Henry VIII and his Ministers

The choice of a ruler's ministers is a very important matter; whether they are good or not depends on the ruler's shrewdness'. So Machiavelli began chapter 22 of his manual of statecraft, The Prince. The relationship between Henry VIII and his ministers has sparked an enduring debate about policy-making under the Tudors. Was Crown policy formulated by the king or his advisers? Was Henry the architect of his own policy, or was he little more than an articulate puppet manipulated in turn by Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell?

Henry VIII was less attentive to mundane affairs of state than either Henry VII or Elizabeth I. He was relatively manipulable by women and intimates. In his youth he revelled in 'pastime with good company': this he boasted in a song he wrote himself. Yet always he was king. His voice was dominant in politics; his merest whisper could dictate the fundamental decisions of the reign.