TUDOR VICTIMS OF THE REFORMATION

Thomas Wolsey, a Catholic priest educated at Magdalen College Oxford, cultivated the right people in order to became close to the young King Henry VIII. Henry became heir to the throne following the death of his elder brother, and he also inherited his brother's widow, Katherine of Aragon, with whom he hoped to have a legitimate son and heir, although he already had a son by his mistress Elizabeth Blount. Wolsey made himself indispensable to the king, encouraging him in his pleasure-loving pursuits. The aristocratic sisters Mary and Anne Boleyn were selected to be ladies in waiting to Henry's sister Mary Tudor on her marriage to the elderly king of France Louis XII, and meanwhile Wolsey became a Cardinal and started his great building venture of Hampton Court Palace. In 1521 he received an extension of his position as papal legate in return for pursuing the heretics who were embracing the new Protestant religion of Martin Luther. When the Boleyn sisters returned to court, Mary became the King's mistress, but Henry's interest was aroused by Anne when her lover Henry Percy refused to give her up. When Henry conceived the idea of divorcing Katherine to marry Anne, Wolsey suggested the route of annulment, but his loyalties were torn between the King and the Pope and he failed to deliver Henry's desired freedom. His protégé Thomas Cromwell succeeded, though he later paid with his life. Wolsey was sent north to be Archbishop of York but was recalled on suspicion of recommending Henry's excommunication and died returning to London, possibly by poison. Anne Boleyn had brought him down, but she herself was to fall victim to Thomas Cromwell's manoeuvres a few years later, accused of incest with her brother George, with both accused of treason. The author shows both Wolsey and Anne to have been the victims of the vanities of an insecure dictator. 298pp, line drawings.