And as Montague said, ‘The king never made a man but he destroyed him again.’ Tomorrow may bring a very different wind. The aim for them all is to survive until evening at Greenwich, Hampton Court, Whitehall or wherever and that is enough. ‘The best hope is an exhausted draw.’ No one knows “what next?”’ ‘Servants of the king fight games they cannot win,’ says one of his friends. He has worked twice as hard as everyone else and when he can’t be everywhere, his commitments so complex and widespread, others, like worms, find ways inside the king’s entitled ear. He could have destroyed Norfolk when he was out of favour but chose not to so Norfolk destroyed him.Īnd Cromwell is increasingly tired. In his own cause, he is more lenient, more trusting.
#SIMON HERETIC GAME HOW TO#
He knew how to bring people down but only in the cause of the king. Throughout this trilogy, Cromwell is revealed as a remarkable operator, both ruthless and kind and Mantel suggests too kind at times. Norfolk and Gardiner, allies only in their hatred of the Putney upstart, move fast. He supports the Protestant cause, as England eases uncomfortably away from Rome – more a prolonged lurch, this way and that, a grunting and vicious tug-of-war, which keeps stakes busy with burning for years.Īnd when his religious inclinations coincide with a marriage Henry cannot endure – his first meeting with Anna is a brilliantly described disaster - it is the beginning of the end. He has a religious position when religious positions are risky. It is his support for the king’s marriage to Anna of Cleves, and the Protestant alliance she brings, which ultimately does for him. It won’t end well.īut Cromwell also has his own vision for the health of the nation, which makes him vulnerable.
Here, for instance, is a ruler always looking for a wife other than the one he has so all match-makers beware. Whether it’s the monasteries or marriage, he tries always to effect what the king desires – not easy when the king himself doesn’t know. He was executed on charges of disloyalty, though he was loyal to a fault - always aware of the country’s jeopardy, with Spain and France prowling with menace across the water. In a way, the Cromwell who Mantel offers us is too wise for his master the brewer’s son outgrows his king. It’s what men do it’s what Henry does.īut Cromwell, perhaps foolishly, says ‘Why?’ Kings compete for territory it’s what they do. This is sensible advice for English kings but unfamiliar. (And yes, also his own.) He was an early technocrat who advised Henry against war, because ‘it never pays’. While the old families look for power and war, Cromwell attends to the nation’s accounts. He rose from nothing because of his competence. He must work a great deal harder than them and be a great deal more competent – and still he will lose. He is a brewer’s son from Putney taking on the landed classes. He has every title under the sun, a large property portfolio and quantities of cash but what he doesn’t have is history. We see here, for perhaps the first time, the sheer weariness of Cromwell and the exhausting game of staying ahead of the pack. This is the third book in the trilogy which started with Wolf Hall and it describes the slow dismantlement of a man who appeared too savvy and too smart for destruction. The question is: who can best endure the impossibility?’ As Thomas Cromwell’s nemesis, Bishop Stephen Gardiner, says to him, ‘Thomas, we both know what it is to serve the king. I almost add ‘of course’ to the end of that sentence as if such a thing is inevitable from Hilary Mantel, twice Booker Prize winner though nothing is – a truth which King Henry’s advisers knew well. Don’t take it on holiday – it will use up most of your baggage allowance and it’s also brilliant. In hardback, this is a big book a physical monster. Posted by Simon Parke, 30 June 2020, 8.06am
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