According to a note on the back of the book, the cover image is taken from a medal with the ancestral shield of Thomas Cromwell (after he was knighted). Most of the time, what you see represented as Cromwell's arms is only the right part, with the two pelicans, the Tudor rose and the lions ( https://www.pinterest.de/pin/544020829962689408/?lp=true ).
I just added it to my Christmas list. Maybe I can read it before the last Hilary Mantel book comes out. Maybe I can read the other two Mantel books before the last one comes out. Now I'm all excited.
I'd been looking for a biography of Cromwell ever since I read Mantel's first two books on him. I'm so glad now that I didn't just jump on the first thing available but waited for this one -- this really is the be-all and end-all bio; not least because MacCulloch chose not to simply rely on prior scholarship (which for way too long, he says, has consisted of people just copying each other and thus perpetuating erroneous assessments that no longer stand up to scrutiny in the face of more recent scholaship elsewhere), but to take a fresh look at each and every relevant Tudor document available and form his conclusion strictly on the basis of what those documents told him. (And he wasn't kidding -- judging just by the stuff cited and quoted in the book, the sheer amount of original source material he must have gone through is mind-boggling in and of itself.) This eventually led him to a major reassessment of a significant number of periods of Cromwell's life, as well as of his impact on and relevance for English history until the present day. In short, he makes the case that not only is it erroneous to the point of seriously dangerous misinterpretations to somehow try to shoehorn Cromwell into stereotype; there was also way more to both his personality and his politics, influence and legacy than even those with a more openminded attitude had so far concluded.
Mind you, I'm still not sure I'd ever have wanted to run into Master Secretary / the Lord Privy Seal; and I definitely wouldn't have wanted to ever end up on his wrong side. But looking at him from the distance of almost five centuries, he is absolutely fascinating to watch (even long before reaching the height of his powers), and I sorely wish his brand of innovation and foresight were more present in today's politics.
Seriously -- for history fans, it's the kind of book that blows all rating systems and ordinary standards to smithereens.
I'd been looking for a biography of Cromwell ever since I read Mantel's first two books on him. I'm so glad now that I didn't just jump on the first thing available but waited for this one -- this really is the be-all and end-all bio; not least because MacCulloch chose not to simply rely on prior scholarship (which for way too long, he says, has consisted of people just copying each other and thus perpetuating erroneous assessments that no longer stand up to scrutiny in the face of more recent scholaship elsewhere), but to take a fresh look at each and every relevant Tudor document available and form his conclusion strictly on the basis of what those documents told him. (And he wasn't kidding -- judging just by the stuff cited and quoted in the book, the sheer amount of original source material he must have gone through is mind-boggling in and of itself.) This eventually led him to a major reassessment of a significant number of periods of Cromwell's life, as well as of his impact on and relevance for English history until the present day. In short, he makes the case that not only is it erroneous to the point of seriously dangerous misinterpretations to somehow try to shoehorn Cromwell into stereotype; there was also way more to both his personality and his politics, influence and legacy than even those with a more openminded attitude had so far concluded.
Mind you, I'm still not sure I'd ever have wanted to run into Master Secretary / the Lord Privy Seal; and I definitely wouldn't have wanted to ever end up on his wrong side. But looking at him from the distance of almost five centuries, he is absolutely fascinating to watch (even long before reaching the height of his powers), and I sorely wish his brand of innovation and foresight were more present in today's politics.