Title: The divorce of Henry VIII : the untold story from inside the Vatican /
Authors: Fletcher, Catherine, 1975-
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Henry Divorce.; Henry Relations with popes.; Catholic Church Foreign relations Great Britain.; Church and state Great Britain History; Reformation England; HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain.; HISTORY / Modern / 16th Century.; RELIGION / History.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.; Great Britain Foreign relations Catholic Church.; Great Britain Politics and government
Abstract: "In 1533 the English monarch Henry VIII decided to divorce his wife of twenty years Catherine of Aragon in pursuit of a male heir to ensure the Tudor line. He was also head over heels in love with his wife's lady in waiting Anne Boleyn, the future mother of Elizabeth I. But getting his freedom involved a terrific web of intrigue through the enshrined halls of the Vatican that resulted in a religious schism and the formation of the Church of England. Henry's man in Rome was a wily Italian diplomat named Gregorio Casali who drew no limits on skullduggery including kidnapping, bribery and theft to make his king a free man. In this absorbing narrative, winner of the Rome Fellowship prize and University of Durham historian Catherine Fletcher draws on hundreds of previously-unknown Italian archive documents to tell the colorful tale from the inside story inside the Vatican"--Provided by publisher.
Contents: The king in love and the pope besieged -- How to bribe a Cardinal (part one) -- A short tale of kidnapping -- Cardinal Campeggio has gout -- The vicar of hell in Rome -- Neither fair nor foul will serve -- Livia Pallavicino, heiress -- The fall of Cardinal Wolsey -- A coronation and a wedding -- The scholar Croke cries foul -- The daily frauds of the brothers Casali -- The custom of England -- Murder in Naples -- How to bribe a Cardinal (part two) -- The break with Rome -- The ingratitude of princes -- A mother's tears.