The Courier's Tale

by PeterWalker (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2011

  $3.24

  As the King's young cousin, an admired scholar living in Italy, it falls to Reginald Pole to make the case for Henry's divorce from Katherine of Aragon. And it falls to the hapless Michael Throckmorton - the younger son of an impecunious titled family - to become Thomas Cromwell's messenger to Pole in Rome. This dubious privilege makes of Throckmorton's life a tragicomedy of endless journeys back and forth between England and Italy, but it also makes him a canny observer of the great dramas of his time. And like his King, he too nurses a thwarted desire.

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.24

  Reginald Pole, diplomat, friend of scholars, cardinals and artists, and cousin to Henry VIII, is first seen stealing into the Medici chapel at dead of night to catch a forbidden glimpse of Michelangelo's masterpiece of funerary sculpture. But as the king's representative in Italy, and an admired scholar himself, it falls to him to make the case for Henry's divorce from Katherine of Aragon. And it falls to the hapless Michael Throckmorton to become Thomas Cromwell's courier to Pole in Rome. In Peter Walker's imaginative novel, in which two worlds, increasingly opposed, are beautifully evoked, we see these famous events that saw England become a Protestant nation through the eyes of the luckless courier. The dubious privilege of being courier to Cromwell and the King, makes of Miuchael Throckmorton's life a tragicomedy of endless journeys back and forth between England and Italy. And even though in time he becomes the loyal friend of the disgraced Pole, who can never risk returning to England while Henry lives, this is no compensation for the childhood love who appears to have been lost along the way.