Review: The Cromwell Enigma by Derek Wilson

Synopsis: July 1540. The courts of Europe are stunned to hear that Henry VIII has executed his all-powerful minister, Thomas Cromwell.

Poet and classicist Nicholas Bourbon is sent from the cultured court of Queen Marguerite of Navarre to investigate. Thrust into a turbulent world of religious, political and personal rivalries, his travels take him far and wide. He endures perils at sea, incarceration in a monastic prison and poisonous intrigue in the Tudor court. 

Yet this retiring scholar cannot abandon a quest which steadily becomes an obsession, drawing him ever deeper into the beliefs and motivations of his mysterious quarry.  Only after facing many hazards does he discover the astonishing secret that unlocks the Cromwell enigma.

The synopsis pretty much covers it story-wise.  And this reminded me of what I refer to as "in the footsteps of" - wherein an author attempts to walk in the footsteps of their chosen subject to discover more about them and takes the reader along their journey. Usually this type of book is non-fiction, but I find that it works just as well in a fictional format - as it does in this instance.

Utilising the real-life character of Nicholas Bourbon, the reader is taken on a quest to discover the missing years of Thomas Cromwell (or Tom Crom as he is often referred to) in order to understand the man he became at the time of his execution (no spoilers here - just the facts). I really do love the use of other real historical characters to give some authenticity to the plot.

So, who are our main characters:  firstly we have our narrator, Nicholas Bourbon, who was a noted court poet, as well as tutor to Jeanne d'Albret, daughter of Marguerite Queen of Navarre, as well as (in this instance) her ambassador. Whilst we learn of Nicholas' past throughout his mission - and his dealing with the English Court of Henry VII - very little is known about his final years.  As such, Wilson creates a possible scenario for Bourbon's final years.

Whilst not appearing in the physical sense, Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VII's most trusted advisor, Lord Privy Seal, and the architect of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, looms larger than life throughout.  What has always interested people is Cromwell's rise to power from humble beginnings, and those years he spent in Italy early on.  And this is what Wilson explores through the use of Nicholas Bourbon, as almost a detective type figure.  However, not everyone welcomes Bourbon's investigation and some are keen not to follow in Cromwell's footsteps to the executioner's block by voicing their opinions.

Although no exactly nail biting, white knuckle edge-of-your-seat drama, there is action aplenty to keep the reader entertained as we draw ever closer to Cromwell's secret. The narrative is peppered with extracts from documents and correspondence of the day, adding to the authenticity of the tale.

As Nicholas is given to say: " ... like a squirrel worrying a nut, I was possessed by the need to find a kernel of truth written within the shell of conflicting information ..."

Definitely one for historical fiction and Tudor fiction readers.

Diarmaid MacCulloch: ‘I got very irritated with Henry VIII’

From The Guardian: 

Diarmaid MacCulloch’s vast and exhaustive Thomas Cromwell: A Life, published in 2018, was described by Hilary Mantel – no slouch when it comes to the book’s subject – as “the biography we have been awaiting for 400 years”. Delving deeply into Cromwell’s private papers, MacCulloch argues for Cromwell’s central position in the supercharged power-politics of Henry VIII’s court.

MacCulloch studied under the great Tudor historian Sir Geoffrey Elton. He has written extensively on ecclesiastical history, and was ordained a deacon in the 1980s. He declined ordination to the priesthood because of the church’s attitude to homosexuality, but remains “a candid friend of Christianity”. He is now professor of the history of the church at Oxford University.

read interview here @ The Guardian

Thomas Cromwell: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Review by Dan Jones for The Sunday Times:

Minutes before his head was struck off with an axe, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s disgraced former minister, made a speech. “I have been a great traveller in this world,” he said, “and being but of a base degree, was called to high estate and [since] the time I came thereunto, I have offended my prince.” He asked God for mercy, made some disingenuous remarks about the king’s grace, then went calmly to his death. Accounts vary as to the efficiency of the headsman, but as Diarmaid MacCulloch writes with the dry wit that characterises this triumphant and definitive biography, “even botched beheadings are soon over”.

