by Jasper Ridley
(Viking HB, New York 1983)
hile this book is about the days of Henry VIII rather than his daughter Elizabeth, there is much in this volume that is relevant to the whole Tudor period. The Statesman referred to here is Cardinal Wolsey, the Saint is Sir Thomas More, and the conclusions are quite surprising to those whose only knowledge of More is the play "A Man For All Seasons. (The original title of this work was "The Statesman and the Fanatic," if that tells you anything.) The politics of King Henry VIII and the careers of these two men- a not very religious man of the church, and an overly religious man of the state - are examined in fine detail. There is masterful and enlightening writing here, and after you read this book a lot of things about the Elizabethan power structure suddenly make sense.