The early life of Thomas Cromwell minister to Henry 8 was interesting.
As a teenager and son of a butcher, he joined an army and went off to invade Italy, they failed and they got caught some died but the rest were extradited, but TC escaped and stayed on, and learned the langauge. He got indentured to an Italian lawyer and then came back to England.
He then acted for a religious gent in England who was selling letters of absolution from the Pope, as an income but the franchise was running out and he needed someone to go and get his contract renewed. This was a lucrative activity and paid well.
TC comes on the scene, he speaks Italian knows the law and goes to the Vatican to negotiate a new contract. Success! he gets the new contract signed on behalf of the Pope and returns to England, to a very happy gent carrying on with the commercial side of the church.
He is the 'go to man' for matters to do with the Vatican and Henry 8 gets the word and the rest, as they say, is history!
Not really a student of history but I do like the footnotes.
regards
Roy
