She was the second child and eldest daughter of King Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.

[4] At Frances's baptism, her aunt Queen Catherine (first wife of her uncle Henry VIII) and her cousin Mary served as godmothers.

[4] Frances's first two pregnancies resulted in the births of a son – Henry (Lord Harington), and a daughter, who both died at an early age with unknown birthdates.

Their births were followed by three surviving daughters: Frances's residence at Bradgate was a minor palace in the Tudor style.

Around 1541 Bishop John Aylmer was made chaplain to the duke, and tutor of Greek to Frances's daughter, Lady Jane Grey.

It was through her friendship with Catherine Parr that Frances' daughter Lady Jane Grey secured a place in the queen's household.

Frances and her sister Eleanor had been removed from succession in the will of King Henry VIII alongside the descendants of their aunt Margaret Tudor, though their daughters were still included following Edward's half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth.

An increasingly desperate Seymour invaded the king's bedchamber in an attempt to abduct him, and shot Edward's beloved dog when the animal tried to protect its master.

For a time it is claimed they contemplated marrying her to Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, son of the Lord Protector and Anne Stanhope.

[9] At the time they took place the alliances were not seen as politically important, even by the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire Jehan de Scheyfye, who was the most suspicious observer.

Edward opposed Mary's succession, not only on religious grounds but also on those of legitimacy and male inheritance, which also applied to Elizabeth.

[16] He drafted the Devise for the Succession, which passed over the claims of his half-sisters and settled the Crown on his cousin Jane Grey.

[17] Like his late father, he also passed over Frances who otherwise would have been the heir presumptive, possibly because she seemed quite unlikely at her age to produce a son to succeed her.

Frances and her husband were at first outraged, but eventually, after a private audience with the king, she renounced her own rights to the throne in favour of Jane,[18] approving the plan for the succession.

She was still regarded with some suspicion and in April 1555 the Spanish ambassador, Simon Renard, wrote of a possible match between Frances and Edward Courtenay, a Plantagenet descendant.

Her childhood friend and stepmother Katherine Willoughby had married her gentleman usher, so Frances moved on familiar ground.

[27] Four years after her death, her husband erected an alabaster monument (this is most likely created by Cornelius Cure) and crowned the grave with Frances's effigy which still remains.

Frances Grey's posthumous reputation for being insensitive or cruel is largely based on Roger Ascham's account of a statement of her daughter Jane: For when I am in presence of either Father or Mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing or doing anything else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure and number, even so perfectly as God made the world, or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs, and other ways, (which I shall not name, for the honour I bear them), so without measure misordered, [sic] that I think myself in hell.

[31] James Haddon, chaplain of the Greys, told his acquaintance Michelangelo Florio how Jane was following in her parents' footsteps concerning piety, and how close she was to her mother Frances.

[32] The alleged abuse of her daughter as well as her role in the machinations to bring Jane the crown are the subject of historical debate.

Thomas soon joined Henry and Charles Brandon at college and his siblings went to live with their uncle George Medley.

Nevertheless, she once more resumed care of Francis and Margaret Willoughby, organised a place in school for the boy and took the girl to court, along with herself and her surviving daughters.

Frances, Duchess of Suffolk was portrayed by Sara Kestelman in the 1986 film Lady Jane and by Julia James in a 1956 episode of the BBC's Sunday Night Theatre.

[citation needed] In the 2024 Amazon Prime Video series My Lady Jane, Frances Grey is portrayed by Anna Chancellor.