Henry VIII and the men who made him

Abandoning the traditional focus on Henry VIII's marital history, Borman, a chief curator of England's Historic Royal Palaces, instead studies the king through the men who surrounded him. Responsible for bodily care, intellectual stimulation, and boisterous physical entertainment, these men influenced the king and shaped the way in which society viewed the monarch. Intelligent and well educated, but easily bored and with a short attention span, Henry all too often left political and personal matters in the hands of others, ranging from Cardinal Wolsey to his gentlemen of the stool. He favored the low-born who could not challenge his throne, a choice that encouraged the nobles to undermine their humble rivals and turned the court into a hotbed of gossip and plotting. Those who failed to provide what he wanted--whether that be an annulment or a successful joust--experienced his devastating wrath. Eager for approval and support, the king became emotionally close even to some minor courtiers such as his physician and his master of revels, displaying a generosity missing from other biographies. Henry does not emerge as a kinder or more loyal individual, but Borman succeeds in depicting the complexities and sensitivities of the suspicious and self-absorbed monarch. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates and above; general readers. --Lorraine Christine Attreed, College of the Holy Cross

*Starred Review* Do we know enough about England's most famous king? Popular historian Borman (The Private Lives of the Tudors, 2017) obviously thinks not. Her beautifully perceptive and dynamic reassessment of Henry VIII places emphasis, as the book's subtitle indicates, not on the monarch's infamous marriages but rather on the kaleidoscope of male figures both high- and middle-born who were drawn to the king throughout his life as moths circle a bright flame. Borman closely analyzes Henry's complicated relationships with friends and rivals, both those who influenced his course through his formative years and those who came on board the Henry train later in his reign, proffering important advice but at the same time risking the ire of the increasingly despotic king. Readers will be intrigued by Borman's tales of the interactions between the king and Charles Brandon, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, Eustace Chapuys, and Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Here in this highly engrossing biography, the notoriously larger-than-life English monarch, seen from an original and revealing perspective, lives anew in full color and in the epic proportions he so well deserves. For all Tudor enthusiasts.--Brad Hooper Copyright 2018 Booklist

Borman (Thomas Cromwell) essentially puts aside Henry VIII's notorious and well-hashed relationships with women in favor of showcasing stories of the advisers and servants who surrounded the intelligent, mercurial king. Henry relied on these men for everything from privy concerns to matters of state, but betrayals and a series of escalating backstabbing, power-grabbing maneuvers helped transform him from a jovial, fresh-faced king into an aging, paranoid caricature. The tumultuous careers of the four Thomases-Wolsey, Cromwell, Cranmer, and More-help frame the detailed narrative, but Borman also elaborates on lower-status figures such as Will Somer, the beloved fool; trusted royal physician William Butts; and the Reformation-minded court painter Hans Holbein the Younger. While such a large cast of figures could easily allow some to get lost, Borman's enjoyable narrative revisits many of these men over a span of several years, noting major events or deaths, the latter of which Henry sometimes hastened. Borman's astute analysis of Henry's personality demonstrates how both low-born and noble advisers affected his reign. It's generally agreed that to be a woman in Henry's circle was to throw caution to the wind in hopes of great reward; Borman's ambitious narrative shows that being a man in Henry's court could be just as fraught-and fascinating. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Bringing to light the dangers of life in the service of Henry VIII.As Borman (Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant, 2016, etc.), England's joint chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces and chief executive of the Heritage Education Trust, shows, Henry was a complex figure: fiercely loyal, treacherously fickle, short-tempered, demanding, and self-absorbed. Ascending the throne at a young age, he had little time for the duties of a king and was more inclined to frolicking with friends and leaving official affairs to ministers. The first of these was Thomas Wolsey, a cardinal and ambitious genius with a flexible conscience. As with many of Henry's favorites, Wolsey was also low-born. He encouraged Henry's extravagant lifestyle and easily manipulated the foolish youngster. Wolsey lasted through the annulment crisis and marriage to Anne Boleyn, but he was the first of many to fall. Then, Thomas Cromwell stepped in and used his considerable legal talents to secure Henry's will. Afterward, it was Anne who engineered a divide between Cromwell and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer over the dissolution of the monasteries. Eventually, Cromwell dominated both the political and spiritual affairs of the king. Thomas More was another highly intelligent servant to the king, but he could not support the king's "great matter" of succession and was beheaded. Cranmer was one of the few who supported the king in all his whims and demands, generally keeping his own council. He was one of the few who survived the king's whims only to die on Queen Mary's orders. Henry's penchant to favor the low-born reflected his ever increasing paranoia. They would never have an eye on seizing the crown, so Henry favored ability over nobility, and the noble-born worked tirelessly to undermine those favorites. Borman skillfully shows Henry maneuvering his men like chess pieces; when they opposed him, they suffered violent downfalls.Henry eventually assumed control of his realm, but it was too little, too late. Tudor fans will enjoy this outside-in biography as a different view of a complicated monarch. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Remarkable though Henry's marital history is, it is not what defines him. Far more influential than the women in his life were the men with whom he was surrounded. Although he was raised in a predominantly female household, the overbearing, often suffocating, presence of his father Henry VII dominated his early years. The sudden death of his elder brother Arthur at the age of just fifteen propelled Henry into the limelight, and, once king, he gathered around him a coterie of high-spirited young men to keep him entertained. During the course of his thirty-seven-year reign, he would attract some of the brightest minds of the sixteenth century: from omnipotent councilors such as Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell to the renowned scholars Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus, and the arrogant, ruthless members of the aristocracy, such as the dukes of Buckingham and Norfolk. In his private domain, meanwhile, he was attended by an array of different men: servants, barbers, physicians, fools and other lesser known characters whose job it was to attend to Henry's every need, to entertain him and to listen to his confidences. It was these men who shaped Henry into the man--and monster--that he would become. And he, in turn, dictated their fates. This book will tell the story of England's most famous monarch through the lens of the men who surrounded him, drawing in the many and varied characters at appropriate points in the narrative. As such, it will provide a fresh perspective on this much-studied monarch: a biography from the outside in. Excerpted from Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him by Tracy Borman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.