Tudor Survivor: The Life and Times of Courtier William Paulet by Margaret Scard
I have just stumbled upon this book by Margaret Scard due to be published in April 2011.
Here is a synopsis provided by The History Press:
William Paulet was the sine qua non of the Tudor courtier. For an astonishing 46 years he served at the courts of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth and was one of the men responsible for introducing the changes in religious, economic and social issues which shaped England as we know it today. He was a judge at the trials of Fisher, More and the alleged accomplices of Anne Boleyn, and though born a commoner, by his death he was the senior peer in England and, as Lord High Treasurer, held one of the most influential positions at court.
With his long and varied career within the royal household and in government, a study of Paulet presents an excellent opportunity to look in more detail at courtly life, and how it changed during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs. Paulet was the only man to endure the bloody half-century of Tudor politics ‘in the heart of the beast’, at court, and to do so he had to make himself irreplaceable, as well as putting aside his own principles. He watched former friends go to the gallows and apparently changed his religion five times to weather the storm of a changing England.
In Tudor Survivor, Margaret Scard paints a captivating portrait of a great man who for many years held the purse strings of England, and both witnessed and was instrumental in the greatest events of the period. From the Siege of Boulogne, to the execution of two queens, the Reformation and the beginnings of Elizabeth’s Golden Age, Paulet was there, and the story of his fascinating life reveals both the nature of life at the Tudor court and the birth of the modern nation state.
I think this book sounds very interesting. Surely anyone that managed to keep their head firmly connected to the rest of their body for 46 years whilst serving at the Tudor Court deserves much recognition!
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