A Great Read into Tudor England, "For Want of a Son, the Church of England was Born" Malcom Forbes

 “Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories.”

 Wolf Hall

A Review by James Romano

For the first book I finished reading in 2021, our portal takes us to Tudor England during the reign of King Henry VIII in the historical fiction novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  Wolf Hall is the first novel in a three-book trilogy chronicling the rise, the height of power and then fall of Thomas Cromwell.  Historically, Thomas Cromwell was a councilor to King Henry VIII and for a period of time one of his most trusted advisors.  The historical Cromwell had a storied career, he helped end the King’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon; overthrow the power of the Catholic Church in England; advance the English Reformation and beginnings of the Anglican Church; oversaw the sending of St. Thomas More and Anne Boleyn to their respective graves and engineer the King’s marriage to both Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves. The last of those marriages led to Cromwell’s neck and shoulders parting company with his head for he displeased the King. 

The story written by Hilary Mantel was much more fascinating. I wholeheartedly recommend this novel for your reading pleasure. I look forward to reading the next two installments in the series.  At over 600 pages, the book appears immense.  However, the story does not bog down. In 2015, the BBC produced a combined mini-series of Wolf Hall and its sequel, bring up the Bodies, with an all-star cast including, Claire Foy (Anne Boleyn), Jonathan Pryce (Cardinal Wolsey, Tom Holland (Gregory Cromwell) and Damien Lewis (Henry VII).  The title refers to the ancestorial home of the Seymour family, which is interesting to me because they are not main characters of this story.  The book tends to get a little confusing in parts because the reader has to figure out who is speaking at times.  However overall, the novel is a masterpiece.  I have come to a newfound respect for Thomas Cromwell. 

To say that Henry VIII was a fascinating character, would be an understatement.  Malcom Forbes put it best, “For want of a son, the Church of England was born”. However, the story is much more nuanced and thus more fascinating.  Henry’s first wife, the Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, was married to Henry’s older brother Arthur, the Prince of Wales.  Arthur died young supposedly never consummating the marriage. Henry’s father, Henry VII, kept Catherine in England either to marry her himself or to marry her to his next son.  When Henry VII died suddenly, Henry decided to marry the beautiful Spanish princess. According to historians, Henry had been in love with since he first met her before the wedding to Arthur.  Henry VII sent Henry to meet Catherine when she arrived in England.  Because it was canonically frowned upon to marry your brother’s widow, Henry had to receive a special dispensation from the Pope to marry Catherine. Its recorded that Henry was in love with Catherine as a young man but sadly did tire of her. 

After 20 years of marriage, the King and Queen only had one living child, a daughter Mary.  The Queen kept miscarrying or even worse the babies died shortly after birth which was not unusual in that day.  Having witnessed the loss of pregnancies through miscarriage, I can understand the sadness of Catherine and Henry.  However, Henry began to believe that God was frowning on his marriage.  Henry and his father before him were Tudors.  The Tudor dynasty began after winning the War of the Roses between the Lancaster and York Family lines.  The succession was always in question.  With no son, the succession could be in question again.  This was not an unimportant question.  The king had moved on from Catherine and was fathering illegitimate children with women at court, including with a girl named Mary Boleyn.  He had a son, Henry who he made a Duke with a maid, Bessie Blount. Henry wanted a legitimate male heir and thus began his decision to dissolve his marriage.  This again was not an uncommon practice.  And then in walked Thomas Cromwell. 

Thomas Cromwell was a self-made man and rose for a time to be the second most powerful man in Great Britain.  That was very rare in early 1500s England where royalty, nobility and title rank was the most important criteria for social advancement.  Cromwell’s father was a blacksmith…and a drunk who beat him.  Cromwell ran away and eventually became a soldier landing in Italy fighting for France.  The story alludes to his possible friendships with Cesare Borgia and others like the De Medici family while in Italy. These interactions colored his thinking against the established church at the time.  Cromwell eventually works for the wool merchants in Antwerp, making some money and becoming wealthy. 

Eventually Cromwell returns to Britain and works as a lawyer/secretary to the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey.  Cardinal Wolsey was the top aide to the King and Cromwell became his chief fixer. When you want to be the man, you have to beat the man, and much hatred was aimed at the Cardinal.  Cromwell was known as Wolsey’s man which hurt him with some of the King’s court.  Others in the King’s retinue looked down upon for his humble beginnings.   Cromwell’s love and protection of Wolsey was interesting because Cromwell was a secret dissenter.  Cromwell believed in church reform and Wolsey ignored those who did not conform to the Catholic Church, which earned him the enmity of other church leaders and zealots like Thomas More.  Wolsey made enemies and eventually it led to his downfall.  Wolsey, like Cromwell, was self-made using the church for advancement.  He was looked down upon by the nobility in Britain.  Wolsey was haughty and wanted to achieve ultimate power by becoming Pope. 

When Henry came to Wolsey about ending his marriage, Wolsey was only too happy to help, with an ultimate goal of marry Henry off to a French Princess or another princess to build some foreign alliance.  The King wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, a girl at court who would not give into the king’s sexual desire until he married her, unlike her sister Mary. Ultimately the problem for Henry, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More and anyone helping with the King’s Great Matter, was Catherine’s nephew, The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.  Charles ruled Italy (and Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and many other areas) and in control of Rome.  He would never allow the Pope to grant the annulment and displace his Aunt.  No one anticipated a break with Rome,

Thomas Cromwell had no allegiance to Rome and was willing to break tradition and religion and use Parliament to make Henry head of the church in England and end the King’s marriage.  Cromwell was a fixer, first for Wolsey then for the King.  He had a reputation as loyal to his master.  The easier he could fix things the better for everyone.

The characters of the novel are all historical figures.  Thomas Cromwell is portrayed as a practical politician bent on moderation and allegiance.  St. Thomas More is portrayed as a religious zealot, fired up to burn heretics.  Anne Boleyn is portrayed as she usually is, vain, haughty, and not particularly kind.  Cardinal Wolsey is portrayed as a man who gets things done but enjoys the finer things in life.  The characters are vibrant.

From what I can tell from the first novel, Thomas Cromwell never forgave those who overthrew Wolsey—The Boleyns and their retainers.  The Boleyn Family, father, son, and those in their orbit helped fuel the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey.  It seems that Cromwell is looking for a way to repay them but first he helps and placates them.  However, when Anne Boleyn falls, Cromwell is almost too happy to help.  The Cromwell of Wolf Hall tries to reason with Thomas More and not turn him into a martyr.

Thomas Cromwell is reasonable and uses reason to achieve his ends which is power, his power and the king’s power.  He is the ultimate political fixer.  I enjoyed Wolf Hall and the politics of the King’s Great Matter.  I look forward to moving onto the second novel.  Pick up a copy today!

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