The King's Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Wolsey - Softcover

Gwyn, Peter J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712651225 ISBN 13: 9780712651226

Publisher: Pimlico, 1992

Synopsis

Proud, greedy, corrupt and driven by overwhelming personal ambition. Such is the traditional image of Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of York, Bishop of Winchester, Abbot of St. Albans, Bishop if Tournai and Papal Legate. It is an image which Peter Gwyn examines, challenges and decisively overturns in this remarkable book.

From exceedingly humble beginnings Wolsey rose to a pinnacle of power unsurpassed by any other British commoner. Peter Gwyn explores every aspect of the Cardinal's career - not least his relationship with Henry VIII - and sets it firmly in a vividly recreated Tudor world. The Wolsey who emerges is a man of prodigious energy and ability, a tireless dispenser of justice, an enlightened reformer wholly dedicated to his king and country - a man who has been consistently misrepresented and maligned for four-and-a-half centuries.

About this title

Review:

"A masterpiece, a tour de force...Beautifully sculpted, it sustains its momentum to the last page...A magnificent and authoritative book." (J. J. Scarisbrick Sunday Telegraph)

"Learned and controversial, it has all the elements of a detective story...His verdict is convincing...a fascinating book." (Lord Blake Country Life)

"It is intelligently illuminating on both Wolsey and his world, and is especially good on the Church and foreign policy...It is indispensable" (Christopher Haigh Times Educational Supplement)

"A work of magisterial ambition and achievement...He has taken a great subject and transformed it." (Blair Worden London Review of Books)

From the Publisher:

The best biography ever written of Henry VIII’s most powerful counsellor and one of the key figures of the Tudor period.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pimlico
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0712651225
• ISBN 13: 9780712651226
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 688