they had been able to secure Mary Tudor, Jane Grey and her new husband, Guildford Dudley, would have ruled England. Even after Mary and her supporters challenged Jane for the throne, swifter action by Northumberland could have secured victory for Jane. Ives, however, does not accuse Northumberland of incompetence. Northumberland faced difficult issues of timing. When was the right time to seize Mary? That difficulty was aggravated by spies in the court keeping Mary and the sympathetic imperial ambassador informed about Edward vi's health. Once Mary resisted, Northumberland was crippled by the English population's respect for the hereditary succession of the Tudor dynasty. The fact that Northumberland was also personally unpopular with the English people hurt his cause. Still, Mary faced very unfavourable odds of success but her seizure of the English throne was her finest hour and she demonstrated the stalwart virtues of the Tudors. With the triumph of Mary the confounded political elite scrambled to profess their loyalty. Northumberland became their scapegoat and went to the executioner's block. Meanwhile, Lady Jane Grey, as a cipher for the wishes of Edward vi, Northumberland and the political elite, found herself a prisoner in the Tower. There she proved to be a committed Protestant and became a heroic martyr. Ives brings a new perspective to the abortive reign of Queen Jane, backs it with ample and convincing evidence and in the process unravels a Tudor mystery.