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beast’.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, by an unknown artist, c . 1520. His letters to Cromwell after his fall from power make pitiful reading.

Thomas More, after Holbein. He warned Cromwell always to tell the king what he ought to do, ‘but never what he is able to do … For if a lion knew his own strength [it would be] hard for any man to rule him.’

Catherine of Aragon, c . 1525. Cromwell believed that nature had done the discarded queen a disservice by not making her a man; in her bravery, she could have ‘surpassed all the heroes of history’.

Jane Seymour, who provided Henry with his longed-for legal male heir.

Anne Boleyn, by an unknown artist, painted 1533–6. Henry’s second queen was brought down by Cromwell’s trumped-up charges of incest.

Anne Boleyn’s last letter to Henry VIII, ‘from my dolefull prison in the Tower’, 6 May 1536, and signed: ‘Your most loyal and ever faithfull wife Anne Bullen’. It was found with the papers of Thomas Cromwell after his arrest.

The Byble in Englyshe , published in London in 1539, showing Henry VIII amidst a rejoicing population and Cromwell and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer distributing copies of the Bible. This title page design was used in subsequent editions in 1540 and 1541.

Anne of Cleves, 1539. Cromwell negotiated Henry’s marriage and alliance with Cleves but when the King met her face-to-face, he was less than enamoured with her charms. He told Cromwell before the wedding: ‘My lord, if it were not to satisfy the world, and my realm, I would not do that I must do this day for no earthly thing.’ She became the catalyst for his downfall.

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, c . 1539–40, by Holbein. Norfolk stage-managed Cromwell’s arrest at a Privy Council meeting on Saturday 10 June 1540.

Stephen Gardiner, by an unknown artist: Cromwell’s jealous and implacable opponent in numerous conspiracies at Henry’s court.

Portrait of an unknown lady, probably Catherine Howard, c . 1540. A conspiracy by Norfolk and Gardiner used the teenager as bait to trap Henry into a new marriage.

Cardinal Reginald Pole, by an unknown artist after 1556. His open letter to Henry in May 1536 – Pro Unitate Ecclesiae – sent the King into an apoplectic rage. Bishop Tunstall warned him of ‘the discomfort it will be to … your mother … to see you swerve away from your prince … and also your brother.’ Cromwell arrested them.

Robert Hutchinson was defence correspondent for the Press Association 1976-83 before moving to Jane’s Information Group to launch JANE’S DEFENCE WEEKLY. He is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and a contributing author to THE ARCHAELOGY OF THE REFORMATION. He was appointed OBE in the 2008 Honours List.

ALSO BY ROBERT HUTCHINSON
    Elizabeth’s Spy Master
    The Last Days of Henry VIII

Copyright
    A WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON EBOOK
    First published in Great Britain in 2007 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
First published in ebook in 2012 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
    Copyright © Robert Hutchinson 2007
    The moral right of Robert Hutchinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
    ISBN: 978 1 7802 2378 0
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