Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The hill where Thomas Cromwell and Walter Hungerford were to be executed had been the site of the finales to some of Cromwell's worst character assassinations. It had been there, four years earlier, that George Boleyn had perished before similarly large crowds after Cromwell arranged a trial that saw him condemned to death on charges of incest and treason. #2 The sixteenth century saw the rise of the ars moriendi, or the art of dying well. It was a goal that was stressed to the Faithful in art, sermons, homilies, and manuals. To die well, in a spirit of resignation to the Will of God, was a goal that was endlessly stressed. #3 Sixteenth-century Christians were far more relaxed than modern-day Christians, because their religion was not a theory but a set of facts that could not be debated. The result was that they often behaved far more devoutly, but also far more relaxedly. #4 London was the perfect capital for Henry VIII's domains in 1540. The city was a broken society, with no rain, and the streets were covered in mud when it rained. The spectators passed through the city's eighteen-foot high defensive walls via one of the seven gates.