| He deftly sidestepped the falls of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell and was raised to the peerage. |
| Through careful strategy, Cromwell gained an unlikely victory at the Battle of Dunbar. |
| The central development of Cromwell from a timid toady to a towering tyrant is well depicted. |
| Confined by illness and death-threats to Whitehall, Cromwell wrestles with Parliament's offer of kingship. |
| Unfortunately, Cromwell, with his eye for good horseflesh, noticed Cecil's horse and called him over to inquire about the animal. |
| But finding his army outflanked by Cromwell, he moved south in August, making for the old royalist strongholds of Wales and the west midlands. |
