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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    My first and greatest debt of gratitude is due to the late Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton who supervised my PhD research at the University of Cambridge from 1958 to 1961 and who was a friend until his death in 1994. Geoffrey taught me most of what I know about Thomas Cromwell and brought Henry VIII’s ‘man of business’ to the forefront of Tudor politics in his book The Tudor Revolution in Government. My second major debt is to the History Faculty of the University of Oxford, which has welcomed me as an honorary member and provided an academic home for the last sixteen years. During that period I have been fortunate to attend the Graduate Seminars in Early Modern British History at Merton College and History and Theology Seminars at Corpus Christi College and learned much from the senior and postgraduate members. It was at Merton that I met Dr Paul Cavill, then a postgraduate and now Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He has read the entire work and given me the benefit of his time and expertise. Incorporating his suggestions has saved me from a number of errors. In more recent years I have enjoyed email contact with double Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel, and on one occasion shared a platform with her when we discussed approaches to and the value of historical fiction and academic history. Her books Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies deserve all the success they have achieved. Despite the unsurprising demands on her time, especially with the stage production of her work, Hilary has read my entire work and provided me with remarkable insights and detail. I am immensely grateful to her. I must also thank Jonathan Reeve of Amberley Publishing for suggesting that I tackle a book on Cromwell and Nicola Gale for seeing my work through publication. My wife, Judith, has acted as project manager and – as always – given her help, support and, in her own inimitable way, never failed to tell me what I have done wrong and how I could improve the text.
    David Loades
Burford
University of Oxford
October 2013

PROLOGUE
    On 4 October 1529 Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor and Cardinal Archbishop of York, fell from power, leaving those in his service in limbo. One such was Thomas Cromwell, who is alleged to have lamented,
    I am likely to lose all that I have laboured for all the days of my life…
    However, he was made of sterner stuff than these words would imply. Cromwell was a survivor, and, more to the point, he knew that his future must lie in the royal service. Henry VIII would have known him slightly, through his good service to the fallen minister, but Cromwell was not important enough to approach the king directly, and there was no need for him to do so. His best route lay through the good offices of the Duke of Norfolk, the king’s chief councillor after Wolsey’s fall. Cromwell asked for a burgess place in the forthcoming parliament, and was sufficiently encouraged by the response to begin a search. This proved far from easy, but with two days to go, and thanks to the good offices of his friend William Paulet, he was chosen to represent Taunton, a borough of the see of Winchester, and thus took his seat in what is known to us as the Reformation Parliament. He knew that this parliament was called to deal primarily with issues such as probate and mortuary fees, and so well did he employ his legal expertise in these matters that within a couple of years he had been appointed to the king’s council as a legal adviser. He was also good company, and a man who could get things done. Henry liked good company, and was in need of a competent ‘ways and means’ man. Consequently he was able to show the king how to end his existing marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and to achieve the desired union with Anne Boleyn. This he did by using the legislative power of Parliament to break with the papacy, and set up the Royal Supremacy. Thereafter for several years, as Secretary and Lord Privy Seal, he was supreme in the