The King’s Friends in The Tudors

Abstract

The Tudor monarchy was a personal one in a very real sense. The sovereign’s personal choices, his priorities, his desires, even his whims had a dramatic effect upon the course of English history in the sixteenth century. While reality always constrained Henry VIII—even though he often raged against it—he was perhaps the only person in his realm capable of setting or altering the course of English history through his personal choices. Policy was made at Court, where Henry and the royal family lived, worked, and played. The bureaucratic and institutional structures that later dominated government and politics—parliament, the Exchequer, and the courts of law—paled in significance when compared to the intimate spaces of the royal court. Here power and reward, as well as danger and even physical survival, depended first of all upon personal relationships. Courtly life revolved around alliances and rivalries forged through family ties, local and regional connections, and a constantly changing calculus of personal interests. Apparently rock-solid relationships—such as that between Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell—might vanish virtually overnight in the struggle for power and survival. The Tudors skillfully reflects this atmosphere—while there are important scenes set outside the palace, most of the action takes place at court, and rightly so.¹