The Tudor court of Henry VIII is a glittering and dangerous nest of intriguing courtiers and self promoting nobles. The old king, a worn out and ailing shadow of his former glory, is determined to prepare his son for the throne, and to prepare the country for his son. While he had inherited a rich kingdom, at peace with the other powers and strong in its one Catholic religion, four decades, six queens and numerous wars had taken a heavy toll. Mid-sixteenth century England was a great European power, but its treasury was depleted, its populous torn between the Catholic religion and the reform,...