The arrest of Lady Jane Grey (Image: GETTY)
She concludes: “It became clear the letter is a fake that mixes details from contemporary sources, with fiction.
“The description of Jane has echoes of the red-lipped girl in the Delaroche portrait, but resembles also a contemporary description of Mary Tudor, who was ‘of low stature…very thin; and her hair reddish.’
“Jane’s mother carries her train in the letter, as was observed in 1553.
“The platform shoes or ‘chopines’ were taken from the Victorian historian Agnes Strickland, quoting Isaac D’Israeli. I can find no earlier source.
“The rest of Jane’s dress, described by Spinola as a gown of green velvet worn with a white headdress, was in colours traditionally worn by a monarch on the eve of their coronation.