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Step into the thrill and danger of Tudor England in the rich, compelling new novel from Sunday Times bestseller Alison Weir – and witness the rise and fall of Cardinal Wolsey.

It begins with young Tom Wolsey, the bright and brilliant son of a Suffolk tradesman, sent to study at Oxford at just eleven years old. It ends with a disgraced cardinal, cast from the King’s side and estranged from the woman he loves. The years in between tell the story of a scholar and a lover, a father and a priest. From the court of Henry VIII, Tom builds a powerful empire of church and state. At home in London, away from prying eyes, he finds joy in a secret second life. But when King Henry, his cherished friend, demands the ultimate sacrifice, what will Wolsey choose?

Alison Weir’s riveting new Tudor novel reveals the two lives of Cardinal Wolsey, a tale of power, passion and ambition.

Alison Weir is a bestselling historical novelist of Tudor fiction, and the leading female historian in the United Kingdom. She has published more than thirty books, including many leading works of non-fiction, and has sold over three million copies worldwide. Her novels include the Tudor Rose trilogy, which spans three generations of history’s most iconic family – the Tudors, and the highly acclaimed Six Tudor Queens series about the wives of Henry VIII, all of which were Sunday Times bestsellers. Alison is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an honorary life patron of Historic Royal Palaces. Find Alison online: X: @AlisonWeirBooks | FB: Alison Weir | http://www.alisonweir.org.uk

Alison on Wolsey; Cardinal Thomas Wolsey enjoyed one of the most meteoric careers in history. From humble beginnings in an Ipswich inn, he rose to become Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor and cherished friend. The King relied heavily on his political acumen and remarkable ability, ignoring the jealous criticisms of the nobles, who resented Wolsey for usurping what they saw as their role as the monarch’s natural advisers. Wolsey operated on an international stage and worked hard to broker universal peace. All was going dazzlingly until Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn – the woman whom Wolsey would one day call ‘the night crow’ – and sought to end his marriage to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Swept up in the maelstrom of ‘the Divorce’, Wolsey – who had successfully striven to give his master everything he wanted – found himself in an impossible situation, with his world crumbling around him. I wanted to tell the story of Wolsey the man, his incredible rise to power and his tragic fall. I was also keen to delve beyond the splendour and political machinations of the Tudor court to reveal the secrets of Wolsey’s private life, the mistress he loved devotedly, and the tragedy that overtook them. This is ultimately a tale of two women, one who loved him and one who hated him and also a tale of two men, king and commoner, the special, deep-rooted bonds that brought them together, and the forces that drove them apart.

My thoughts: I remember learning about Wolsey in history and I’ve been to Hampton Court Palace, which he had built and then had to give to Henry VIII, there used to be a Cardinal Wolsey pub across the road. But I didn’t know a huge amount about him as a person, mostly just about his role in the King’s Great Matter aka the divorce that created the Church of England and shook Europe.

Alison Weir is a historian and her books reflect the research that she puts into them, but in a very readable and enjoyable way. I’ve read several of her others, mostly about the women of the Tudor family, so it was interesting to have a different perspective.

Wolsey rose incredibly high, holding a huge number of offices both in government and the church, some at the same time. But it was always precarious, Henry being famously mercurial and not an easy man to get along with. He had people locked in the tower and beheaded for crossing him, and Wolsey’s main job seems to have been managing the King’s moods and temper.

But he had a whole secret life too, he was in love with Joan Larke, the sister of a friend, and despite his being a priest, they lived together and had children. Sadly they couldn’t live openly or raise their children, it would have meant disgrace. Joan does eventually leave him and would marry twice, having other children. But he seems to have loved her all his life.

Much of the narrative does indeed cover Wolsey’s most famous role – that of trying to negotiate with the Pope to annul Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn. Anne and Wolsey do not like one another, and she schemes against him, trying to force Henry to put his chief advisor aside. She believes that he’s not really trying to find a resolution, even as Wolsey pleads with the Pope to end the Royal marriage.

His downfall is sudden and brutal, sent from court and kept in what probably felt like poverty after all his riches in Esher, then promptly dispatched to York, stripped of his titles and many of his offices, properties and wealth. Finally he is told to return to court, to answer to the king, but taken ill enroute, the once mighty cardinal, Henry VIII’s right hand man, dies.

His mark on history is evident, while he wasn’t alive to see the birth of the Church of England, he laid the groundwork for the huge upheaval that followed. The dissolution of the monasteries, the split from Rome, the many marriages of the king. 

This was a very enjoyable, detailed and interesting book, I really liked learning more about this man and Alison Weir has given him a rich, complicated inner life, if he had thrown over his vows, quit and moved quietly to Suffolk with Joan, things would have been very different, both for him and for history.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.