Historian and New York Times bestselling author shares the complete biography of Thomas Cromwell, the man behind Henry VIII
Since the sixteenth century we have been fascinated by Henry VIII and the man who stood beside him, guiding him, enriching him, and enduring the king's insatiable appetites and violent outbursts until Henry ordered his beheading in July 1540. After a decade of sleuthing in the royal archives, Diarmaid MacCulloch has emerged with THOMAS CROMWELL: A Revolutionary Life, a tantalizing new understanding of Henry's mercurial chief minister.
History has not been kind to the son of a Putney brewer who became the architect of England's split with Rome. However, in THOMAS CROMWELL, MacCulloch unveils a more sympathetic figure. Was Cromwell the villain of history or the victim of its creation? MacCulloch sifted through letters and court records for answers and found Cromwell’s fingerprints on some of the most transformative decisions of Henry’s turbulent reign. However, he also found Cromwell the man, an administrative genius, and loving father.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Diarmaid MacCulloch is Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University. His books include Thomas Cranmer: A Life, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and the Duff Cooper Prize; The Reformation: A History, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Wolfson Prize; and Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, a New York Times bestseller that won the Cundill Prize in History. An Anglican deacon, knighted in 2012, he has presented many highly celebrated documentaries for television and radio. He lives in Oxford, England.
