Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's Most Notorious Minister

Rising to power with Anne Boleyn's decapitation and losing his own head over the Anne of Cleves debacle, Thomas Cromwell (1485–1540) was Henry VIII's loyal hatchet man—dissolving Catholic monasteries, breaking with the pope and finding ever more loopholes to justify Henry's marital and financial whims. Hutchinson (The Last Days of Henry VIII ) effortlessly explains the business side of the Tudor court in which Cromwell's legal mind excelled while giving a one-sided portrait of controversial Anne Boleyn. Of the five royal wives Cromwell knew, the “pockmarked and sadly malodorous” Anne of Cleves receives most of Hutchinson's meager sympathy. In spite of considerable research, the focus on Cromwell's professional life means that the man from humble beginnings still eludes readers as anything more than a petty and “rapacious loan shark.” Unlike contemporaries More and Cranmer, Cromwell seems uninterested in religion, friends or family. But those more interested in the nuts and bolts of Henry's court rather than the monarch's soap opera antics will find this a welcome respite from fictionalized Tudor drama. 8 pages illus., 8 pages of color photos. (Sept.)