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Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's Most Notorious Minister

2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: CXXIII; Issue: 505 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ehr/cen340

1477-4534

Tracey A. Sowerby,

Scottish History and National Identity

Robert Hutchinson's Thomas Cromwell is a man with few redeeming features. He is ‘an ambitious and totally corrupt statesman’, ‘an opportunistic jack-the-lad’ (p. 2) and an ‘inveterate conspirator’ (p. 47). As the book progresses, we are given a picture of a man prone to ‘habitual duplicity and ruthless manipulation’ (p. 135) in pursuit of financial gain and power. Henry VIII is not painted any more subtly: in Hutchinson's descriptions he is a domineering, tantrum-throwing ‘old ogre’ (p. 126) subject to ‘outbursts of uncontrollable rage or petulance’ (p. 47) who ‘could never endure opposition’ (p. 70). Overall, Hutchinson presents a Cromwell devoid of any higher motivation than personal ambition operating in a cruel and cut-throat political culture, flagged by chapter headings such as ‘A Bloody Season’ and ‘Reformation and Retribution’. The list of dramatis personae at the end of the book is also charged, having a separate category of ‘victims’. Any positive elements of the break with Rome or of Cromwell's administrative control are ignored, leading to a distorted, caricatured depiction of 1530s England.