Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant

The past decade has provided a bumper crop of material on Thomas Cromwell (1485–1540), with Hilary Mantel's Booker-winning novels and no less than three biographies that provide various evaluations and reestimations of Henry VIII's most famous (and notorious) minister. Borman (Elizabeth's Women) pens a new biography that falls squarely in the reestimation camp, but while the author is on the side of Cromwell's sympathizers, she resists the urge to shy away completely from his more ruthless deeds. The dedication to her subject is apparent, as she delves into every aspect of Cromwell's life and career—his early days in Italy, his political beginnings under Cardinal Wolsey, and his meteoric rise and fall at Henry VIII's court—in an attempt to uncover the person behind the public facade. Unfortunately, concrete evidence for Cromwell's thoughts is somewhat sparse, necessitating some guesswork on Borman's part and an excellent portrait of Cromwell the statesman, but a murky one of Cromwell the man.