In a series of books teeming with characters, both actual and invented, Thomas Cromwell occupies the center of all of the action. He is the protagonist whose innermost thoughts, fears, and desires are thoroughly unspooled in intimate detail. Cromwell is also the first-person narrator of the novel, though he most often refers to himself in the third person. This could indicate either detachment, as if he were relating a tale about someone else, or an affinity with the royal “we,” a loftiness of rising above the strictly personal. In the first case, it is true that Cromwell can hardly trace his rise to his humble beginnings; he wills away his modest and violent past until it intrudes upon his present. In many respects, he has become a different person, wealthy enough to wear “linen shirts so fine you can read the laws of England through them” (53). In the second case, Cromwell has made himself indispensable to the king, serving as his surrogate in all matters of state: “The way to prevent that [the king replacing him] is to offer to do all the jobs himself” (33).

Born into humble circumstances in 1485, Cromwell first rises to prominence under the tutelage of Cardinal Wolsey, another of the king’s victims in his impulsive quest for women and power.