Clea Simon of The Boston Globe wrote that Sovereign was not only longer, but demonstrated greater depth of plot than Sansom's previous novels, calling it an "engaging mix of history and fiction". [3] Falsely accused of treason and unable to answer the gaoler's questions, Shardlake awaits his fate in the Tower of London. Can Barak convince Archbishop Cranmer that the allegations are false and save him from the torture chamber?

Jacob is not much of a writer. He has produced no books. He is probably too busy with politics and his business career. But his father’s impact on his thinking and behaviour is obvious, once you know what to look for. Barak finds meaningful romance for the first time when he meets Tamasin who is working as a sweetmeat maker for Queen Catherine. But things take a sinister turn when a glazier, who is removing the stained glass windows from the decommissioned abbey church in the walled enclosure that is to be the King's base in York, is killed - and it soon transpires that not only has he been murdered but that he seems to be mixed up in the recently put-down conspiracy. For it seems that some members have managed to evade the authorities. I’d rather her than Henry VIII as the British monarch (I’m an Aussie, and we’re still part of the Commonwealth), but I look forward to reading more of Matthew Shardlake’s adventures with that unpredictable, dangerous ruler. Sovereign is a mystery set in the 16C. The Great Progression occurred in 1541; King Henry, his court, servants, and a thousand soldiers left London for the northern city of York, a total of over 3,000 people. The inhabitants in the north, mostly still Papists, were less than pleased with the king, the destruction of their monasteries, the outlawing of their religion, and the forced acceptance of a new religion. The king, fearing another uprising, made the arduous trip to win over these unfaithful and demand homage from those who had not done enough to discourage the rebellion. Those who actively participated in the coup were either in "The Tower" awaiting their fate, or had met their fate. Their remains were hanging publicly for all to see and learn from. Like Netflix's The Crown, many court intrigues were involved, including the events that resulted in Queen Catherine's demise. All these complexities creates a story steeped in factual detail and suspense. C.J.Sansom, an accomplished historian, does a meticulous job of weaving detailed historical facts and events with a fictionalized narrative. Radwinter, for all his cruel madness, proves to be a rather interesting character. While Maleverer is cold and calculating, Radwinter is full of hot-blooded passion and zealotry. How do these two characters illustrate the zeitgeist of Henrician England? How do they represent the religious and political poles of the time?

Resumiendo, libro espléndido, quizá lo más flojo es el desarrollo de la intriga, no tiene mucho margen y es bastante previsible, pero es lo suficientemente solvente para mantener las 5 estrellas, porque, vuelvo a repetir, el marco histórico y la ambientación es de 10. It was foolish, I that had once had Thomas Cromwell for a friend and confronted Richard Rich and the Duke of Norfolk, reduced to such a jelly. Yet this was not an official or nobleman I was approaching now. This was God’s anointed on earth, Head of His Church, guardian of the souls of three million subjects, more than human in his glory. In those few seconds I believed it all.

Q. Some have suggested that the Islamic world is undergoing its own violent Reformation/Counter-Reformation, similar to what occurred in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. Has your research in the period helped you to better understand certain religious conflicts today? I saw the ending coming a mile off. It was pretty obvious and a little disappointing, but Sansom was still clever enough with how he integrated it to keep me reading. Second... tell Watson to grow a pair, send Sir Author to a writer’s workshop and finish Lestrade’s lobotomy Ninja style. Then... The driving theme of this book is the information revolution, “the most sweeping in history”, with which we were all wrestling at the time. I remember a tortured afternoon ahead of then Opposition leader Tony Blair’s Labour Conference speech in 1995, trying to make sense of a passage about “the information superhighway,” which we knew was important, but didn’t fully understand. Davidson and Rees-Mogg were definitely ahead of us in foreseeing just how revolutionary the information revolution might turn out to be. But what rewards lie ahead for this gilded few if only its members – “a relatively small, elite group of rich represent a more coherent and effective body than a large mass of citizens” – seize the opportunities? “The new Sovereign Individual will operate like the gods of myth in the same physical environment as the ordinary, subject citizen, but in a separate realm politically. Commanding vastly greater resources and beyond the reach of many forms of compulsion, the Sovereign Individual will redesign governments and reconfigure economies in the new millennium. The full implications of this change are all but unimaginable.” Indeed.After failing twice to be elected as a Conservative MP in the 50s, he settled for achieving political influence by journalistic means, becoming editor of the Times in 1967, at the then precocious age of 39. Over his 14 years in the post, he grew steadily more rightwing. During the 60s, he was a relatively egalitarian Tory, arguing in a party pamphlet that “it is reasonable to encourage employees to identify themselves with a company by having some small share-holding in it” – an approach to capitalism being promoted by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. But by the mid-70s, the west’s postwar economic boom and political consensus were coming to an end, and Rees-Mogg joined the swelling ranks of rightwing doom-mongers. In 1974, he spent his August family holiday hastily writing a book, The Reigning Error: the Crisis of World Inflation. Bajo esta tesitura, nuestro abogado recibirá dos encargos, el primero sencillo y acorde a su oficio, lidiar con las diferentes suplicas judiciales de la zona que con la colaboración de un letrado local, tendrá que analizar y hacer llegar al rey las que crean de su incumbencia. El segundo encargo será algo más especial, sin el apoyo de Lord Cromwell y con problemas financieros, Matthew deberá ayudar al Obispo Cranmer a la hora de vigilar a un rebelde que posee información vital sobre los traidores de la zona y que debe de llegar sano y salvo a Londres para ser interrogado. Tras la guerra de las dos Rosas y la derrota de la casa de York en Bosworth (1485) y con el advenimiento de los Tudor, el eje geopolítico, religioso y económico del reino se ha centralizado sobre manera en el sur, mientras que los condados del norte, yorkistas y muy apegados a sus tradiciones religiosas papistas, se han visto empobrecidos y relegados durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI. Esto generó un gran descontento entre el pueblo y la nobleza del norte, que desembocó en diversos levantamientos armados y conspiraciones que se sucedieron a lo largo del siglo.

The subtitle is “Mastering the Transition to the Information Age”. The use of the word “mastering” is instructive. It is a book written by Masters of the Universe, for Masters of the Universe – aka, Sovereign Individuals. One of the two co-authors, James Dale Davidson, is American; the other is British, very British… Lord William Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times and father of Jacob, that leading light of the Brexit revolution. It is a time in Henry VIII's reign of continued religious strain with loyalties and beliefs tested, challenged and hidden. As the title alludes to, this book is about the King, Henry VIII. The thing that has hovered over the monarchy for years is still an issue. It was something that Shardlake was familiar with since his time with Thomas Cromwell. “Queen Catherine was in her forties, past child-bearing, and she had not given the King a male heir. Unless he could marry a younger woman who might provide an heir, the Tudor dynasty would die with him…And there were many of us who thought the only way to preserve true religion in England was for Queen Catherine to do what the Pope himself had suggested to her: go into a nunnery, allow the King to marry again…Foolish, obstinate woman. By insisting God intended her to be married to the King until death, she brought about the very revolution to religion she hated and feared.”

Success!

La reforma religiosa, los escándalos maritales (el rey se acaba de casar con la 5ª, Catalina Howard), la escasa legitimidad de la dinastía, apuntalada en escasos y dudosos vínculos con las casas de York y de Lancaster, la crueldad del rey que reprime con gran dureza a los que se oponen a él tanto en política como en religión, han llevado al límite la estabilidad del trono. Para apuntalarla el rey decide hacer un viaje al norte el año de 1541 (una Jornada), para reprimir traiciones, recabar adhesiones, recibir pleitesías y derrochar su munificencia.