Henry VIII and his Ministers
John Guy doubts whether policy was ever imposed on the most wilful of kings.
The choice of a ruler's ministers is a very important matter; whether they are good or not depends on the ruler's shrewdness'. So Machiavelli began chapter 22 of his manual of statecraft, The Prince. The relationship between Henry VIII and his ministers has sparked an enduring debate about policy-making under the Tudors. Was Crown policy formulated by the king or his advisers? Was Henry the architect of his own policy, or was he little more than an articulate puppet manipulated in turn by Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell?
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