Thomas Howard became the third duke of Norfolk during the reign of Henry VIII and was involved in many of the most controversial episodes of that era. By some accounts Norfolk became known as the greatest soldier and aristocrat alive under Henry VIII's rule, in Britain a period of transition from medieval to modern and spanning the Renaissance and Reformation.

In this first comprehensive biography of Norfolk David M. Head confronts the central paradox of Norfolk's career. Here was a man of enormous ambition and family pride whose talents never matched that ambition-a man whose military...