For a time, the self-made 'ruffian' (as he described himself) - ruthless, adept in the exercise of power, quietly determined in religious revolution - was master of events. MacCulloch's biography for the first time reveals his true place in the making of modern England and Ireland, for good and ill.

read more @ Penguin Books and @ Publishers Weekly

Thomas Cromwell - A Life In Print

Aside from the famous six wives, Henry VIII's "faithful servant" Thomas Cromwell has recently come to the fore with both the reading and viewing public alike. There are now more "modern" accounts (both factual and fictional) of the life of this dogged Tudor statesman than you can poke a stick at - and I will share a few with you.

The most current rendition of the life of Thomas Cromwell is Tracey Borman's "Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant" (a copy which sits on my own library shelves). A review by The Independent says: " ...  Tracy Borman shows in this excellent, scrupulous biography, Anne’s shockingly fast fall from grace was largely engineered by Thomas Cromwell, a rather plain and overweight Putney-born man in his fifties whose intelligence and daring had made him the king’s closest advisor." The articles goes on further to say that "Borman has scoured the sources to explore the life and personality of the man who in effect created the break from the Church of Rome and her book is an impressive investigation into one of our most elusive characters in history."

This was in comparison to Hilary Mantle's "Wolf Hall" (2009) and "Bring Up The Bodies" (2012) (and the third, soon to be released book in the trilogy - "The Mirror & The Light") whom the same article says "Hilary Mantel’s crafting of Cromwell in her bestselling novels has been a triumph: sensitive, intellectual, brutal, strong. "

For many, however, Thomas Cromwell was not particularly well-known until Hilary Mantel’s best-selling novels (and the series based upon them) brought this protagonist to wider public attention. The Independent article goes further to say: "But the publishers have given Tracy Borman’s biography of Thomas Cromwell an unfortunate subtitle: “The untold story of Henry VIII’s most faithful servant.” It is no such thing. Besides Ms. Mantel’s fictional versions, Ms. Borman lists 10 previous lives of Cromwell in her bibliography."

And well she may - and here are a few worthy tomes to consider:

• "Thomas Cromwell: Servant to Henry VIII (2013) by David Loades
• "Thomas Cromwell: The Rise And Fall Of Henry VIII's Most Notorious Minister" (2012) by Robert Hutchinson
• "The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell: Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant" (2011) by John Schofield
• "Thomas Cromwell" (2013) by J Patrick Coby
• "The Rise of Thomas Cromwell: Power and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII, 1485-1534" (2015) by Michael Everette
• "Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell" - 6vols (2000) by Roger Bigelow Merriman
• "The Crown and the Cross: A Biography of Thomas Cromwell" (1950) by Theodore Maynard
• "Thomas Cromwell: Tudor Minister" by B. W. Beckingsale (1978)
• "The Character and Times of Thomas Cromwell: A Sixteenth Century Criticism" (1887) by Arthur Howard Galton
• "Thomas Cromwell" (1991) by Geoffrey Rudolph Elton
• "Policy and Police: The Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Thomas Cromwell" (1985) by G. R. Elton 

There are indeed numerous books on the English Reformation, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the Reign of Henry VIII in which Thomas Cromwell plays a role not consigned to the shadows.

Further readings & reviews:

• The Guardian: Thomas Cromwell - The Untold Story
• The Telegraph: Hilary Mantle's Thomas Cromwell Is All Wrong
• The Sunday Times: Thomas Cromwell - The Untold Story
• BBC iWonder: Who Was The Real Thomas Cromwell
• The Guardian: Thomas Cromwell Review
• The Financial Times: Thomas Cromwell - The Untold Story
• The New Statesman: Behind The Mantle - In Search of the Real Thomas Cromwell
• The Telegraph: Wolf Hall - The Changing Faces of Thomas Cromwell
• The Weekly Standard: The King's Good Servant
• Reviews In History: The Many Faces of Thomas Cromwell
• English History: Thomas Cromwell - Facts & Figures
• The New Republic: The Real History of Thomas Cromwell