Beginning and ending with beheadings, and packed in between with the minutiae of royal government, from international intrigues with France and the Holy Roman Empire to noticing the boy who brings in the candles when the king's chambers get dark. This is a magesterial work, never flagging in its exhaustive drive through the mind and soul and heart of Thomas Cromwell, and, through him, the world of Tudor England and the whims and desires of a monarch with absolute power.