Amazon Prime’s My Lady Jane doesn’t hold itself to any historical accuracy. The series is not only a delightfully revisionist story revolving around the real-life figure, but also incorporates fantastical elements.
In real life, Lady Jane Grey was queen for nine days after ambitious family members ensured her rise to the throne. Supporters turned against her, and she was soon beheaded for treason. The series takes a different turn and tells a more charming story, with feminist leanings and people that can turn into animals. On the more serious side, however, the show also demonstrates an illness referred to only as the Affliction.
Akin to tuberculosis, the Affliction is defined by blood seeping into the lungs and causing a terrible cough. The main supposed victim of the disease is King Edward VI (Jordan Peters). Taking the crown after his father, Henry VIII, Edward is sickly. He needs a wheelchair to get around and suffers from a persistent cough. It is only later that Edward uncovers a plot to poison him, which is the real source of his illness.Â
However, the Affliction crops up many a time in the historical drama. Jane (Emily Bader) notably uses it as an excuse to get out of a marriage that she never consented to. Using fake blood, she mimics the symptoms of the Affliction to stop her own wedding to Guildford Dudley (Edward Bluemel). This plan, of course, doesn’t go accordingly, and she must endure a life married to one of the most famous rakes in London. The Affliction is one of the less fantastical elements of the series. It resembles many real-life sicknesses of the time for which there was no cure. The background detail in the series helps create a vivid world that weaves stakes into its drama.
