Henry VIII’s desire for a son drove him to have his first marriage annulled, execute his second wife and overturn the entire religious life of England. Yet his ‘precious jewel’, Edward VI, only reigned for six years, so the future of the Tudor dynasty hung on its female members. In this talk, Tracy will compare and contrast the queenship of the three women who succeeded Edward: the ‘Nine Days’ Queen’, Lady Jane Grey, his notorious elder half-sister, ‘Bloody Mary’, and Elizabeth I, who defied the contemporary prejudice against female rulers to become the most successful of all the Tudor monarchs.