England, May 1536. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?
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